Sir Francis Drake

Sir Francis Drake is most famous for his role in defeating the Armada of 1588 and saving England from a Spanish invasion. By that point in his life, he was already a wealthy and famous seafarer: the first Englishman to sail around the world, knighted by Queen Elizabeth I in recognition of this astounding feat. But though he is remembered in England as a naval hero, Drake spent most of his maritime career as a pirate, feared by the Spanish whose colonies and ships he terrorised. To them, he was ‘El Draque’ – the dragon – with a bounty placed on his head by King Philip II of Spain himself. So who was the real Francis Drake – avaricious pirate, or patriotic naval commander? How did a boy from an agricultural Devonshire family discover fame and fortune on the high seas? And to what extent is his heroic reputation overshadowed by his darker deeds? This is a Short History Of Sir Francis Drake. A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Hannah Cusworth, curator of the Atlantic at Royal Museums Greenwich. Written by Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Oliver Sanders | Assembly edit by Anisha Deva | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact Check: Sean Coleman Unlock the next two episodes of Short History Of… right now by subscribing to Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network, including Real Survival Stories and Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Just click the subscription banner at the top of the feed, or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to get started. ⁠A Short History of Ancient Rome⁠ - the debut book from the Noiser Network is out now! Discover the epic rise and fall of Rome like never before. Pick up your copy now at your local bookstore or visit ⁠⁠noiser.com/books⁠⁠ to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:29Speaker 01

  It is a bright spring day in April 1581, at the Royal Docks at Deptford, on the banks of the River Thames just outside London.

• 0:39Speaker 01

  Monsieur de Marchemont, the French ambassador to the English court, alights from a carriage, richly dressed in a blue velvet doublet. Shading his eyes, he takes in the enormous crowd that has gathered at the docks. Not for him, but for the occupant of the vehicle ahead.

• 0:57Speaker 01

  The door of the lead carriage now opens, and, to an almighty cheer, Elizabeth, Queen of England, emerges into the spring sunshine. The light catches on the innumerable jewels stitched onto her scarlet gown, turning her distinctive red hair into a fiery halo. And she raises a gracious hand in acknowledgement of her subjects. Then she beckons to Marchemont.

• 1:24Speaker 01

  Hurrying to her side, he escorts her through the crowd, with her pale hand tucked into the crook of his elbow. They head towards a sailing ship, sitting in the dry dock and draped with royal banners in shades of red, blue, and gold. It is the Golden Hind, freshly returned from a perilous three-year circumnavigation of the globe. Marchemont guides Elizabeth along the wooden boards that have been laid over the stinking mud of the riverbank, to where a gangplank leads up to the ship itself. A stately train of courtiers follow, and behind them, the raucous mass of onlookers, eagerly pushing aboard the famous vessel.

• 2:07Speaker 01

  Once Marchemont and Elizabeth are safely on the ship's deck, an ear-spitting crack sounds from behind them.

• 2:15Speaker 01

  The ambassador whirls round, just in time to witness the gangplank splintering.

• 2:23Speaker 01

  Dozens tumble onto the muddy riverbank below.

• 2:27Speaker 01

  He starts forward in concern, but those on the ground are already laughing and picking themselves up. It seems no one has been harmed, beyond perhaps some wounded pride and grubby clothes. Relieved, he returns to the queen and accompanies her across the deck to a carved wooden throne. There, a stout, strong-looking man with a pointed reddish blonde beard is already sweeping into a deep bow. Marchemont has met him recently at court: the Golden Hind's captain, Francis Drake.

• 3:03Speaker 01

  Elizabeth takes a seat, and the French ambassador stands beside her throne just as the herald blows a fanfare on a trumpet. The chattering crowd falls silent, and in a clear voice, the queen bids Drake kneel, before taking hold of a sword offered by one of her guards. Smiling, she jokes about whether she should knight him or behead him, to appease the Spanish king whose ships he insists on raiding. Drake throws his head back, guffawing loudly. When the mirth has subsided, Elizabeth turns to offer Marchemont the sword. With a hint of challenge in her tone, she asks him to dub her new knight.

• 3:47Speaker 01

  The ambassador knows that doing as she asks will bind England and France tighter together against Spain, but he cannot publicly refuse. So he bows and takes the blade, before stepping forward and gravely touching it to Drake's shoulders in turn. The newly-knited captain remains where he is, until his queen speaks the illustrious words: "Arise, Sir Francis Drake."

• 4:15Speaker 01

  A colossal cheer rings out, as Drake stands, the sunlight gilding his hair and beard. The dauntless captain of the Golden Hind has become the queen's golden knight.

• 4:38Speaker 01

  Nowadays, Sir Francis Drake is most famous for his role in defeating the Armada of 1588 and saving England from a Spanish invasion. By that point in his life, he was already a wealthy and famous seafarer, the first Englishman to sail around the world, knighted by Queen Elizabeth I in recognition of this astounding feat.

