The Elizabethan Pirates and Explorers

Britain eventually ruled the waves as the most powerful country in the world. The foundations to this super power status was commenced by Elizabeth who encouraged wild and ruthless men to design new ships and sails and guns, explore the world, colonise land and get rich from pirating.

The key players were in chronological order were;

Sir John Hawkings

1532-1595, Pirate and Slave Trader (The first of many), ship designer and builder; born Plymouth Devon the son of a major ship builder. Elder cousin, friend and partner of Francis Drake.

Sir Martin Frobisher

1535-1594 Pirate, Explorer and naval commander, born in Yorkshire he became somewhat of a loose canon and embarrassment to Elizabeth as she tried to find peace with the Spaniards. He turned explorer to seek out the North West Passage but was more interested in finding gold. He and his backers which included Elizabeth lost money when he explored but he redeemed himself with his contribution as a captain against the Armada.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert

1539-1583, Explorer, colonizer, ruthless soldier, parliamentarian, born in Devon and educated at Cambridge, succeeded in influencing Elizabeth to back settlements in Munster, Ireland and America, half brother of Walter Raleigh who set up Roanoke following advice from Gilbert.

Sir Richard Grenville

1541-1591 Soldier, Sailor, MP for Cornwall, friend of Gilbert and Drake. Joined Gilbert in establishing English settlements is South West Ireland (Munster), transported the first English settlers to Roanoke Island off North Carolina-then Virginia and pirated a Spanish bullion ship on route home. Played an important role against the Spanish Armada and then was involved with patrolling the coast of Munster against the Spanish. Died after a trip to the Azores to plunder Spanish ships when Philip 2nd of Spain sent out a huge squadron to capture him. However as immortalized by Tennyson this Spanish fleet were subsequently wiped out in a huge hurricane.     

Sir Francis Drake

1542-1596 Pirate, Slave trader, Navigator, explorer, head and shoulders above his contemporaries. Also from the West of England, (Devon), in 1567 he initially sailed with his elder cousin John Hawkings on slaving voyages and was caught by the Spanish who hijacked his cargo of West African slaves, killed many  English sailors and captured a ship belonging to Queen Elizabeth herself. From this date EnglandSpain were effectively at war which culminated in the Spanish invading Armada of 1588 and Francis Drake being driven by a personal vendetta against the Spanish. In 1572 this initially involved him targeting Spanish mule trains as they crossed the hills in Panama en-route from Peru to the waiting Spanish ships in the Caribbean. Drake was then England’s most successful Privateer and Elizabeth was proud of him. Driven again by hatred of the Spanish in 1575 he set sail south round the Spanish controlled tip of South America and sailed north in the Pacific to ransack Spanish settlements in Peru. Drake than sailed up the coast to California and claimed it for Elizabeth, then ambitiously crossed the Pacific Ocean where he easily located the Spice Islands (between Indonesia and the Philippines), the Moluccas and did a deal for spices to come to England by-passing the dreaded Ottoman Muslims and sailed home round the southern tip of Africa arriving in 1581. The first round the world trip led by a single man. Very profitable too for Elizabeth who received enough treasure to pay off the whole of her national debt.

He was Knighted on the spot and immediately sent off to attack Spanish settlements in the Caribbean in an open act of war.  In 1587 he heard that the Spanish were assembling a fleet to invade England in their portCadiz, so without ado he sailed across the Atlantic straight into the port of Cadiz and set fire, captured or sunk 24 Spanish ships.

In 1588 the Spanish having replaced their lost ships set sail to invade England and replace Elizabeth with a suitable Catholic. The so called Armada. The Spanish were no match for the smaller, more manoeuvrable, heavily armed English navy and the naval captains like Drake who had honed their skills as the Queens pirates. Drake in fact annoyed his peers during the Armada by spending valuable time capturing the Spanish payship for his own personal gain. Drake died in 1596 during his last pirating voyage to the Caribbean by which time the Spanish had considerably strengthened their defences.

Sir Walter Raleigh 1554-1618

Flamboyant, educated, soldier, Irish land owner, explorer, pirate, courtier, poet and colonialist.

Raleigh was born near Budleigh Salterton in Devon and was the younger half brother of Humphrey Gilbert and in 1578 when Raleigh was 24 they sailed to America together. Both were educated men and the trip inspired their desire to support colonisation. In 1580 he travelled to southern Ireland to help suppress an uprising  supported by the Pope plus an Italian army which surrendered. Raleigh and his party murdered all the Irish and Italians they could find. This brought him to the court of Elizabeth when he was given huge estates in Ireland as reward for his services to the crown! He now should have been a rich man but he found difficulty in finding the right people to manage his estates. In 1584 Elizabeth made him an MP and he was granted more Irish land. Elizabeth obviously found him an attractive personality helped by his education, good looks and manners and the poetry he wrote for her. Unfortunately in 1592 he fell in love and secretly married one of Elizabeth’s maids of honour, Elizabeth Throckmorton. Elizabeth enraged and jealous threw the newly weds into the Tower. Raleigh never again regained the friendship of the Queen.

Raleigh is known for bringing Tobacco and Potatoes from North America to England. There is no historical proof that he actually did. He certainly made smoking popular in England by regularly smoking at court and he certainly was the first to try and grow potatoes but nobody liked them in England. However from his Irish estates he commenced the Irish liking for eating potatoes.

Sir Walter Raleigh is sometimes accredited for starting the first English colony in North America. In 1585 he certainly organised the passage for the first 300 settlers but Elizabeth stopped him going. Instead the fleet was led by Sir Richard Grenville.

See above.

Sir Richard Hawkins 1562-1622

Pirate, maritime explorer, naval captain and MP. Son of John Hawkins and friend of Drake. His main ambition was to copy the round the world trip of Francis Drake and make a fortune by plundering and pirating while making scientific observations. The Spanish in Chile thought better of it and threw him in jail.