shepherding the fleet. In the early 1560s many young English adventurers, dreaming most probably of voyages with the Muscovy Company to Cathay rather than mundane Channel crossings, grew up in the hope that some day, they would cross oceans and take “real” prizes. The exploits of English, French Huguenot, or Scottish pirates were whispered on everyone’s lips, and the source of persistent complaint to the Queen of England by her neighbors. Their daring raids in smaller, swifter ships were admired and feared by all. In England, these men were the new “Robin Hoods,” seeking to redress the previous years of bloody Catholic cruelty under Mary and dreaming of rich prizes to distribute among their friends. Such men hardly saw their own brand of retribution as Protestant corsairs in the same light. One such dreamer in the thick of the trade with the Low Countries and France—a red-haired junior master on a small bark making the run between the Low Countries and Dover—was the then unknown renegade Francis Drake. 35
Like hundreds, if not thousands, of other young men, Drake’s life and career would be made by “harvesting the sea,” teetering perilously at times into piracy, while at other times turning his efforts expansively to the legitimate investments of other merchant princes of the day. His career, perhaps more than any other, cameto symbolize the synthesis of the English seaman from merchant shipping service to defense of the realm to the type of adventurer who would, in Sir Walter Raleigh’s words, “seek new worlds, for gold, for praise, for glory.” 36
Frequently in years to come, it would be difficult to discern the legal endeavors of most of Elizabeth’s seamen, statesmen, and gentlemen from out-and-out buccaneering. These men—call them pirates, corsairs, rovers, privateers, 37 mariners, sailors, merchants, adventurers, or gentlemen—would drive the rebirth of an isolated England and transform the island nation into a nascent empire. They would also undermine the fortunes of Catholic Europe, and most notably those of Spain and Portugal.
6. The Politics of Piracy, Trade, and Religion
This is a nation of overwhelming audacity, courageous, impetuous, unmerciful in war, warm on first acquaintance, sneering at death, but boastful about it, cunning, and completely given to dissimulation, whether in word or deed; above all they possess prudence, along with great eloquence and hospitality.
—EMANUEL VAN METEREN, ABOUT THE ENGLISH
B efore the end of the third year of Elizabeth’s reign she had firmly established England as a new force to be reckoned with in the Channel, boosting the country’s status and stability, and laying the firm foundations for independence. She had stood up to the troublesome Guise faction in France and Scotland. The whirligig of changing French Valois kings—Henry II, his sons, Francis II, Charles IX—and even their formidable mother, Catherine de’ Medici, recognized Elizabeth’s achievements and potential danger to France. Philip II admired her and lamented her heresy, and Pope Pius IV wanted her dethroned and even proposed to the Spanish king that he would crown him King of England himself. 1 While the English queen had allied herself with other Protestants in Sweden, Scotland, France, and the Netherlands, she had been careful to maintain a policy of “balance” and “diplomacy” with France, Portugal, the Holy Roman Empire, and Spain. As Philip’s ambassador to England so bitterly remarked in April 1562, “…now that she has the support of the heretics here and in France, and knows the trouble our affairs are in, in the Netherlands, I am certain that this Queen has thought and studied nothing else since the King sailed for Spain, but how to oust him from the Netherlands, and she believes the best way to effect this is to embroil them over there on religious questions, as I wrote months ago.” 2
Elizabeth did, indeed, keep an intent eye on events in the Low
Like hundreds, if not thousands, of other young men, Drake’s life and career would be made by “harvesting the sea,” teetering perilously at times into piracy, while at other times turning his efforts expansively to the legitimate investments of other merchant princes of the day. His career, perhaps more than any other, cameto symbolize the synthesis of the English seaman from merchant shipping service to defense of the realm to the type of adventurer who would, in Sir Walter Raleigh’s words, “seek new worlds, for gold, for praise, for glory.” 36
Frequently in years to come, it would be difficult to discern the legal endeavors of most of Elizabeth’s seamen, statesmen, and gentlemen from out-and-out buccaneering. These men—call them pirates, corsairs, rovers, privateers, 37 mariners, sailors, merchants, adventurers, or gentlemen—would drive the rebirth of an isolated England and transform the island nation into a nascent empire. They would also undermine the fortunes of Catholic Europe, and most notably those of Spain and Portugal.
6. The Politics of Piracy, Trade, and Religion
This is a nation of overwhelming audacity, courageous, impetuous, unmerciful in war, warm on first acquaintance, sneering at death, but boastful about it, cunning, and completely given to dissimulation, whether in word or deed; above all they possess prudence, along with great eloquence and hospitality.
—EMANUEL VAN METEREN, ABOUT THE ENGLISH
B efore the end of the third year of Elizabeth’s reign she had firmly established England as a new force to be reckoned with in the Channel, boosting the country’s status and stability, and laying the firm foundations for independence. She had stood up to the troublesome Guise faction in France and Scotland. The whirligig of changing French Valois kings—Henry II, his sons, Francis II, Charles IX—and even their formidable mother, Catherine de’ Medici, recognized Elizabeth’s achievements and potential danger to France. Philip II admired her and lamented her heresy, and Pope Pius IV wanted her dethroned and even proposed to the Spanish king that he would crown him King of England himself. 1 While the English queen had allied herself with other Protestants in Sweden, Scotland, France, and the Netherlands, she had been careful to maintain a policy of “balance” and “diplomacy” with France, Portugal, the Holy Roman Empire, and Spain. As Philip’s ambassador to England so bitterly remarked in April 1562, “…now that she has the support of the heretics here and in France, and knows the trouble our affairs are in, in the Netherlands, I am certain that this Queen has thought and studied nothing else since the King sailed for Spain, but how to oust him from the Netherlands, and she believes the best way to effect this is to embroil them over there on religious questions, as I wrote months ago.” 2
Elizabeth did, indeed, keep an intent eye on events in the Low
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