• 5:00Speaker 01

  But though he is remembered in England as a naval hero, Drake spent most of his maritime career as a pirate, feared by the Spanish, whose colonies and ships he terrorized. To them, he was El Drake, the dragon, with a bounty placed on his head by King Philip II of Spain himself.

• 5:23Speaker 01

  So who was the real Francis Drake? Avaricious pirate or patriotic naval commander? How did a boy from an agricultural Devonshire family discover fame and fortune on the high seas? And to what extent is his heroic reputation overshadowed by his darker deeds?

• 5:44Speaker 01

  I'm John Hopkins from the Noiser Podcast Network. This is A Short History of Sir Francis Drake.

• 5:58Speaker 01

  The man who will one day become known as Queen Elizabeth's favorite pirate begins life near Tavistock in Devon, southwest England.

• 6:08Speaker 01

  Despite his later fame, many of the facts of his early life still lie beyond the grasp of historians. Hannah Cusworth is curator of The Atlantic at Royal Museum's Greenwich.

• 6:19Speaker 02

  It's perhaps surprising we don't know 100% when Drake was born. He was born during the reign of Henry VIII, between 1539 and 1543, but records really vary. He also had, it's said, 11 younger brothers, apparently, which as a mother of one child is absolutely terrifying to me, the idea of having 12 sons. But his mother, Mary, apparently did it, so it must have been a very chaotic, busy childhood.

• 6:54Speaker 01

  The family do not remain in Devon for long. Around 1548, they are forced to move to Kent. Competing narratives have sprung up to explain this sudden flight.

• 7:05Speaker 02

  Some reports were that it was as a result of religious tensions that were going on. Particularly in Devon, there was a religious uprising. And it seems as though Francis Drake's father, Edmund, was potentially quite strongly Protestant, or at least we get that through in some of the sources.

• 7:25Speaker 01

  But recently uncovered documents show that Edmund Drake later received a royal pardon for his role in a 1548 fracas and robbery, suggesting this as a likely explanation for the family's relocation. There is no doubt, however, that the religious tensions of the time are formative to Francis's childhood and adolescence in Kent. Henry VIII's break with the Catholic Church occurred shortly before Francis's birth. But during his teenage years, Mary I takes England back into the Roman fold. Then, after her death, the accession of her younger sister Elizabeth sees the firm restoration of Protestantism, the faith to which Francis Drake will cleave.

• 8:07Speaker 01

  As with his childhood, a precise picture of Drake's early manhood and training as a sailor is hard to paint precisely. He seems to have learned the trade that will make him famous, both in Kent and back in Devon.

• 8:20Speaker 02

  Francis spent some of his childhood in Kent, developing his skills as a sailor, navigator, spent some time working on a type of boat known as a bark with another mariner, very likely going from across the English Channel to trade with France and what is now Holland and Belgium. But we also know that he spent time in the household of the Hawkins family, who were quite a big family, much wealthier and more established than the Drake family. And they were resident in Plymouth. And we know that Drake spent some time as a child in that household, and that had a big impact on him too. They were also very much like a sea-going family.

• 9:05Speaker 01

  The Hawkins family are kin to the Drakes, and their patriarch, William Hawkins, is a renowned trader and seafarer, the first Englishman to sail to Brazil. Drake likely gains experience as a mariner alongside William's sons, but this upbringing imbues him with more than the practicalities of sailing. On land, he is taught to read, write, and count. At sea, he is exposed to people from a variety of backgrounds, and he learns to discuss trade, politics, and foreign affairs, and to dress, talk, and act like a gentleman. These are lessons that Drake, an ambitious social climber, readily absorbs.

• 9:47Speaker 01

  It is from the 1560s that we can chart Francis Drake's movements with greater certainty. In this decade, he sails on a series of voyages commanded by his older relative, John Hopkins. But they're not just any voyages. Hawkins is notorious nowadays for his involvement in the burgeoning transatlantic slave trade.

• 10:08Speaker 02

  Trafficking enslaved people played a significant role in Drake's early voyages. The Hawkins family were, I suppose, at the forefront of changing the kind of patterns of English trade. And John Hopkins was the person who took Francis Drake on some of his early voyages. In 1562, Hawkins, Drake, and about 100 men set out from Plymouth. And Hawkins had previously been to the Canary Islands, where he'd been trading, and had found out from there that enslaved people and the trafficking of enslaved people from West Africa to the Americas could generate really sizable profits.

• 10:52Speaker 02

  So in this voyage in 1562, Drake and Hawkins capture 300 enslaved people in Sierra Leone. And they probably also attacked a number of Portuguese ships on the way over across the Atlantic. And they land in the Americas and sell these trafficked people.

• 11:14Speaker 01

  Drake sails on a number of such expeditions, each following a similar pattern. Hawkins buys or captures people in West Africa before shipping them to the Americas and selling them to Spanish colonists.

• 11:28Speaker 01

  In this period, seven decades after Columbus first reached the so-called New World, Spain's empire is vast, encompassing most of the Caribbean as well as much of Central and South America. And though the Spanish crown disapproves of unlicensed English merchants trading with its colonies tax-free, it is to these Spanish possessions that Hawkins and Drake ship the Africans they have enslaved.

