Nicholas Holt is an agent for British Intelligence.
As the time frame for his recorded activities starts in 1585, it is safe to say there is no official government department with that name but through the auspices of Sir Francis Walsingham, Principal Secretary to Queen Elizabeth I, we have the next best thing. That famous (or infamous depending on what you read) individual was aptly named her "spymaster" and there is no doubt that as it pertains to Holt's exploits, that remains the case.
It would be more accurate to state, though, that the Honorable Nicholas Holt, younger brother of Robert, Earl of Blackwell, works for a man named Sir Robert Cecil, nicknamed 'Pygmy' by the Queen and 'Spider' by many others. Cecil was the understudy to Walsingham and in that man's declining years had become the real brains behind the operations. It was Cecil, still remarkably young for someone of his behind-the-scenes authority, who "coerced" (Holt's words) Holt into working for him. It was Cecil who came up with the idea that Holt would, in order to gather intelligence on what other European governments were planning especially regarding the United Kingdom.
Only a few people, including the Queen, know that Holt was "a spy and a man who ferreted out the truth". "To the rest of the world, he was a sot and the rapscallion younger brother of a great lord, a blight on his aristocratic house... It was a perfect, though frequently tiresome, cover". That description omits another word one might use for Holt, either the real undercover agent or the cover he was using to hide his missions ... lecherous. Holt does not hide in the least his considerable appreciation for the female of the species.
!!Good Lines:
- Said by a young William Shakespeare, good friend and drinking companion of Holt, "Have you never regretted a sin you could not stop committing?"