Medieval Spy Agencies?

Discounting the historical Assassins, in medieval Western Eurasia (Europe+Sunni Islamic world) how were spies and assassins trained?

Was it just "hire somebody to poison X" or "pay off chancellor Y to pass us stuff" or were there systematic attempts to create/train groups of espionage-capable people? I guess something like a medieval analogue of our modern espionage services?

If there wasn't, why not? If there was, can you suggest some reading about it?
 
I know there is a Polish book by Sławomir Jóźwiak "Na tropie średniowiecznych szpiegów" (On the Trail of Medieval Spies) about intelligence and counterintelligence and its role in Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic conflicts. I haven't read it myself yet, but I heard it is good. Unfortunately AFAIK it is only in Polish.

I wouldn't be surprised if most of the courts had some kind of spymaster, officially one of secretaries or something like that, who unofficially was leader of intelligence and/or counterintelligence. Spying is a very old profession, after all. Officially it was despicable and no knight or ruler would lower himself to such a thing, so AFAIK there was no English Secret Service or Royal French Intelligence Agency. In reality... those rulers who had not at least decent spying network probably didn't last long. It was all done quietly and discreetly.
And I'm pretty sure that at least some agents received some special training. How to code or decode messages, open a lock, poison someone... something like that. You can not expect you'd always find a necessary professional when you need it. It was simply easier to have at least a few trained agents ready.
 
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Thinking on it a bit further, I think it might be something like the Secret du Roi which was secret diplomacy but seems to have regularly engaged in actions that go beyond the obvious meanings of diplomacy.

An institutionalized version (one that would not depend on the personal existence of a particular monarch) might be similar to what I'm thinking of.

ED: The wiki link above is good! Thanks.
 
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Thande

Donor
Like other government and military organisations, back then basically the same roles existed as now, but they were less formally organised: more like "appoint this guy who has a pre-existing spy network for internal family feuds or his personal business interests to a vaguely defined position of state, and unofficially he's the chief spymaster". Francis Walsingham for instance.
 
The Muscovites really did have a Secret Department, but that's a bit too lat to be "medieval".

I'm pretty sure it was all based on whoever they had at hand and whoever they trusted.
 
It could also be considered the role of any travelling Ambassador to report back to his home country anything he discovered while living in another nobleman's court. Machiavelli did this quite frequently in his travels.
 

PhilippeO

Banned
Like everything else in medieval era, it most likely through apprentice / protege system. noble with espionage talent; find, train, and become patron to young noble whom they think is talented.
 
I know there is a Polish book by Sławomir Jóźwiak "Na tropie średniowiecznych szpiegów" (On the Trail of Medieval Spies) about intelligence and counterintelligence and its role in Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic conflicts. I haven't read it myself yet, but I heard it is good. Unfortunately AFAIK it is only in Polish.

I wouldn't be surprised if most of the courts had some kind of spymaster, officially one of secretaries or something like that, who unofficially was leader of intelligence and/or counterintelligence. Spying is a very old profession, after all. Officially it was despicable and no knight or ruler would lower himself to such a thing, so AFAIK there was no English Secret Service or Royal French Intelligence Agency. In reality... those rulers who had not at least decent spying network probably didn't last long. It was all done quietly and discreetly.
And I'm pretty sure that at least some agents received some special training. How to code or decode messages, open a lock, poison someone... something like that. You can not expect you'd always find a necessary professional when you need it. It was simply easier to have at least a few trained agents ready.

The second oldest to be exact...
 

Thande

Donor
Well remember that having an officially admitted spy agency is still a VERY recent thing. Until the 1990s, MI6's existence was officially denied by the British government, even though its headquarters building was right there and everyone knew it existed. If it was ever mentioned in Parliament through a slip of the tongue, it was struck from the Hansard record.

I was talking more about a difference of level of organisation, similar to that with the military (moving away from 'nobles with their own private armies' to a central organised state force) not a difference in how open it was.
 
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