Thesis-László Szabó
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Abstract
Sir Francis Drake is a commonly investigated person of the 16th century whose
characteristic features and motivations along with his deeds are shrouded in mystery.
Many historians and biographers have taken up the job to present him as accurately as
possible, the only sources they could rely on, however, were short and compromised
accounts and manuscripts. Using their researches, the main objective of this piece of
work is to lay stress upon those conditions which facilitated the emergence of Drake
and his reputation later on.
He was called either an adventurous pirate or merchant privateer by many of his
contemporaries and present-day historians, but who he was and why he is important at
all will be in the foreground of this thesis.
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................3
1. THE CONDITIONS FOR DISCOVERY ..............................................................................................5
1.1. ENGLANDINTHEEARLY 16THCENTURY THEEMERGENCEOF PIRATESAND PRIVATEERS................................ 61.2. THE ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND...................................................................................................................8
2. THE MASTER PIRATE OF THE WORLD - SIR FRANCIS DRAKE ..................................... .....11
2.1. FROMAFARMBOYTOASEAMAN............................................................................................................122.2. THE FAMOUS VOYAGE..........................................................................................................................18
3. DRAKE, A LEGEND ..................................................................................................................... .......24
3.1. DRAKEINHISLIFETIME..........................................................................................................................26
3.2. DRAKESIMAGETODAY.........................................................................................................................28CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................. ........ .30
I HOPE THIS THESIS REACHED ITS ULTIMATE PURPOSE TO HIGHLIGHT THE LIFE
AND THOSE MAJOR INFLUENCES WHICH CREATED A MAN WHO CONSTITUTES THE
BASIS OF NATIONALISM AND PATRIOTISM IN PRESENT-DAY BRITAIN AND THE
PERSON WHO FINALLY EXCEEDED HIS OWN EXPECTATIONS BY BECOMING A MYTH
AND LEGEND OF FOLK TALES EVEN FOUR-HUNDRED YEARS LATER...............................31
WORKS CITED .........................................................................................................................................32
APPENDIXES ........................................................................................................................................... .34
APPENDIX 1: PORTRAIT OF HENRY VIII BY HOLBEIN, HANS THE YOUNGER ..................34
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Introduction
And all the unsettled humours of the land, rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries, with
ladies faces and fierce dragons spleens ,have sold their fortunes at their native homes,
bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs ,to make hazard of new fortunes here.
(William Shakespeare: King John, Scene I, Act I)
These lines of Shakespeare, though, referring to the 13th century, hold basic features of
the Elizabethan England as well. The 16th century opened the wider world for
venturesome British explorers who made so many important discoveries that the period
itself was later called The Age of Reconnaissance. Numerous manuscripts can be found
about the age and its explorers. In this thesis I would like to highlight a person who is,
although the more famous and investigated, the less understood and known explorer and
adventurer of his time, Sir Francis Drake.
Hundreds of biographies can be found about him, thus my main objective is not to
present a new biography but to highlight those important incidents in his life which
might have had an effect on his character development. My primary purpose is to draw
attention to Drake who was a more interesting and vivid personality than he has been
actually shown us so far.
In the first chapter I would like to introduce the 16th century atmosphere in the
British Isles and emphasize those political and religious trends which helped the
emergence of pirates and privateers later on. The second chapter will deal with Drake
himself where I am intending to show events of his early life and two very important
incidents during his circumnavigating voyage which together might give a clue about
what kind of a person he really was. The last chapter will show us Drakes treatment as
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a legend both by his contemporaries and modern poets and historians. Such analysis of
Drake might enable us to form a kind of opinion about him and to create an interest in
the readership for further research in the subject.
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1. The Conditions for Discovery
In connection with discoveries the humanity has a long history dating back to 3000.B.C.
We could mention explorers like Gilgamesh from the above-mentioned period, who
managed to explore the Northern part of Asia, or Alexander the Great from the 4 th
century B.C, who during his ten-year long campaign and expedition discovered entire
countries. With a big jump, Vikings can further be claimed as explorers who during the
period between the 8th and 10th century A.D. had already been plundering the British
Isles and the Northern part of the European continent. Such heroes could further be
mentioned, although the capacity and lack of space of this thesis would not be enough
to embrace such a huge material. One conclusion, however, can easily be made which is
that 16th century explorers were not the first to harvest the success of new discoveries
for many archaeological objects and manuscripts prove quite the opposite. What
Europeans were essential in was the fact that in the 16th century they discovered almost
the whole eastern part of the North-American shores from Cape Breton as far as Florida.
This was a glorious achievement because already in 1570 quite accurate maps were
made available to the public concerning the Northern and Central parts of the American
continent, nevertheless the fact that parts of the mainland was unknown eighty years
ago. (Grant, 1992 and Marjai, 1986)
The Renaissance feeling with its intellectual fluctuation promoted a lot to the
motivations of the 15th and 16th century seafarers of whom, the seamen of the latter
period managed to explore almost the entire world with amazing accuracy but without
any inclination to do so. Such adventurous explorers can easily be found during the
rightly called Age of Discovery in almost every nation, but here and now, the
significance of one will be in the foreground throughout the thesis, whose role was
gradually becoming very significant: The Great British Nation
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1.1. England in the early 16th century The emergence ofPirates and Privateers
The maritime history of Britain started with the reign of Henry VIII* at the end of the
15th century. At least a couple of things come into ones mind when we talk about Henry
himself, who is commonly known for his polygamist attitude towards marriage as well
as for his role in separating the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church.1
Not so many people are aware of the fact today, however, that Henry VIII was the first
English monarch who saw the need for a strong naval force and the first who actually
financed the building of vessels. He made acquaintances with sea captains and in some
way or another, he came to know Mr. William Hawkins of Plymouth2 who under
Henrys patronage, ventured down to the Guinean coast and brought home gold and
ivory, which probably captured the attention of the king. The early 16 th century,
however, was not a piece of cake because from the time Henry broke ties with Rome,
the Spanish Catholic powers were trying to use the authority of Inquisition as a partly
political method of embarrassing people mainly the English heretics and their
trading possibilities. While the purpose on Spanish side was to threaten the rebellious
protestant, such goal did find its way into the hearts of Englishmen as fury and desire
for revenge. Since open war had to wait until the end of the 16 th century, there was only
one way to take revenge: by privateering and pirating activities.3(Froude, 1901;p 9-24)
From Edward VIs time to the end of the century privateering came to be the special
occupation of adventurous gentlemen who in this way could serve god, their country
and take revenge on the enemy at the same time. But in such business it is inevitable to
* For the portrait see Appendix 1.1 Henry VIII also initiated a series of actions which finally led to the English Reformation and Englandslater protestant being, but also contributed a lot to a growing spirit of enterprise for voyaging activitieswhich progressed on side by side with the Reformation itself.2 William Hawkins was the father of John Hawkins, who followed the pattern of his fathers voyagesduring his slave trading expeditions3 Open war did not break out at that time because the division of nations was crossed by the division ofcreeds, not to mention the fact that if England went to war with Spain right away, Spain could haveencouraged insurrection among Catholics. If Spain or France declared war, England could get the help ofHolland Calvinists or Huguenots.
