1586. England is a rogue state, ruled by an illegitimate religious dissident who has imprisoned the rightful Catholic queen, from the perspective of Catholic Europe. These powerful forces seek regime change---both by force, and through covert action. A battle of spies plays out in the shadows. Double agents and code breakers abound. It's easy to think, now, that Elizabeth's long reign was a foregone conclusion. But in fact, England was on a razor's edge for decades, with the protestant elite rightly terrified that she could be removed at any moment and replaced by a hostile Catholic monarch who would hunt them down and destroy them. This desperate fear animated everything, including their vigorous counter-espionage efforts. Was there really a plot to kill Elizabeth and replace her? Or, in their paranoia, did Elizabeth's forces entrap her Catholic antagonists, exaggerating their efforts in the same way that counter-terrorism efforts sometimes go awry? This is the brilliant account that comes from Stephen Alford's THE WATCHERS, one of the best pieces of non-fiction I've read this year. It pairs extremely nicely with @TheRestHistory 's recent series on this topic (which is where I got the book recc). Can't recommend it strongly enough!