‘Secret Intelligences’ in European Military, Political and Diplomatic Theory: An Essential Factor in the Defense of the Modern State (Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries)

Abstract

A representative sampling of 53 treatises onRe militari, diplomacy and theory of state that were published in Europe is analyzed in order to outline the role of secret intelligence in the direction of armies and the government during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The participation of spies, confidants and informers in the exercise of power, whether political, military or economic is a timeless constant, which is not at all anecdotal or marginal. We offer conclusions regarding the formalization of modern intelligence systems based on concepts as closely related as secrets, advice and deception, which configure the precursors of the systematic theory of contemporary intelligence.

Notes

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¹Michael Roberts The Military Revolution, 1560–1660: An Inaugural Lecture Delivered Before the Queen's University of Belfast (Belfast: Boyd 1956); Geoffrey Parker The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, 1500–1800 (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press 1996); J. Berenguer (ed.), La revolution militaire en Europe (XVe-XVIIIe siècles). Actes du colloque Saint-Cyr-Coetquidan le 4 avril (Paris: Institut de Stratégie Comparée, Economica 1998).

²B. Behrens ‘Treatise on the Ambassador Written in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries’, English Historical Review LI/CCIV (1936) pp.616–27.

³Diego Navarro Bonilla, Cartas entre espías e inteligencias secretas en el siglo de los validos: Juan de Torres-Gaspar Bonifaz: 1632–1638 (Madrid: Ministerio de Defensa 2007).

⁴Santiago Fernández Conti, Los Consejos de Estado y Guerra de la Monarquía Hispana en tiempos de Phillip II (1548–1598) (Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León 1998); Madeleine Haehl, Les affaires étrangéres au temps de Richelieu: Le secrétariat d'État, les agents diplomatiques (1624–1642) (Brussels: Peter Lang 2006).

⁵Lucien Bély, Espions et ambassadeurs au temps de Louis XIV (Paris: Fayard 1990); Alain Hugon, Au Service du Roi Catholique: Honorables ambassadeurs et divins espions (Madrid: Casa de Velázquez 2004).

⁶Michael A. Palmer, Command at Sea: Naval Command and Control since the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 2005).

⁷Antonio Campillo, La fuerza de la razón: guerra, estado y ciencia en los tratados militares del Renacimiento, de Maquiavelo a Galileo (Murcia: Universidad 1986).

⁸Paolo Preto, I servizi segreti di Venezia (Milan: Il Saggiatore 1994) p.197.

⁹Pedro Ugarteche, ‘Panorama de la literatura diplomática: de la Edad Media al siglo XX’, Cuadernos de Historia Diplomática 4 (1958) pp.179–93.

¹⁰Filippo de Vivo, Ordering the Archive in Early Modern Venice (1400–1650)', Archival Science 3 (2010) pp.231–48; Paul Marcus Dover, Deciphering the Diplomatic Archives of Fifteenth-century Italy’, Archival Science 7/4 (2007) pp.297–316.

¹¹Infantry unit officially founded by Charles V, famous for its resistance on the battle field, forming an elite unit in the service of the Spanish kings.

¹²Larry Willmore, ‘Government Policies Toward Information and Communication Technologies: A Historical Perspective’, Journal of Information Science 28/2 (2002) pp.89–96.

¹³David Kahn, The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet (New York: Scribner 1996).

¹⁴Béatrice Pérez (ed.), Ambassadeurs, apprentis espions et maîtres comploteurs: les systems de renseignement en Espagne à l'époque modern (Paris: Presses de l'Université París-Sorbonne 2010).

¹⁵Peter Burke, A Social History of Knowledge (Cambridge: Polity Press 2000). See also Peter Burke, A Social History of Knowledge II: From the Encyclopaedia to Wikipedia (Cambridge: Polity Press 2012).

