The Pirate Queen (63 page)

2. In the testimonies of the captured sailors given before the Inquisition, Godard frequently appears as “Antonio Tejida,” since he was a dealer in woollen cloth, or
tejido
. Most of the Englishmen who were captured, or of whom the prisoners spoke, had their names corrupted through Spanish transcription. Aside from the obvious Juan Aquinas—John
Hawkins—there were names like Juan Brun (easily identifiable as John Brown) and the more esoteric Enrique Quince (Henry Quin) and Jorge Fizullens (George Fitzallen).

3. Nick Hazlewood,
The Queen’s Slave Trader
(New York, 2005), p. 181.

4. Kenneth Andrews,
The Spanish Caribbean
(London, 1978), pp. 122–123.

5. There are so many great accounts of this incident. See N. Hazlewood’s
The Queen’s Slave Trader
, p. 185, for the most detailed account. Also see H. Kelsey’s
Sir John Hawkins
(New Haven, 2003), p. 57 and J. Sugden’s,
Sir Francis Drake
, p. 24. It is also recounted in Richard Hakluyt’s
Principall Navigations
(London, 1598).

6. In N. Hazlewood’s
The Queen’s Slave Trader
, pp. 188–189. In J. Sugden’s
Sir Francis Drake
, pp. 24–25.

7. John Sugden,
Sir Francis Drake
, pp. 26–27.

8. N. Hazlewood,
The Queen’s Slave Trader
, p. 214

9. Kenneth Andrews,
The Spanish Caribbean
, p. 101. Although Hawkins and the Spanish didn’t know about the Spanish being massacred in Florida, the French under Dominique de Gourgues certainly did. De Gourgues left the message behind at St Johns, “je ne fais ceci comme aux Espagnols, ni comme aux Marranos, mais comme aux traitres, voleurs et meurtriers.” (I am not doing this either to Spaniards or Marranos, but to traitors, thieves and murderers.)

10. Nick Hazlewood,
The Queen’s Slave Trader
, pp. 215–216.

11. Ibid., p. 217.

12. Richard Hakluyt,
Principall Navigations
, vol. 9, p. 449. See also Kenneth Andrews,
The Spanish Caribbean
, p. 124.

13. BL, Cotton MSS, Otho E. VIII, f. 36. Otho E VIII is the most fabulous source of West Indian exploits of the 1560s.

14. Nick Hazlewood,
The Queen’s Slave Trader
, pp. 233–239.

15. Ibid.

16. Ibid., p. 240. See also Kenneth Andrews,
The Spanish Caribbean
, pp. 125–126.

17. Ibid., p. 241. See also, Julian Corbett,
Successors of Drake
(London, 1900), pp. 56-133.

18. Ibid., p. 246. See also Kenneth Andrews,
Elizabethan Privateering
(Cambridge, UK, 1964), pp. 32–34.

Chapter 12.
The Queen and Alba’s Pay Ships

1. Shane O’Neill had been importing Scots mercenaries known as “redshanks” to populate the northeast coast of Ulster and fight alongside him. So long as Mary remained on Scotland’s throne, this represented a double danger to England’s borders.

2. Julian A. Corbett,
Drake and the Tudor Navy
(Aldershot, England, 1988 Centenary imprint), p. 121.

3. Philip II did, in fact, have a very legitimate claim to the English throne. His next ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, penned a rather overzealous defense of Philip’s claim as a direct descendant from John of Gaunt, which did nothing to endear either of them to Elizabeth or her Councillors.

