Francis Drake

This article is about the Elizabethan naval commander. For other uses, see Francis Drake (disambiguation).

Sir Francis Drake (c. 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer and privateer best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580. This was the first English circumnavigation, and third circumnavigation overall. He is also known for participating in the early English slaving voyages of his cousin, Sir John Hawkins, and John Lovell. Having started as a simple seaman, in 1588 he was part of the fight against the Spanish Armada as a vice-admiral.

Sir Francis Drake
Portrait by Marcus Gheeraerts, 1591
Born	c. 1540 Tavistock, Devon, England
Died	28 January 1596 (1596-01-29) (aged 56) Portobelo, Colón, Panama
Spouses	Mary Newman ​ ​ (m. 1569; died 1581)​ Elizabeth Sydenham ​ (m. 1585)​
Awards	Knight Bachelor (1581)
Piratical career
Nickname	El Draque (the Dragon)^[1]
Type	Privateer
Allegiance	Kingdom of England
Years active	1563–1596
Rank	Vice admiral
Base of operations	Caribbean Sea
Commands	Golden Hind (previously known as Pelican) Bonaventure Revenge
Battles/wars	Anglo–Spanish War Battle of Gravelines
Wealth	Equiv. US$144.7 million in 2021;^[2] #2 Forbes top-earning pirates^[3]
Signature

At an early age Drake was placed into the household of a relative, William Hawkins, a prominent sea captain in Plymouth. In 1572, he set sail on his first independent mission, privateering along the Spanish Main. Drake's circumnavigation began on 15 December 1577. He crossed the Pacific Ocean, until then an area of exclusive Spanish interest, and laid claim to New Albion, plundering coastal towns and ships for treasure and supplies as he went. He arrived back in England on 26 September 1580. Elizabeth I awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581 which he received aboard his galleon the Golden Hind.

Drake's circumnavigation inaugurated an era of conflict with the Spanish and in 1585, the Anglo-Spanish War began. Drake was in command of an expedition to the Americas that attacked Spanish shipping and ports. When Philip II sent the Spanish Armada to England in 1588 as a precursor to its invasion, Drake was second-in-command of the English fleet that fought against and repulsed the Spanish fleet. A year later he led the English Armada in a failed attempt to destroy the remaining Spanish fleet.

Drake was the Member of Parliament (MP) for three constituencies: Camelford in 1581, Bossiney in 1584, and Plymouth in 1593. Drake's exploits made him a hero to the English, but his privateering led the Spanish to brand him a pirate, known to them as El Draque ("The Dragon" in old Spanish).^[1] He died of dysentery after his failed assault on Panama in January 1596.

Birth and early years

 

Portrait miniature by Nicholas Hilliard, 1581, inscribed Aetatis suae 42, An(n)o D(omi)ni 1581 ("42 years of his age, 1581 AD")

Francis Drake was born at Crowndale Farm in Tavistock, Devon, England.^[4] His birth date is not formally recorded – such writers as E. F. Benson have claimed that he was born while the Six Articles of 1539 were in force,^[5] but British naval historian Julian Corbett, writing of William Camden's account, on which this information is based, writes that "As a slip of memory, too, we must put down his difficult assertion that Edmund Drake was driven from Devonshire during a persecution under the Six Articles Act of 1539."^[6] His birth date is estimated from the wording of texts in contemporary sources such as: "Drake was two and twenty when he obtained the command of the Judith"^[7] (1566). This would date his birth to 1544. A date of c. 1540 is suggested from two portraits: one a miniature painted by Nicholas Hilliard in 1581 when he was allegedly 42, which would place his birth c. 1539, while the other, painted in 1594 when he was said to be 52,^[8] would give a birth year of c. 1541.

He was the eldest of the twelve sons^[9] of Edmund Drake (1518–1585), a Protestant farmer, and his wife, Mary Mylwaye. The first son was alleged to have been named after his godfather, Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford.^[10]

Due to religious persecution during the Prayer Book Rebellion in 1549, the Drake family fled from Devon to Kent. There Drake's father obtained an appointment to minister to the men in the King's Navy. He was ordained deacon and was made vicar of Upnor Church on the Medway.^[11]

Early career at sea

At an early age Drake was placed into the household of a relative, sea-captain William Hawkins of Plymouth, and began his seagoing training as an apprentice on Hawkins' boats.^[12] By 18, he was a purser, according to the English chronicler Edmund Howes,^[13] and in the 1550s, Drake's father found the young man a position with the owner and master of a small barque, one of the small traders plying between the Medway River and the Dutch coast. Drake likely engaged in commerce along the coast of England, the Low Countries and France.^[14] The ship's master was so satisfied with the young Drake's conduct that, being unmarried and childless at his death, he bequeathed the barque to Drake.^[15]

Slave trade

 

Sir John Hawkins (left) with Sir Francis Drake (centre) and Sir Thomas Cavendish

Historical sources on Drake's early life are scarce, tend to be brief and are often confusing.^[13][16][17] Two common scholarly traditions concerning his life and contributions have resulted.^[18] The older tradition can be found in Julian Corbett's biography, Drake and the Tudor Navy (1898) which identifies Drake as the single most important figure in the founding and triumph of the British navy.^[19] The alternative approach locates Drake squarely within privateering. The first has tended to laud only his successes, while Sugden writes that the second approach, which emphasises his flaws and failures, has sometimes been less than just.^[20] Drake left behind no words of his own, only his actions and their interpretation which, as Peter Whitfield says, "is open to deep disagreement". According to Whitfield, scholarship on Drake has moved "from the hero worship of the Victorians to the cold iconoclasm" of the twenty-first century.^[21]

This is evident in the discussion of Drake's role in the slaving expeditions of his second cousin John Hawkins. The West African slave trade was at this time a Portuguese and Spanish duopoly, but Hawkins devised a plan to break into that trade, and in 1562, enlisted the aid of colleagues and family to finance his first slave voyage. Drake was not part of that group of financiers.^[22] Drake's presence as one of hundreds of seamen on Hawkins's first two slaving voyages has been assumed.^[23] There is some anecdotal evidence to support Drake serving as a common seaman on the first two voyages, and good evidence of his presence for the last two of four slaving voyages made by Hawkins' ships between 1562 and 1569.^[12][24][25]

 

Jesus of Lübeck

In 1562, Hawkins sailed to the coast of the Sierra Leone, seized Portuguese slave ships, and sold the Africans in the Spanish Indies.^[26] It was highly profitable, so for his second slave voyage in 1564, Hawkins gained Queen Elizabeth I's support. She lent him one of her ships, Jesus of Lübeck, which served as his flagship.^[27] Hawkins attacked an African native town and sold many of its inhabitants in Spanish ports on the Caribbean mainland making another large profit for himself, the Queen and the consortium of investors from her court.^[23][26] Sources vary on the dates and the age of Drake at the time;^[17] Harry Kelsey says he was twenty years old, "[a]ccording to Howes" (in reference to the English chronicler Edmund Howes writing in 1615).^[28] Drake was not a member of that consortium, but the crew would have received a small share of the profits.^[29][30] Based on this association, scholar Kris Lane lists Drake as one of the first English slave traders.^[31]

The Spanish and Portuguese were aggrieved that the English had entered into the slave trade and were selling slaves to their colonies despite being forbidden from doing so. Queen Elizabeth I, under pressure to avoid an armed conflict, forbade Hawkins from going to sea for a third slave voyage. In response, he set up a slave voyage with a relative, John Lovell, in command in 1566.^[23] Drake accompanied Lovell on this voyage.^[23] The voyage was unsuccessful, as more than 90 enslaved Africans were released without payment.^[32]

In 1567, Drake accompanied Hawkins on their next and last joint voyage.^[33] The crew attempted to capture slaves around Cape Verde, but failed. Hawkins allied himself with two local kings in Sierra Leone who asked for help against their enemies in exchange for half of any captives they took. Attacking from both sides, several hundred prisoners were taken, though Kelsey says the kings kept "the larger share of slaves and dared Hawkins to do anything about it".^[34]

