ABSTRACT
The concluding chapter in the volume offers a brief speculative overview of the future of the English spy network under James's regime with an eye to the problems James presented as a would-be absolute monarch in Cecil's proto-bureaucratic government. Specifically, it suggests that the type of participatory government fostered by the Elizabethan intelligence network was fundamentally at odds with absolute monarchy. Despite this conflict, the conclusion goes on to suggest that the intelligence network was also essential to the future development and expansion of England into an empire—for better or worse—and was also therefore one of the central pillars in the development of modern British identity.
