Sir Francis Drake - his life - 2

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The Spanish Armada

War broke out between Spain and England in 1585. Drake sailed to the New World and sacked the ports of Santo Domingo and Cartagena. On the return leg of the voyage, he captured the Spanish fort of San Augustíne in Spanish Florida. These exploits encouraged Philip II of Spain to order the planning for an invasion of England.

In a pre-emptive strike, Drake "singed the King of Spain's beard" by sailing a fleet into Cadiz, one of Spain's main ports, and occupied the harbour for three days, capturing six ships and destroying 31 others as well as a large quantity of stores. The attack delayed the Spanish invasion by a year.

Drake was vice admiral in command of the English fleet (under Lord Howard of Effingham) when it overcame the Spanish Armada that was attempting to invade England in 1588. As the English fleet pursued the Armada up the English Channel in closing darkness, Drake put duty second and captured the Spanish galleon Rosario, along with Admiral Pedro de Valdés and all his crew. The Spanish ship was known to be carrying substantial funds to pay the Spanish Army in the Low Countries. Drake's ship had been leading the English pursuit of the Armada by means of a lantern. By extinguishing this for the capture, Drake put the fleet into disarray overnight. This exemplified Drake's ability, as a privateer, to suspend strategic purpose if a tactical profit were on offer.

On the night of 29 July, along with Howard, Drake organised fire-ships, causing the majority of the Spanish captains to break formation and sail out of Calais into the open sea. The next day, Drake was present at the Battle of Gravelines.

The most famous (but probably apocryphal) anecdote about Drake relates that, prior to the battle, he was playing a game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe. On being warned of the approach of the Spanish fleet, Drake is said to have remarked that there was plenty of time to finish the game and still beat the Spaniards. This battle was the high point of the remarkable mariner's career. In fact tidal conditions caused some delay in the launching of the English fleet as the Spanish drew nearer[citation needed] so it is easy to see how a popular myth of Drake's cavalier attitude to the Spanish threat may have originated.

In 1589, the year after defeating the Armada, Drake was sent to support the rebels in Portugal, which opposed the personal union of Spain and Portugal under King Philip II of Spain in 1580. En route, he sacked the city of La Coruña in Spain. This massive combined naval and land expedition (see "English Armada") was a dismal failure, attributed to a grievous lack of organization, poor training, and paltry supplies. It was a crucial turning point in the Anglo-Spanish War (1585).

Final years

Drake's seafaring career continued into his mid-fifties. In 1595, following a disastrous campaign against Spanish America, where he suffered several defeats in a row, he unsuccessfully attacked San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Spanish gunners from El Morro Castle shot a cannonball through the cabin of Drake's flagship, but he survived. In 1596, he died of dysentery while anchored off the coast of Porto Belo, Panama where some Spanish treasure ships had sought shelter. He was buried at sea in a lead coffin, near Portobelo, Panama.

Cultural impact

Drake's exploits as an explorer have become an irrevocable part of the world's subconsciousness, particularly in Europe. Numerous stories and fictional adaptations of his adventures exist to this day. Considered a hero in England, it is said that if England is ever in peril, beating Drake's Drum will cause Drake to return to save the country. This is a variation of the sleeping hero folk-tale.

During his trip of the globe, Drake left a plate upon leaving his landing place on the west coast of North America, claiming the land for England. In the 1930s, it appeared that Drake's plate had been found near San Francisco. Forty years later, scientists confirmed that the plate was a hoax, as had been suspected. Later information attributed the hoax to E Clampus Vitus.

Drake's adventures, though less known in the United States, still have some effect. For instance, a major east-west road in Marin County, California is named Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. It connects Point San Quentin on San Francisco Bay with Point Reyes and Drakes Bay. Each end is near a site considered by some to be Drake's landing place.

In 1961 the television series Sir Francis Drake debuted on ITV, starring Terence Morgan in the title role.

Controversies

Spanish Opinion of Drake

Though considered a hero in England in his own time and regarded as a significant historical figure even now, Spanish history perceives him as a mere pirate who used to sack Spanish harbours. Drake, or Draco ("dragon") or "El Draqui," to use Spanish names for him, was used as a bogeyman for centuries after his "vicious" raids. Children through the Spanish-speaking world were raised to fear "El Draqui."[citation needed]

Slave Trading

Drake and Sir John Hawkins made the first English slave-trading expeditions, making his fortune through the sale of West Africans. Around 1563 Drake first sailed west to the Spanish Main, on a ship owned by his uncle John Hawkins, with a cargo of people forcibly removed from the coast of West Africa. Drake planned to sell the Africans into slavery in Spanish plantations. But Drake took an immediate dislike to the Spanish, at least in part due to their Catholicism and inherent mistrust of non-Spaniards. His hostility is said to have increased over an incident at San Juan de Ulua in 1568, when, while delivering his human cargo, a Spanish fleet took him by surprise. Although he was in an enemy port, it was conventional for the Spanish to 'surrender' for a few hours in order to purchase control of the kidnap victims. Thus it was unusual for a fleet of enemy warships to appear out of the blue. Drake survived the attack largely because of his ability to swim. From then on, he devoted his life to working against the Spanish Empire; the Spanish considered him an outlaw pirate (see also Piracy in the Caribbean), but to England he was simply a sailor and privateer. On his second such voyage, he fought a battle against Spanish forces that cost many English lives but earned him the favour of Queen Elizabeth.