Events worsened for the fleet as it faced storms, Spanish hostility, armed conflict, and finally a hurricane that separated one ship from the rest, and it had to find its own way home.^[35] The remaining ships were forced into the port of San Juan de Ulúa near Vera Cruz so they could make repairs. Soon afterward the newly appointed viceroy of New Spain, Martín Enríquez de Almanza, arrived with a fleet of ships. While still negotiating to resupply and repair, Hawkins' ships were attacked by the Spanish ships in what became known as the Battle of San Juan de Ulúa.^[36] The battle ended in an English defeat with all but two of the English ships lost. The Spanish launched a fireship against Hawkins' flagship Jesus of Lübeck, and the crew of Minion in panic and fear cut the lines securing them to Jesus. Hawkins was among those who jumped from the flagship's bulwarks to Minion's decks.^[37] Drake, by this time the captain of Judith, fled leaving Hawkins behind. Hawkins escaped on Minion and limped back to England with dozens of his men dying along the way,^[38] and arriving with a crew of just 15.^[39] Hundreds of English seamen were abandoned.^[40]

After arriving back in England, Hawkins accused Drake of desertion and of stealing the treasure they had accumulated. Drake denied both accusations asserting he had distributed all profits among the crew and that he had believed Hawkins was lost when he left.^[30][41] The bitter end of the fourth voyage turned Drake's life in a different direction: thereafter he would not pursue trading and slaving but would, instead, dedicate himself to attacking Spanish possessions wherever he found them.^[42] Drake's hostility towards the Spanish is said to have started with the battle and its aftermath.^[43]

The voyage of 1567–1569 was Drake's last association with slaving. In total, approximately 1,200 Africans were enslaved on his four voyages,^[44] and an estimated three times as many Africans were killed (based on the contemporaneous accounts of slavers).^[25] From the vantage of the 21st century Sugden writes that "Drake was in his twenties, and did not question what his elders accepted" and must share some culpability for his participation.^[45]

Expedition of 1572–1573

Main article: Francis Drake's expedition of 1572–1573

In 1572, Drake embarked on his first major independent enterprise. He planned an attack on the Isthmus of Panama, known to the Spanish as part of Tierra Firme and to the English as part of the Spanish Main.^[46] This was the point at which the silver and gold treasure of Peru had to be brought ashore and transported overland to the Caribbean Sea, where galleons from Spain would take it aboard at the town of Nombre de Dios. Drake left Plymouth on 24 May 1572, with a crew of 73 men in two small vessels, Pascha (70 tons) and Swan (25 tons), to capture Nombre de Dios.^[47][48]

Drake's first raid was late in July 1572. Drake captured Nombre de Dios, but he was badly wounded when the Spanish arrived from Panama, and his forces had to retreat without the gold, silver, pearls and jewels stored in the royal treasury. Rather than sacking Nombre de Dios again, Drake raided Spanish galleons along the coast^[49] and with his Cimarrón (enslaved Africans who had escaped from their Spanish slave-owners)^[50] allies looted the mule trains that transported gold, silver and trade goods from Panama City.^[51] One of these men was Diego, who later became a free man after years of service under Drake.^[52]

Among Drake's adventures along the Spanish Main, his capture of the Spanish silver train at Nombre de Dios on 1 April 1573^[53] made him rich and famous.^[54] Near Cabo de Cativas he encountered a French privateer, Guillaume Le Testu, who was in command of the 80-ton warship Havre, and joined forces with him in a combined fleet. Drake had determined to intercept the mule train at the Campos River, two leagues from Nombre de Dios, and instructed the captains of his pinnaces to meet them at the Francisca River on 3 April to carry them off after the raid. The combined English and French raiding parties marched through the forest towards the trail, to within a mile of the city while the Cimarróns performed reconnaissance. The next morning, 1 April, they surprised the mule convoy and seized more than 200,000 pesos' worth of treasure.^[53]

After their attack on the richly laden mule train, Drake and his party found that they had captured around 20 tons of silver and gold. They buried much of the treasure, as it was too much for their party to carry, and made off with a fortune in gold.^[55][56] (An account of this may have given rise to subsequent stories of pirates and buried treasure).^[57] Badly wounded, Le Testu was captured and beheaded. The small band of adventurers dragged as much gold and silver as they could carry back across some 18 miles (29 km) of jungle-covered mountains to where they had left the raiding boats. When they got to the coast, the boats were gone. Drake and his men, downhearted, exhausted and hungry, had nowhere to go and the Spanish were not far behind.^[58]

At this point, Drake rallied his men, buried the treasure on the beach, and built a raft to sail in a heavy swell with four men twelve miles along the coast to where they had left two pinnaces.^[58] When Drake finally reached them, his men were alarmed at his bedraggled appearance. Fearing the worst, they asked him how the raid had gone. Drake could not resist a joke and teased them by looking downhearted.^[59] Then he laughed, pulled a quoit of Spanish gold from his clothes and said, "Our voyage is made."^[60] By the second week of August 1573, he had returned to Plymouth.^[61]

It was during this expedition that on 11 February Drake and his lieutenant John Oxenham climbed a high tree in the central mountains of the Isthmus of Panama and thus became the first Englishmen to see the Pacific Ocean, mirroring the achievement of the Spaniard Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513. The Cimarróns had cut steps into its trunk, on which Drake and the Cimarrón leader Pedro ascended to a platform at the top of the giant tree, where they were joined by Oxenham.^[62] The Englishmen vowed when they saw the Pacific Ocean that one day they would sail its waters^[63] – which Drake would do years later as part of his circumnavigation of the world.^[64]

When Drake returned to Plymouth after the raids, the government signed a temporary truce with King Philip II of Spain and so was unable to acknowledge Drake's accomplishment officially. Drake was considered a hero in England and a pirate in Spain for his raids.^[65]

Rathlin Island massacre

Drake was present at the 1575 Rathlin Island massacre in Ireland. Sir John Norris (or Norreys) and Drake, acting on the instructions of Sir Henry Sidney and the Earl of Essex, Robert Devereux, laid siege to Rathlin Castle. Despite its surrender, Norris' troops killed all the 200 defenders and several hundred more civilian men, women and children of Clan MacDonnell.^[66] Meanwhile, Drake was given the task of preventing any Gaelic Irish or Scottish reinforcements reaching the island. Therefore, the remaining leader of the Gaelic defence against English power, Sorley Boy MacDonnell, was forced to stay on the mainland. Essex wrote in his letter to Queen Elizabeth's secretary that following the attack Sorley Boy "was likely to have run mad for sorrow, tearing and tormenting himself and saying that he there lost all that he ever had."^[67]

Circumnavigation (1577–1580)

Further information: Francis Drake's circumnavigation

 

A map of Drake's route around the world. The northern limit of Drake's exploration of the Pacific coast of North America is still in dispute. Drake's Bay is south of Cape Mendocino.

Following the success of the Panama isthmus raid, Drake's so-called "Famous Voyage" – an expedition against the Spanish along the Pacific coast of the Americas – was organized and financed by a private consortium that included Francis Walsingham, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and the Hawkins brothers. Drake acted on the plan authored by Sir Richard Grenville, who in 1574 had received a royal patent for that purpose; just a year later this patent had been rescinded after Elizabeth I learned of Grenville's intentions against the Spanish.^[68] Elizabeth likely invested in Drake's voyage to South America in 1577, but never issued him a formal commission.^[69][70] This would be the first circumnavigation in 58 years.^[71]

Diego was once again employed under Drake; his fluency in Spanish and English would make him a useful interpreter when Spaniards or Spanish-speaking Portuguese were captured. He was employed as Drake's servant and was paid wages like the rest of the crew.^[52] Drake and the fleet set out from Plymouth on 15 November 1577, but bad weather threatened him and his fleet. They were forced to take refuge in Falmouth, Cornwall, from where they returned to Plymouth for repair.^[72]

After this major setback, Drake set sail again on 13 December aboard Pelican with four other ships and 164 men. He soon added a sixth ship, Mary (formerly Santa María), a Portuguese merchant ship that had been captured off the coast of Africa near the Cape Verde Islands.^[73] He also kidnapped its captain, Nuno da Silva, a man with considerable experience navigating in South American waters.^[74]