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prevent the emergence of mere pirates who cared neither for God nor their country but
to get rich. Now we could debate on whether these pirates were the product of a brutal
age or just seized the current political opportunity to have wealth, but we can at least
agree on one thing: We cannot always blame them since Protestants pirates or
privateers- were impelled into these activities by the cruelty of Inquisition.
My reader can rightly put the question of what the actual difference is between a
pirate and a privateer. According to my research in the subject, a privateer was a person
whose actions were protected and ensured by some kind of royal commission or letter
patent. They robbed, burnt and scuttled ships belonging to the enemy. However, a pirate
is different for they had no commission that could legalize their actions. They plundered
ships not on the basis of who they belonged to but how much treasure they carried.
After these definitions we can clearly discover that the boundary line between the two is
not easy to draw since the purpose of the two is the same, it is only the method of
acquiring in which they differ.
Edward VI was followed by Mary I4 on the throne who was too busy burning
heretics to pay attention to the supervision of the seas, thus leaving it unintentionally to
pirates and privateers. Only when Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1559 can we feel the
upheaval of the country in both trade and exploration. Elizabeth would bring fame and
honour to her country and in this Queen, England found the ambition and pretence of a
mighty monarch who was open to compromise but remained uncompromisingly boundto the decisions she made. With her, a new era of development began.
4 Mary I was the queen of England from July 1553 as far as November 1558.Being the eldest daughter ofHenry VIII, she restored Catholicism in England. She died during an influenza epidemic.
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1.2. The Elizabethan England
Elizabeth I* inherited a nation that was bankrupt, militarily weak and hemmed in by
enemies. Crowned in January 1559, she was the last of the great Tudor dynasty, a
bright start who dazzled both the nation and the world, reigning for 45 tumultuous
years. These boisterous years included much religious and political turmoil which had
an effect on the personality and motivation of many explorers of that age. Elizabeth or
as poets named her, Gloriana, was a wise, shrewd, brave, caring and outstanding figure
who found security only in the hearts of her subjects. (Morison, 1978:276)
During much of the 16th century England was a bone between two dogs, France and
Spain. All the country in Elizabeths reign was actually insecure with the unfriendly
Scotland lying on the northern border; hostile Spain, Portugal, and often France
confronted her on the continent, so she stood constantly on the verge of disaster at the
hands of Spain. Furthermore, she was a Protestant queen in a country that was still -
following the reign of her sister - officially Catholic.
**
That is why her Protestantism,enhanced the insecurity and isolation of her realm, but stimulated national pride.
Englishmen now felt a spiritual urge to adventure and expansion in order to
counterbalance the overwhelming power of the Catholic Spain. Although bigger
problems proceeded the years of this whole new movement of discovery, trade and
pirating triangle which just started to evolve on English side, but had been going on in
the Spanish and Portuguese ones for more than 100 years.(Morison,1978;p.274-277)
It is J.H.Parrys book entitled The Age of Reconnaissance that shows the best the
contemporary situation in oceanic trade. According to the researches of the author, two
large scale oceanic trade monopolies developed in the 16th century, namely the
* For a portrait about the Queen see Appendix 2.** The Catholic faith was the so called old religion which involved pilgrimages, saying the rosary, making
signs of the cross and so on, while Protestantism, the so-called new religion was much more Bible basedand interpreted the Bible in the light of ones own reasons rather than relying on an authority from Rometelling them what the Bible means. (Opinion of Reverend Kevin Knox Lecky, taken from David Starkeysfour-part documentary movieElizabeth I,2000
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westward of Spain with Spanish America and the eastward trade of Portugal with India.
Therefore, the exploring activity of other nations took place in the hope of breaking or
circumnavigating these monopolies.
England was a country among many whose main purpose was to get a share of
the booty coming from the Americas, which definitely made the Spanish the leading
force Europe both nautically and militarily. British colonization and discovery, however
suffered at least a hundred-year detention. The reason was that, as far as navigational
skills were concerned, England was legging behind not only the Spanish and Portuguese
sailors but also the Scots, Dutch and the French ones. It is not like English sailors or
officers knew nothing about the profession of sailing, they were just sailing on North-
Atlantic or Levantine waters and the idea of discovering far-away places was quite rare
among the seamen for they did not really know what they would find. Thus, the primary
objective was to make profit and catch up with the Dutch and Portuguese. Though, it
took a couple of decades for the Queens seafarers to be qualified as much as their
rivals.5
During the two decades between 1540 and 1560 and increase can be seen in trading
voyages but only from the 60s can we fell the real sparkling activity of adventurous
seafarers. Thank to their activities, England would become not only a significant naval
force but also a world power by the 18th century.6 As a result, we rightly call them the
courageous and talented builders of the British Empire, but their extreme cruelty andinsatiable hunger for gold left a mark on their long-constructed name. It is even claimed
that their lust for treasure and wealth,- which were driving forces of a developing
society at that time their shrewd calculation and purposeful cruelty by which they
managed to put entire civilizations on the verge of disaster, were the things which
ultimately deprived them of their titles as being Elizabethan heroes. But destroying
5 Jnos, Por. A kora jkor trtnete, Budapest: Osiris kiad, 20096 Britain managed to hold on to this naval superiority as far as the end of the First World War
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unknown civilizations was more like a Spanish and Portuguese privilege than an
English one because following the discovery of the New World in 1492, the Spanish
ruthlessly plundered the riches of the Inca and Aztec nations of Mexico and Peru.
Spanish galleons, carrying the riches of such destroyed civilizations, attracted the
attention of other nations as well during the 16th and 17th century, gradually giving way
to the beginning of piracy on the Spanish Main.7
Elizabeths first line of defence was the Royal Navy with its merchant auxiliaries,
ships and sailors. These were the main elements which enabled England to break
through her encompassing enemies. While trying to avoid open combat with Spain, the
Queen turned a blind eye to private incursions against the Spanish, thus, she created an
atmosphere in which men, like Sir Francis Drake, turned into expert seamen by
becoming privateers. The Queen, figuratively, treated these seamen as her own children
to whom she gave the seas as a playground. These children, growing up in the 16 th
century, acquired such talents which enabled them to bring wealth into their country
during their voyages, which was surely of great help in the Queens plan to make the
country strong enough to repel any hostile incursion.