¹⁷George Basta, Le maistre du camp general, c'est a dire: description et instruction de la charge du Maistre de Camp, touchant la conduicte et gouvernement d'une armée (Frankfurt: Paul Iacobi 1617): In this paragraph the author explains that the Maistre du Camp must use hard diligence in working with his spies, because it is impossible for a captain to make good decisions if he does not know what his enemy is planning, if he does not have good secret information.

¹⁶Roseline Claerr and Olivier Poncet (eds.), La prise de decisión en France (1525–1559): Recherches sur la realité du pouvoir royal ou princier à la Renaissance (Paris: École Nationale des Chartes 2008).

¹⁸Geoffrey Parker, Success is Never Final: Imperialism, War and Faith in Early Modern Europe (New York: Basic Books 2002); José Luis Rodríguez de Diego, Instrucción para el gobierno del Archivo de Simancas: 1588 (Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura 1989).

¹⁹Bartolomeo Pelliciari da Modona, Avertimenti militari (Modona: Maria Verde 1600) p.266, 283: ‘Avertimenti al Generalissimo per espugnar una piazza’ (Translated from Italian).

²⁰Cinuzzi Sanese, Della Disciplina militare antica e moderna del capitano imperiale (Siena: Bonetti 1620) p.180. Translated from Italian.

²¹Luis Mendes de Vasconcelos, Arte Militar dividida em tres partes (Alenquer: Vicente Álvarez 1612) f.222v, f.223v: The author states that the general should have spies in enemy territory in order to thwart the enemy's plans. He emphasizes that the spy must be very trustworthy and astute.

²²Mr. De Vauban, Science Militaire contentant l'A.B.C. d'un soldat: L'art de la guerre et le Directeur General des Fortifications (La Haya: Adrian Moetjens 1689) p.10. The author explains how to handle spies and informants. One must listen to the spies, and promise them great things should their information lead to victory, so that they will not return to the enemy. He also says that the spy's face will tell if he is good or bad, and if the spy should offer his wife and children as hostages, the writer does not recommend accepting the offer.

²³Brendan Dooley and Sabrina Baron (eds.), The Politics of Information in Early Modern Europe (London; New York: Routledge 2001). Silvia Marzagalli, ‘La circulation de l'information et les réseaux marchands à l'époque moderne’ in Sébastien Laurent (ed.), Entre l'État et le marché: l'information et l'intelligence économique en France (París: Nouveau Monde 2010) pp.13–44.

²⁴Jon R. Snyder, Dissimulation and the Culture of Secrecy in Early Modern Europe (Berkeley, CA; Los Angeles, CA; London: University of California Press 2009).

²⁵G. Mattingly, ‘The First Resident Embassies: Medieval Italian Origins of Modern Diplomacy’, Speculum XII (1937) pp.423–39; G. Mattingly, Renaissance Diplomacy (Dover: Publications Inc. 1989).

²⁶M. José Bertomeu Masiá, Cartas de un espía de Carlos V: La correspondencia de Jerónimo Bucchia con Antonio Perrenot de Granvela (Valencia: Prensas Universitarias 2005).

²⁷Geoffrey Parker, The Grand Strategy of Philip II (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press 1998); Charles Howard Carter, The Secret Diplomacy of the Habsburgs, 1598–1625 (New York; London: Columbia University Press 1964) p.92: ‘The Informational Base of Foreign Policy’.

²⁸Paolo Preto, I servizi segreti di Venezia (Milan: Il Saggiatore 1994); Filippo de Vivo, Information and Communication in Venice: Rethinking Early Modern Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2007).

²⁹Maurice J.D. Cockle, A Bibliography of Military Books up to 1642 (London: Holland Press 1978); Antonio Espino López, ‘La tratadística militar hispana en la época de Carlos V (1500–1560)’, Revista de Historia militar XLIV/88 (2000) pp.75–108; Diego Gómez Molinet, El ejército de la Monarquía Hispánica a través de la tratadística militar (1648–1700) (Madrid: Ministerio de Defensa 2007); Esther Merino Peral, El arte militar en la época moderna: tratado de Re Militari en el Renacimiento 1536–1671: aspectos de un arte español (Madrid: Ministerio de Defensa 2002).