Drake's fleet suffered great attrition; he scuttled both Christopher and the flyboat Swan due to loss of men on the Atlantic crossing. He made landfall at the gloomy bay of San Julian, in what is now Argentina. Ferdinand Magellan had called here half a century earlier, where he put to death some mutineers. Drake's men saw weathered and bleached skeletons on the Spanish gibbets. Following Magellan's example, Drake tried and executed his own "mutineer" Thomas Doughty. The crew discovered that Mary had rotting timbers, so they burned the ship. Drake decided to remain the winter in San Julian before attempting the Strait of Magellan.^[75]

Execution of Thomas Doughty

Main article: Thomas Doughty (explorer)

On his voyage to interfere with Spanish treasure fleets, Drake had several quarrels with his co-commander Thomas Doughty and on 3 June 1578, accused him of witchcraft and charged him with mutiny and treason in a shipboard trial.^[76] Drake claimed to have a (never presented) commission from the Queen to carry out such acts and denied Doughty a trial in England. The main pieces of evidence against Doughty were the testimony of the ship's carpenter, Edward Bright, who after the trial was promoted to master of the ship Marigold, and Doughty's admission of telling Lord Burghley, a vocal opponent of agitating the Spanish, of the intent of the voyage. Drake consented to his request of Communion and dined with him, of which Francis Fletcher had this account:

And after this holy repast, they dined also at the same table together, as cheerfully, in sobriety, as ever in their lives they had done aforetime, each cheering up the other, and taking their leave, by drinking each to other, as if some journey only had been in hand.^[77]

Drake had Thomas Doughty beheaded on 2 July 1578. When the ship's chaplain, Francis Fletcher, in a sermon suggested that the woes of the voyage in January 1580 were connected to the unjust demise of Doughty, Drake chained the clergyman to a hatch cover and pronounced him excommunicated.^[78]

Entering the Pacific (1578)

 

A replica of the Golden Hind at Bankside in London

The three remaining ships of his convoy departed for the Magellan Strait at the southern tip of South America. A few weeks later in September 1578 Drake made it to the Pacific, but violent storms destroyed one of the three ships, Marigold (captained by John Thomas) in the strait and caused another, Elizabeth, captained by John Wynter, to return to England, leaving only Pelican. After this passage, Pelican was pushed south and discovered an island that Drake called Elizabeth Island. Drake, like navigators before him, probably reached a latitude of 55°S (according to astronomical data quoted in Richard Hakluyt's The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation of 1589) along the Chilean coast.^[79] In the Magellan Strait Francis and his men engaged in skirmishes with local indigenous people, becoming the first Europeans to kill indigenous peoples in southern Patagonia.^[80] During their stay in the strait, crew members discovered that an infusion made of the bark of Drimys winteri could be used as remedy against scurvy. Captain Wynter ordered the collection of great amounts of bark – hence the scientific name.^[80]

Historian Mateo Martinic, who examined records of Drake's travels, credits him with the discovery of the "southern end of the Americas and the oceanic space south of it".^[81] The first report of his discovery of an open channel south of Tierra del Fuego was written after the 1618 publication of the voyage of Willem Schouten and Jacob le Maire around Cape Horn in 1616.^[82]

Drake pushed onwards in his lone flagship, now renamed Golden Hind in honour of Sir Christopher Hatton (after his coat of arms). Golden Hind sailed north along the Pacific coast of South America, attacking Spanish ports and pillaging towns. Some Spanish ships were captured, and Drake used their more accurate charts. Before reaching the coast of Peru, Drake visited Mocha Island, where he was seriously injured by hostile Mapuche. Later he sacked the port of Valparaíso further north in Chile, where he also captured a ship full of Chilean wine.^[83][84]

Capture of Spanish treasure ships

Near Lima, Drake captured a Spanish ship with 25,000 pesos of Peruvian gold, amounting in value to 37,000 ducats of Spanish money (about £7m by modern standards). Drake also discovered news of another ship, Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, which was sailing west towards Manila. It would come to be called Cacafuego. Drake gave chase and eventually captured the treasure ship, which proved his most profitable capture.^[85]

Aboard Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, Drake found 36 kilograms (80 lb) of gold, a golden crucifix, jewels, 13 chests of silver reals and 26,000 kilograms (26 long tons) of silver. Drake was naturally pleased at his good luck in capturing the galleon, and he showed it by dining with the captured ship's officers and gentleman passengers. He offloaded his captives a short time later, and gave each one gifts appropriate to their rank, as well as a letter of safe conduct.^[85]

Coast of California: Nova Albion (1579)

Main articles: New Albion and Drake in California

 

Drake's landing in California, engraving published 1590 by Theodor de Bry

 

Drake viewing treasure taken from a Spanish ship. Print^[86] courtesy New York Public Library

Prior to Drake's voyage, the western coast of North America had only been partially explored in 1542 by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo who sailed for Spain.^[87] So, intending to avoid further conflict with Spain, Drake navigated north-west of Spanish presence and sought a discreet site at which the crew could prepare for the journey back to England.^[88][89]

On 5 June 1579, the ship briefly made first landfall at what is now South Cove, Cape Arago, just south of Coos Bay, Oregon, and then sailed south while searching for a suitable harbour to repair his ailing ship.^{[89][90][91][92][93]} On 17 June, Drake and his crew found a protected cove when they landed on the Pacific coast of what is now Northern California.^[94][95] While ashore, he claimed the area for Queen Elizabeth I as Nova Albion or New Albion. To document and assert his claim, Drake posted an engraved plate of brass to claim sovereignty for Elizabeth and every successive English monarch.^[96] After erecting a fort and tents ashore, the crew laboured for several weeks as they prepared for the circumnavigating voyage ahead by careening their ship, Golden Hind, so to effectively clean and repair the hull.^[97] Drake had friendly interactions with the Coast Miwok and explored the surrounding land by foot.^[98] When his ship was ready for the return voyage, Drake and the crew left New Albion on 23 July and paused his journey the next day when anchoring his ship at the Farallon Islands where the crew hunted seal meat.^{[99][100][101]}

Across the Pacific and around Africa

Drake left the Pacific coast, heading south-west to catch the winds that would carry his ship across the Pacific, and a few months later reached the Moluccas, a group of islands in the western Pacific, in eastern modern-day Indonesia. At this time Diego died from wounds he had sustained earlier in the voyage, Golden Hind later became caught on a reef and was almost lost. After the sailors waited three days for convenient tides and had dumped cargo. Befriending Sultan Babullah of Ternate in the Moluccas, Drake and his men became involved in some intrigues with the Portuguese there. He made multiple stops on his way toward the tip of Africa, eventually rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and reached Sierra Leone by 22 July 1580.

Return to Plymouth (1580)

 

1829 portrait of Drake wearing the Drake Jewel

 

The "Drake Jewel" as painted by Gheeraerts the Younger in a 1591 portrait of Drake

On 26 September 1580, Golden Hind sailed into Plymouth with Drake and 59 remaining crew aboard, along with a rich cargo of spices and captured Spanish treasures. The queen's half-share of the cargo surpassed the rest of the crown's income for that entire year. Drake was hailed as the first Englishman to circumnavigate the Earth, and his was the second such voyage arriving with at least one ship intact, after Elcano's in 1520.^[102]

Queen Elizabeth declared that all written accounts of Drake's voyages were to become the queen's secrets of the Realm, and Drake and the other participants of his voyages on the pain of death sworn to their secrecy; she intended to keep Drake's activities hidden from the eyes of rival Spain.^[102]

Drake presented the queen with a jewel token commemorating the circumnavigation. Taken as a prize off the Pacific coast of Mexico, it was made of enamelled gold and bore an African diamond and a ship with an ebony hull.^[102]

To show her gratitude the queen gave him the Drake Jewel, a valuable pendant surrounded by diamonds, rubies and pearls. It was an unusual gift to bestow upon a commoner, and one that Drake wore in a 1591 portrait by Marcus Gheeraerts. On one side of the pendant is a state portrait of Elizabeth by the miniaturist Nicholas Hilliard, on the other a sardonyx cameo of double portrait busts, a regal woman and an African male. The Drake Jewel is a rare documented survivor among sixteenth-century jewels; it is conserved at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.^[102]

Knighthood and arms

Queen Elizabeth awarded Drake a knighthood aboard Golden Hind in Deptford on 4 April 1581; the dubbing being performed by a French diplomat, Monsieur de Marchaumont, who was negotiating for Elizabeth to marry the King of France's brother, Francis, Duke of Anjou.^[103][104] By getting the French diplomat involved in the knighting, Elizabeth was gaining the implicit political support of the French for Drake's actions.^{[105][106][107]} During the Victorian era, in a spirit of nationalism, the story was promoted that Elizabeth I had done the knighting.^[104]

 

Sir Francis Drake's new heraldic achievement, with motto: Sic Parvis Magna^[108]

After receiving his knighthood Drake unilaterally adopted the coat of arms of the ancient Devon family of Drake of Ash, to whom he claimed a distant but unspecified kinship. The right to use the arms was disputed in court^[109] so Queen Elizabeth awarded Drake his own coat of arms.