4. G. Parker,
The Grand Strategy of Philip II
(New Haven, 2000), pp. 120–122.

5.
CSP—Spain
, vol. 2, p. 29.

6.
CSP—Venice
, vol. 3, p. 423, dated May 7, 1568.

7. R. B. Wernham,
Before the Armada
, pp. 290–292.

8. G. Parker,
The Grand Strategy of Philip II
, p. 123. (Alba to Philip II, January 6, 1568).

9.
CSP—Spain
, vol. 2, p. 83.

10. Ibid., p. 90.

11. Ibid., p. 95.

12. Julian A. Corbett,
Drake and the Tudor Navy
, p. 124.

13.
CSP—Spain
, vol. 2, p. 99–100.

Chapter 13.
The Cost of Failure

1. AGI Patronato 265, Ramo, 13, fol. 25v. Testimony of Juan de la Torre, February 28, 1569.

2. J. Hawkins,
Troublesome Voyadge,
fol. B. vii.

3. J. Hampden (ed.),
Francis Drake Privateer
, (London, 1972), p. 45. Hawkins’s reasons for tempering his criticism by not mentioning Drake by name are many. It is tempting to hope that one of them was that for Drake’s silence about Hawkins’s lack of clear course of action to follow in the event of attack, the young Drake again found favor with his more “experienced” cousin. This early stain on Drake’s record, however, stuck, and was trotted out many years later by both Martin Frobisher and William Borough as an alleged “proof” of cowardice. Drake’s subsequent record speaks volumes for itself.

4. SP 12/53, f. iv-7. See also printed version in E. Arber’s
An English Garner
, (London, 1903), pp. 104–126.

5. Hawkins, naturally, exaggerated his losses in several ways. The most glaring and provable of which is the fact that the
peso de oro
was exchanged at 3 to the pound sterling, not 25p to the pound, as he accounts here.

6.
CSP—Foreign
, vol. 5, p. 436.

7. Ibid., pp. 437–438.

Chapter 14.
Undeclared Holy War

1. J. Corbett,
Drake and the Tudor Navy
(Aldershot, England, 1988 Centenary reprint), vol. 1, p. 148.

2. J. Hampden (ed.),
Sir Francis Drake Privateer
, (London, 1972), p. 46.

3. J. Corbett,
Drake and the Tudor Navy
, vol. 1, p. 126.

4. Ibid., pp. 126–127.

5.
CSP—Rome
, vol. 1, p. 328.

Chapter 15.
Drake’s War

1. J. Corbett,
Drake and the Tudor Navy
(Aldershot, England, 1988 Centenary reprint), vol. 1, p. 146.

2. John Sugden,
Sir Francis Drake
(London, 1996), p. 45.

3. MS Ashmole 830, unnumbered folio. See also Irene A. Wright’s
Documents Concerning English Voyages to the Spanish Main 1569–1580
(London, 1973) vol. 1, docs. 5-13. In Kelsey’s biographical sketch in the
DNB
, he claims that this voyage was funded by William Winter and his brother, George. Sugden believes it was Hawkins. In light of this original manuscript, coupled with Irene Wright’s meticulous translations in
Documents
, and Drake’s mini-celebrity status in Plymouth at the time, there is little reason to disbelieve that Richard Dennys and other Devon merchants backed this relatively inexpensive voyage. Taken into consideration with Drake’s dubious reputation on his return in 1569, it makes sense.

4. John Sugden,
Sir Francis Drake
, pp. 45–46.

5. J. Hampden (ed.),
Sir Francis Drake Privateer
, (London, 1972), pp. 46–47.

6. John Sugden,
Sir Francis Drake
, (London, 1996), p. 48.

7. Ibid., p. 50.

8. Ibid., p. 51. See also Irene A. Wright,
Documents Concerning English Voyages
, vol. 1, docs. 31–35.

9. It is safer to take this estimate rather than the sum of the other estimates provided earlier in the chapter by Drake, and also the estimate of £100,000 provided in the
DNB.
The lord admiral, Customs & Excise, and Drake’s crew and partners received their shares based on the £66,000.

Chapter 16.
The Dread of Future Foes

1. “Doubt” in this instance, per the
OED
, means “dread.”

2. FSL, MS V.b. 317, fol. 20 vol. 1. It is assumed that this poem was written on the discovery of the Ridolfi plot, the betrayal by the queen’s cousin, the Duke of Norfolk, and Mary’s involvement from her castle prison.

3.
CSP—Rome
, pp. 337, 379.

4. BL, MS Cotton Caligula, C. III, fol. 145r.

5. A. Stewart,
Philip Sidney
, (London, 2004), p. 200.

6.
DNB
, William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke biography. He had been an investor in Hugh Willoughby’s northeast passage adventure in the 1550s, the Hawkins voyages, and was a principal shareholder in the mines royal and mineral and battery companies. Note that later, Sir Henry Sidney’s daughter, Mary, would become the second wife of the Earl’s son and heir.

