“Gen. George Washington, who brushed ‘counter liquor’ across seemingly innocuous letters to reveal messages written in invisible ink, knew that intelligence is a mosaic formed from many small parts, some fitting more precisely than others. In Washington’s Spies, Alexander Rose has done an admirable job of investigating and reporting on Washington’s wartime intelligence service.

━The Virginian-Pilot

“Washington’s Spies is both well written and thoroughly researched, drawing heavily on original sources . . . [A]n excellent, accurate representation of a significant aspect of the American effort in the War of Independence.”

━Long Island Historical Journal

“As this smart and engrossing book makes clear, the general became a master of invisible ink, coded messages and other tools of the trade. His hard-nosed approach—he deplored exaggerations by his agents—helped win the war and still stands as a model for fact seekers everywhere.”

━Barron’s

“This fascinating and carefully crafted book shows us a side of the Father of Our Country that hero-worshipers since Reverend Weems never imagined—and the almost forgotten covert side of the Revolutionary War.”

━National Review

“The cloak-and-dagger flavor of any good story permeates Rose’s book. . . . In the end, although the members of Washington’s spy ring would fade into obscurity, their services contributed greatly to the cause of independence. Through Rose’s book, their efforts are brought to light, and their patriotism and daring recognized.”

━Intelligence and National Security

This was my first book. Warning: This one is pretty long and, unless you’re really into the Middle Ages, could be something of a slog. But if you are really into the Middle Ages, you might really like it.

The House of Percy resounds throughout Shakespeare's history plays, the Wars of the Roses, and the centuries-long Anglo-Scottish Wars. In the Middle Ages, the earls of Northumberland were famed, or notorious, as the Kings in the North, a region they ran almost as an hereditary domain. Alexander Rose traces the history of this ancient and sometimes haughty dynasty, from the moment William de Percy stepped into England alongside William the Conqueror to the waning of the medieval era after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The Percys' commanding role in the English wars against Scotland, as well as their part in the Hundred Years War, the Crusades, and the politics of the time, feature prominently.

“It’s stirring stuff, often swashbuckling in Rose’s narrative effects, and none the worse for that in a popular history of a neglected and underrated area of British history.”

━The Times

“Rose’s book skillfully entwines the story of this family with the wider history of medieval England and Scotland (and France—Percys were prominent in the Hundred Years War) as their kings jostled for territory and power . . . a gripping panorama of medieval history.”

━The Sunday Times

“Rose has an impressive, nay indefatigable, eye for detail . . . For the most comprehensive account of the rise of the Percys, this is the book. For once, one cannot complain about lack of ‘context.’ It is here in such abundance that Kings in the North almost doubles as a single-volume History of Medieval England.”

━The Sunday Telegraph

“The book’s originality lies [in] the valuable regional perspective and the author’s skill in setting the biography of a family against five centuries of British history.”

━Glasgow Herald

“There is no doubt that Alexander Rose’s sweep across the centuries from the arrival of William, first Baron Percy, with the conquering Normans, to the murder of Henry Percy, fourth Earl of Northumberland in 1489, is an extraordinary magnum opus, knitting together the skeletal facts about the Percys into an ambitious retelling of Anglo-Scottish history.”

━BBC History

“What Rose has to say about the political and social history of England is interesting, well-informed and perceptive.”

━The Guardian

“In a recent Royal Shakespeare Company production of Richard II, the young Henry Percy, Hotspur, burst on to the stage in black battledress, armed with a sub-machine gun and festooned with ammunition belts. Alexander Rose displays similar enthusiasm in tackling the history of the Percy family in the Middle Ages.”

━Times Literary Supplement (TLS)

Kings in the North: The House of Percy

in British History

In the summer of 1778, General George Washington desperately needed to know where the British would strike next. To that end, he unleashed his secret weapon: an unlikely ring of spies in New York, Long Island, and Connecticut charged with discovering the enemy’s battle plans and military strategy.

Washington’s small band included a young Quaker torn between political principle and family loyalty, a swashbuckling sailor addicted to the perils of espionage, a hard-drinking barkeep, a Yale-educated cavalryman and friend of the doomed Nathan Hale, and a peaceful, sickly farmer who begged Washington to let him retire but who always came through in the end. Personally guiding these brave, flawed, everyday heroes was Washington himself. In an era when gentlemen were officers, and gentlemen didn’t spy, he possessed an extraordinary talent for deception—and proved an adept spymaster.

The men he mentored were dubbed the Culper Ring. The British secret service tried to hunt them down, but they escaped by the closest of shaves thanks to their ciphers, dead drops, and invisible ink. Washington’s Spies tell the unknown story of the Revolution—one encompassing the murderous intelligence war, the gunrunning, the kidnappings, and the defections—that has never appeared in the history books. But the book is also a spirited, touching account of friendship and trust, fear and betrayal, amid the dark and silent world of the spy.

Now available in hardcover and paperback.

“After five years I knew there was a story to tell about [Washington’s] reliance on spies during the Revolutionary War. But I believed the story could never be told because the evidence did not exist.

Well, I was wrong, and Alexander Rose tells this important story with style and wit.”

━Joseph Ellis, Author of Founding Brothers

“Washington’s Spies offers fascinating new research on how Washington organized an intelligence-gathering network that helped turn the American Revolution in his side’s favor.”

━Chicago Tribune

“Rose's book offers a behind-the-scenes look at how Washington struggled with being a gentleman while encouraging something that was not considered an undertaking of gentlemen. . . . Most of the American spies had no experience, but they developed a system of working together that outwitted the more experienced British. The members of the Culper ring came from all walks of life and never told anyone of their bravery. But Rose's book brings to light their crucial help in winning American independence.”

━Dallas Morning News

Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring