The Pirate Queen
Authors: Susan Ronald
The Pirate Queen
QUEEN ELIZABETH I,
HER PIRATE ADVENTURERS,
AND THE DAWN OF EMPIRE
Susan Ronald
For Doug
There is no jewel, be it of never so rich a price, which I set before this jewel—I mean your loves. For I do more esteem it than any treasure or riches, for that we know how to prize. But love and thanks I count unvaluable [invaluable], and though God hath raised me high, yet this I count the glory of my crown: that I have reigned with your loves. This makes me that I do not so much rejoice that God hath made me to be a queen, as to be a queen over so thankful a people…so I trust by the almighty power of God that I shall be His instrument to preserve you from envy, peril, dishonor, shame, tyranny, and oppression, partly by means of your intended helps….
—EXTRACT FROM ELIZABETH I’S
Golden Speech
TO PARLIAMENT NOVEMBER
30, 1601
Contents
Part I. The Desperate Quest for Security
The Queen, Her Merchants and Gentlemen
The Merchants Adventurers, Antwerp, and Muscovy
The Politics of Piracy, Trade, and Religion
The Troublesome Voyage of John Hawkins
The Queen and Alba’s Pay Ships
Drake at the Treasure House of the World
Dr. Dee’s Nursery and the Northwest Passage
The Northwest and the Company of Kathai
Elizabeth Strikes Back in the Levant
Katherine Champernowne’s Sons Take Up the American Dream
The Queen Lets Loose Her Dragon
The Plundering of the Spanish Armada
The Last Gasp of the Early Roaring ’90s
The Alchemy That Turned Plunder into Trade
The East and the East India Company
Appendix I. The Petty Navy Royal
Appendix II. The Flotilla from New Spain of August 1587
Select Bibliographical Essay and Suggest ed Reading
End Papers:
Map of Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe
, by permission of the British Library
Title Page:
Elizabeth I’s signature
, by permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, from Ashmole 1729, fol. 13
Part title I:
Coronation Procession of Queen Elizabeth I
, by the kind permission of the Archivist, the College of Arms, London
Part title II:
Fan-shaped world map by Michael Lok
, by permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, ref. 4
o
E 2.Jur(4)
Part title III:
Map from the Bay of Biscay to the Southern English Coast
, by Thomas Hood, by the kind permission of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
Part title IV:
Map of the East Indies
, by Ortelius, by the kind permission of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
Queen Elizabeth I
, c. 1578, believed to be painted in oils by Nicholas Hilliard, by permission of the Liverpool Museums and Walker Art Gallery
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester
, by van der Meulen, by the kind permission of the trustees of the Wallace Collection, London
Philip II of Spain
, by unknown artist, by permission of National Portrait Gallery, London
Lord Admiral Charles Howard
, by the kind permission of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
Map of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean
, by Jacques Dousaigo, by the kind permission of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
Map of Virginia Coast
, by the kind permission of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
Sir William Cecil
, by permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, ref. LP 38
Sir Francis Walsingham
, by John de Critz, by permission of the National Portrait Gallery, London
Sir John Hawkins
, by the kind permission of Plymouth Museums and Art Gallery
Sir Francis Drake,
by Nicholas Hilliard, by permission of the National Portrait Gallery, London
The Drake Cup, by kind permission of Plymouth Museums and Art Gallery
The Drake Chair, by permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, ref. Neg.PR. 1831
Martin Frobisher
, by permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, ref. LP 50
Sir Walter Raleigh
, by “H,” by permission of the National Portrait Gallery, London
Sir Henry Sidney
, by Arnold van Brounckhorst, by permission of the National Portrait Gallery, London
Sir Philip Sidney
, by unknown artist, by permission of the National Portrait Gallery, London
Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex
, by unknown artist, by permission of the National Portrait Gallery, London
The Deed of Grant of Virginia to Sir Walter Raleigh, by the kind permission of Plymouth Museums and Art Gallery
View of the Thames
, by the Flemish School, by the kind permission of the Museum of London
Troops Arriving in Antwerp
, by permission of the British Library
Letter from Elizabeth I to Sir William Cecil in the queen’s hand, 1572
, by permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, ref. Ashmole 1729, fol. 13
View of River Thames and the Tower of London
, by permission of the British Library
The Armada Tapestry
, by the kind permission of Plymouth Museums and Art Gallery
Matthew Baker, shipwright, Designing a Ship
, by the kind permission of the Pepsyian Library, University of Cambridge
Baker’s design of a ship using a cod to demonstrate the desired shape
, by the kind permission of the Pepsyian Library, University of Cambridge
Map of Western Atlantic from Newfoundland to Brazil
, by Freducci, by permission of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
The Armada Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I
, by kind permission of His Grace the Duke of Bedford and the Trustees of the Bedford Estates
T
o perhaps misquote Sir Isaac Newton, “If I have been able to see as far as I have, it is because I have been able to stand upon the shoulders of giants.” Great subjects like Elizabeth Tudor and all her adventurers have survived to be written about from the Elizabethan era to the current day due to the loving attention of so many individuals across the generations—both known and anonymous. They are too numerous to thank individually here, but I would like to thank each and every one of you en masse. I owe you so much above all others for allowing me to glimpse into Elizabeth’s world. To the scores of original-manuscript collectors like Sir Thomas Egerton; Sir Thomas Bodley; Robert Cecil, the Marquis of Salisbury, through to Sir Hans Sloane, my thanks for your feverish gathering of letters and papers of national and international importance, and your keeping them safe for later generations. To the Victorian greats like Julian Corbett, Michael Oppenheimer, and all the researchers and painstaking editors of the thousands of letters engrossed into the volumes of the
Calendar of State Papers
, the
Acts of the Privy Council
, the Hakluyt Society, and the Seldon Society for its
Register of the High Court of Admiralty Pleas
, I am truly in your debt. The modern greats like R. B. Wernham, Irene A. Wright, Conyers Read, Professor Kenneth R. Andrews, John Sugden, N. A. M. Rodgers, and David Loades are the true masters of Elizabeth’s maritime England, and Geoffrey Parker remains unexcelled in my opinion as the English language’s expert on Philip II and the Dutch Revolt. Without the great institutions and their incredibly helpful staffs at the British Library, the National Archives, the Caird Library at the National Maritime Museum, the University of Oxford and the Bodleian Library, the Bank of England, the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., and the most remarkable Archivio de Indias in Seville, this book would simply not have been possible.