Drake's heraldic achievement and coat of arms contains the motto, Sic Parvis Magna, translated literally as: "Thus great things from small things (come)". A hand coming out of the clouds is labelled Auxilio Divino, which means "With Divine Help".^[108]

Political career

Drake first became a member of parliament for the last session of the 4th Parliament of Elizabeth I,^[110] on 16 January 1581, for the constituency of Camelford. He did not actively participate at this point, and on 17 February 1581 he was granted leave of absence "for certain his necessary business in the service of Her Majesty".^[111]

Drake became the Mayor of Plymouth in September 1581.^[9] During his tenure, he installed a compass in the town's Hoe, and passed a law regulating the local pilchard trade.^[112] He also advocated for the construction of Plymouth Leat.^[113]

Drake became a member of parliament again in 1584 for Bossiney,^[9] on the forming of the 5th Parliament of Elizabeth I.^[114] He served the duration of the parliament and was active in issues regarding the navy, fishing, early American colonisation, and issues related chiefly to Devon. He spent the time covered by the next two parliamentary terms engaged in other duties and an expedition to Portugal.^[111]

He became a member of parliament for Plymouth in 1593.^[111] He was active in issues of interest to Plymouth as a whole, but also to emphasise defence against the Spanish.^[111][115]

Great Expedition to America

 

Map of Drake's Great Expedition in 1585 by Giovanni Battista Boazio

War broke out between England and Spain in 1585, after the signing of the Treaty of Nonsuch. Queen Elizabeth I, through her principal secretary Francis Walsingham, ordered Sir Francis Drake to lead an expedition to attack the Spanish colonies in a kind of pre-emptive strike. An expedition left Plymouth in September 1585 with Drake in command of twenty-one ships with 1,800 soldiers under Christopher Carleill. He first attacked Vigo in Spain and held the place for two weeks ransoming supplies.^[116] He then plundered Santiago in the Cape Verde islands after which the fleet then sailed across the Atlantic, sacked the port of Santo Domingo, and captured the city of Cartagena de Indias in present-day Colombia. At Cartagena, Drake released one hundred Turks who were enslaved.^[117] On 6 June 1586, during the return leg of the voyage, he attacked the wooden Spanish fort at San Agustín in Spanish Florida and burnt the town to the ground.^[118]

After the raids he then went on to find Sir Walter Raleigh's settlement much further north at Roanoke which he replenished and also took back with him all of the original colonists before Sir Richard Grenville arrived with supplies and more colonists. He finally reached England on 22 July, when he sailed into Portsmouth, England to a hero's welcome.^[118]

Conflict with the Spanish Armada

 

Painting depicting The Spanish Armada

Main article: Spanish Armada

In part to prevent future such attacks by English and Dutch privateers against Spanish interests in the Americas, Philip II ordered a planned invasion of England.

Cádiz raid

Main article: Singeing the King of Spain's Beard

 

Portrait of Drake around 1587, in Cassell's illustrated history of England

On 15 March 1587, Drake accepted a new commission with several purposes: to disrupt the shipping routes in order to slow supplies from Italy and Andalucia to Lisbon, to trouble enemy fleets that were in their own ports, and to capture Spanish ships laden with treasure. Drake was also to confront and attack the Spanish Armada had it already sailed for England. When arriving at Cadiz on 19 April, Drake found the harbour packed with ships and supplies as the Armada was readying and waiting for a fair wind to launch the fleet to attack. In the early hours of the next day, Drake pressed his attack into the inner harbour and inflicted heavy damage. Claims of the exact Spanish ship losses vary: Drake claimed he had sunk 39 ships, while the Spanish admitted the loss of only 24.^[119][120] The attack became known as the "singeing of the King's beard" and delayed the Spanish invasion by a year.^[121]

Over the next month, Drake patrolled the Iberian coasts between Lisbon and Cape St. Vincent, intercepting and destroying ships on the Spanish supply lines. Drake estimated that he had captured around 1,600 to 1,700 tons of barrel staves, enough to make 25,000 to 30,000 barrels (4,000 to 4,800 m³) for containing provisions.^[71] The expedition resulted in a total profit for England of around £140,000, £18,235 of which went to Drake.^[122]

Defeat of the Spanish Armada

 

Drake was purportedly playing bowls when first informed about the approach of the Armada.

 

Eighteenth-century painting of the Spanish Armada showing fire ships

 

Drake taking the surrender of Admiral Pedro de Valdés on the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora del Rosario

The Spanish Armada set sail for England in May of 1588, and arrived on the English coast on 29 July, near Cornwall. An English fleet consisting of 55 ships set out from Plymouth to confront the Armada, under the command of Lord Howard of Effingham, with Sir Francis Drake serving as vice admiral, commanding from the galleon Revenge. As the English fleet pursued the Armada up the English Channel in closing darkness, Drake broke off and captured the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora del Rosario, along with Admiral Pedro de Valdés and all his crew. The Spanish ship was known to be carrying substantial funds to pay the Spanish Army in the Low Countries. Drake's ship had been leading the English pursuit of the Armada by means of a lantern. By extinguishing this for the capture, Drake put the fleet into disarray overnight.

On the night of 29 July, along with Howard, Drake organised fire ships, causing the majority of the Spanish captains to break formation and sail out of Calais into the open sea. The next day, Drake was present at the Battle of Gravelines. He wrote as follows to Admiral Henry Seymour after coming upon part of the Spanish Armada, whilst aboard Revenge on 31 July 1588 (21 July 1588 OS):^[123]

Coming up to them, there has passed some common shot between some of our fleet and some of them; and as far as we perceive, they are determined to sell their lives with blows.

The armada, having failed in their aim, were unable to sail back via the English channel. The English ships, including the Revenge, pursued to prevent any landing on English soil, although by this time most of Howard's ships were almost out of shot. Nevertheless the battered Spanish fleet were forced instead to sail around the British isles and encountered heavy storms off the coast of Ireland. The fleet eventually limped back to Spanish ports having lost overall some 63 ships and vessels.^[124]

The most famous (but probably apocryphal) anecdote about Drake relates that, prior to the battle, he was playing a game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe. On being warned of the approach of the Spanish fleet, Drake is said to have remarked that there was plenty of time to finish the game and still beat the Spaniards, perhaps because he was waiting for high tide. There is no known eyewitness account of this incident and the earliest retelling of it was printed 37 years later.^[75] Adverse winds and currents caused some delay in the launching of the English fleet as the Spanish drew nearer,^[75] perhaps prompting a popular myth of Drake's cavalier attitude to the Spanish threat.

English Armada

Main article: English Armada

The people of quality dislike him for having risen so high from such a lowly family; the rest say he is the main cause of wars.