• 11:54Speaker 02

  At this point in time, the nature of the transatlantic slave trade is a little bit different to what it ends up becoming later, where it's very race-based and also a lot of the people who are trafficked are going to English plantations. At this point in time, when Drake and Hawkins are operating, England doesn't have big plantations in Barbados or Jamaica, for example. So it really is about taking enslaved people and then selling them over to Spanish colonists who are demanding these people to work on their plantations or in mines or as domestic workers, for example.

• 12:32Speaker 01

  Hawkins pioneers English involvement in the slave trade at a very early date and is estimated to have trafficked 1,500 Africans to the Americas. And though some historians have sought to downplay Drake's culpability in this abhorrent practice, there is no doubt that he participates in and profits from the ventures.

• 12:53Speaker 01

  It is in fact Hawkins who gives Drake his first command, making him captain of the Judith, part of a four-ship fleet that set sail from Plymouth in 1567. In many ways, it is a repeat of previous journeys, but events take a turn for the worse off the coast of modern-day Mexico at a place called San Juan de Olua. By this time, Hawkins is firmly in the bad books of the Spanish, having repeatedly violated their trade monopoly in the Americas. But though right now he believes he's negotiated a truce, while he's repairing his ships, he is ambushed by the Spanish. The fleet, under heavy fire, Drake orders the Judith to set sail and return to England. Both men eventually make it home, although many crewmen are killed in the fighting.

• 13:39Speaker 01

  Hawkins will later write that Drake forsook us in our great misery. But within a few years, they are sailing together once more.

• 13:56Speaker 03

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  This October, on the Noiser Podcast Network, Real Dictators returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea and a man is struck blind, all alone, at the very top of the world.

• 14:57Speaker 01

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• 15:16Speaker 01

  In July 1569, Drake marries a woman named Mary Newman, possibly the sister of one of her new husband's shipmates. The profits from these slave voyages allow the new couple to set up home in Plymouth, although Mary is frequently left alone when Francis heads out to sea.

• 15:34Speaker 01

  Though he's now a married man with a comfortable house and a growing fortune, Drake continues to obsess over that ambush of a few years ago.

• 15:44Speaker 02

  It's a real defining moment of Drake's career, and it's also where we start to see him turning away from these trading voyages and trafficking of enslaved people for profit, more to raiding the Spanish. And it might be, yeah, he was just motivated by revenge. What I find really fascinating about Drake is that he's kind of building this legend of himself in his lifetime and getting stories out there about what he's doing and why he's doing it. And it does seem as though he does have this hatred of Spain or real kind of fixation on Spain. Now, whether that is religiously motivated, whether that is politically motivated, whether he's just on this massive revenge arc through the rest of his time at sea, I don't necessarily know.

• 16:33Speaker 01

  Though disentangling Drake's own myth-making from historical fact is a tricky task, his naval career does become focused on attacking Spanish ships and colonies. At San Juan de la Lúa, they made a dangerous and implacable enemy.

• 16:50Speaker 01

  By 1571, Francis Drake is commanding ships in fleets not overseen by the Hawkins family. Building on the knowledge and experience gained in the previous decade, he joins a group of French pirates raiding Spanish outposts in Panama. They spend several months terrorizing poorly defended ships and ports in lightning-fast attacks.

• 17:14Speaker 01

  These missions are not without peril. In one such expedition, Drake loses two of his brothers, John and Joseph, off the coast of Panama. The first sustains a gunshot wound, while the second dies of an unknown disease that tears through the crew. Drake orders an autopsy to learn more about the sickness that killed Joseph, attempting to save others with the knowledge gleaned from his brother's corpse.

• 17:41Speaker 01

  Notwithstanding the personal cost, this voyage turns out to be one of Drake's most successful. Because it is at this moment that he discovers the route by which the Spanish transport the silver they have mined in South America to the Atlantic coast, from where it is shipped back to Seville.

• 17:59Speaker 02

  Drake is in his early 30s. He's travelled over to what is often called the Spanish Main. So we're sort of in the Central America Caribbean and to a place called Nombra de Dios. In this sort of expedition, he makes an alliance with a formerly enslaved man called Diego, who is described as a Cimarron. So it's someone who has like got his own liberation. He's kind of run away. He's become free. What ends up happening is that Diego, in an alliance with the Cimarrons and with Drake, they attack a series of mules, like a mule train with all of the Spanish silver on it. And they capture a lot of this silver. They take it back to England.

• 18:42Speaker 02

  And Drake is an incredibly wealthy man at this point.

• 18:50Speaker 01

  Over the coming years, Drake becomes legendary for his raids on the Spanish Main, coastal settlements in the Caribbean Sea, from Mexico down to Colombia and Venezuela.