³⁰Jacob Soll, The Information Master: Jean-Baptiste Colbert's Secret State Intelligence System (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press 2009).

³¹J.R. Alban and C.T. Allmand, ‘Spies and Spying in the Fourteenth Century’ in C.T. Allmand (ed.) War, Literature and Politics in the Late Middle Ages (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press 1976) pp.73–101; C. Allmand, ‘Intelligence in the Hundred Years War’ in Keith Neilson and B.J.C. McKercher (eds.) Go Spy the Land: Military Intelligence in History (Westport, CT: London: Praeger 1992) pp.32–47.

³²Stevan Dedijer, ‘Ragusa Intelligence and Security (1301–1806): A Model for Twenty-First Century?’ International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 15/1 (2002) pp.101–14.

³³Spain, Archivo General de Simancas, Estado, K 1571, n° 82.

³⁴Spain, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Estado, leg. 4828. Translated from the original Spanish.

³⁵Carlos J. Carnicer García and Javier Marcos Rivas, Espías de Felipe II: Los servicios secretos del Imperio español (Madrid: La Esfera de los libros 2005) p.97.

³⁶Spain, Archivo de la Corona de Aragón, Consejo de Aragón, leg. 290, n° 113.

³⁷Pedro Fernández Navarrete, Conservación de monarquías y discursos políticos (Madrid: Imprenta Real 1626) pp.23, 42.

³⁸Salvador Mallea, Rey Pacífico y gobierno de príncipe católico (Genoa: Pedro Francisco Barberío 1646) f. 47v.

³⁹Pedro de Ribadeneyra, Tratado de la Religión y virtudes que debe tener el Príncipe Christiano para governar y conservar sus Estados (Amberes: Imprenta Plantiniana 1597) pp.328, 331, 359, 361, 369.

⁴²Edward Cooke, The Prospective Glasse of Warre, shewing ou a glimps of Warres Mystery… (London: R. Michell 1628) pp.6–7.

⁴⁰Jerónimo de Zeballos, Arte real para el buen gobierno de los reyes y príncipes y de sus vasallos (Toledo: Diego Rodríguez 1623) f. 38v, f. 40r.

⁴¹Francisco Lanario y Aragón, duque de Carpignano, Los tratados del príncipe y de la guerra (Palermo: Juan Baptista Maringo 1627) pp.97, 109, 110, 146.

⁴³Pier María Contarini, Corso di guerra et partiti di guerreggiare e combattere (Venice: Gratioso Perchacino 1601) f. 95v

⁴⁸Bernardino de Mendoza, Teoría y práctica de la guerra (Madrid: Viuda de P. Madrigal 1595) pp.116, 207. Translated from the original Spanish.

⁴⁴John Keegan, Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda (New York: Alfred A. Knopf 2003) p.383. Michael Handel, ‘Intelligence and Military Operations’ in Michael Handel (ed.) Intelligence and Military Operations (London: Frank Cass 1990) p.21. Barbara Donagan, War in England: 1642–1649 (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2010) pp.94–123.

⁴⁵Cinuzzi Sanese, Della Disciplina militare antica e moderna del capitano imperiale (Siena: Bonetti 1620) pp.14, 91, 92, 180, 181, 186.

⁴⁶Girolamo Eugeni d'Agobbio, Memoriale di guerra: nel qual si trata dell'astutie, tradimenti e stratagemi che usano i capitani e soldati volendo assediar e prender una fortezza per terra e acquistar vittoria per mare (Venice: Gio. Battista Ciotti Sanese 1606) pp.30, 198.

⁴⁷Bernardino Rocca, Imprese, Stratagemi et errori militari… (Vinegia: Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari 1568) pp.98, 99.