William Herle and the English Secret Service

<p>This thesis examines William Herle's life through his surviving letters to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, and other Elizabethan Privy Councillors. It emphasises the centrality of the Elizabethan patronage system to Herle's life, describing how his ties to Cecil helped Herle escape prison, avoid his creditors, and gain recompense for his service to Elizabeth. In exchange for Cecil's protection, Herle became deeply involved in Elizabethan intelligence networks, both domestic and foreign, throughout the 1570s and 1580s. Herle helped uncover plots against Elizabeth, passed vital information about events in the Spanish Netherlands back to England, and provided analyses of English foreign policy for his superiors. Despite his vital role, Herle never experienced true success, and died deeply in debt and abandoned by his patrons. Herle's life allows us wider insights into Elizabethan government and society. His experiences emphasises the inefficient nature of the Tudor foreign service, which utilised untrained diplomats who gained their position through political connections and were left to pay their own way through taking out loans they had little hope of repaying. Similarly, the numerous law suits which Herle describes in his letters are absent from official records, implying that Tudor society was even more litigious than previously assumed. Herle's life-long status as a gentleman, despite being arrested as a pirate and frequently imprisoned for debt, reinforces the lack of social mobility in Elizabethan England. His focus throughout his life on the need to support the 'Protestant Cause,' and his fear of an international Catholic conspiracy was shared by Cecil, Leicester, and Walsingham, and shows how deeply religious divisions affected English foreign and domestic policy.</p>

William Herle and the English Secret Service

<p>This thesis examines William Herle's life through his surviving letters to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, and other Elizabethan Privy Councillors. It emphasises the centrality of the Elizabethan patronage system to Herle's life, describing how his ties to Cecil helped Herle escape prison, avoid his creditors, and gain recompense for his service to Elizabeth. In exchange for Cecil's protection, Herle became deeply involved in Elizabethan intelligence networks, both domestic and foreign, throughout the 1570s and 1580s. Herle helped uncover plots against Elizabeth, passed vital information about events in the Spanish Netherlands back to England, and provided analyses of English foreign policy for his superiors. Despite his vital role, Herle never experienced true success, and died deeply in debt and abandoned by his patrons. Herle's life allows us wider insights into Elizabethan government and society. His experiences emphasises the inefficient nature of the Tudor foreign service, which utilised untrained diplomats who gained their position through political connections and were left to pay their own way through taking out loans they had little hope of repaying. Similarly, the numerous law suits which Herle describes in his letters are absent from official records, implying that Tudor society was even more litigious than previously assumed. Herle's life-long status as a gentleman, despite being arrested as a pirate and frequently imprisoned for debt, reinforces the lack of social mobility in Elizabethan England. His focus throughout his life on the need to support the 'Protestant Cause,' and his fear of an international Catholic conspiracy was shared by Cecil, Leicester, and Walsingham, and shows how deeply religious divisions affected English foreign and domestic policy.</p>

Democratization and Peacebuilding

Major peacebuilding missions seek not only to end wars but also to build institutions for democratic governance. But while peacebuilding is often successful in ending wars, it rarely leads to democratic postwar regimes. Only two host countries of major peacebuilding missions since 1989 became liberal democracies, and only seven met the more lenient standard of electoral democracies. Elites in postwar countries rarely demand democracy because the adoption costs are too high. Democratization is often perceived as a security risk, and as a threat to the prevailing patronage system on which political elites in many postwar countries rely. Adoption costs are low only when democratization is linked to a war for independence or when democracy is seen as a way out of a stalemate. Peacebuilders rarely use their leverage over local elites in order to push for democratic reforms because they prioritize stability over democratic reforms, Also, they depend on local elites for carrying out their programs and very rarely apply conditionality. As a result, democratization within peacebuilding mission rarely leads to more democratic regimes.

