Sir Francis Drake: The Queen's Pirate Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

Sir Francis Drake: The Queen's Pirate Book

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 Read More

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  • Product Description

    In this lively and engaging 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. Kelsey paints a far more interesting picture of Drake as an amoral privateer who lined his pockets with Spanish booty. 98 illustrations.

  • 0300071825
  • 9780300071825
  • Harry Kelsey
  • 2 September 1998
  • Yale University Press
  • Hardcover (Book)
  • 592
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