Conflict in the Caribbean

The most celebrated of Drake's Caribbean adventures was his capture of the Spanish Silver Train at Nombre de Dios in March 1573. With a crew including many French privateers and Maroons — African slaves who had escaped the Spanish — Drake raided the waters around Darien (in modern Panama) and tracked the Silver Train to the nearby port of Nombre de Dios. He made off with a fortune in gold, but had to leave behind another fortune in silver, because it was too heavy to carry back to England. It was during this expedition that he climbed a high tree in the central mountains of the Isthmus of Panama and thus became the first Englishman to see the Pacific Ocean. He remarked as he saw it that he hoped that one day an Englishman would be able to sail it, which he would years later as part of his circumnavigation of the world.

When Drake returned to Plymouth on August 9, 1573, a mere 30 Englishmen returned with him, every one of them rich for life. However, Queen Elizabeth, who had up to this point sponsored and encouraged Drake's raids, signed a temporary truce with King Philip II of Spain, and so was unable to officially acknowledge Drake's accomplishment.

Atrocities in Ireland

In 1575 Drake was present at Rathlin Island, part of the English plantation effort in Ulster when 600 men, women and children were massacred after surrendering.[1]

Francis Drake was in charge of the ships which transported John Norris' Troops to Rathlin Island, commanding a small frigate called "Falcon", with a total complement of 25. At the time of the massacre, he was charged with the task of keeping Scottish vessels from bringing reinforcements to Rathlin Island. The people who were massacred were, in fact, the families of Sorley Boy MacDonnell's followers. (see John Sugden, "Sir Francis Drake", Simon+Schuster/New York, ISBN 0-671-75863-2)

See also

* Buckland Abbey, home of Sir Francis Drake.
* Giovanni Battista Boazio Drake's mapmaker

References

* Bawlf, R. Samuel. The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, 1577-1580.(Douglas & McIntyre, 2003)
* Coote, Stephen, Drake, Simon & Schuster, 2003, ISBN 0-7432-2007-2.
* Froude, James Anthony, English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century, London 1896, available as a free eText from Project Gutenberg
* Hughes-Hallett, Lucy. Heroes: A History of Hero Worship. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, New York, 2004. ISBN 1-4000-4399-9.
* Mattingly, Garett, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, ISBN 0-395-08366-4 – a detailed account of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, it received a special citation from the Pulitzer Prize committee in 1960.
* Merideth, Mrs. Charles, Notes and Sketches of New South Wales, during a residence in that colony from 1839 to 1844; BOUND WITH: "Life of Drake" by John Barrow (1st ed, 1844) [xi, 164; and xii, 187 pp. respectfully]
* Rodger, N.A.M. The Safeguard of the Sea; A Naval History of Britain 660-1649. (London, 1997).
* Turner, Michael. (2005). In Drake's Wake - The Early Voyages, Paul Mould Publishing. ISBN 978-1904959212

External links

* The Circumnavigation
o Google Earth Tour of Drake's Circumnavigation
o Lesson plans for classroom use

* General Sites
o Oliver Seeler's website "Sir Francis Drake"
o Francis Drake
o Francis Drake History
o In Drake's Wake - "The world's best Drake resource"
o Drake's Navigation
o Mission to rescue Drake's body
o Kraus Collection of Sir Francis Drake at the Library of Congress
o Hand-colored map depicting Sir Francis Drake's attack on Saint Augustine from the State Archives of Florida
o Biography resources dedicated to Sir Francis Drake

1. Bawlf, R. Samuel. The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, 1577-1580.(Douglas & McIntyre, 2003)
2. Coote, Stephen, Drake, Simon & Schuster, 2003, ISBN 0-7432-2007-2.
3. Froude, James Anthony, English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century, London 1896, available as a free eText from Project Gutenberg
4. Hughes-Hallett, Lucy. Heroes: A History of Hero Worship. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, New York, 2004. ISBN 1-4000-4399-9.
5. Mattingly, Garett, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, ISBN 0-395-08366-4 – a detailed account of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, it received a special citation from the Pulitzer Prize committee in 1960.
6. Merideth, Mrs. Charles, Notes and Sketches of New South Wales, during a residence in that colony from 1839 to 1844; BOUND WITH: "Life of Drake" by John Barrow (1st ed, 1844) [xi, 164; and xii, 187 pp. respectfully]
7. Rodger, N.A.M. The Safeguard of the Sea; A Naval History of Britain 660-1649. (London, 1997).
8. Turner, Michael. (2005). In Drake's Wake - The

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