Konstam - The Great Expedition

Sir Francis Drake is probably one of the most famous figures of the 16th century a man of action who came to symbolize Elizabethan England just as much as the Queen he served. Drake was the archetypal Elizabethan Sea Dog. He was the leading member of that unique band of seafarers who helped thwart the Spanish Armada, but who also pursued their own destiny as explorers, pirates and adventurers. Drake himself has been described as a privateer, a courtier, a politician, a slave trader, an explorer, a naval commander and, of course, as a pirate. Clearly Francis Drake was a man of many parts.

To the English, Drake was a hero and one of the greatest seamen of his age. To the Spanish, though, he was El Draque (The Drake), a name whose similarity to the Latin draco (dragon) was used by Catholic propagandists to vilify him as a creature of evil. At best his enemies saw him as a pirate, operating beyond the bounds of legal and civil niceties. The real Drake lay somewhere in between these polarized views, a complex character whose exploits thrilled and horrified in equal measure. Without doubt Drake was a gifted leader of men, a skilled navigator and sailor, and an accomplished naval tactician. He was also driven by a burning religious zeal, and a voracious appetite for plunder.

This book describes his greatest raid his assault on the Spanish Main in the mid 1580s, an action that served as a catalyst for war. By that time, however, he had nothing to prove. He was already a national hero, and the darling of the Elizabethan court. He had just been knighted by his sovereign, and the plunder from his recent raid into the Pacific had made him the equivalent of a multi-millionaire. What drove him to launch this new and powerful expedition was a passionate desire for revenge, staunch loyalty to his Queen and, above all, his insatiable desire for wealth.

By placing the greatest seaman of the age in command of the largest naval raid England had ever mounted against the Spanish Main, Queen Elizabeth was playing a game of global brinkmanship. Failure could lose her the kingdom, and her life. The stakes had never been higher. Once Drake set sail there would be no turning back. The Queen also had much to gain. War against Spain was looming, and to wage it King Philip II would need money lots of it. His biggest source of revenue lay in the New World, in the silver mines of Peru and Mexico, the gold mines of Colombia and the emerald fields of Venezuela. Every year a portion of these great riches was taken to the ports of the Spanish Main, where they were shipped to Spain in well-protected treasure fleets. Queen Elizabeth hoped that by capturing the ports she could capture the treasure. Thus she could fill her own coffers while denying her Spanish rival the money he needed to strike back. It was audacious, bold and, at least in diplomatic terms, a wildly reckless gambit but then by 1585 Elizabeth and her advisors were running out of options.

Sir Francis Drake (c. 154096), seen in the three-quarter length armour he wore during his land operations on the Spanish Main. The Latin inscription in this contemporary engraving rather flatteringly describes him as Englands most noble knight, and the circumnavigator of the globe.

Historians have often portrayed the raid as a pre-emptive strike an attempt to launch a crippling blow against the Spanish before the inevitable start of hostilities. This view makes the mistake of viewing things with the benefit of hindsight. In fact, Elizabeth and her advisors saw Drakes expedition as a last great chance for peace, a drastic form of diplomatic coercion designed to avoid conflict, rather than to start it. As we shall see, the raid was originally meant to be a very different affair, launched against a target half a world away from the Caribbean. It also came within a hairs breadth of being called off, as Elizabeth began to have second thoughts. Ever the opportunist, Drake solved the Queens problem by sailing anyway, before Elizabeth could change her mind.

What followed became the stuff of legend, a dramatic stab against the very heart of Spains overseas empire. Drake was in his element, and this proved to be his finest hour. His earlier forays into the Caribbean had been mere pinpricks. This was a rapier thrust. His foray into the Pacific earned him a fortune in plunder, but this raid was on a different scale entirely. Rather than commanding a single ship, Drake led a whole invasion force, ready and willing to cause as much destruction as they could, and his men were eager for treasure. After all, like all raids of this kind this was as much a business speculation as a military adventure, and with the Queen as his main financial backer, Drake not only had to strike hard against the Spanish, but he also had to turn a profit. This then, would be the wily Sea Dogs greatest test.

Of all the Elizabethan Sea Dogs, Drake was the perfect choice as commander of this great expedition. He was resourceful, aggressive, and he knew the Caribbean like no other Englishman of his generation. Better still, he had a deep-rooted dislike of the Spanish, a legacy of his experience at their hands at San Juan de Ula 17 years before. He could be relied upon to inflict as much damage on Spains overseas empire as he could. Besides, as this was a royally sanctioned quest for treasure, Drakes avarice meant that he would make a thorough job of plundering the riches of the Spanish Main, on behalf of his Queen and his other backers. It can even be said that Drakes experiences had groomed him for this command the expedition would be the culmination of almost two decades of seafaring, privateering and warfare.

Francis Drake was born in Tavistock, a small market town on the western edge of Dartmoor, some 15 miles north of Plymouth. He was the eldest son of Edmund and Mary Drake, a young farming couple whose lands at Crowndale on the banks of the River Tavy were rented from the local landowner Lord Russell, the Earl of Bedford. Actually, Edmunds elder brother John ran the farm; his younger brother merely assisted him. Clearly the Drakes had good social connections Francis was named after his godfather Francis Russell, the teenage son of the local landowner.

The exact year of Francis birth is unclear, but it probably took place around 1539 or 1540. He was the eldest of 12 brothers, but what could have been an idyllic rural childhood was cut short in 1549 when Francis and the family fled the country. Edmund Drake was a staunch Protestant, and was caught up in the local religious unrest dubbed the Prayerbook Rebellion. The family escaped to Kent, where they established a new home in a houseboat (or hulk), moored in the River Medway. Edmund re-invented himself as a Protestant clergyman, preaching to local seafarers.

In his early teens Francis went to sea as a crewman of a trading vessel, plying between Kent and nearby European ports. He probably served as an apprentice to the owner, as it appears he inherited the vessel and the business when his mentor died. This meant that by the time he was 20 Drake was already an experienced seaman, and his own master.