Sir Francis Drake: The Queen's PirateYale University Press, 1 jan 2000 - 566 pagina's In this lively and engaging new biography, Harry Kelsey shatters the familiar image of Sir Francis Drake. The Drake of legend was a pious, brave, and just seaman who initiated the move to make England a great naval power and whose acts of piracy against his country’s enemies earned him a knighthood for patriotism. Kelsey paints a different and far more interesting picture of Drake as an amoral privateer at least as interested in lining his pockets with Spanish booty as in forwarding the political goals of his country, a man who became a captain general of the English navy, but never waged traditional warfare with any success. Drawing on much new evidence, Kelsey describes Drake’s early life as the son of a poor family in sixteenth-century England. He explains how Drake dabbled in piracy, gained modest success as a merchant, and then took advantage of the hostility between Spain and England to embark on a series of daring pirate raids on undefended Spanish ships and ports, preempting Spanish demands for punishment by sharing much of his booty with the Queen and her councillors. Elizabeth I liked Drake because he was a charming rogue, and she made him an integral part of her war plans against Spain and its armada, but she quickly learned not to trust him with an important command: he was unable to handle a large fleet, was suspicious almost to the point of paranoia, and had no understanding of personal loyalty. For Drake, the mark of success was to amass great wealth, preferably by taking it from someone else and the primary purpose of warfare was to afford him the opportunity to accomplish this. |
Inhoudsopgave
ONE From Tavistock to Plymouth | 3 |
II | 79 |
EIGHT Honors and Riches | 207 |
THIRTEEN The Last Voyage | 367 |
Appendixes | 401 |
Overige edities - Alles bekijken
Veelvoorkomende woorden en zinsdelen
AGI Patronato 266 AGI Santo Domingo AGS Estado AGS Guerra Marina Antonio April ashore BL Cotton BL Harley BL Lansdowne Buckland Abbey Cádiz captains captured Cartagena coast commander crew Discourse Doughty Drake took Drake's ship Drake's Voyage Drake's West Indian Edmund Drake Elizabeth England fleet Fletcher Francis Drake Revived Hakluyt harbor Harley MS 540 Ibid Indies island John Drake John Hawkins king land later letter Library Light on Drake London manuscript Medina Sidonia Mendoza Nichols Nombre de Dios Norris and Drake Nuño de Silva Office Panama Pedro Philip Nichols pinnaces pirates Plymouth port Privy Council queen raid ramo 49 ramo 54 Record kept aboard Relación sailed sailors Santo Domingo Sarmiento de Gamboa Sir Francis Drake Spain Spanish Armada story Strait of Magellan Tavistock testimony Thomas Thomas Cavendish Thomas Doughty town transcribed in Keeler Tudor Navy vessel Walsingham West Indian Voyage William World Encompassed Wynter
Populaire passages
Pagina 537 - Dioecesis Exoniensis, being a collection of records and instruments illustrating the ancient conventual, collegiate, and eleemosynary foundations, in the Counties of Cornwall and Devon, with historical notices, and a Supplement, comprising a list of the dedications of Churches in the Diocese, an amended edition of the taxation of Pope Nicholas, and an abstract of the Chantry Rolls.
Verwijzingen naar dit boek
Tides in the Affairs of Men: The Social History of Elizabethan Seamen, 1580-1603 Cheryl Fury Geen voorbeeld beschikbaar - 2002 |