The remainder of the thesis will deal with a person who was probably the biggest
and the most famous personality of his time whose name would become feared and
known among many nations either as El Draque, The Dragon of the Apocalypse or the
embodiment of the English naval Force; a person who was a legend to the English but abad omen to the Spaniards.
7 The term Spanish Main originally meant the parts of the American mainland ranging from Mexico toPeru, taken by Spain. Later the islands and waters of the Caribbean came to be included in the term aswell.(Platt, Richard: Pirate, DK Eyewitness Books, 2007)
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2. The Master Pirate of the World - Sir Francis Drake
When it comes to Drake,it is quite sure that at least a couple of things come into ones
mind even if it is just about his main discoveries or his contribution to the development
of war between Spain and England. He was quite regularly the talk of the capitals of
Europe at his time, where people wanted to know exactly what sort of a person he really
was. The English government, however, put out varying stories about his famous
voyage around the world, not to mention Drakes victims who were more than happy to
volunteer embellished accounts about his depredations. Chroniclers in England and
elsewhere added to this confusion from which a totally different and false Drake
emerges as a man of bravery and temperament, a pompous and preachy but an
unbelievably pious pirate. But the truth value of this constructed universal image is far
from the real man he actually was. (Kelsey, 1998)
Common beliefs and legends circulating about him are sometimes either exaggerated
or underestimated, mainly because of two possible reasons. One reason can be that he
was either introduced to us by others accompanied with their own personal judgments
or the second is that it is probably quite hard to construct a thorough picture about a
person of whom only short and inaccurate manuscripts can be found. At some places,
however, there are definitely exhaustive accounts as well, but they are rather about his
discoveries than his own characteristics.
In this chapter, I will try to present those aspects of his life which ultimately formed
his personality or at least contributed to it. In this way, my reader will be able to see
those major influences which formed the man he would become.
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2.1. From a farm boy to a seaman
Before we would penetrate into the mysteries of his characteristic features, it would be
advisable to get to know a little bit more about his early life from which he managed to
emerge as a successful seaman and sea-captain later on. But starting at the very
beginning we suddenly meet an obstacle concerning his date of birth. Evidences,
coming from people who had been with him in the year of 1579 such as Nuno Da Silva
or Francisco de Zrate, suggest that he was by estimation around thirty-five or thirty-
eight years old which dates his birth date back to the early 1540s. Abraham Janssens
portrait of Drake*, however, bears a date of 1594 and an assertion that he was then fifty-
two years old which estimates his birth date in 1542. Whatever the truth is, he was
surely born between 1539 and 1542. (Kelsey, 1998: p 412-413)
Born in Tavistock, Devon, he got into a provincial society racked by economic,
social and religious change. Just a year before Sir Francis Drake was born, Henry VIIIs
representatives appeared in Tavistock to issue a document including the surrendering ofthe members of the Benedictine communitys lands and buildings along with all their
legal and spiritual rights and privileges to the king. By 1540, all the larger and smaller
monasteries were shut down, and the confiscation of lands caused serious problems
because not only medical care, charity and education but also a good deal of substance -
that had come from the monastery including lands rented by farmers by some kind of
rental arrangement with the abbey - was not yet available. This new situation
assumingly made things worse for the Drake family as well, so they decided to move to
Crowndale, located a mile or so southwest of the town of Tavistock. It is unknown
when they actually arrived which proves that they had never attracted too much
attention for the whole family consisted of farmers and craftsmen who sometimes
worked with cloth and engaged in other trades. (Kelsey, 1998:p. 3-7)
* For the portrait see Appendix 3.
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Soon, however, Francis was sent to a number of other relatives living with the
Hawkins family in Plymouth which marked his destiny for good.8 Detailed information
about Drakes temporary residence, proving that he was really under the guidance of his
cousin, Sir John Hawkins, is provided by Edmund Howes book9. In it the author
claimedthat Drake was one oftwelve brethren brought up under his kinsman Sir John
Hawkins.(Howes, 1615:807) Howes suggested that Francis Drake was 18 years old
when he sailed as a purser on one of the Hawkins ships in the Bay of Biscay about 1558
and that all of Francis Drakes early voyages were actually in vessels belonging to the
Hawkynss.
These early voyages meant Sir John Hawkinss Second-and Third Slave Trading
expedition10 on which he not only acquired knowledge about how to handle or navigate
a ship or how to deal and negotiate with governmental officials and foreign merchants
but also about how to deprive a ship from its cargo successfully as well as how to use
the power of religion as a means of sealing friendships. He learned the latter from John
Hawkins, who usually attended mass in the islands as if he were a faithful Catholic,
although others had sworn that it was well known that John Hawkins was a devoted
Protestant. In a sense, this kind of attitude towards religion was commonly accepted in
merchant families at that time. Francis Drake went with his Hawkins relatives to Dutch,
French and Spanish ports, attending both Catholic and Protestant Church services, justas circumstances might dictate, thus he himself became part of this tradition and
adopted the moderate religious practices of the Hawkins family. (Kelsey, 1998: p. 11-16)
8 It was a common practice among sixteenth-century parents to send their children to rich relatives to fillin different positions in their houses9 Edmund Howes Annales, or a Generale Chronicle of England from Brute until the present yeare ofChrist 1580, 1615 this book is the augmented and republished form of John Stows original book from158010 The pattern of the Hawkins Slave trading expeditions was to capture slaves in Sierra Leone, and then
they sailed on to the West Indies - A string of islands between North and South America comprising 7000islands, islets, cays and reefs- and on the coast of South America where they finally sold their livingarticles thus building out a triangle trading structure on the Atlantic. (Hakluyt, Principall Navigations,523-43)
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Hawkins Third Slaving Voyage was a response of the investors who were more than
satisfied with the results of Hawkinss previous voyage which, although immoral but
very profitable, involved the capture and selling of human beings on a large scale.11
I do not want to go into the details but an incident occurred on their way home which
was very essential concerning Drakes development and relationship with his cousin.
This unpleasant event is described in Harry Kelseys book entitled Sir Francis Drake:
The Queens Pirate. In it, the author claims that with September came the hurricane
season and Hawkins, hoping to find a port in which to repair his battered ships, tried to
search for a safe haven for two weeks without any result. Finally he decided to sail for
New Spain where he expected to find a suitable place to anchor his fleet. Capturing a
ship along the way, he interrogated a pilot from whom he got to know the location of a
very suitable harbor which was broad and open, protected from winds. The fleet entered
the port of San Juan de lua on 17 September 1568. The local officials welcomed them
warm-heartedly believing that they were the merchant fleet sent each year from Spain.