• 19:00Speaker 02

  After Drake moves away from raiding and trafficking in enslaved people, historians think he actually made more profit from his raiding activities than he did trading with Hawkins. And that certainly was a really big motivation behind what Drake was doing, to make money for himself and to make money for the people who were backing his voyages, in some cases, including Queen Elizabeth I.

• 19:31Speaker 01

  The legal basis for these attacks on Spanish settlements is shaky. To the Spanish, Drake is a pirate and a criminal. Plain and simple. But his raiding missions are often funded by leading noblemen and ministers. When the Queen herself backs him, the funds come with tacit royal support. Though this can always be withdrawn if he poses too great a diplomatic threat.

• 19:56Speaker 01

  Though for much of Drake's life, England and Spain are not at war. Relations between the two nations are always strained. As such, it is a fine line that the Protestant Elizabeth must walk between angering Europe's greatest Catholic power and profiting from Drake's raids.

• 20:14Speaker 02

  When Elizabeth first comes to the throne, England and Spain had been very close because Mary had been married to the King of Spain, Philip, and therefore there was a really close connection between those two countries. I think Elizabeth, we know her as a real pragmatist, and she was very keen, I think, not to be dragged into what would have been, I'm sure, a really costly war with Spain.

• 20:43Speaker 01

  Drake's own motives for attacking Spanish possessions, and the legal basis under which he believes he operates, can perhaps be traced back to the incident at San Juan de Alua. Maybe he sees his actions as lawful restitution for goods lost in that attack. But some believe that other forces may have driven him.

• 21:03Speaker 02

  What is quite hard, I think, for historians to figure out is how much Drake was really motivated by a hatred of Spain, and maybe that hatred was religiously motivated. There are a number of examples of Drake being quite a strong Protestant, of taking services aboard his ship. But also, it's hard because some of the sources that we have are very much created to portray England as this kind of plucky Protestant nation, and Drake is positioned as someone very much who's kind of a hero within that narrative.

• 21:41Speaker 01

  Less high-minded motives have also been suggested for his raids.

• 21:46Speaker 02

  I think it's also really interesting to notice that he seems to be a really pragmatic guy and an opportunistic guy. And at this time, Spain was a major European power and had a lot of wealth that it was deriving from its colonies and imperial activities in the Americas. So whether he really hated Spain, or just Spain had the money, and he was really good at these kind of smash-and-grab raids, I don't know if we'll ever be able to determine that one conclusively.

• 22:20Speaker 01

  After his attack on the Spanish silver train, Drake returns to Plymouth a wealthy man. With two ships he has captured from the Spanish, he sets himself up as a merchant. In 1575, he's involved in ferrying English troops over to Antrim in Northern Ireland. The campaign there culminates in a bloody massacre of around 500 men, women, and children on Rathlin Island, though Drake's involvement in the atrocity is once again unclear.

• 22:48Speaker 01

  Soon afterwards, Drake embarks on his most ambitious expedition to date. With Sir Francis Walsingham, the Queen's Secretary of State, a plan is concocted for a circumnavigation of the globe. Hawkins, Walsingham, and Elizabeth I all invest personally in the voyage.

• 23:07Speaker 02

  We really get the sense that part of the circumnavigation is for profit, and the route is planned to take these raiding opportunities that Drake excels at. So they're thinking about crossing the Atlantic and raiding across the coast of what is then Spanish-controlled South America. I think there's also a real interest in opening up new trade routes, and you get this real confluence of profit and exploration, whereby perhaps at the time they weren't really seen as two distinct things, you were exploring in order to find new trade routes or new opportunities to make money.

• 23:48Speaker 01

  The small fleet sets sail from Plymouth in November 1577, with Drake commanding from the Pelican, soon renamed the Golden Hind. It is a 150-ton ship, double-planked and lead-sheathed for strength, and carries 11 guns. The co-commander of the fleet is a nobleman and soldier named Thomas Doughty, a friend of Drake's since the Antrim campaign and who has been instrumental in planning the expedition.

• 24:16Speaker 01

  The journey starts inauspiciously. Fierce storms force them to return to port, and it is not until the 13th of December that they once again brave the open seas. They first sail south to the Moroccan coast, stealing the cargo of any Spanish ships unlucky enough to cross their path.

• 24:36Speaker 01

  Sometimes the crews of such vessels are taken prisoner and ransomed. At other times, they are abandoned on shore and their ships burned. From Morocco, the fleet turns west and crosses the Atlantic Ocean. It is on this leg of the voyage that the relationship between Drake and the aristocratic Doughty begins to sour.

• 24:57Speaker 02

  The command when they set out appears to be a little bit unclear in terms of whether they're joint captains or whether Doughty is more senior. But there is a number of accusations that Drake levels against Doughty, which range from stealing to witchcraft, so really the full gamut. And Drake strips Doughty of part of his command, which is obviously really offensive to Doughty. I think it's important we remember that Drake comes from relatively humble beginnings, and Doughty would have definitely seen himself as Drake's social superior.

