Wednesday 22 June 2022 12:11 AM How the first 007 was a Tudor spy for Elizabeth I who used tennis to weed out ... trends now
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Serving for his Queen and country has always been important to James Bond.
And the original 007 may have been doing it quite literally – on the tennis court.
The first spy to use ‘007’ as a code was a Tudor man who pretended to be a tennis player so he could gather information for Elizabeth I, according to author Christian Howgill.
Pictured: John Dee, astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I and the 'original 007'. According to author Christian Howgill, Elizabeth I would send out spies masquerading as tennis players to gather information for her - Jack Dee was a 'special favourite'
Mr Howgill told an audience at the Chalke Valley History Festival, sponsored by the Daily Mail, that John Dee was a ‘special favourite’ of the queen.
Intelligence services were important to her because she was a Protestant surrounded by Catholics, not just in her own country but all round Europe, and had a Catholic rival for the