– Gonzalo González del Castillo, letter to King Philip II, 1592^[125]

In 1589, the year after the failure of the Spanish Armada, the English sent their own armada to attack Spain. Drake and Norris were given three tasks. Firstly, to destroy the battered Spanish Atlantic fleet, which was being repaired in ports of northern Spain. Secondly, to make a landing at Lisbon, Portugal and raise a revolt there against King Philip II (Philip I of Portugal) installing the pretender Dom António, Prior of Crato to the Portuguese throne. And, thirdly, to take the Azores if possible so as to establish a permanent base.^[126]

In the siege of Coruña, Drake and Norris destroyed a few ships in the harbour of A Coruña in Spain but were repelled. This defeat in all fronts delayed Drake for two weeks, and he was forced to forgo hunting the rest of the surviving ships and head on to Lisbon.^[71]

Norris led his army on a difficult march over the rocky coast to Lisbon, while Drake sailed around the peninsula to join Essex with his heavy artillery. Norris's troops were sick and exhausted by the time they reached the western limits of the city, consequently he demanded that Dom António raise provisions and men to fight for his cause from amongst the local populace, or the army would retreat. Drake, against their agreed plans, had anchored his fleet in the mouth of the Tagus estuary, rather than running the risk of sailing past the well-defended stretches of the Tagus to bring the desperately needed heavy cannon and ordnance.^[127] The anticipated rebellion never materialised and the ground campaign was a total failure, so Norris, with his army and António, re-embarked to make an attempt at capturing the treasure fleet. The weather was not in their favour so they eventually sailed for home.

However, Drake wanted to atone for such a bitter setback and, in order not to return empty-handed and with the morale of his troops sunk, he made a fleeting stop in the Galician rías, or coastal inlets, pillaging the defenceless town of Vigo for two days and razing it to the ground. This abusive demonstration did not leave the corsair unharmed, as he lost hundreds more men on land, in addition to as many as two hundred wounded.^[128] The growing defences of the inhabitants, and the arrivals of militias from Portugal, put the ships in retreat again. Two of the vessels sailing back to Plymouth were captured in the Bay of Biscay by a squadron of zabras led by Captain Diego de Aramburu.^[129][130]

The failure cost the lives of 11,000 English soldiers and sailors, according to Bucholz and Key;^[131] Robert Hutchinson says between 8,000 and 11,000 died;^[132] while Gorrochategui Santos calculates the number at over 20,000.^[133] Upon his return, Drake's behaviour in the expedition was increasingly called into question, culminating in his being charged by England's Privy Council of deliberate failings and a mishandling of his command. Despite never being publicly admonished on these charges,^[134] he nevertheless fell out of favour, and was not given command of another naval expedition until 1595.^[135]

Defeats and death

Further information: Drake's Assault on Panama

 

Drake's burial at sea off Portobello. Bronze plaque by Joseph Boehm, 1883, base of Drake statue, Tavistock

Drake's seafaring career continued into his mid-fifties. In 1595, he failed to conquer the port of Las Palmas, and following a disastrous campaign against Spanish America, where he suffered a number of defeats, he unsuccessfully attacked San Juan de Puerto Rico, and lost the Battle of San Juan. The Spanish gunners from El Morro Castle shot a cannonball through his stateroom on the expedition's flagship, but he survived.^[136]

He and his second-in-command, Thomas Baskerville, captured and burned Nombre de Dios, and started an overland crossing of the isthmus to attack the city of Panama, but were repulsed by the well-entrenched Spaniards who had barricaded the road;^[137] suffering heavy casualties, they gave up the attempt.^[138] A few weeks later, on 28 January 1596, Drake died (aged about 56) of dysentery, a common disease in the tropics at the time, while anchored off the coast of Portobelo where some Spanish treasure ships had sought shelter.^{[139][140][141]} Following his death, the English fleet withdrew defeated.^[142]

Before dying, he asked to be dressed in his full armour. He was buried at sea in a sealed lead-lined coffin, near Portobelo, a few miles off the coastline. It is supposed that his final resting place is near the wrecks of two British ships, Elizabeth and Delight, scuttled in Portobelo Bay.^[143] Efforts by researchers and treasure hunters to discover the location of his remains are ongoing,^[136] while divers continue to search the seabed for the coffin.^[144][145]

Family and heritage

 

Buckland Abbey in Devon

Francis Drake married Mary Newman at St Budeaux church near Plymouth, on 4 July 1569.^[146] She died about 24 January 1583.^[147] In 1585, Drake married Elizabeth Sydenham, born around 1562, the only child of Sir George Sydenham, of Combe Sydenham,^[148] who was the High Sheriff of Somerset.^[149]

In 1580, Drake purchased Buckland Abbey, a large manor house near Yelverton, Devon, via intermediaries from Sir Richard Grenville. He lived there for fifteen years, until his final voyage, and it remained in his family until 1946.^[150] Buckland Abbey is now in the care of the National Trust and a number of mementos of his life are displayed there. His coat of arms and full achievement is depicted in the form of a large, coloured plaster overmantel in the Lifetimes Gallery at Buckland Abbey.^[108]

Drake was one of twelve children. His brother Thomas accompanied him on voyages, and named his son after him. That nephew eventually became Sir Francis Drake, 1st Baronet.^[151]

Legacy

 

This portrait, c. 1581, is at the National Portrait Gallery, London

 

Bronze statue in Tavistock, in the parish of which he was born, by Joseph Boehm, 1883

 

Illustration of Drake by Thomas Heath Robinson

There are various places in the United Kingdom named after him, especially in Plymouth, Devon. Places there carrying his name include Drake's Island, Drake Circus Shopping Centre, and the Royal Navy base HMNB Devonport (also known as "HMS Drake").^[152] Plymouth Hoe is also home to a statue of Drake.^[153] The Sir Francis Drake Channel is located in the British Virgin Islands.^[154]

Various mountains in British Columbia were named in the 1930s for Drake, or in connection with Elizabeth I or other figures of that era, including Mount Sir Francis Drake, Mount Queen Bess, and the Golden Hinde, the highest mountain on Vancouver Island. Fringe theorists suggest he may also have landed to the north of the usual site considered to be Nova Albion – among them Canadian Samuel Bawlf, who claims that its true location was on Vancouver Island at latitude 50 degrees north.^[155]

Several landmarks in northern California were named after Drake, beginning in the late 19th century and continuing into the 20th century. American historian Richard White posits that the origins of these commemorations to nineteenth-century Anglo-Saxonism.^[156] Public scrutiny of these memorials intensified in 2020 after the protests drew critical attention to place names and monuments perceived to be connected to white supremacy, colonialism, or racial injustice. Several California landmarks that commemorated Drake were removed or renamed. Citing Drake's associations with the transatlantic slave trade, colonialism and piracy,^[157][158] Sir Francis Drake High School, in San Anselmo, California, changed its name to Archie Williams High School, after former teacher and Olympic athlete Archie Williams. A statue of Drake in Larkspur, California was also removed by the city authorities.^[159][160] Multiple jurisdictions in Marin County considered renaming Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, one of its major thoroughfares, but left the name intact when they failed to reach a consensus.^[161] In San Francisco, the Sir Francis Drake Hotel was renamed the Beacon Grand Hotel.^[162]

Drake's will was the focus of an extensive confidence scam which Oscar Hartzell perpetrated in the 1920s and 1930s.^[163]

Drake's Drum has become an icon of English folklore with its variation of the classic king asleep in mountain story motif.

Drake was a major focus in the video game series Uncharted, specifically its first and third instalments, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, respectively. The series follows Nathan Drake, a self-proclaimed descendant of Drake who retraces his ancestor's voyages.^[164]

Drake was the subject of a TV series, Sir Francis Drake (1961–1962). Terence Morgan played Drake in the 26-episode adventure drama.

