Sir Francis Walsingham (c. 1532 ??6 April 1590) was Principal Secretary to Elizabeth I of England from 1573 till 1590, and is popularly remembered as her 'spymaster'. Walsingham is frequently cited as one of the earliest practitioners of modern intelligence methods both for espionage and for domestic security. Walsingham was one of the small coterie who directed the Elizabethan state. Overall, his foreign policy demonstrated a new understanding of the role of England as a maritime, Protestant power in an increasingly global economy. He was an innovator in exploration, colonization and the use of England's potential maritime power.