Taking advantage of this confusion Hawkins seized the island as his headquarters. By
the following day when the real Spanish fleet arrived, Hawkins was able to negotiate
from a very strong position. Since the Spanish also had to take shelter, Mrtin Enrquez,
the newly appointed viceroy of Spain, started negotiations with Hawkins who let him
and his fleet in the harbor. Although, on 23 September 1568, two days after entering theharbor, the Spanish mounted a surprise attack on Hawkins ships who himself barely
escaped onboard the Minion. Drake, who was nearby, was instructed to come alongside
the Minion and to take on some of the survivors and equipments saved from the other
destroyed ship, theJesus of Lubeck. (Kelsey, 1998; p.36-39)
11 the purpose of Hawkins Third Voyage was to open the Spanish Indies to the English Slave Traders
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This is the point where accounts differ in connection with Drakes deeds after receiving
orders. Job Hortop12 wrote 30 years later that Drake did as he was told and took on
anyone he could, though Hawkins himself told quite a different story giving less credit
to his colleague. Hawkins claimed that while the Minion laid in the lee of the island,
loaded with more men than it could actually carry, Drake sailed off in the darkness,
heading for home. The Judith13 said Hawkins, forsooke us in our great myserie14
(Hakluyt 1589:556)
The truth about Drakes actions remained in the shadows and we will never be able
to know anything for sure. What is definitely true is that the scandal about Drakes
suspected escape haunted him for the rest of his life, not only because he left his
commander behind but also because Hawkins was forced to abandon a hundred men on
the Mexican coast.15 The treacherous attack of the Spaniards seems to have given Drake
an inextinguishable lust for revenge because for him, the venture was not only a great
disaster but also the very source of his Spanish hatred.
Drake did not waste his time too long to take revenge and reduce the losses occurred
during the last troublesome voyage. Between 1570 and 1573 he made himself a hated
person among the Spaniards during which period presumably his nickname as El
draque, The Dragon was coined. He first expended his rage against Spain in 1571, by
the raid on the Isthmus of Panama. Next year he successfully captured Nombre De Dios
along with Cartagena and Santa Maria in a series of brilliant operations. During hisraids, a very important moment took place in his life. The Introductory Note of Philips
Nichols Sir Francis Drake Revived asserts that crossing the Isthmus of Panama and
12 Hortop, Job. The rare trauailes of Iob Hortop, an Englishman, London: printed for William Wright,159113 TheJudith was Drakes ship which he managed to be a captain of approximately at the age of 2214 Hakluyt, Richard. The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English NationImprinted at London by George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, 1589
15 According to an online source, seventy five percent of the crew did not make it back to England, andmost of the ship tonnage (1,000 of the original 1,333 tons) was lost. (Retrieved 16 January 2011from theWorld Wide Web:http://armadaforever.blogspot.com/2009/11/drake-sir-francisel-draque-dragon.html)
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http://armadaforever.blogspot.com/2009/11/drake-sir-francisel-draque-dragon.htmlhttp://armadaforever.blogspot.com/2009/11/drake-sir-francisel-draque-dragon.htmlhttp://armadaforever.blogspot.com/2009/11/drake-sir-francisel-draque-dragon.html -
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climbing on a goodly and great high tree", he first caught sight of the Pacific Ocean,
and "besought Almighty God of His goodness to give him life and leave to sail once in
an English ship in that sea."16
By this time, he managed to find a purpose in his life which had to wait a couple of
years before he could carry it into effect because on his return from his vengeance
campaign in the late summer of 1573, the Queen had to force him to withdraw his plans
for there was a kind of process of development in the relationship between England and
Spain. Drakes depredations became well-known among the Spanish who were still
powerful enough to threaten the glorious empire of Britain and the Queen, who was not
ready for an open war yet. As a result, according to Edmund Howes17, Drake furnished
3 vessels and signed them on the Irish Campaign18which in fact, was again a business
venture from which theEarl of Essex and his partners hoped to make a profit in both
land and money. During their months serving Essex in Ireland, Drake and Thomas
Doughty19 began to discuss the possibility of a raid on Spanish Pacific ports. When they
returned to England, they started to build out close relationships with very influential
people in the court to fight out official permission and financial backing for their trip to
the West Indies. Although they acquired the support they wanted, the Queen bound
Drake to secrecy for she still wanted to keep the pretended peace with the Spanish
Empire. (Kelsey, 1998)
By the year of 1577 he successfully managed to arrange everything for the voyageand left a month and a half before Christmas in the same year. His venture would take
16Quotations Retrieved from the World Wide Web:
http://ia600304.us.archive.org/18/items/sirfrancisdraker02854gut/2854-h/2854-h.htm13 December 2010
17He furnished at his own propper charge, three friggots with men,munition,and served voluntary in Ireland under Walter Earle of Essex: where he did excellent service, both by sea, and land, at thewinning of divers strong Forts.(Howes:807)18 In general, the English plan was to eliminate the Irish nobility to a servitude somewhat like that of the
Indians in the Spanish encomienda system developed by the Spanish crown on their American coloniesfor supervising the activities of the natives.(Kelsey,1998)19 Thomas Doughty was an English nobleman, soldier and a scholar with whom Drake established a veryclose relationship during their years in the Irish Campaign
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three eventful years during which Drake managed to make use of the skills he acquired
in the Hawkins family, ranging from navigation to depredation, but also developed his
own approach and attitude which according to common beliefs - probably made him
either a symbolic figure of patriotism and nationalism or the master pirate of the known
world who was fierce, rude, cruel and indifferent to the possession of others.
Sometimes, however, these opinions are mixed from which a totally different person
emerges who just embodied the values of a 16th century ambitious and materialistic
individual. In any case, we cannot forget his importance and influence on both the
emergence of the English nation as a maritime sea power and, although only by
accident, his significant contribution to very important discoveries.
