FRANCIS DRAKE: BIOGRAPHY OF THE TERROR OF THE SEAS - BIOGRAPHIES - 2024

Francis Drake (1540-1596), known in some places by nicknames such as "" The dragon "or" Terror of the seas ", was an English corsair, explorer and vice admiral born in the town of Tavistock in 1540. He also participated in slave trade operations.

England and Spain, although formally in truce, had faced each other for many years with the aim of becoming the greatest power of the time. Drake, like other characters, was considered a pirate by the Spanish, while the English considered him a hero. Queen Elizabeth I herself knighted him for his actions in favor of her country.

Sir Francis Drake. Lithograph by A. Maurin - Source: See page for author / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)

Drake led multiple armed expeditions against the Spanish. Some did it as a privateer and others within military actions of the English Royal Navy. In addition, he became the second sailor to go around the world by boat after Elcano.

The corsair died when he was on another expedition in America. Although some biographers claim that he was poisoned, the most widespread opinion is that he died a victim of dysentery. When news of his death reached Spain, the bells of the churches of Castile echoed to celebrate the disappearance of his enemy.

Biography

Francis Drake came into the world in 1540 in Tavistock, a town in the south-west of England. His father was Edmund Drake, a farmer who also served as a Protestant preacher.

It was the Drake family's membership of the Protestant faith that caused them to flee to Kent in 1549, due to the religious persecutions that occurred at that time. In his new home, Francis' father began preaching for members of the king's navy and became a vicar of the Upnor Church.

Francis's first contact with the sea occurred when he was still very young. His father got him a job as an apprentice to one of his neighbors, who owned a boat that he used to trade. Drake's work was very satisfactory, to the point that his boss bequeathed the boat to him when he died.

First steps as a sailor

In 1556, Captain John Hawkins, Francis Drake's cousin, took him as a protégé and taught him the arts of navigation. In addition, he showed the still adolescent the possibilities of enriching themselves through piracy and the slave trade.

Hawkins was known for his role in the massive slave trade. Thus, historians affirm that he was the one who began this practice in the port of Liverpool, something that provided him with great wealth.

Francis Drake made his first major voyage on a merchant ship bound for the Bay of Biscay. Two years later, he toured the coasts of Guinea, then one of the main points of the African slave trade. In the following years, he continued to gain experience in sailing.

John lovell

One of the turning points in Drake's life came in 1565, when Captain John Lovell proposed that he become his partner on a voyage to the West Indies laden with smuggled goods. The plan ended in failure when Spanish ships intercepted the expedition and requisitioned all the cargo.

Following this, Drake rejoined Hawkins, who intended to use the money he had earned from the slave trade to build an entire fleet. His intention was to embark on a piracy campaign off the coast of Mexico.

The fleet assembled by Hawkins set out in 1568 with Drake on board. One of their first destinations was Cartagena de Indias, but a storm forced them to approach the Gulf of Mexico. There they tried to take the fortress of San Juan de Ulúa, but the Spanish destroyed all their ships. Only two were saved: those commanded by Drake and Hawkins.

Back in England and with a desire for revenge, Drake asked the Lord of the Treasury to give him permission to attack the Spanish colonies. The Lord rejected the request and, between 1570 and 1771, Drake embarked on a journey for which little data exists.

Drake as a privateer

Drake's first failures did not cause him to abandon life at sea. For a time he resided in the Caribbean, where he worked for various captains and shipowners. Little by little, his raids and battles were increasing his fame as a privateer.

The term Corsican comes from the Latin cursus and means "career". In Drake's time, the word referred to the journey made by pirate ships against enemy ports and ships in times of war. In case the raids were in peacetime, the pirates were called freebooters.

The next major expedition in which Drake participated took place in May 1572. On that date he set course for the Isthmus of Panama with the purpose of attacking Nombre de Dios. The corsair knew that the fleet of the Spanish Indies used to be provisioned there during those dates before returning to Spain.

