| Title | D |
| Source | The British Museum |
| Date | 1583 |
| Creator | Jean Rabel the Elder |
| Type | Engraving |
| Origin | British Museum Research Database Website |
Drake / Drake / Drake / Drake / Drake / Drake / Drake / Drake
Additional Notes
Drake, Sir Francis (1540-1596):; Sir Francis Drake was an English pirate, naval commander and circumnavigator of the Elizabethan era. In his early years Drake got his first taste of the sea, piracy and the slave trade while sailing with his relatives John and William Hawkins. His whole life was spent in various perilous, piratical activity, beginning with raids on the Spanish Indies in the early 1570s, and soon advancing to a voyage around the world from 1577-80, in which Drake raided Spanish settlements and galleons along the way, finally returning to Plymouth in 1580 with an incredible amount of captured Spanish treasure. This voyage in particular made Drake and his crew extremely rich, and caught the attention of Queen Elizabeth, on whom Drake showered gifts, and who knighted Drake in 1581. In 1584 Drake set out again on a less successful series of raids on Spanish ports and shipping in the West Indies, and in 1586, on the voyage towards home up the Eastern coast of North America, Drake stopped at Raleigh’s Roanoke Colony, under Richard Grenville’s command and by now in dire straits, and took the colonists back with him to England. Following this voyage Drake fought in several battles against the Spanish Armada, meeting with a mix of brilliant success when the engagements involved raiding action on harbors, and less success or occasional failure when circumstances necessitated that he act as a fleet commander and actually use naval tactics for large-scale open water engagements. After an undeniably fascinating life of extreme courage and remarkable villainy, Drake died of dysentery in 1596, while on yet another raid on Spanish settlements in the West Indies. ;
Works Cited:; Harry Kelsey, ‘Drake, Sir Francis (1540–1596)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2009 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8022, accessed 20 Sept 2011];