In this fascinating book, Geoffrey Smith explores the lives and experiences of those Royalists who served Charles I and Charles II as agents, spies and conspirators during the 1640s and 1650s. He takes us into a murky world of intrigue and intelligence-gathering that is all the more challenging to reconstruct because it was by definition intended to remain secret. The book is based on a huge amount of research in the relevant primary sources, both printed and manuscript, especially the Ormond papers, the Nicholas papers, and the Clarendon papers. As a result, Smith provides much the clearest picture so far published of who these Royalists were, what they were trying to achieve, and the obstacles that confronted them.