![]() In 1562, Hawkins sailed to the coast of the Sierra Leone, seized Portuguese slave ships, and sold the Africans in the Spanish Indies. The ship's master was so satisfied with the young Drake's conduct that, being unmarried and childless at his death, he bequeathed the barque to Drake. Drake likely engaged in commerce along the coast of England, the Low Countries and France. By 18, he was a purser, according to the English chronicler Edmund Howes, and in the 1550s, Drake's father found the young man a position with the owner and master of a small barque, one of the small traders plying between the Medway River and the Dutch coast. Early career at sea Īt an early age Drake was placed into the household of a relative, sea-captain William Hawkins of Plymouth, and began his seagoing training as an apprentice on Hawkins' boats. He was ordained deacon and was made vicar of Upnor Church on the Medway. There Drake's father obtained an appointment to minister to the men in the King's Navy. ĭue to religious persecution during the Prayer Book Rebellion in 1549, the Drake family fled from Devon to Kent. The first son was alleged to have been named after his godfather, Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford. He was the eldest of the twelve sons of Edmund Drake (1518–1585), a Protestant farmer, and his wife, Mary Mylwaye. 1539, while the other, painted in 1594 when he was said to be 52, would give a birth year of c. 1540 is suggested from two portraits: one a miniature painted by Nicholas Hilliard in 1581 when he was allegedly 42, which would place his birth c. ![]() Benson have claimed that he was born while the Six Articles of 1539 were in force, but British naval historian Julian Corbett, writing of William Camden's account, on which this information is based, writes that "As a slip of memory, too, we must put down his difficult assertion that Edmund Drake was driven from Devonshire during a persecution under the Six Articles Act of 1539." His birth date is estimated from the wording of texts in contemporary sources such as: "Drake was two and twenty when he obtained the command of the Judith" (1566). His birth date is not formally recorded – such writers as E. Portrait miniature by Nicholas Hilliard, 1581, inscribed Aetatis suae 42, An(n)o D(omi)ni 1581 ("42 years of his age, 1581 AD")įrancis Drake was born at Crowndale Farm in Tavistock, Devon, England. He died of dysentery after his failed assault on Panama in January 1596. Drake's exploits made him a hero to the English, but his privateering led the Spanish to brand him a pirate, known to them as El Draque ("The Dragon" in old Spanish). A year later he led the English Armada in a failed attempt to destroy the remaining Spanish fleet.ĭrake was the Member of Parliament (MP) for three constituencies: Camelford in 1581, Bossiney in 1584, and Plymouth in 1593. When Philip II sent the Spanish Armada to England in 1588 as a precursor to its invasion, Drake was second-in-command of the English fleet that fought against and repulsed the Spanish fleet. Drake was in command of an expedition to the Americas that attacked Spanish shipping and ports. Elizabeth I awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581 which he received aboard his galleon the Golden Hind.ĭrake's circumnavigation inaugurated an era of conflict with the Spanish and in 1585, the Anglo-Spanish War began. ![]() He arrived back in England on 26 September 1580. He crossed the Pacific Ocean, until then an area of exclusive Spanish interest, and laid claim to New Albion, plundering coastal towns and ships for treasure and supplies as he went. Drake's circumnavigation began on 15 December 1577. In 1572, he set sail on his first independent mission, privateering along the Spanish Main. Having started as a simple seaman, in 1588 he was part of the fight against the Spanish Armada as a vice-admiral.Īt an early age Drake was placed into the household of a relative, William Hawkins, a prominent sea captain in Plymouth. He is also known for participating in the early English slaving voyages of his cousin, Sir John Hawkins, and John Lovell. This was the first English circumnavigation, and third circumnavigation overall. ![]() 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer and privateer best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 15. US$144.7 million in 2021 #2 Forbes top-earning pirates
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