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2.2. The Famous Voyage
Drakes voyage of circumnavigation, according to Norman J. H. Throwers book ofSir
Francis Drake and the Famous Voyage, 1577-1580,proved to be a turning point if not
the climax of his career by which he graduated from a disreputable but successful slaver
and pirate to a famous privateer explorer and adventurer. The voyage truly began as a
privateering expedition but Drake made two discoveries theislands south of Tierra del
Fuego, and parts of the west coast of North America. A syndicate was formed to finance
the voyage and in the summer of 1577, it gave orders to Drake to pass through the Strait
of Magellan and explore the continental coasts along Chile and Peru, spy out places fit
for vending English goodsand returnthe way he came. Harry Kelsey claims, however,
that trading opportunities were secondary not only in Drakes mind but also in those
who chose him. (Morison, 1978; 674-677)
What James A. Williamson20, a historian infers to have been the main objective of
the expedition is to seek out the Northwest Passage at the western part of the Americancontinent and find a suitable location for planting colonies. Another source, namely
Norman J. H. Throwers above mentioned book, however, questions Williamsons idea
on the point that it is quite improbable, not only because of the fact that we do not have
any evidence of it but also because the idea of sending a fleet to the Pacific to look for
the West end of the Northwest Passage was unlikely to gain support those days.21 Many
other biographers and historians had their own views about the possible motivations for
Drakes voyage which proves that the accounts we blindly rely on cannot be trusted at
all and they only lead to doubts and speculations. Harry Kelseys book entitled The
Queens pirate lists a number of different opinions from historians such as Henry
20 James A. Williamson:Age of Drake (1938; 4th ed. 1960)21 The reason that the idea did not get any support could be that the question of whether the sea ofAmerica joins the Pacific Ocean or whether America is linked by land to the Far East, was a matter ofconcern.
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Wagner22, who claimed that Drakes primary purpose was to establish trade with China
or E. G. R. Taylor23 who argued that Drake was supposed to explore the coast ofTerra
Australis24. Other historians, however, see it differently and state that Drakes aim was
to sail around the world from the very beginning.25
As we can see, it is quite hard to
decide which idea is right or wrong, which is actually caused by the falsity or brevity of
accounts. What all historians and biographers agree on is that there was a secret,
unwritten motive for the expedition, what Drake presumably preferred the most- to
plunder Spanish ships and settlements in a region full of treasure. (Morison, 1978 and
Kelsey, 1998)
It had always been a kind of secret mission to sweep Drakes voyage under the
carpet and convince everyone that he washarmless. The reason for the secrecy about his
venture was that the whole expedition was meant to be an act of piracy for everyone
who knew Drake was aware that this venture was not going to include any negotiations
about trading rights or discoveries. But it still had to be solved somehow because the
political atmosphere was not ready for a new enemy mainly if it was the most powerful
one in Europe. That is why the investors wanted to keep the details secret, so in June
1577 John Hawkins sent a fake letter to Secretary Walsingham, describing a fictitious
plan in which Drake would command a merchant fleet to Alexandria, Tripoli and
Constantinople. (Kelsey, 1998:81)
22 H.R. Wagner: Sir Francis Drakes Voyage Around the World(San Fransisco,1926)23 E.G.R Taylor: Tudor Geography,1485-1583 (London,1930)24 the notion ofTerra Australis was coined by Aristotle who claimed that the lands of the NorthernHemisphere should be balanced by land in the South to enable the world to hold such a weight.25In history books Drakes expedition is claimed to be an intentional circumnavigation of the globe,however, this is totally false information. Drakes original idea was to go back the way he came, through
the Straits of Magellan, but he knew that the Spanish were waiting for him on the other side. In a sensethis was the reason why he finally decided to sail home around the globe by the way of the East Indiesand the Cape of Good Hope.
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In a sense, Drakes voyage did not consist of such a large number of vessels as we
could observe it on the Hawkins voyages. The incident at San Juan De lua deprived
him of any intention of getting a large fleet involved in his venture. He left only with
five ships and 164 men on 13 December 1577 from Plymouth. Leaving the port, the
fleet set sail for the Atlantic side of the Brazilian coast, then passing through the
Straight of Magellan, they kept heading North on the Pacific side until they came across
with Nova Albion in 1579.The exploration of Nova Albion present-day Sa Francisco
- was a huge geographical discovery which contributed to Drakes ultimate fame as an
explorer even if the discovery itself was just a coincidence. He only wanted to stop
there to repair his battered ships damaged by storms and long time on the sea. The
expedition stayed there for a couple of weeks doing repairs, then left for home by
rounding the globe, leaving 20 men behind to plant a colony there and look for the
Northwest Passage.
Since the extent of this thesis would not be enough to deal with the whole voyage of
circumnavigation, anyone who wants to get to know details about the possible
destinations and raids, I recommend Francis Fletchers notes26. His account gives a quite
exact description of places and dates, not to mention the fact that this work- along with
Nuno Da Silvas notes - composed the basis for later works about the voyage.
Hereinafter my purpose is to highlight an incident which had a huge effect on Drakes
character development or rather decay.The incident I want to investigate is the deterioration of the relationship of Drake and
Thomas Doughty, a former friend and supporter of both Drake and his circumnavigating
venture. According to Harry Kelseys bookThe Queens Pirate, the whole story started
at the island of Sao Tiago where Drake captured a Portuguese ship with a very valuable
26The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake, Being his next voyage to that to Nombre de Diosformerly imprinted; Carefully collected out of the notes of Master Francis Fletcher Preacher in thisimployment. .. (London, Nicholas Bourne, 1628; S.T.C. 7161) - Nuno Da Silvas notes can also be foundin the given book.
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cargo of wine and bread. Drake made Doughty captain of the captured ship and told him
to take good care of the cargo. The crew, however, started to drink freely from the
newly acquired cargo of wine and Doughty even accused Thomas Drake the cousin of
Captain Drake who served on the Portuguese ship of stealing from the goods.
Enraged, Drake turned on Doughty because he regarded the mans accusations as open
questioning of his own reliability. The problem remained unsettled, though onboard the
Mary27, Thomas Drake and his friends took every opportunity to vilify Doughty and
make Francis Drake magnify every single gossip into a personal attack against his
authority. (Kelsey, 1998:97-98)
We can claim that the very root of the problem aroused between them was certainly
authority. From the time Captain Drake was convinced, he tried to humiliate him or
show him in an unfavourable light so he could provoke some sort of reaction from
Doughty which would allow him for his complete removal. Eventually the attempt to
separate the hated man from his friends and supporters was successful. Probably, being
in such a tension was unbearable for the man; Doughty finally lost his temper and
openly declared that Drakes word is worthless and unconfident. Drake was elated with
reaching his goal so he forbade everyone to talk to the man because those who would
oppose such a direct order were threatened to be deprived of their share of any future
booty. We can observe here that Drake used his acquired wealth to support his cause in
getting rid of this potential troublemaker.
