In the later seventeenth century diplomacy was often merely seen as warfare by other means. In such a world the cutting edge of diplomacy lay in its intelligence gathering and espionage activities. These ‘secret services’ were an essential part of the diplomatic arsenal of any state. They could, of course, cover a multitude of actions from subterfuge and chicanery, to bribery, corruption, simple news gathering and running spies, or even more complex operations such as kidnapping and murder. For the Stuart regime, as for others, the men who ran this seamy side of diplomatic life were located in two areas of government. The first of these, as we have seen, lay in the office of the Secretary of State in London. The secretaries divided European affairs between themselves, although not always equitably, and ran the second group of officials involved in foreign affairs, those ambassadors, agents, residents and consuls who made up the diplomatic corps. The diplomat stood in the front line of such activities. While the diplomat then, as now, was seen as the representative of his country abroad, more often than not he was also seen as a mere spy by another name; an ‘honourable spy’ as Abraham de Wicquefort put it, but still a spy. The concern here is less with the diplomat's role as a purveyor of his country's fluctuating foreign policy and more with his role in that area known as secret services. In general this can be divided into two main areas: intelligence gathering and espionage activities, or information and action.