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Spying has existed since early historical societies in the Middle East, China, and southeast Europe. However, spy services are generally a later development, where groups of government individuals and ultimately agencies within government became responsible for external and internal spying. England, one of the first countries to have a formal spy service, greatly professionalized spying and made it one of the birthplaces of what ultimately became modern espionage.

Espionage, domestically and abroad, continued to be controlled by a spymaster often in the service of the monarch, that is after the monarchy was restored after the death of Cromwell. Well after Thurloe, a central spymaster, often the Secretary of State, would control both domestic and foreign spy networks. After the threat of Catholic invasion subsided, spies began to be used more against the threats to the emerging British Empire. Namely, this was France before and during the Napoleonic wars. Throughout the 19th century, espionage continued to mostly use the structure developed in the 17th century. This meant there was increasingly high burden on a single figure in government responsible for domestic and foreign spies. As the British Empire expanded, so to did the needs of the British espionage services.<ref>For more on the development of spies particularly in the Napoleonic wars, see: Sparrow, E. (1999) <i>Secret service: British agents in France, 1792-1815</i>. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK ; Rochester, NY, USA, Boydell Press.

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====British Espionage Services====

====References====

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