• 25:36Speaker 01

  After relieving him of his command, Drake initially ties Doughty to the mast. It's a humiliating punishment, but worse is to come.

• 25:46Speaker 01

  The following June, a small fleet arrives off the coast of southern Argentina. Drake orders all his men ashore before assembling an impromptu courtroom. Claiming that the queen had given him command, he accuses Doughty of mutiny alongside a litany of other crimes and forces a hastily selected jury to decide his fate.

• 26:15Speaker 01

  It is the 2nd of July, 1578. On Argentina's Atlantic coast, a harsh winter wind whips across a rocky promontory that juts out into the restless ocean.

• 26:28Speaker 01

  Thomas Doughty shivers inside his thick woolen cloak. On his knees, on the floor of a large tent, he's trying not to think about the cold seeping into his joints. He glances at Francis Drake, kneeling next to him. The other man seems immune to any discomfort.

• 26:49Speaker 01

  A chaplain enters, accompanied by a blast of frigid air. Doughty bows his head and interlaces his fingers, murmuring along as he is led in a prayer.

• 27:00Speaker 01

  After a few minutes, he opens his mouth to receive the communion wafer.

• 27:05Speaker 01

  The minister intones a blessing, and then Drake is standing, offering Doughty his hand and pulling him to his feet. He slings an arm around his shoulders and leads him to the other side of the tent, where a long table has been set up. Waving Doughty to a chair, Drake pours him a glass of wine before taking one for himself. Dishes of steaming stew are brought in and set before the men, along with another bottle of wine. The captain chatters away as they eat, filling the room with talk and laughter, and Doughty finds himself joining in. Maybe the banter is a little strained, but it is better than the awkward silence he had thought might prevail between them.

• 27:46Speaker 01

  Too soon, Doughty's spoon scrapes the bottom of his bowl. Drake pours the last dregs of wine into his cup, downs the contents, then looks to Doughty, who nods. It is time.

• 28:03Speaker 01

  The two men rise, and Doughty claps Drake on the shoulder, thanking him for the meal. Then he turns and walks outside, the captain stalking slowly behind. As they emerge from the tent, a group of sailors, carrying heavy wooden clubs, flank Doughty, steering him towards a stony expanse on which waits a dark wooden block.

• 28:26Speaker 01

  Next to it stands a tall sailor, a wickedly sharp axe held casually in one hand.

• 28:34Speaker 01

  Doughty's steps falter, but the men on either side grab his elbows, pushing him inexorably onwards. Once they reach the block, he is released, stumbling slightly on the uneven ground. The ship's crews are all assembled. Whispers carry on the wind, but Doughty cannot hear what they're saying. He feels a light touch on his arm, and sees the chaplain has come to stand beside him.

• 29:02Speaker 01

  With trembling fingers, from fear, or cold, or both, Doughty takes off his cloak and passes it to the chaplain.

• 29:10Speaker 01

  He unlaces the collar of his snowy white linen shirt, bearing his neck. Then, he falls to his knees and prays once more. For the Queen, for the success of the voyage, for his friends, and finally, for his own soul.

• 29:27Speaker 01

  When he has finished his final words, he gently places his neck upon the block, the wooden surface rough against his cheek. The last things he hears are a set of approaching footsteps and the relentless screams of seabirds, wheeling high overhead.

• 29:54Speaker 00

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• 30:22Speaker 01

  This October, on the Noiser Podcast Network. Real Dictators Returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea, and a man is struck blind, all alone, at the very top of the world. In Jane Austen's stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes's short stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in The Sign of Four.

• 31:04Speaker 01

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• 31:12Speaker 01

  Doughty's death sentence is primarily handed down for the charge of mutiny, something against which Drake always takes a hard line.

• 31:20Speaker 02

  So that gives us a bit of an insight into his character. Now, some people could say like, yeah, but he had to maintain order. And he was about to go into a really treacherous part of the voyage. If the plan was to kind of round the tip of South America, that is incredibly tough, a challenging sailing water. And you need to have your crew being united because people's lives are very much at risk. Or you could say, yeah, he's paranoid, he's quite authoritarian. So again, I think like with most things with Drake, there were kind of two different or multiple different ways you could interpret that event.

• 31:57Speaker 01

  Doughty's execution does not restore calm for long. In August 1578, Drake leads the fleet through the treacherous Strait of Magellan, a navigable sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific at the southernmost tip of South America. But once in the Pacific, violent storms scatter the ships. The Marigold is lost, the Elizabeth turns back for England, and the Golden Hind is left to press north alone. But it is a brutal voyage, with men lost to cold, hunger and disease. By February 1579, the crew of eighty has been reduced to less than seventy, with only thirty fit enough to fight. Drake, though, presses on, whether his remaining men like it or not.

• 32:43Speaker 02

  One thing I find really fascinating is that many of the crew were not aware that they were embarking on a circumnavigation. They thought they were doing something much, much closer to home, and it probably came as quite a surprise to them. And I think you could potentially even argue that there wasn't always the plan, that there were certain things in terms of when they then crossed over the Atlantic and they're traveling down the Atlantic side of South America that kind of prevents them from going then back up and kind of following the Atlantic and going back. And that's why perhaps they end up going into the Pacific.