In Valparaíso, Chile, folklore associates a cave known as Cueva del Pirata (lit. "Cave of the Pirate") with Francis Drake. A legend says that when Drake ransacked the port, he was disappointed with the scant plunder, and proceeded to enter the churches in fury to sack them and urinate on the goblets. Supposedly he still found the plunder to be not worth enough to take on board his galleon, and hid it in the cave.^[165]

See also

• Francis William Drake – relative of Sir Francis Drake
• Drake's Leat – a water supply for Plymouth, promoted by Drake

References

1. Edmundson, William (2009). A History of the British Presence in Chile: From Bloody Mary to Charles Darwin and the Decline of British Influence. Springer. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-230-10121-0. The fame of his exploits spread to the extent that by the mid-1570s, Philip began to refer to him as Draque, Francisco Draque, El Draque, and even more intimately as El Capitán Francisco. Educated Spaniards called him Francisco Draguez, and Spanish mothers warned their children that if they did not behave, El Draco would come and take them away—a play on words, since el draque in old Spanish means "the dragon", derived from the Latin draco.
2. 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved 16 April 2022.
3. Woolsey, Matt (19 September 2008). "Top-Earning Pirates". Forbes.com. Forbes Magazine. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
4. Kelsey 2000, p. 3.
5. Benson, Edward Frederic (1927). Sir Francis Drake. Harper & Brothers. p. 6.
6. Corbett 1898, p. 393.
7. Campbell, John (1841). Lives of the British Admirals and Naval History of Great Britain from the Time of Caesar to the Chinese War of 1841 Chiefly Abridged from the work of Dr. John Campbell. Glasgow: Richard Griffin & Co. p. 104. ISBN 9780665347566. OCLC 12129656. from the original on 25 November 2015. Retrieved 30 August 2012. Direct quote is followed by "this carries back his birth to 1544, at which time the six articles were in force, and Francis Russell was seventeen years of age."
8. 1921/22 edition of the Dictionary of National Biography, which quotes Barrow's Life of Drake (1843) p. 5.
9. Thomson, George Malcolm (1972), 'Sir Francis Drake', William Morrow & Company Inc. ISBN 978-0-436-52049-5
10. Froude, James Anthony (1896). English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Quote: "He told Camden that he was of mean extraction. He meant merely that he was proud of his parents and made no idle pretensions to noble birth. His father was a tenant of the Earl of Bedford, and must have stood well with him, for Francis Russell, the heir of the earldom, was the boy's godfather."
11. Whitfield 2004, p. 9.
12. Loades 2007.
13. Kelsey 2000, p. 11.
14. Sugden (2006), pp. 8–9.
15. Best, Brian (2021). Elizabeth's Sea Dogs and their War Against Spain. Frontline Books. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-5267-8288-5.
16. Kelsey, Harry (1990). "Did Francis Drake Really Visit California?". The Western Historical Quarterly. 21 (4): 445–462. doi:10.2307/969250. ISSN 0043-3810. JSTOR 969250. When it finally appeared, the story of the voyage was riddled with errors, exaggerations, and more than a few deliberate deceptions. Even today, after four centuries of research, nearly every important aspect of the voyage is a matter of uncertainty, contradiction, and dispute—the dates of departure and return, the route taken, the numbers of men and ships involved, the places visited, the wonders encountered.
17. Whitfield 2004, p. 13.
18. Sugden 2012, p. xiii.
19. Corbett 1898, p. 440.
20. Sugden 2012, p. xiv.
21. Whitfield 2004, pp. 8–9.
22. Whitfield 2004, p. 20.
23. Whitfield 2004, p. 21.
24. Whitfield 2004, p. 17.
25. Staff. "John Hawkins | Admiral, Privateer, Slave Trader". www.rmg.co.uk. Royal Museums Greenwich. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
26. Sauer, Carl Ortwin (1975). Sixteenth Century North America: The Land and the People as Seen by the Europeans. University of California Press. p. 235. ISBN 978-0-520-02777-0.
27. Bradford, Ernle (2014). Drake: England's Greatest Seafarer. Open Road Media. p. 22. ISBN 978-1-4976-1715-5.
28. Kelsey 2000, pp. 11–13.
29. Sugden (2006), p. 9.
30. Kelsey 2000, p. 43.
31. Lane 2015, p. 29.
32. Sugden (2006), pp. 19–22.
33. Benezet, Anthony (1788). Some historical account of Guinea, : its situation, produce, and the general disposition of its inhabitants, with an inquiry into the rise and progress of the slave trade, its nature and lamentable effects. London: J. Phillips. p. 49.
34. Kelsey 2000, p. 32.
35. Whitfield 2004, p. 22.
36. Strickrodt, Silke (1 February 2006). "The British Transatlantic Slave Trade (4 vols.)". The English Historical Review. CXXI (490): 226–230. doi:10.1093/ehr/cej026.
37. Childs, David (2009). Tudor Sea Power: The Foundation of Greatness. Seaforth Publishing. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-84832-031-4.
38. Sugden 2012, p. 37.
39. Roberts, Clayton; Roberts, F. David; Bisson, Douglas (2016). A History of England, Volume 1: Prehistory to 1714. Routledge. p. 175. ISBN 978-1-315-51000-2.
40. Sugden 2012, p. 36.
41. Whitfield 2004, p. 24.
42. Whitfield 2004, p. 25.
43. Sims, Jennifer E. (2022). "Gaining Decision Advantage in the Anglo-Spanish War". Decision Advantage: Intelligence in International Politics from the Spanish Armada to Cyberwar. pp. 51–C3.P124. doi:10.1093/oso/9780197508046.003.0003. ISBN 9780197508077. Hawkins's motives, like Drake's, went back to that Spanish deceit in the Mexican port of San Juan de Ulúa.
44. Morgan, Basil (4 October 2007). "Hawkins, Sir John (1532–1595), merchant and naval commander". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12672. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
45. Sugden 2006, p. 26.
46. Sauer, Carl Ortwin (1966). The Early Spanish Main. University of California Press. pp. 2–4. Tierra Firme continued to be the common name for the south side of the Caribbean. It was translated into English as the Spanish Main, the ports of which were raided by English ships.
47. Dean, James Seay (2014). Sea Dogs: Life Aboard an English Galleon. The History Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-7509-5738-0.
48. Whitfield 2004, p. 29.
49. Lindsay, Ivan (2014). The History of Loot and Stolen Art: from Antiquity until the Present Day. Andrews UK Limited. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-906509-57-6.
50. Laviña, Javier (2020). "Atlantization and the Fisrt Failed Slavery: Panama from the Sixteenth to the Seventeenth Century". In Tomich, Dale W. (ed.). Atlantic Transformations: Empire, Politics, and Slavery during the Nineteenth Century. State University of New York Press. pp. 183–184. ISBN 978-1-4384-7786-2.
51. Schwaller, Robert C. (2021). Schwaller, Robert C. (ed.). African Maroons in Sixteenth-Century Panama: A History in Documents. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-8061-7676-5.
52. Kaufmann, Miranda (2017). Black Tudors: The Untold Story. Simon and Schuster. pp. 74–75. ISBN 978-1-78607-185-9.
53. Sugden (2006), pp. 72–73.
54. Rodger, N. A. M. (2004). The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain 660-1649. Penguin UK. p. lxxxiii. ISBN 978-0-14-191257-8.
55. Marley, David (2008). Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the Western Hemisphere, 1492 to the Present. ABC-CLIO. pp. 103–104. ISBN 978-1-59884-100-8.
56. Konstam, Angus (20 December 2011). The Great Expedition: Sir Francis Drake on the Spanish Main 1585–86. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-78096-233-7.
57. Little, Benerson (2010). How History's Greatest Pirates Pillaged, Plundered, and Got Away With It: The Stories, Techniques, and Tactics of the Most Feared Sea Rovers from 1500–1800. Quarto Publishing Group USA. pp. 59–60. ISBN 978-1-61059-500-1.
58. Best, Brian (2021). Elizabeth's Sea Dogs and their War Against Spain. Frontline Books. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-5267-8288-5.
59. Herman, Arthur (2005). To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World. Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0-06-053425-7.
60. Sugden (2006), p. 75.
61. Bradford, Ernle (2014). Drake: England's Greatest Seafarer. Open Road Media. pp. 48–49. ISBN 978-1-4976-1715-5.
62. Bradford, Ernle (2014). Drake: England's Greatest Seafarer. Open Road Media. pp. 44–45. ISBN 978-1-4976-1715-5.
63. Morison, Samuel Eliot (1986). The Great Explorers: The European Discovery of America. Oxford University Press. p. 675. ISBN 978-0-19-504222-1.
64. Cummins 1997, p. 287.
65. Cummins 1997, p. 273.
66. Sugden 2006, p. 85.
67. Forde, Hugh (1923). Sketches Of Olden Days in Northern Ireland: Including Portrush, Dunluce Castle, Dunseverick Castle, Ballycastle, Giant's Causeway, Rathlin Island, Coleraine, Derry, Inishowen, Tory Island. Belfast: MC'aw, Stevenson and Orr Ltd. from the original on 16 June 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
68. Appleby, John C. (2000). Kinney, Arthur F.; Swain, David W.; Hill, Eugene D.; Long, William A. (eds.). Tudor England: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 307. ISBN 978-1-136-74530-0.
69. Parry, John H.; Sir Francis Drake Commission (1984). "Drake and the World Encompassed". In Thrower, Norman J.W. (ed.). Sir Francis Drake and the Famous Voyage, 1577-1580: Essays Commemorating the Quadricentennial of Drake's Circumnavigation of the Earth. University of California Press. pp. 3–4. ISBN 978-0-520-04876-8.
70. Black, Jeremy (2019). England in the Age of Shakespeare. Indiana University Press. p. 145. ISBN 978-0-253-04232-3.
71. Kraus 1970.
72. Sugden (2006), p. 102.
73. Best, Brian (2021). Elizabeth's Sea Dogs and their War Against Spain. Frontline Books. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-5267-8288-5.
74. Moreno Madrid, José María; Salomoni, David (2 January 2022). "Nuno Da Silva's Third Relation : An Unknown Report on Francis Drake's Voyage (1577–1580)". Terrae Incognitae (in English and Spanish). 54 (1): 68. doi:10.1080/00822884.2022.2048246. S2CID 247908624.
75. Kelsey 2000, p. 104.
76. Coote 2005, p. 133.
77. Barrow (1843), p. 102.
78. Sugden (2006), p. 143.
79. Wagner, Henry R., Sir Francis Drake's Voyage Around the World: Its Aims and Achievements, Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2006, ISBN 1-4286-2255-1.
80. Martinic, Mateo (1977). Historia del Estrecho de Magallanes (in Spanish). Santiago: Andrés Bello. pp. 67–68. from the original on 15 March 2016. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
81. Martinic B., Mateo (2019). "Entre el mito y la realidad. La situación de la misteriosa Isla Elizabeth de Francis Drake" [Between myth and reality. The situation of the mysterious Elizabeth Island of Francis Drake]. Magallania (in Spanish). 47 (1): 5–14. doi:10.4067/S0718-22442019000100005.
82. Kelsey 2000, p. 135.
83. Cortés Olivares, Hernán F (2005). "El origen, producción y comercio del pisco chileno, 1546-1931" [The origin, production and trade of Chilean pisco, 1546-1931]. Universum (in Spanish). 20 (2). doi:10.4067/S0718-23762005000200005.
