Sir Francis Drake: The Queen`s Pirate - Hardcover

Kelsey, Mr. Harry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300071825 ISBN 13: 9780300071825

Publisher: Yale University Press, 1998

Synopsis

Relying on new evidence, an illustrated biography of the sixteenth-century English explorer reveals Drake's complex character, from his patriotic exploits to his acts of piracy, and from his leadership of the English navy to his ineptitude at warfare. UP.

About this title

Review:

Remembered in standard history texts as an adventurer who helped extend England's maritime empire to the coasts of Africa and the Americas, Francis Drake roamed the world under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth I. He enriched her coffers by attacking Spanish merchant ships in the Caribbean, raiding ports, looting churches, and taking a cut of the slave trade--the acts not of a military man, Harry Kelsey argues, but of a pirate, and of a cowardly one at that as he was given to fleeing at the first sign of danger, leaving his men behind. Even so, for his services Elizabeth awarded Drake a knighthood and a degree of immunity until he failed to appear at his post during a naval engagement against ships of the Spanish armada. He then lost the queen's favor and disappeared from history's stage. Drake has few champions today, certainly fewer than he did in Elizabethan times. Even then he was none too popular. This well-written revisionist biography explains why. --Gregory McNamee

From the Back Cover:

In this 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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0300071825
• ISBN 13: 9780300071825
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 592