28
Doughty was finally found guilty in mutinyand was decapitated. Drake managed to reach Doughtys death by offering no other
choice to his crewmen and gentlemen onboard but to sacrifice him. After the execution,
Francis held up the chopped head and actually announced his sovereign right to murder
anyone who dared to oppose him. (Kelsey, 1998:98-99)
27 It was the name given to the Portuguese ship captured by Drake.28 It is even believed by Harry Kelsey that Drake was very superstitious about Doughty to whom any
reading or writing of any kind was prohibited. The reason was that any ship Doughty had ever been on orcommanded was separated from the fleet and once reunited with the rest, had to be abandoned for its badcondition. Kelsey further puts the question: Did Drake really believe that sorcery was involved or he justdid not want the crew to believe in such a thing? (Kelsey, 1998:104-105)
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To this day no one has been able to explain why Drake wanted his death so much.29
What is definitely true is that Drakes purpose with this whole Doughty case was no
doubt to make certain that the men were afraid of him. But fear worked both ways for
not only the crew was afraid of him from that moment on but Drake too, which is why
he kept an armed guard nearby all the time.
During the process of the trial, he found out that he could manipulate men who
served with him, even when they neither liked nor trusted him. He learned how to
subvert the will of officers and discovered that making the crews service as valuable as
the officers could be quite useful in convincing them. The Queen and even her court
knew quite well that Drake was just a soldier of fortune, a guy with whom fortunate
things occur more than it is possible. Such assumption is quite true because although by
accident, this trial provided him an understanding of the nearly unlimited authority of a
skilful commander who could use humiliation and even death to isolate those who ever
thought of opposing him. (Kelsey, 1998:113)
Subordinations of this kind against the will of Drake could further be mentioned
such as John Wynters suspected desertion who claimed that when he got separated
from Drake, he remained in the Straits of Magellan for three weeks during which the
crew persuaded him to go home and leave Drake behind, because they openly feared the
man. It is not surprising for only a few weeks passed since Doughtys execution and
Drakes declaration about his intention of executing thirty men. Although everyone wasblaming Wynter as a deserter, it was probably the other way round. It was Drake who
abandoned the other ships because he wanted to get rid of potential troublemakers and
in this way to consolidate his own authority and power.30
29 Harry Kelsey mentions in his book Richard Madoxs diary from 1582 which reveals that Doughty livedin an intimate relationship with Francis Drakes wife, and being drunk he told it to the husband himself.
The story was probably just a family gossip but nothing is certain. (An Elizabethan in 1582 - The Diaryof Richard Madox, Fellow of All Souls. Edited by Elizabeth Story Donno, 1977; page number isunknown)30 Wynters case in great details: Kelsey, Harry. The Queens Pirate, 122-124
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After his return from the circumnavigation, he must have had the odd doubt whether
or not the Queen would still welcome her pirate subject. He was away for 3 years and
had no idea what had happened during that time. Coming back with all that treasure he
knew that if the political atmosphere changed dramatically, he would be hailed as a hero
or condemned as a villain. Fortunately, the Queen was fascinated by his stories and
elated by his loot not to mention the fact that piracy suited her foreign policy as well. 31
Elizabeth in response to the huge profits and contributions awarded Drake with
knighthood aboard Golden Hindin Deptford on 4 April 1581. From that time on, many
different kinds of pictures, ballads, books were published that praised his name. Since
these materials belonged to the popular literature of the time they havent survived.
Nevertheless, after his famous voyage, he took part in very important voyages, such
as in the Raid on the West Indies on 14 September 1585, in an attempt to destroy the
remainder of the attacking Spanish Armada; or his raid on Cadiz in order to attack
Spanish ports and intercept supply ships. These raids, however, were not relevant
concerning his character development anymore.
When Drake died in 1596, his reputation in England was in eclipse, but Spain
rejoiced at the passing of the foe that caused so many problems on the way. Drakes
name until his death was gradually fading away and wouldnt be rehabilitated as far as
the end of the 16th century. His rehabilitation would be a serious task for it was really
hard to avoid the fact that his success was based on piracy. However, he finallymanaged to emerge through legends and folk traditions as a still existing icon of English
tradition and, last but not least, a hero of high importance in regard to British
advancement in the Victorian era.
31 Elizabeth, despite the outraged protests of the Spanish ambassador, had pocketed the share of Drakesloot which represented a 5,000% return of the money shed invested.
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3. Drake, a legend
During his lifetime, Drake was known as a pirate, though his reputation rested on one
successful raid through Spanish ports. We cannot even say that he was a good military
commander of a fleet. The queen gave Drake the opportunity to prove himself in naval
military command many times but he had neither the skill nor the intention to lead large
fleets. He was the expert of plundering whose actions got Philip on his knees without
any military operation involved. He believed that wealth was the purpose of war and
success at the same time. When the Armada came, the Queen refused to give Drake
independent command but the Spanish still thought of the English fleet as Drakes fleet.
In a sense, Drakes fame was created by his enemies, rather then his fellow Englishmen.
From the few sources I examined during my research,it seemed that Drake was a
charming companion to the Queen and those officials, whom he thought to be useful in
his future plans, but ruthless enough to execute anyone who stood in his way. Many
people call him a patriotic Englishmen who did what he seemed right at that time but I
think that getting rich was a larger motivation in this respect. There were many
occasions when, despite starvation and diseases on his ships, he kept going on with his
plundering activities just to be able to carry home as much treasure as possible. On the
one hand, greediness, along with the lack of conscience, composed his basic character
flaws but, at the same time, these were the values which made him successful at last. He
was not troubled by conscience that would hold back others. He was ready to sacrifice
his men if circumstances dictated that way. No wonder that all of his men feared him,
which proves the exemplary discipline on Drakes ships during the century.
Although nobody liked him, everybody respected and endured him, which finally
proved to be a lucrative sacrifice. He brought not only wealth but also possibilities for
his country which England managed to seize in a way that by the Victorian era, the
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British Navy controlled sea routes to distant parts of the world and thus, he was placed
in the Pantheon of English heroes, who, from that time on, served as a legend to
venturesome future generations. In him, England found its ambition and motivation to
become the nation that Elizabeth I and many monarchs before her, ever wanted to wish
for.
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3.1. Drake in his lifetime
Drakes fame was easier in the Victorian age to rehabilitate than it actually was in his
own lifetime. It is not like people not respected him mainly after his knighting but
rather people had a kind of shared opinion about the way he acquired his wealth and
upheaval of the country. For Drake, knighthood meant a new phase in his life. From that
time on, whether he was or wasnt liked, people at least showed their smiling faces to
their fellow honorable Englishman, who enjoyed the support of the Queen. In a sense,
Drakes fame at home emerged thanks to Elizabeth since the public opinion depended
largely on her interests and opinion at that time.