84. Lévi Alvarès, David Eugène (1849). Manual de la historia de los pueblos antiguos i modernos; obra elemental para el estudio de la historia ... Traducida por D. F. Sarmiento (in Spanish). p. 76. Sir Francis Drake tomó en Valparaiso un navío cargado con vino i 60,000 pesos; los habitantes que eran solo nueve familias abandonaron la poblacion i los. Ingleses saquearon a Valparaiso. English: "Sir Francis Drake took in Valparaiso a ship loaded with wine and 60,000 pesos; the English sacked Valparaiso, whose inhabitants, only nine families, had abandoned the town.
85. Sugden (2006).
86. from the Digital Gallery, New York Public Library (Drake/treasure)
87. Davis, Loren; et al. (November 2013), "Inventory and Analysis of Coastal and Submerged Archaeological Site Occurrence on the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf", U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management: 188
88. Sugden (2006), p. 188.
89. Gough, Barry (1980). Distant Dominion: Britain and the Northwest Coast of North America, 1579-1809. Vancouver: U Univ. of British Columbia Press. p. 15. ISBN 0-7748-0113-1.
90. Von der Porten, Edward (January 1975). "Drake's First Landfall". Pacific Discovery, California Academy of Sciences. 28: 28–30.
91. Morison, Samuel Eliot (1978). The Great Explorere: The European Discovery of America. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc. p. 700. ISBN 978-0195042221.
92. Cassels, Simon (January 2003). "Where Did Drake Careen The Golden Hind in June/July 1579? A Mariner's Assessment". The Mariner's Mirror. 89 (3): 260–271. doi:10.1080/00253359.2003.10659292. S2CID 161710358.
93. Turner, Michael (2006). In Drake's Wake Volume 2 The World Voyage. United Kingdom: Paul Mould Publishing. p. 163. ISBN 978-1-904959-28-1.
94. Cassels, Sir Simon (1 January 2003). "Where Did Drake Careen the Golden Hind in June/July 1579? A Mariner's Assessment". The Mariner's Mirror. 89 (3): 260–271. doi:10.1080/00253359.2003.10659292. S2CID 161710358.
95. Gough, Barry (1980). Distant Dominion: Britain and the Northwest Coast of North America, 1579-1809. Vancouver: Univ. of British Columbia Press. p. 15. ISBN 0-7748-0113-1.
96. Turner, Michael (2006). In Drake's Wake Volume 2 The World Voyage. United Kingdom: Paul Mould Publishing. p. 173. ISBN 978-1-904959-28-1.
97. Sugden (2006), pp. 135–137.
98. Turner, Michael (2006). In Drake's Wake Volume 2 The World Voyage. United Kingdom: Paul Mould Publishing. p. 180. ISBN 978-1-904959-28-1.
99. Morison, Samuel Eliot (1978). The Great Explorere: The European Discovery of America. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc. p. 702. ISBN 978-0195042221.
100. Rick, Torben; Braje, Todd; Wake, Thomas; Sanchez, Gabriel; DeLong, Robert; Lightfoot, Kent (3 July 2019). "Seventy Years of Archaeological Research on California's Farallon Islands". California Archaeology. 11 (2): 183–203. doi:10.1080/1947461X.2019.1652043. S2CID 210268051.
101. Turner, Michael (2006). In Drake's Wake Volume 2 The World Voyage. United Kingdom: Paul Mould Publishing. p. 183,184. ISBN 978-1-904959-28-1.
102. Shields, David S. "The Drake Jewel". Oieahc.wm.edu. from the original on 11 June 2010. Retrieved 25 February 2010.
103. Cummins 1997, p. 127.
104. Moseley, Brian (26 February 2011) [2004]. . The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History. Plymouthdata.info. Archived from the original on 1 April 2012. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
105. Hazard, Mary E. (August 2000). Elizabethan silent language. U of Nebraska Press. p. 251. ISBN 978-0-8032-2397-4. from the original on 30 November 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
106. Perry, Maria (1990). The Word of a Prince: A Life of Elizabeth I from Contemporary Documents. Boydell Press. p. 182. ISBN 978-0-85115-633-0. from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
107. Hakluyt, Richard (1970). The Tudor Venturers. London: The Folio Society Ltd. p. 166. ISBN 1443704709.
108. von Einsiedel, Andreas. "Image details". National Trust Images. Archived from the original on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
109. Prince, John (1810) [1701]. Danmonii orientales illustres: or, The worthies of Devon. p. 329.
110. "1572". History of Parliament. from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
111. Hasler, P W. "DRAKE, Francis". History of Parliament. The History of Parliament Trust. from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
112. Sugden 2006, p. 163.
113. "10 Things You May Not Know About Francis Drake". History. A+E Networks. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
114. "1584". History of Parliament. from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
115. Andrews, Evan (4 April 2016). "10 Things You May Not Know About Francis Drake". History. from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
116. Kelsey 2000, pp. 247–249.
117. Kaufmann, Miranda (2017). Black Tudors: The Untold Story. Simon and Schuster. p. 138. ISBN 978-1-78607-185-9.
118. Sugden (2006), pp. 189–190.
119. Sugden (2006), pp. 205–210.
120. Whiting 1988, pp. 36–38.
121. Thompson, Edith (1873). Freeman, Edward Augustus (ed.). History of England. Freeman's Historical Course for Schools. New York: Henry Holt and Company. p. 136.
122. Whiting 1988, p. 37.
123. Letter to Admiral Henry Seymour written aboard Revenge on 31 July 1588 (21 July 1588 OS) Turner, Sharon. The History of England from the Earliest Period to the Death of Elizabeth, 1835.
124. Whiting 1988, pp. 230–232.
125. Cummins 1997, p. 5.
126. Meyer, G. J. (2011). The Tudors: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-385-34077-9.
127. Guy, John (2016). Elizabeth: The Later Years. Penguin. pp. 132–133. ISBN 978-1-101-60901-9.
128. Santos, Luis Gorrochategui (2018). The English Armada: The Greatest Naval Disaster in English History. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 231–233. ISBN 978-1-350-01699-6.
129. González-Rodríguez, Agustín Ramón (19 September 2002). "Una derrota de Drake ante Lisboa". Circulo Naval Español (in Spanish): 252.
130. Gonzalez-Arnao Conde-Luque, Mariano (1995). Derrota y muerte de Sir Francis Drake, a Coruña 1589-Portobelo 1596 (in Spanish). Xunta de Galicia, Servicio Central de Publicacións. p. 94. ISBN 9788445314630.
131. Bucholz, Robert; Key, Newton (2008). Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. John Wiley & Sons. p. 145. ISBN 978-1-4051-6275-3.
132. Hutchinson, Robert (2014). The Spanish Armada: A History. Macmillan. p. 239. ISBN 978-1-4668-4748-4.
133. Santos, Luis Gorrochategui (2018). The English Armada: The Greatest Naval Disaster in English History. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 245. ISBN 978-1-350-01699-6.
134. Sugden 2006, p. 283.
135. Wernham, R. B. (2020). Expedition of Sir John Norris and Sir Francis Drake to Spain and Portugal, 1589. Routledge. p. xxxv. ISBN 978-1-000-34165-2.
136. Zarzeczny, Matthew D. (2018). Seelye, James E.; Selby, Shawn (eds.). Shaping North America: From Exploration to the American Revolution [3 volumes]. Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 323. ISBN 978-1-4408-3669-5.
137. Andrews, Kenneth R. (1972). Andrews, Kenneth R. (ed.). The Last Voyage of Drake and Hawkins. Cambridge University Press. pp. 183–187. ISBN 978-0-521-01039-9.
138. Marley, David (1998). Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the Present. ABC-CLIO. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-87436-837-6.
139. Maynarde 1849.
140. "The Last Voyage of Sir Francis Drake". loc.gov. p. 588. from the original on 7 July 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
141. Whitfield 2004, p. 149.
142. Kluge, Sofie (2021). Literature and Historiography in the Spanish Golden Age: The Poetics of History. Routledge. p. 138. ISBN 978-1-000-45086-6.
143. Friar, Willie K. (Spring 1975). "In the Wake of Drake". Panama Canal Review: 8.
144. "Sir Francis Drake's body 'close to being found off Panama'". BBC News. 25 October 2011. from the original on 14 March 2013. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
145. Henderson, Barney; Swaine, Jon (24 October 2011). "Sir Francis Drake's final fleet 'discovered off the coast of Panama'". The Daily Telegraph. from the original on 31 July 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
146. Kelsey 2000, p. 44.
147. Kelsey 2000, p. 236.
148. Sugden 2006, p. 174.
149. "The Occupants of the ancient office of High Sheriff of Somerset". Tudor Court. from the original on 13 May 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2011.
150. Gill, Crispin (1984). "Drake and Plymouth". In Norman J.W. Thrower (ed.). Sir Francis Drake and the Famous Voyage, 1577-1580: Essays Commemorating the Quadricentennial of Drake's Circumnavigation of the Earth. University of California Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-520-04876-8.
151. The Family and Heirs of Sir Francis Drake, p. 130
152. Staff. "HMNB Devonport". Royal Navy. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
153. Kendall, Paul (2022). Queen Elizabeth I: Life and Legacy of the Virgin Queen. Frontline Books. p. 204. ISBN 978-1-3990-1838-8.
154. Sailing Directions (enroute) for the Caribbean Sea. United States Department of Defense, Defense Mapping Agency, Hydrographic/Topographic Center. 1976. p. 158.
155. Bawlf, Samuel (2009). The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake: 1577-1580. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. pp. 228, 296. ISBN 978-0-8027-1808-2.
156. White 2020.
157. Brenner, Keri (9 May 2021). "Marin panel taps Olympic gold medallist, Tuskegee Airman Archie Williams for new high school name". The Mercury News. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
158. "Communication to Community". Google Docs. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
159. Morotti, Lorenzo. "Drake sculpture, school signs removed ahead of protest". Marin Independent Journal. San Rafael, CA. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
160. Freedman, Wayne (11 June 2020). "Movement underway to erase Sir Francis Drake namesake, sculpture from Marin County". ABC 7 News. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
161. Guth, Anna (10 March 2021). "Supes to keep Francis Drake road name". Point Reyes Light. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
162. Dowd, Katie (21 February 2022). "San Francisco's iconic Sir Francis Drake Hotel permanently changes name". SFGate. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
163. Rayner, Richard (22 April 2002). "The Admiral and the Con Man". The New Yorker. p. 150.
164. Husein, Baker (20 February 2022). "Uncharted: Nate's Francis Drake Link Explained (& How It Sets Up A Sequel)". Screen Rant.
165. Montecino Aguirre, Sonia (2015). Mitos de Chile: Enciclopedia de seres, apariciones y encantos (in Spanish). Catalonia. pp. 196–197, 269. ISBN 978-956-324-375-8.