Children «on the side»: feeding industry on territory of Tavrida Province in late XIX–early XX centuries

Russian Empire in the second half of the XIX–early XX centuries gradually entered the era of modernization of political, economic and social institutions. The disintegration of the patriarchal family entailed a massive exodus of women to cities, which in turn turned out to be on the quantitative indicators of illegitimate births. Lack of funds for food, prompted mothers to leave the child to the mercy of fate. Statistical data is stating that the foundlings grew from year to year. By the end of the XIX century each issue of the periodical press, published in the territory of the Tauride province, contained several reports about foundlings. All children were sent to an orphanage. A wet nurse was assigned to the child, who was supposed to replace his mother. The direction of the research is to describe the patronage system in the Tauride province of the late XIX–early XX centuries

Utter Confusion on Every Side? Helena Northampton’s Supplicatory Letter to the Earl of Sussex

This essay examines the supplicatory letter the Swedish-born Helena, marchioness of Northampton, addressed to Thomas Radcliffe, third earl of Sussex, in 1576 or 1577, hoping he would help her regain access to Elizabeth I. The essay situates the letter within the early modern patronage system and the court environment, but foremost within the field of early modern letter-writing in general, and the supplicatory letter in particular. The essay shows how a number of rhetorical strategies, designed to inspire pity and benevolence mainly through ethos and pathos, are employed to create positions for both supplicant and addressee. In this way, the letter reaches the desired goal of regaining royal presence. By looking at the letter through the frames of early modern letter-writing and more general rhetorical practise, the essay points to a tension between the letter’s stated sentiment of “utter confusion” and its highly formalised expression, indicative of the letter’s rhetorical situation and especially of the constraints related to its sender’s social status. The letter is transcribed in an appendix.

Neopatrimonialism: The Immense Power of Appointment of the Liberian Presidency

This study examines important factors of disenfranchisement of political subdivisions in Liberia, especially counties and districts due largely to the presidential power of appointment. The study analyzes survey, empirical, and constitutional amendment data gathered by Afrobarometer (Round 7 Survey), election statistics, and public officials’ appointment information. It then correlates associations between the number of county executives, presidential tenure, and referendum approvals to demonstrate a diminishment of democracy due to denying citizens’ right to vote for their local leaders. This has resulted from a gradual enhancement of the Liberian president’s power of appointment, which developed neopatrimonialism in Liberia and continues to foster a patronage system of governance that increases public corruption, a practice that has minimized state capacity, fostered state instability, and raised the potential for conflict.

Beirut faces a massive challenge on aid and reform

Significance The government has drawn up a detailed document setting out the gravity of the country’s economic plight and requesting over 10 billion dollars of additional aid from the IMF and other donors to support reforms aiming to put the economy on a sound footing by 2024. Many of the reforms are familiar, but others are new and radical, including devaluation and drastic measures to reduce public debt and restructure the financial system. Impacts Elites will broadly support the plan, seeing few alternatives. Currency devaluation will contribute to inflation and could push many more people into poverty. The IMF programme will include social safety nets, though these may exclude some of the most vulnerable, including refugees. Measures will struggle to address the deep-rooted corruption that is intrinsic to Lebanon’s sectarian patronage system.

The Importance of Introducing a Merit-Based Hiring System in North Macedonian Governments

In this article, the authors present several topics related to the nascent development of a merit-based hiring system in North Macedonia. This paper employs a normative approach. We advocate for a merit-based hiring system, similar to the American model. First, we explore the pressure exerted by the European Commission to adopt a merit-based system at all levels of government as a condition for entry into the European Union. Second, we delve into the patronage system in North Macedonia. Third, we provide a short history of patronage in the United States and the difficulty that nation had in curbing its entrenched patronage system. Fourth, we discuss the advantages of a merit-based hiring system, namely the creation of good governance, the improvement of employee morale, the development of more public confidence in government, the reduction of the influence of ethnic politics and the furtherance of the rule of law. Finally, we present an example drawn from the American federal government about the basic procedures of a merit-based hiring process.