Spyage, History of Second Ancient Practice

From the spies of the Old Testament to the medieval to the Roman codes: the first centuries of secret services have been filled with surprises. Even Jean Déark was the victim of a English spy

Jean Déark, a daughter of villagers born in the first four hundred years of the country, who grew up in Lorraine, in what is now northeastern France, near the German border, provided a place for himself in history, even though she ended up at the stake without even 20 years of age.

From an early age, she said that she was commissioned by Sky to protect France from English domination in the age when the two countries crashed into the 100 - year war. Its impressive tactical skills brought him many important victories, so much so that she came to the attention of the prince who would later become King Charles V. II of France: It is said that this meeting moved the future king to have much more faith in the French cause.

Of course, Janet's triumphs were noted by the English; it was incredible that such a young girl, an illiterate peasant, could achieve so much success, so there should be only one possible explanation - she had to be a witch. In May 1430, Jeana was captured in Compigne, northern France, and handed over to Bishop of Beauvais Pierre Cauchon to receive a confession.

In reality, however, Cauchon was an English spy. A year earlier, his diocese had been threatened by the French army, so he asked the English for help, rewarding them with his role in determining Jean Déarcha's fate.

Cauchon orchestrated the process and used his contacts, camouflaged them so that they could gain Jean's trust and extract information, which they later used against it. These movements worked, and Cauchon played an essential role in leading him to accept heresy crime. Jean Déark (after baptized by Pope Benedict XV in 1920) was burned alive in 1431, but a heroin was left for many.

Spying has often been called the second oldest profession in the world, passed only by prostitution (with which it is often even compared). The first mention is found in the Old Testament when it is said that “Moisiu sent men to spy on the land of Canaan”. There are other references to similar activities in the Bible, for example:

And Joseph the son of Nun sent two men to Sitim to spy, saying, Go on, take a look at that place and Jericho. They went and arrived at the home of a prostitute named Rahab, and she offered them shelter”.

We know that in ancient times, spying was a function of government and war, such as the V century BC, in the conflict between Athens and Sparta.

The Peloponnese war, as it is known, was a bloody conflict that lasted for more than 25 years, fought above all at sea, and ended with the destruction of Athens' fleet in 404 BC. In his war confession, Greek historian Tuccidi rebuilds the battle and mentions “information” taken not only for the delocation of enemy ships but also for the composition of fleets.

Under the direction of Julius Caesar, in the first century B.C.E., it became increasingly important that you could give military orders under security so that even if the courier was caught and tortured, the content of the message could not be revealed.

The wise solution to this problem was the creation of the “producer of Caesar”: The details were provided by Roman historian Svetus, who in the biography of Caesar the century I explains how it worked. It was a very common code, but since they were all almost illiterate in those years, it was potentially safe. He used a simple monoalphabetic replacement, which was replaced by others on the left or on the right, for a number of positions so that A became D, B became E and so on. The result seemed undesirable, but anyone with the code was easy.

With the fall of the Roman Empire, secret services virtually disappeared. Only the five hundred reborn true secret service, which in earlier centuries had often been used in local conflicts or in the form of couriers and informants, but always in a spordical way, not as an organized system. With some notable exception: Just think of the role played by Spanish Inquisition informants, or influential characters like Makiaveli, described the role of information services in protecting the state.

In Trecentia, the Venice Republic established the Council of Tens, a super-secret body that had to protect the Republic. To that end, information collection became increasingly crucial, above all when, among the five hundred, the task of the state <x0). <x1nd). About the same time, in Elysabethian England, Lord Burghley and Sir Francis Walsingham changed their very concept of intelligence.

For the first time, a network of agents was established in the country and abroad, and co-ordinated with common purposes, as well as various ways of collecting information were used. Thereafter, the role of spying became increasingly important because of the endless series of wars in Europe. During the English civil war, both sides, the king's conglomerates and loyal knights used spies to understand what the enemy planned: this period coincided with the creation of the function of “Court and Parliament”.

The first to take that post was John Wallis, a prominent mathematician who used his knowledge to create codes or decipher enemy information. In six hundred, and with the development of nations, intelligence became a branch of diplomacy and governments, and its function was to protect sovereigns from domestic dangers, but also to find sound information tools.

Mankind has always been curious, and secret services are the ideal means to provide information. With the change of wars and the expansion and intensity of risks, the use of any necessary means has become increasingly essential to gather details about enemy plans. Technology has changed much over the centuries, but the central motive for spying has remained faithful to its origin. / Prepare: The world..