7.
CSP—Rome
, p. 374.

8.
DNB
, Sir Lionel Duckett.

9. Raymond de Roover,
Gresham on Foreign Exchange
, (Cambridge, USA, 1999), p. 27.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid. See pages 22–25 for an explanation of the Gresham accounts. His accounts hadn’t been audited for the eleven years prior to his retirement as the queen’s factor, and were estimated to be £10,000 ($3.4 million or £2 million today) understated. In order to get around the potential problem of reimbursement—since the money had already been earmarked for the Royal Exchange—Gresham cleverly approached the queen through Leicester during her Kenilworth visit in the summer of 1573, where the queen magnanimously (and uncharacteristically) wrote off the amount.

12. R. B. Wernham,
The Making of Elizabethan Foreign Policy
(Berkeley, 1980), p. 33.

13. England voluntarily abandoned all Guinea trade and slave trade from 1572 until it was resumed in 1650.

14. A. F. Pollard,
History of England 1547–1603
, pp. 305, 331–332.

15. C. W. Previté-Orton (ed.),
The English Historical Review
, vol. XLVI, 1931, “Queen Elizabeth, The Sea Beggars, and the Capture of Brill, 1572,” p. 38.

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid., p. 39.

18.
DNB
, sketch biography of Sir Humphrey Gilbert.

19. A. Stewart,
Sir Philip Sidney
(London, 2004), p. 84.

20. BL, MS Additional 30156, fol. 437r-440r.

Chapter 17.
Drake at the Treasure House of the World

1. The
Pasco
is sometimes referred to as the
Pascha
.

2. Whether his investment took the form of giving the
Pasco
to Drake, or in the fitting out costs, is unclear.

3. J. Hampden (ed.),
Sir Francis Drake Revived
(London, 1954), p. 55.

4. Ibid., p. 57. Also see J. Sugden,
Sir Francis Drake
(London, 1996), p. 55.

5. John Sugden,
Sir Francis Drake
, p. 55.

6. Ibid., pp. 55–56. Drake always treated his hostages and prisoners as well as possible, but there is no doubt that he felt truly badly for the lives that the Negro slaves were made to endure, as evidenced by his subsequent behavior.

7. Ibid.

8. J. Hampden (ed.),
Sir Francis Drake Revived
, pp. 60–61. Drake’s wound was most likely a flesh wound, but he did lose a large amount of blood.

9. Ibid., p. 64.

10. Ibid.

11. John Sugden,
Sir Francis Drake
, p. 58. The testimony of the eyewitness García de Paz is generally now thought to have been exaggerated.

12. Ibid., p. 65.

Chapter 18.
From a Treetop in Darien

1. The Pacific Ocean was interchangeably called the South Atlantic, West Sea, the Southern Sea, the South Sea, or even the Spanish Lake, but never, as yet, the Pacific.

2. J. Hampden, (ed.),
Sir Francis Drake Revived
(London, 1954), p. 64. Diego is mentioned more in J. Hamden’s
Sir Francis Drake Revived
than anyone else, save the captain himself and his brother, John.

3. John Sugden,
Sir Francis Drake
(London, 1996), p. 59.

4. Ibid., p. 62, quoted from J. Hampden’s
Sir Francis Drake Revived.

5. Ibid., p. 64, quoted from J. Hampden’s
Sir Francis Drake Revived.

6. J. Hampden (ed.),
Sir Francis Drake Revived
, p. 85. The momentous date was February 11, 1573. While the Spaniards and some Portuguese had long known the significance of the Isthmus of Panama, this “open secret” hadn’t been seen by any other European before this date.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

Chapter 19.
Success at a Cost

1. John Sugden,
Sir Francis Drake
(London, 1996), p. 68. The rider had seen one of Oxenham’s men, a fellow named Robert Pike, stand up in the undergrowth. Pike had allegedly drunk too much neat aqua vitae the night before.