Susan Ronald - The Pirate Queen: Queen Elizabeth I, Her Pirate Adventurers, and the Dawn of Empire

QUEEN ELIZABETH I,

HER PIRATE ADVENTURERS,

AND THE DAWN OF EMPIRE

For Doug

There is no jewel, be it of never so rich a price, which I set before this jewelI mean your loves. For I do more esteem it than any treasure or riches, for that we know how to prize. But love and thanks I count unvaluable [invaluable], and though God hath raised me high, yet this I count the glory of my crown: that I have reigned with your loves. This makes me that I do not so much rejoice that God hath made me to be a queen, as to be a queen over so thankful a peopleso I trust by the almighty power of God that I shall be His instrument to preserve you from envy, peril, dishonor, shame, tyranny, and oppression, partly by means of your intended helps.

EXTRACT FROM ELIZABETH IS Golden Speech TO PARLIAMENT NOVEMBER 30, 1601

End Papers: Map of Drakes circumnavigation of the globe , by permission of the British Library

Title Page: Elizabeth Is signature , by permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, from Ashmole 1729, fol. 13

Part title I: Coronation Procession of Queen Elizabeth I , by the kind permission of the Archivist, the College of Arms, London

Part title II: Fan-shaped world map by Michael Lok , by permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, ref. 4oE 2.Jur(4)

Part title III: Map from the Bay of Biscay to the Southern English Coast , by Thomas Hood, by the kind permission of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

Part title IV: Map of the East Indies , by Ortelius, by the kind permission of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

Queen Elizabeth I , c. 1578, believed to be painted in oils by Nicholas Hilliard, by permission of the Liverpool Museums and Walker Art Gallery

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester , by van der Meulen, by the kind permission of the trustees of the Wallace Collection, London

Philip II of Spain , by unknown artist, by permission of National Portrait Gallery, London

Lord Admiral Charles Howard , by the kind permission of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

Map of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean , by Jacques Dousaigo, by the kind permission of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

Map of Virginia Coast , by the kind permission of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

Sir William Cecil , by permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, ref. LP 38

Sir Francis Walsingham , by John de Critz, by permission of the National Portrait Gallery, London

Sir John Hawkins , by the kind permission of Plymouth Museums and Art Gallery

Sir Francis Drake, by Nicholas Hilliard, by permission of the National Portrait Gallery, London

The Drake Cup, by kind permission of Plymouth Museums and Art Gallery

The Drake Chair, by permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, ref. Neg.PR. 1831

Martin Frobisher , by permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, ref. LP 50

Sir Walter Raleigh , by H, by permission of the National Portrait Gallery, London

Sir Henry Sidney , by Arnold van Brounckhorst, by permission of the National Portrait Gallery, London

Sir Philip Sidney , by unknown artist, by permission of the National Portrait Gallery, London

Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex , by unknown artist, by permission of the National Portrait Gallery, London

The Deed of Grant of Virginia to Sir Walter Raleigh, by the kind permission of Plymouth Museums and Art Gallery

View of the Thames , by the Flemish School, by the kind permission of the Museum of London

Troops Arriving in Antwerp , by permission of the British Library

Letter from Elizabeth I to Sir William Cecil in the queens hand, 1572 , by permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, ref. Ashmole 1729, fol. 13

View of River Thames and the Tower of London , by permission of the British Library

The Armada Tapestry , by the kind permission of Plymouth Museums and Art Gallery

Matthew Baker, shipwright, Designing a Ship , by the kind permission of the Pepsyian Library, University of Cambridge

Bakers design of a ship using a cod to demonstrate the desired shape , by the kind permission of the Pepsyian Library, University of Cambridge

Map of Western Atlantic from Newfoundland to Brazil , by Freducci, by permission of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

The Armada Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I , by kind permission of His Grace the Duke of Bedford and the Trustees of the Bedford Estates

T o perhaps misquote Sir Isaac Newton, If I have been able to see as far as I have, it is because I have been able to stand upon the shoulders of giants. Great subjects like Elizabeth Tudor and all her adventurers have survived to be written about from the Elizabethan era to the current day due to the loving attention of so many individuals across the generationsboth known and anonymous. They are too numerous to thank individually here, but I would like to thank each and every one of you en masse. I owe you so much above all others for allowing me to glimpse into Elizabeths world. To the scores of original-manuscript collectors like Sir Thomas Egerton; Sir Thomas Bodley; Robert Cecil, the Marquis of Salisbury, through to Sir Hans Sloane, my thanks for your feverish gathering of letters and papers of national and international importance, and your keeping them safe for later generations. To the Victorian greats like Julian Corbett, Michael Oppenheimer, and all the researchers and painstaking editors of the thousands of letters engrossed into the volumes of the Calendar of State Papers , the Acts of the Privy Council , the Hakluyt Society, and the Seldon Society for its Register of the High Court of Admiralty Pleas , I am truly in your debt. The modern greats like R. B. Wernham, Irene A. Wright, Conyers Read, Professor Kenneth R. Andrews, John Sugden, N. A. M. Rodgers, and David Loades are the true masters of Elizabeths maritime England, and Geoffrey Parker remains unexcelled in my opinion as the English languages expert on Philip II and the Dutch Revolt. Without the great institutions and their incredibly helpful staffs at the British Library, the National Archives, the Caird Library at the National Maritime Museum, the University of Oxford and the Bodleian Library, the Bank of England, the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., and the most remarkable Archivio de Indias in Seville, this book would simply not have been possible.

I would also like to thank all those who had a hand in making the visual side of the book so very special. To the National Portrait Gallery; the National Maritime Museum Picture Library; the Bodleian Library; the Pepysian Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge; the British Library; the Walker Gallery and Liverpool Museums; Museum of Plymouth; Museum of London; the Royal College of Arms; the Wallace Collection; and particularly His Grace, the Duke of Bedford, I would like to extend my special thank-you.

My personal thanks to my researcher, Andrew Balerdi, for freeing me up to complete this book by beginning research on the next one for me. To my sonsMatt, Zandy, and Andrewthanks for putting up with me. To my mother, my heartfelt thanks for your support. To my editor, the extraordinary Hugh Van Dusen at HarperCollins, and the entire HarperCollins team (Marie Estrada, Robert Crawford, and all those behind the scenes), thank you, thank you, thank you. To my agent, Alexander Hoyt: Who would have thought?