Thomas Phelippes (1556–1625), also known as Thomas Phillips was a Linguistics, who was employed as a forger and intelligence gatherer. He served mainly under Sir Francis Walsingham, in the time of Elizabeth I, and most notably deciphered the coded letters of Babington Plot conspirators.
Life and education
Little is known about Phelippes family background except that he was the son of a cloth merchant. Despite his humble origins, it is believed that he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1569 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1574. Phelippes was a linguist who could speak French, Italian, Spanish, Latin and German. His education helped him to master cipher skills and be an excellent
Cryptography of high reputation. Therefore, he was employed by Sir Francis Walsingham, the principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I.
Phelippes joined the embassy of Amias Paulet in Paris in 1578. Another codeworker in diplomatic circles at this times was John Somers (died 1585).[Nadine Akkerman & Pete Langman, Spycraft: Tricks and Tools of the Dangerous Trade from Elizabeth I to the Restoration (Yale, 2024), pp. 70 & 276 fns. 20, 21: Stephen Alford, All His Spies: The Secret World of Robert Cecil (Allen Lane, 2024), p. 23.] The appearance of Phelippes in 1586 was described by Mary, Queen of Scots, as "a man of low stature, slender in every way, dark yellow-haired on the head and clear yellow bearded", with a pock-marked face and short-sighted.[Nadine Akkerman & Pete Langman, Spycraft: Tricks and Tools of the Dangerous Trade from Elizabeth I to the Restoration (Yale, 2024), p. 97: William Murdin, Collection of State Papers (London, 1759), p. 533] Later in life his eyesight weakened and he was helped in his work by his wife, Mary.[Jade Scott, Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots (London: Michael O'Mara Books, 2024), pp. 222–224.] He has been described as "an excellent linguist, and, above all, a person with a positive genius for deciphering letters."
Babington Plot
Phelippes is most remembered for his postscript to the "bloody letter" sent by Mary, Queen of Scots, to Anthony Babington regarding the Babington plot. When he sent Walsingham the letter proving Mary, Queen of Scots's complicity in the plot Phelippes had drawn a gallows on the envelope. According to historian Neville Williams,
[Williams, Neville (1971) Elizabeth I, Queen of England Sphere p. 272] the notes were smuggled to Mary via empty barrels from a brewer in Burton upon Trent who supplied the house at
Chartley Castle where she was being held prisoner in the custody of Sir
Amias Paulet. Phelippes was kept busy with a backlog of correspondence requested by Her Majesty whose letters contained day to day matters as well as those of a more sensitive type. Walsingham had to wait a whole seven months before he got what he wanted. This postscript asked Babington for the names of the plotters involved in the planned assassination of Queen Elizabeth I, and hence Francis Walsingham was able to prove Mary's direct involvement in the plot, and have her executed.
[Lisa M. Barksdale-Shaw, "That You Are Both Decipher'd: Revealing Espionage and Staging Written Evidence in Early Modern England", Katherine Ellison & Susan Kim, A Material History of Medieval and Early Modern Ciphers: Cryptography and the History of Literacy (Routledge, 2018), pp. 122–124. ][Conyers Read, Mr Secretary Walsingham and the policy of Queen of Elizabeth, 3 (Archon, 1967), p. 41.]
Phelippes questioned Mary's secretaries and a servant Jérôme Pasquier in the Tower of London. In September 1586, Pasquier confessed to writing a letters in cipher for Mary.[George Lasry, Norbert Biermann, Satoshi Tomokiyo, "Deciphering Mary Stuart's lost letters from 1578-1584", Cryptologia, 47:2 (February 2023), pp. 6, 65 fn.244, 74, 91 fn.350. ] Pasquier recalled a letter for the French ambassador Michel de Castelnau, asking him to negotiate a pardon for Francis Throckmorton who was executed in 1584 for his part in the Throckmorton Plot.[William K. Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 1586-1588, vol. 9 (London, 1915), p. 56 no. 50.]
Further reading
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The codebreakers, the comprehensive history of secret communication from ancient times to the internet (revised and updated 1996) – David Kahn
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Cryptology and statecraft in the Dutch Republic – Karl de Leeuw
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Spies & spymasters, a concise history of intelligence – Jock Haswell
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The Watchers, a secret history of the reign of Elizabeth I – Stephen Alford