• 33:17Speaker 01

  The Golden Hind sails up the Pacific American coast to California, raiding Spanish settlements along the way. Unarmed merchant ships offer little resistance, and the crew captures gold and silver, wine and exquisite silks and linens, as well as a number of enslaved individuals.

• 33:36Speaker 01

  The Golden Hind then charts a course across the Pacific to Indonesia. It is here that Drake commits an act even more shocking than his execution of Doughty.

• 33:49Speaker 02

  The second event that is revealing about Drake's character is the abandonment of a pregnant black woman on an island that has no water source according to reports and tales on it in Indonesia.

• 34:06Speaker 01

  Almost nothing is known about the stricken woman, except that her name is Maria.

• 34:11Speaker 02

  And the pregnancy, sometimes it's described as though Maria had become pregnant by someone on the ship, whether that was Drake, whether that was Drake's men. There is a clear sense from those sources that she suffered serious sexual assault. And that gives us an idea of Drake, perhaps himself, or if he was not a perpetrator of that sexual assault, of what happened under his command.

• 34:38Speaker 01

  Maria's ultimate fate, as well as the fates of the two enslaved men abandoned with her, have been lost to history.

• 34:46Speaker 01

  After leaving Indonesia, The Golden Hind sails across the Indian Ocean before rounding the Cape of Good Hope and making it back into the Atlantic. Despite the dubious events of the journey, when Drake arrives in Plymouth on the 26th of September 1580, he is received as a hero. The circumnavigation proves his immense talents as a seaman, and he is soon showered with honours. Queen Elizabeth even orders his ship dragged ashore at Deptford as a memorial to the first Englishman to complete a round-the-world voyage. A reconstruction of the vessel can still be visited today.

• 35:22Speaker 02

  If you've been to the replica of The Golden Hind, which is the boat that they sailed on in London, you definitely get a sense of how cramped it would have been and how much luck they had, but also how much skill was involved in making that journey.

• 35:37Speaker 01

  In fifteen eighty-one, Drake is knighted and named mayor of Plymouth for a term. With the Queen's permission, he buys the splendid Buckland Abbey, a monastery turned private estate in Devon. And after his first wife dies, a couple of years later, he marries a younger woman, Elizabeth Sidnum, the only child of a rich Somerset family.

• 35:59Speaker 01

  Drake continues with his raiding activity, raising his notoriety among the Spanish and cementing his reputation as a great threat to their garrisons and coastal towns. Relations between England and Spain continue to deteriorate. Incensed by the news of Drake's knighthood, Philip responds by placing on his head a bounty of twenty thousand ducats, an unimaginable fortune.

• 36:24Speaker 01

  Undeterred, in March fifteen eighty-seven, Drake signs a contract with a group of London merchants to supply ships for a further raid. But he has another mission too. Amid reports that King Philip is preparing to attack England, Drake is tasked with gathering intelligence on the Spanish fleet.

• 36:43Speaker 02

  Spain sent the Armada for a whole host of reasons. One of them was partly because they were really annoyed at Drake and men like him for being in what they considered like Spanish territory, for raiding their settlements and their ships. I suppose it all comes down to, the Armada was really designed to stop Elizabeth the First from harming Spanish interests. And part of this was also that Elizabeth had been persuaded to send some support to some rebels in what was then the Spanish Netherlands. And this, I think, to some extent was like the last straw for Spain.

• 37:22Speaker 01

  Just before Drake departs, the Queen withdraws her permission to attack Spanish ports. But the message either does not reach him, or he ignores it. Instead, he marshals his fleet and sails for Cadiz in southern Spain.

• 37:45Speaker 01

  It is the nineteenth of April, 1587, and an English fleet is approaching Cadiz Harbour, on the southern tip of Spain. The deck of Drake's flagship, the Elizabeth Bonaventure, is alive with activity. No sooner has one order been shouted than another is given, as sailors swarm up the rigging, adjust the sails, or man the cannons. One sailor, a topman, whose job it is to handle the upper sails and rigging, jumps down to tie off a rope, securing it to the portside rail. The wind is with them and the mainsail billows overhead, stretched taut, carrying them ever closer to the town.

• 38:25Speaker 01

  As the harbour comes into view, so too do dozens of Spanish ships, moored at anchor, many of them fat-bellied merchant vessels. More importantly, they are likely poorly defended and stuffed with provisions for the Spanish invasion fleet.

• 38:41Speaker 01

  But, squinting against the sun and spray, the sailor now spots two other vessels, sleek and fast, cutting effortlessly through the water. They are Spanish war galleys, and they are rowing straight for them.