In his lifetime, however, not many materials were published about him or his
activities. Drakes name was not often quoted, mainly after his return from the Cdiz
expedition. He lost many men and was officially out of favor. In a sense, the efforts of
his earlier years had been forgotten for a very long time and only a few of his
contemporaries took the time to write anything about him, which is curious concerning
the geographical and financial values of his exploits. Only from 1585 can we recognize
some literary activity to introduce the man. The first piece of work that showed the
circumnavigation in what might be called literature was Henry Roberts ballad. 32 In it,
Robert complains that his countrymen have not given Drake the honor which should
rightly belong to the man who exceeded his contemporaries in many respect. Robert
further compares Drake to Alexander conquering Darius, to David killing Goliath and
even dares to liken Drake to Ulysses for his policy and Achilles for his valor. Beside
Henry Robert, there were other writers and poets as well, who kept levelingDrake to
the status of a sea god and in this way, immortalizing their hero.
32Henry Robert:A most Friendly Farewell, Given by a welwiller to the right worshipful Sir FrauncisDrake Knight, imprinted at London in 1585 (the ballad can be found on the World Wide Webhttp://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=chadwyck_ep/uvaGenText/tei/chep_1.1849.xml&chunk.id=d6&toc.id=d5&brand=default;query=Danger, Retrieved 10th March 2011 )
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http://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=chadwyck_ep/uvaGenText/tei/chep_1.1849.xml&chunk.id=d6&toc.id=d5&brand=default;query=Dangerhttp://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=chadwyck_ep/uvaGenText/tei/chep_1.1849.xml&chunk.id=d6&toc.id=d5&brand=default;query=Dangerhttp://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=chadwyck_ep/uvaGenText/tei/chep_1.1849.xml&chunk.id=d6&toc.id=d5&brand=default;query=Dangerhttp://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=chadwyck_ep/uvaGenText/tei/chep_1.1849.xml&chunk.id=d6&toc.id=d5&brand=default;query=Dangerhttp://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=chadwyck_ep/uvaGenText/tei/chep_1.1849.xml&chunk.id=d6&toc.id=d5&brand=default;query=Dangerhttp://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=chadwyck_ep/uvaGenText/tei/chep_1.1849.xml&chunk.id=d6&toc.id=d5&brand=default;query=Dangerhttp://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=chadwyck_ep/uvaGenText/tei/chep_1.1849.xml&chunk.id=d6&toc.id=d5&brand=default;query=Danger -
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The next literary treatment of Drake was printed two years later in 1587 by Thomas
Greepe, who in his patronizing ballad deals with not the circumnavigation but Drakes
West Indies venture of 1585-86.33He highlights the problem of historians and poets to
show Drake to the public as they did so with heroes from Gilgamesh to the heroes of
our every day.
Such penmen could further be found but I would like to mention the one who did
more than anyone to facilitate the Elizabethan heroes in their cause, Richard Hakluyt, an
English writer and scholar, who dedicated his life to the idea of establishing an English
colonial empire. He had never been part of any voyage but from 1589 until 1600, he
tried to collect all the manuscripts and data possible to enable Englishmen to get to far-
away corners of the globe and thus, to conquer the whole world. He finally managed to
reach his goal since England, within a few centuries, would become the greatest
colonial and naval power of the world. This is what enhanced Drakes rehabilitation
from the 1600s on as a hero, legend and performer of fairy tales.
33 Thomas Greepe: The true and perfect Newes of the worthy and valiant exploytes atchieved and done bythat valiaunt Knight, Syr Frauncis Drake(The Poem can be found on the World Wide Web:http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-true-and-perfect-newes/Retrieved 10th March 2011 )
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http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-true-and-perfect-newes/http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-true-and-perfect-newes/http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-true-and-perfect-newes/ -
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3.2. Drakes image today
Of all heroes whose exploits influenced Englands history there is not one who so soon
passed into legend as Drake. Many legends are in circulation today but most of these
tales are part of the folk tradition that evolved around him. Each legend bears very
important characteristic traits of Captain Drake which tells a lot about the public
opinion concerning him. So far we have heard a series of quite negative opinions about
Francis Drake but hereinafter, I would like to mention two folk tales which might bring
him closer to our hearts and might change the already constructed image about him as
well.
A very popular legend has it that Drake was playing bowls on Plymouth Hoe when
told that the Spanish Armada had arrived. On hearing this, he calmly declared that he
had no intention of leaving until he had finished the game. The story probably has no
truth value at all - and starts to fade away nowadays because it is unlikely that Drake
would react that way to the arriving of the worlds then largest fleet. What this legend
tries to mirror us is the calmness and cock-sureness of a man who believed in the
English spirit and its navy to such an extent that a threat like that could not bother him
at all.
Another legend, which actually has a concrete artefact supporting the myth, concerns
Drakes Drum. This item was an essential tool on Drakes circumnavigation to beat the
men to action quarters prior to attack. In his will, Drake wanted the drum to be
transported to Plymouth where it is said to mysteriously beat itself during times of peril.
There were many occasions when drum beats were heard throughout the course of
history. During both World Wars and actually any war that ever threatened the British
Isles up to this time, continuous beating were heard by multiple witnesses of Plymouth
citizens. It is not easy to be certain how far back in time or in what forms such folk
tradition of Drakes guardian spirit may have originated but what I attempted to prove
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through this legend was to highlight his importance and answer the question of why he
is still an important figure of the English nation. To this question, the answer is simple.
Whether people loved him or not, he unconsciously became part of the English tradition
and its every day.34
He was definitely the guardian spirit of a nation which went through
hell to become the nation it is today. This success, however, couldnt have been reached
without heroes like Sir Francis Drake, the master pirate of the known world, a legend of
a withered generation of whom we can never be sure whether he was a good or an evil
character. What is definitely sure is that without his presence on the stage of history,
nothing would have been the same.
He is sometimes deprived of the title of the Father of the English nation by many
historians, but I think that he did so many things for his country with or without any
inclination to do so that he can be at least called the Prodigal son of England who
managed to return from the shadows and step forward as a celebrated hero.
34 Such legends, reports, gossips can further be examined in Anna Elizabeth Bray. Traditions, Legends,Superstitions and Sketches of Devonshire. (London, 1838) and Katherine Briggs.Dictionary of BritishFolk Tales,1968
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Conclusion
In connection with Drake it was a serious undertake to present him and his major
personal characteristics within the frame of thirty pages. What can easily be realized isthat Drake was not an ordinary man, and in our days he would not be more than a
prisoner by now. But those were different times and a man like him could use the
current political atmosphere well enough to support his own cause. What should be
understood is that Drake was no different than any of his contemporaries when it came
to wealth, thus he himself should not be condemned for the things he had done.