Drake faced his enemies in July of that year. Eventually, the attempt to capture the Spanish ships ended in failure and Drake was wounded. This forced him to stay in the area until 1573, when he allied himself with Guillaume Le Testu, a French privateer, to attack a Spanish convoy carrying large quantities of gold and silver.

Capturing the convoy provided Drake and his men with enough wealth to last a lifetime. Back in England, he offered his services to the Earl of Essex to attack Ireland, in addition to providing him with three frigates.

Patent of corso

The death of the Earl of Essex made Drake set out to resume his piracy activities in the service of his country. Thus, he met with Queen Elizabeth I, who approved his request to attack and loot the possessions that the Spanish held in the Pacific.

This support was not only verbal, but included financial aid, both public and private, so that the corsair could assemble a powerful fleet. In January 1578, the ships captained by Drake left the port of Plymouth.

His intention was to travel the American Pacific coast and return to England crossing the Strait of Magellan and attack the Spanish along the way. Drake had managed to gather four ships and 160 men.

The voyage was fraught with problems, including a mutiny on board that Drake stopped by executing his friend Thomas Doughty. The convoy was losing boats due to storms and other incidents. When he reached the Pacific, only the ship captained by Drake himself, the Golden Hint, remained.

In the pacific

Drake and his men entered the Strait of Magellan on June 21. Crossing it became a feat, as they had to face two weeks of violent storms. At last, on July 7, they were able to leave the strait behind and enter the South Sea.

The corsairs followed the coast towards the north, looting the towns and ships that were in their way. In Valparaíso they achieved an important booty when they took a Spanish ship.

In early 1579, Drake ordered to attack and sack Arica. Somewhat later, they did the same with El Callao. In that port they heard that a galleon loaded with great wealth had just set sail and the pirates pursued it until they boarded it off Colombia. According to some accounts, Drake made a loot of £ 900,000 from that action alone.

Drake's ship was losing some maneuverability due to excess weight caused by precious stones and metals. The English decided that returning to the strait would be suicide and also had a good part of the Spanish fleet chasing him.

For this reason, Francis Drake decided to continue north and seek a new passage to the Atlantic, without finding it. What he did find was a territory that he called Nueva Albión, present-day California

At that time, facing the danger of being captured by the Spanish, Drake headed west in order to reach the Moluccas. Thus, he crossed the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and rounded the Cape of Good Hope before returning to Plymouth with all the riches from his looting. In this way, he became the first Briton to go around the world.

Sir Francis Drake

When he arrived in England, Drake was hailed for his exploits. Queen Elizabeth I, in a ceremony on April 4, 1581 aboard the corsair's ship, rewarded him for his services. Francis Drake then became Sir Francis Drake and chose the motto Sic parvis magna (Greatness is born from small beginnings) for his coat of arms.

For a few years, the newly appointed knight remained in England. He even became mayor of Plymouth and, later, a post in the country's Parliament.

Francis Drake married in 1581 the daughter of Sir George Sydenham, whose wealth helps the privateer to consolidate his social position.

On the other hand, King Felipe II of Spain filed a formal complaint about the looting of Drake. The English government, without acknowledging support for the privateer, diplomatically apologized.

War with Spain

In 1585 open war broke out between Spain and England. One of the causes was English support for the United Provinces of the Netherlands, which were fighting the Spanish. The other, the English privateer attacks on Spanish ships and cities.

Drake received the command of a squad with the objective of attacking Spanish cities. The fleet left Plymouth on September 14, 1585. It consisted of 21 ships and 2,000 men. The first attacks took place in Galicia, especially against the city of Vigo. However, the Vigo forced the English to leave the area.

On the way to the American continent, Drake attacked several ships in the Canary Islands and in Cape Verde. After stepping on Dominica and San Cristóbal, the British fleet reached Hispaniola on January 1, 1586. There they took the city of Santo Domingo and demanded a ransom from the Spanish to return it. After receiving 25,000 ducats, the corsairs left the town.

