Letters Hidden in a Basket of Cheese: Uncovering a Clandestine European Network
Saturday 10 October
Unitarian Chapel
12noon
On 10 May 1570, at the chateau of Dieppe in Normandy, a cloth-merchant was interrogated about the contents of a basket he was carrying to England, which included thirty notes and letters ‘concealed in a bed of straw under cheeses’.
This chance interception piqued Penny Roberts’ curiosity about the wider context of this episode: from where and to where, from whom and to whom, were the messages being taken?
Further investigation eventually uncovered a European network of Protestant contacts – ambassadors, aristocrats, clergymen, diplomats, double agents and spies. Their connection was upholding the Huguenot cause, as part of a wider international operation – shedding light on the experience of exile and how communication networks were maintained through correspondence smuggled across borders.
Tickets £12.00
includes refreshments
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