According to Spanish prisoners, captured along the way on his voyages, the captain was
just a mere thief, but Drake always kept insisting that he took their goods in the name of
the Queen. This is where we can recognize the policy of both the Queen and her
seafarers in deflecting the responsibility for their actions. On the one hand, the Queen
tried to cover her tracks so she could not be accused of supporting her seafarers in their
actions, but on the other hand, sea captains like Drake did the same by claiming that
they acted for their country and for the Queen herself. Such policy made possible for the
British Empire to postpone an open war for decades and thus being strong enough to
repel the greatest military power in the end.
What I intended to show in this piece of work was how a person can be affected by
contemporary situations and manage to emerge as a legend by the end. This was
actually the case with Drake who started the voyage as a part-time pirate and prosperous
merchant sailor and gradually became something different. He learned many lessons
throughout his life which either included practices of how to subvert the consciences of
officers and how to make piracy an act of patriotism by deflecting responsibility, or how
to build out a kind of unusual quality of leadership based on religious influence,
acquired during the Hawkins Voyages. His whole life was actually a school from
which he managed to graduate as a successful combination of a man of piratism,
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bravery, shrewdness, calmness, cock-sureness and great strategic thinking. The
combination of such values based the success of both the 16 th century England and those
who lived and served in that period. In a sense, Drake was successful because he was
born into an era which allowed and demanded such actions for the purpose of survival.
Nowadays legends are mainly about people of great individual values. Throughout
this thesis, however, I presented many negative as well as some positive features about
Drake which served to emphasize the fact that, although he was a cruel, rude and
indifferent individual, he still became a legend, not because of his personal
characteristic traits but for his contribution to the upheaval of the British Empire. In his
case, this fact was more important in the Victorian era than in his time.
Further researches could further be expanded in the direction of Drakes treatment as
a legend in greater details since there are number of legends worth discussing from
which we could further analyze his character; or another possible analysis of Drake
could be the process of his deterioration after the Spanish and Portugal raids by which
he started to withdraw into the shadows; or further causes and motivations for his
rehabilitation in the Victorian period could also constitute the basis of a good
examination from which we could fully understand him.
I hope this thesis reached its ultimate purpose to highlight the life and those majorinfluences which created a man who constitutes the basis of nationalism and
patriotism in present-day Britain and the person who finally exceeded his ownexpectations by becoming a myth and legend of folk tales even four-hundred years
later.
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Works cited
Froude, J. Anthony. English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century Lectures Delivered at
Oxford Easter Terms 1893-94, London: Longmans, Green, And Co, 1901
Grant, Neil. A Nagy Felfedezsek Atlasza. Debrecen: Liliput Knyvkiad Kft., 1992
Gyula, Rzs.Felfedezk, Kalzok, Gyarmatostk Angol utazk s Gyarmatostk a
XVI-XVII. szzadban, Budapest: Gondolat Kiad, 1963
Kelsey, Harry. Sir Francis Drake: The Queens Pirate, New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1998
Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Great Explorers The European Discovery of America,
New York: Oxford University Press, 1978
Parry, J. H. The Age of Reconnaissance: Discovery, Exploration, and Settlement, 1450-
1650, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982
Thrower, Norman J.W. Sir Francis Drake and the Famous Voyage, 1577-1580, Essays
Commemorating the Quadricentennial of Drakes Circumnavigation of the Earth,
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984
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http://armadaforever.blogspot.com/2009/11/drake-sir-francisel-draque-dragon.htmhttp://armadaforever.blogspot.com/2009/11/drake-sir-francisel-draque-dragon.htmhttp://ia600304.us.archive.org/18/items/sirfrancisdraker02854gut/2854-h/2854-h.htmhttp://ia600304.us.archive.org/18/items/sirfrancisdraker02854gut/2854-h/2854-h.htmhttp://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=chadwyck_ep/uvaGenText/tei/chep_1.1849.xml&chunk.id=d6&toc.id=d5&brand=default;query=Dangerhttp://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=chadwyck_ep/uvaGenText/tei/chep_1.1849.xml&chunk.id=d6&toc.id=d5&brand=default;query=Dangerhttp://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=chadwyck_ep/uvaGenText/tei/chep_1.1849.xml&chunk.id=d6&toc.id=d5&brand=default;query=Dangerhttp://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-true-and-perfect-newes/http://armadaforever.blogspot.com/2009/11/drake-sir-francisel-draque-dragon.htmhttp://ia600304.us.archive.org/18/items/sirfrancisdraker02854gut/2854-h/2854-h.htmhttp://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=chadwyck_ep/uvaGenText/tei/chep_1.1849.xml&chunk.id=d6&toc.id=d5&brand=default;query=Dangerhttp://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=chadwyck_ep/uvaGenText/tei/chep_1.1849.xml&chunk.id=d6&toc.id=d5&brand=default;query=Dangerhttp://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=chadwyck_ep/uvaGenText/tei/chep_1.1849.xml&chunk.id=d6&toc.id=d5&brand=default;query=Dangerhttp://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-true-and-perfect-newes/ -
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Appendixes
Appendix 1: Portrait of Henry VIII by Holbein, Hans the Younger
The portrait can be found in Galleria Nazionale dArte Antica, Rome, Italy*
*The digitalized form of the painting was retrieved from the World Wide Web:http://www.terminartors.com/artworkprofile/Holbein_the_Younger_Hans-Portrait_of_Henry_VIII-1540-II 17 April 2011
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http://www.terminartors.com/artworkprofile/Holbein_the_Younger_Hans-Portrait_of_Henry_VIII-1540-IIhttp://www.terminartors.com/artworkprofile/Holbein_the_Younger_Hans-Portrait_of_Henry_VIII-1540-IIhttp://www.terminartors.com/artworkprofile/Holbein_the_Younger_Hans-Portrait_of_Henry_VIII-1540-IIhttp://www.terminartors.com/artworkprofile/Holbein_the_Younger_Hans-Portrait_of_Henry_VIII-1540-II -
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Appendix 2: Elizabeth I of England, the Armada portrait by George Gower
The portrait was made around 1588 to commemorate the defeat of the Spanish Armada.*
* The digitalized form of the painting was retrieved from the World Wide Web:https://reader009.{domain}/reader009/html5/0508/5af0c0547944f/5af0c069207df.jpg 17 April 2011
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http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/elizarmada.jpghttp://www.luminarium.org/renlit/elizarmada.jpghttp://www.luminarium.org/renlit/elizarmada.jpg -
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Appendix 3: Painting, probably by Abraham Janssen
Probably made in 1594, the portrait can be found at Buckland Abbey, Devon, England*