Cartagena de Indias suffered the same fate as Santo Domingo. The city was attacked on February 19 and occupied for a month and a half. The ransom was 107,000 ducats.

Although the English had suffered few casualties in the fighting, yellow fever was beginning to decimate them. For that reason they decided to return to England. After several stages, they reached Plymouth on July 28, 1586.

Expedition to the Iberian Peninsula

Drake's next mission took place in 1587. His fleet headed for Spain with the intention of destroying the navy that Philip II was preparing to invade England.

Drake and his men attacked and sacked Cádiz. In addition, they managed to destroy more than 30 ships destined for the Spanish navy. All this managed to delay a year the plan of the Spanish Crown to invade England.

The Spanish Armada

Felipe II of Spain continued with his plan to create a fleet capable of ending the English maritime power and invade the country. The Invincible Armada, the name given to this fleet, consisted of one hundred and thirty ships. 30,000 soldiers and sailors embarked on them for the British Isles.

The English waited with their ships in front of the port of Plymouth to face their enemies. Drake was in command of a division with the rank of vice admiral.

The mission was a real disaster. The storms destroyed part of the fleet during the journey and the commander in charge of the fleet showed great ineptitude. The battle ended with an unmitigated defeat of the Spanish, who lost 63 of the ships that made up the navy.

English counter-navy

The English tried to take advantage of the disaster suffered by the Invincible Armada and organized a fleet that received the name of Contraarmada. The purpose was to attack the Spanish coasts and support an insurrection in Portugal (then in Spanish hands) against Felipe II.

Another objective of the English was to conquer some of the Azores islands to create a base in the Atlantic from which to attack Spanish merchant ships on their way to America.

Drake was in charge of leading the attack on La Coruña, in Galicia. Although he was able to loot part of the town, he finally had to abandon it in the face of local resistance. The English suffered heavy losses: four ships and 1,300 dead.

His attempt to promote insurrection in Portugal also ended in failure, as did the occupation of the Azores. The Counter-Navy had to withdraw from Spanish waters without achieving any of its objectives and after suffering great losses of men and ships.

The English authorities opened an investigation to try to find the causes of the failure. Drake, who had been criticized for his behavior during the expedition, was relegated to Commander of the Plymouth Coast Defenses, a minor post. Furthermore, he was prohibited from leading any new fleet in subsequent years.

Second expedition to the Indies

By 1595, the war was developing in a negative way for English interests. Before this, Drake made a proposal to Queen Elizabeth I: to send a fleet to America to seize Panama from Spain. The privateer's plan was to establish a British base there from which to attack the rest of Spanish territory in the Caribbean.

Drake received the approval of the queen and began the planned campaign. However, she suffered several defeats to the Spanish forces. Among these, the failure when trying to capture a galleon in Puerto Rico or being defeated by five frigates when it attacked San Juan.

Death

The last battle fought by Drake also ended in defeat. It was in Panama, when he could not defeat 120 Spanish soldiers.

In mid-January 1596, the privateer fell ill with dysentery. On the 28th of that month, Sir Francis Drake died when his ship was off Portobelo, in Panama. As tradition indicated, his body was thrown into the sea in a ballasted coffin.

References

1. EcuRed. Sir Francis Drake. Obtained from ecured.cu
2. Biographies and Lives. Sir Francis Drake. Obtained from biografiasyvidas.com
3. Communication Department of the Spanish Army. Francis Drake. Recovered from army.defensa.gob.es
4. History.com Editors. Sir Francis Drake. Retrieved from history.com
5. Ernle Bradford, Felipe Fernández-Armesto. Sir Francis Drake. Retrieved from britannica.com
6. The Library of Congress. The Famous Voyage: The Circumnavigation of the World, 1577-1580. Retrieved from loc.gov
7. Johnson, Ben. Sir Francis Drake. Retrieved from historic-uk.com
8. Biography.com Editors. Francis Drake Biography. Retrieved from biography.com