• 38:55Speaker 01

  He shouts out what he has seen and bellowed orders are quickly relayed from Sir Francis the Captain to the gun decks below. The topman feels the familiar rumbling in the planks beneath his feet as the cannons are run out. A quick glance over the rail shows a line of bronze barrels poking from the gun ports ranged along the ship's side. Another instruction is called out and the sailor responds instantly, scrambling to help adjust the sail as the great ship begins a lumbering turn, bringing her side on to the quickly approaching Spanish galleys.

• 39:29Speaker 01

  A cry, and then the cannons fire, the colossal release rocking the ship. A great cheer goes up from those on deck. One of the enemy galleys now bears a ragged, gaping hole in its side and bodies drop into the water. Within minutes, the Spanish are fleeing for the safety of the harbour. Sir Francis Drake gives the order to pursue, and soon the Elizabeth Bonaventure is closing in on the merchant fleet. From his position by the wheel, the captain calls a skeleton crew to remain on board. Everyone else is instructed to form into boarding parties. Small, fast rowing boats are lowered over the side of the ship, splashing into the sea.

• 40:13Speaker 01

  With a dozen other men, the top man rows out to the nearest merchant ship. His crewmates are armed with a variety of weapons: swords, pikes, and even a pistol. But once the boat bumps against the hull of the target vessel, the only pieces of equipment that matter for now are the grappling irons. The splayed metal hooks are thrown high, biting into the bulwarks above. The top man grasps one of the ropes snaking down and begins to climb, gripping his dagger in his teeth. But once he's swung himself over and onto the deck, it quickly becomes apparent that the other crew is unarmed. They immediately surrender. With the merchant crew now guarded, the top man heads into the bowels of the ship.

• 40:58Speaker 01

  He finds the hold filled to the brim with provisions: barrels of salted beef and fish, fresh water and beer, dried chips biscuits, even some Spanish wine. Hauling the cargo up onto deck, he glances out across the bay. One of the merchant ships is already on fire, clearly having already been emptied of its cargo. As per Drake's order, the entire harbour will soon be ablaze. Whatever the Spanish king is planning, they have surely struck a devastating blow against him today.

• 41:38Speaker 01

  Drake's raid on Cadiz remains a celebrated moment in English naval history.

• 41:44Speaker 02

  Some listeners might know Drake's raid on Cadiz as the singeing of the King of Spain's beard. It was a series of attacks in 1587 that really delayed the Spanish naval forces' attack on England. Drake went in, a bit of spying, a bit of sort of a smash-and-grab raid, disrupted the preparations, the naval preparations, and gave intelligence to the British about what was going on.

• 42:14Speaker 01

  He returns to Plymouth in June, having seen with his own eyes the scale and readiness of the Spanish fleet. Instead of receiving him with praise, however, the pragmatic Elizabeth disavows his actions in Cadiz, still hoping to avoid war with the mighty Spanish Empire. But with Drake facing no consequences, King Philip is not fooled. The Spanish press on with their invasion plans, and even begin to refer to Drake as the "captain-general" of the English navy. In response to the intelligence gathered, England continues to prepare for war. But in May 1588, Drake is summoned to London to be told that Lord Howard has been put in command of the English navy.

• 42:57Speaker 01

  He himself is to be second in command. Perhaps surprisingly, for someone of his considerable self-regard, he accepts, and by July, the English fleet is assembled at Plymouth. The stage is set for the coming of the Spanish Armada. On the 19th of July 1588, the Spanish naval fleet is sighted heading towards Plymouth. The two sides are equally matched, around 130 Spanish ships to England's 120. As they approach Plymouth, the Spaniards have a clear advantage in that the English ships are still in port. Fortunately for England, the Spanish commander, the Duke of Medina-Sedonia, squanders this opportunity.

• 43:41Speaker 02

  The Armada was to sail up the English Channel and then to meet up with an army from the Spanish Netherlands and kind of take that army over to land in England, to invade, to get rid of Queen Elizabeth I, and to put the King of Spain, Philip, back on the throne, because prior to Elizabeth being Queen, he had effectively been King of England through his marriage with Mary I.

• 44:13Speaker 01

  By sailing straight past Plymouth, the Spanish give their enemy plenty of time to manoeuvre. At dawn on the 21st of July, the would-be invaders awake to find themselves under attack.

• 44:27Speaker 01

  The subsequent battle is inconclusive, although Drake's vessel, The Revenge, soon captures one of the Spanish ships and its cargo of gold, artillery and gunpowder.

• 44:38Speaker 01

  The two fleets fight sporadically over the next few days. At one point, as the Armada approaches France, hoping to rendezvous with the Spanish invasion force, the English send in burning ships and cause havoc, scattering the enemy's fleet. Drake and others then engage the Spanish commander in a fierce, close-range gun battle.

• 45:01Speaker 01

  This action, off the coast of Gravlin, a port in the Spanish Netherlands, is the last battle of the Armada campaign. Shortly afterwards, a storm drives the Spanish fleet north and the invasion plan grinds to a halt.

• 45:16Speaker 01

  England has been saved from the might of Catholic Spain, at least in part, thanks to Francis Drake. In subsequent years, he makes much of his involvement, though historians still debate his impact on the campaign.

