Suspected Secret Service Missions During Cambridge Years
Poet involved
What happened
During his later years at Cambridge, Marlowe made repeated unexplained absences from the university, and later evidence suggests he undertook missions on behalf of the English government, possibly connected to the English Catholic seminary at Rheims, France. The exact nature of the work remains uncertain, but it drew him into the world of Elizabethan espionage.
Literary impact
This clandestine activity introduced Marlowe to themes of intrigue, dissimulation, and political ambition that recur throughout his plays, particularly in the Machiavellian scheming of Edward II and The Jew of Malta. The secrecy surrounding his life also fed the legend of a poet operating at the dangerous edge of church and state.
Source: Wikipedia
