Edward Hunter is an agent with British Intelligence.
With his adventures taking place starting in 1569, it is safe to say that this was long before anything formal like an actual government department dedicated to intelligence gathering existed. It would be more accurate then to state that Hunger is an agent of Sir Francis Walsingham. That fellow was the legendary Principal Secretary to Queen Elizabeth I but he is now better remembered as Her Majesty's spymaster. He earned that designation through having established even before taking his official, exalted position a network of spies across England and Scotland and even all about Europe.
Hunter's entry into the shady world of espionage will come before he actually meets Sir Francis. It starts when he is a law student at the famous Gray's Inn, one of the four Inns of Court existing in England at the time, studying hard to become a barrister. One of his close friends attending there as well will invite him to visit up north in Yorkshire where he will meet that man's lovely sister, Mary, and it will be his infatuation with the young lady and the desire to impress her that he will see his career path change.
Hunter is 19 years old when first we meet him. He can be considered a normal young man for the time (or any other) in that he is working towards what he has been told should be his life's work but he is also interested in, and easily distracted by, the thought of adventure and excitement and, of course, the chance to get close to those of the fairer sex.
Hunter comes from wealth, his family having a fine estate called Bradhurst Hall in Hertfordshire. Being the second son of the landowner, Hunter knew for years he was not going to be the heir so would need another source of income. He chose the law but, as we discover, something a lot more clandestine will be his real career.