17th Century Female Spies

If you think that the female spy is a 20th century phenomenon, be it Mata Hari, Mrs Zigzag or Eve Polastri, think again! Accounts of numerous 17th century 'she-intelligencers' have lain undiscovered in archives for centuries. And these remarkable women were much more than the honey-trap accomplices of a Stuart-era George Smiley. In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Nadine Akkerman, author of Invisible Agents: Women and Espionage in Seventeenth-Century Britain to talk about her fascinating quest to unearth the plots and conspiracies involving women spies that have been forgotten by history.