Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, Leicester pays Francis Drake to kill Thomas Doughty, who knows too much about the situation (Doughty had been executed by Drake for mutiny at sea). The work also reveals Leicester's monstrous sexual appetite and his and his new wife's lewd private lives, including abortions, illnesses and other shortcomings. The death of their little son, which occurred shortly before the book's publication, is commented on with a biblical allusion in a stop press marginal note: "The children of adulterers shall be consumed, and the seed of a wicked bed shall be rooted out". A born traitor in the third generation who has "nothing of his own, either of his ancestors, or of himself", Leicester is also accused of systematically despoiling the lands the queen has granted him and of ruthlessly extorting money from those unluckily enough to be in his power. The mathematician Thomas Allen is said to be employing the art of "figuring" to further Leicester's unlawful designs and of having endeavoured to bring about a match between his patron and Queen Elizabeth by black magic. Leicester, a "perpetuall dictator" who hates and terrorises the helpless Queen, is to blame that England has no heir of Elizabeth's body since he has prevented her marriage to a foreign prince by falsely claiming to be engaged to her and showing her suitors' ambassadors "a most disloyal proof" thereof. Having failed to attain the supreme power through marriage, he has no religion himself but is building up a party of misled Puritans to assist him in dethroning Elizabeth in favour of his brother-in-law, the Earl of Huntingdon. He will then get rid of Huntingdon and place the crown on his own head. Leicester's immediate arrest and execution are recommended as the most beneficial act that the Queen could ever do to her country. As the book progresses, it increasingly becomes a defense of Mary Stuart's succession rights, which by 1584 had become imperilled by her involvement in several plots to assassinate Elizabeth. Authorship The authorship of the pamphlet has been much disputed. Francis Walsingham, in charge of Elizabeth's secret service, thought that Thomas Morgan, the exiled agent of Mary Stuart, to be its author when it first surfaced in August 1584. Dudley likewise believed that Mary was involved in its conception: "Leicester has lately told a friend that he will persecute you to the uttermost", one of