• 45:30Speaker 02

  I think when you take a big assessment of his role, it was perhaps smaller than we would at first imagine for someone who was second in command. And I think this big naval command was not really Drake's strong suit. He was much more in it for doing the smaller smash-and-grab raids, going in, finding the money, taking it home, than he was a strategy guy or someone who was good at leading a really big fleet. So yeah, he was definitely there and played a role, maybe not such a big deal as he wanted us to think.

• 46:10Speaker 01

  This October on the Noiser Podcast Network, Real Dictators returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History Of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea and a man is struck blind, all alone, at the very top of the world. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes Short Stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in The Sign of Four.

• 46:52Speaker 01

  Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.

• 47:00Speaker 01

  The defeat of the Spanish Armada marks the pinnacle of Sir Francis Drake's naval career. It is a level of fame and fortune that cannot be maintained for long. In 1589, he and the military commander, Sir John Norris, set out at the head of what is sometimes termed the English Armada. The Queen orders Drake to destroy any warships that he finds in Spanish ports. And they are also tasked with placing a claimant named Dom Antonio on the throne of Portugal to lessen Philip II's power. But the mission is an unmitigated disaster. Drake ignores Elizabeth's orders and fails to meet up with Norris's land force in Lisbon as promised.

• 47:43Speaker 02

  He then goes into Drake's wilderness years. He is not in favour with the crown, with Queen Elizabeth. He's not particularly successful. Some historians have said that's because people started to get the measure of him and the Spanish became better at fortifying their colonial possessions and being able to know what Drake was up to.

• 48:08Speaker 01

  Now, in his mid-50s, in August 1595, Drake embarks upon what will prove to be his final voyage. It is a full-circle moment, with John Hopkins acting as co-commander of the small fleet. As with so many previous expeditions, they sail for the West Indies, stopping along the way to attack the Canary Islands.

• 48:30Speaker 01

  But midway through November 1595, Hawkins dies of dysentery as the fleet approaches what is now Puerto Rico. Drake attempts to land troops at his old haunt of Nombre de Dios in Panama, but they are driven off by fierce Spanish defenders. As the new year gets underway, fever is sweeping through the fleet, and on the 27th of January, it claims Drake himself.

• 48:56Speaker 02

  We think he probably dies of dysentery. I think one thing that is really amazing about Francis Drake is how many times he manages to avoid illness, injury, or is injured or does get ill and manages to survive and make it back to England. But this time in 1596, off the coast of Panama, he is taken seriously ill and dies at sea. He doesn't make it back to England this time ruled.

• 49:26Speaker 01

  Drake's body is sealed in a lead coffin and buried at sea the very next day.

• 49:32Speaker 01

  Even before Francis Drake's final expedition, his star was waning, with the failure of the English armada having taken the shine off of Elizabeth's golden knight. Yet, future generations revive his myth, and especially in the 19th century, he is seen as one of the men who helped to transform Britain into the imperial maritime superpower it has by then become.

• 49:56Speaker 01

  Shaking off humble roots as the son of a felon, Sir Francis Drake rose through the ranks of Elizabethan society as a war hero, a spy, a landowner, and even a celebrated knight. But especially early in his career, much of his wealth was generated via the untold human suffering of the slave trade. In the centuries since his life and death, the story of Francis Drake as an adventurer, explorer, pirate, and opportunist has been stitched into the mythic tapestry of the nation, for better or for worse.

• 50:30Speaker 02

  I think people are still so interested in Francis Drake today because of his complexity, I think is one of them, because there are different aspects to his story that people can pull out depending on the point that they're trying to make about England as a nation. I think more recently particularly, there's been quite a reassessment of Francis Drake and people have been at pains to emphasise the fact that alongside his skills as a sailor and as a circumnavigator, he very much was involved in the transatlantic slave trade. And in that kind of point in English history where England turns to the Atlantic very much

• 51:15Speaker 02

  and becomes involved in trafficking of enslaved people and in trying to kind of build itself up in competition to Spain, who have developed this big empire in the Americas. So I think we're going to be interested in Francis Drake for a little while yet if we're interested in thinking about England and its role and how we remember that kind of time in English history.

• 51:51Speaker 01

  Next time on Short History, we'll bring you a short history of the Spanish Civil War.

• 51:57Speaker 04

  There's a famous report by a newspaper correspondent who's following the Franco forces and he simply goes to the metro station, buys a ticket and travels into central Madrid unopposed because everything's kind of melted away at that point. Franco, when he takes Madrid late March 1939, he says, "The civil war is won, the republican forces have been disarmed and this is going to be the start of the Franco dictatorship."

• 52:32Speaker 01

  That's next time.

• 52:37Speaker 01

  You can listen to the next two episodes of Short History of right now, without waiting and without adverts, by subscribing to Noiser Plus. Just hit the link in the episode description or head to www-noiser.com/subscriptions to unlock more episodes today.

• 52:52Speaker 00

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