Bibliography

• Barrow, John (1843). The life, voyages, and exploits of Sir Francis Drake : with numerous original letters from him and the Lord High Admiral to the Queen and great officers of state. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. OCLC 26727420.
• Bergreen, Laurence (2021). In Search of a Kingdom: Francis Drake, Elizabeth I, and the Perilous Birth of the British Empire (1st ed.). New York: Custom House. OCLC 1193560224.
• Coote, Stephen (2005). Drake: The Life and Legend of an Elizabethan Hero. New York: Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 9780743468701.
• Corbett, Julian (1898). Drake and the Tudor navy. Longmans, Green, and Co.
• Cummins, John (1997). Francis Drake: The Lives of a Hero. St. Martin's Press. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-312-16365-5.
• Hakluyt, Richard (1880). Payne, Edward John (ed.). Voyages of the Elizabethan seamen to America. Thirteen original narratives from the collection of Hakluyt. London: Thos. de la Rue & Co.
• Kelsey, Harry (2000). Sir Francis Drake: The Queen's Pirate. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-08463-4.
• Kraus, Hans (1970). Sir Francis Drake: A Pictorial Biography (1 ed.). N. Israel, Amsterdam.
• Lace, William (2009). Sir Francis Drake. Chelsea House Publishers. ISBN 9781604134179.
• Lane, Kris (2015) [1990]. Pillaging the Empire: Piracy in the Americas 1500-1750. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 9780765602565.
• Loades, David (2007). "Drake, Francis (1540–1595) English seaman and circumnavigator". In Hattendorf, John J. (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195307405.
• Mattingly, Garett (1959). The Defeat of the Spanish Armada. Houghton Mifflin Company.. Received a special citation from the Pulitzer Prize committee in 1960.
• Maynarde, Thomas (1849). Sir Francis Drake his voyage, 1595 – via Internet Archive.
• Sugden, John (2006) [1990]. Sir Francis Drake. United Kingdom: Pimlico. ISBN 978-1-8441-3762-6.
• Sugden, John (2012). Sir Francis Drake. Random House. ISBN 9781448129508.
• Wallis, Helen (1984). "The Cartography of Drake's voyages". Sir Francis Drake and the famous voyage, 1577-1580. Berkley: University of California Press.
• Wilson, Derek (1977). The World Encompassed: Drake's Great Voyage, 1577–80. Harper & Row. ISBN 9780060146795.
• White, Richard (2020). California Exposures. New York, N.Y.: W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 1–31. ISBN 978-0-393-24306-2. OCLC 1102467481.
• Whitfield, Peter (2004). Sir Francis Drake. NYU Press. ISBN 9780814794036.
• Whiting, J. R. S. (1988). The Enterprise of England: The Spanish Armada. Gloucester: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312024010.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Francis Drake.

 

Wikisource has the text of a 1920 Encyclopedia Americana article about Francis Drake.

 

Wikiquote has quotations related to Francis Drake.