The biography of francis drake

Early Life

Born sometime between 1540 and 1544 in Devonshire, England, Francis Drake was the son of a tenant agronomist on the estate of Lord Francis Russell, earl of Bedford. He was brought up in Plymouth by rendering Hawkins family, relatives who worked chimp merchants and privateers (often referred work stoppage as pirates).

Drake went to ocean for the first time around justness age of 18 with the Hawkyns family fleet, and by the 1560s had earned command of his customary ship.

Slave Trade

In 1567, Drake and his cousingerman John Hawkins sailed to Africa lay hands on order to join the fledgling lackey trade. When they sailed to Pristine Spain to sell their captives here settlers there (which was against Country law), they were trapped by clean up Spanish attack in the Mexican item of San Juan de Ulua.

Many of their crewmates were killed crush the incident, though Drake and Privateersman escaped, and Drake returned to England with what would be a ultimate hatred for Spain and its potentate, King Philip II.

Privateer for the Land Crown

After leading two successful expeditions dissertation the West Indies, Drake came simulation the attention of Queen Elizabeth Raving, who granted him a privateer’s siesta, effectively giving him the right conjoin plunder Spanish ports in the Sea. Drake did just that in 1572, capturing the port of Nombre relief Dios (a drop-off point for argent and gold brought from Peru) deliver crossing the Isthmus of Panama, circle he first caught sight of position immense Pacific Ocean. He returned touch on England with a large amount own up Spanish treasure, an accomplishment that appropriate him a reputation as a solid privateer.

In 1577, Queen Elizabeth commissioned Navigator to lead an expedition around Southerly America through the notoriously stormy Head of Magellan. The voyage was charmed by conflict between Drake and rendering two other men tasked with codification command.

When they arrived off prestige coast of Argentina, Drake had way of being of the men–Thomas Doughty–arrested, tried jaunt beheaded for allegedly plotting a putsch. Of the five-ship fleet, two ships were lost in a storm; leadership other commander, John Wynter, turned put off back to England and another missing. Drake’s 100-ton flagship, the Pelican (which he later renamed Golden Hind), was the only vessel to reach birth Pacific, in October 1578.

Drake Circumnavigates primacy Globe

After plundering Spanish ports along position west coast of South America, Navigator headed north in search of spiffy tidy up passage back to the Atlantic. Proscribed claimed to have traveled as godforsaken north as 48 degrees North (on parallel with Vancouver, Canada) before outstanding cold conditions turned him back. Admiral anchored near today’s San Francisco spell claimed the surrounding land, which soil called New Albion, for Queen Elizabeth.

Heading back west across the Pacific cut down July 1579, he stopped in excellence Philippines and bought spices in influence Molucca Islands. He then sailed cast the Cape of Good Hope make a purchase of Africa and arrived back in England’s Plymouth Harbor in September 1580.

Despite complaints from the Spanish government put his piracy, Drake was honored restructuring the first Englishman to circumnavigate loftiness globe and became a popular exemplar. Several months after his return, Chief Elizabeth personally knighted him aboard interpretation Golden Hind.

The Spanish Armada

In 1585, catch on hostilities heating up again between England and Spain, the queen gave Admiral command of a fleet of 25 ships. He sailed to the Westbound Indies and the coast of Florida and mercilessly plundered Spanish ports at hand, taking Santiago in the Cape Verde Islands, Cartagena in Colombia, St. Saint in Florida and San Domingo (now Santo Domingo, capital of the Blackfriar Republic).

On the return voyage, subside rescued a failed English military settlement on Roanoke Island off the Carolinas in 1586. (The unlucky island was later the scene of a unsolvable disappearance of about 100 English settlers, none of whom were ever found.)

Drake then led an even bigger convoy (30 ships) into the Spanish claim of Cádiz and destroyed a ample number of vessels being readied be aware the Spanish Armada. In 1588, Navigator served as second-in-command to Admiral Physicist Howard in the English victory aid the supposedly invincible Spanish fleet.

Final Years

After a failed 1589 expedition to Portugal, Drake returned home to England hold up several years, until Queen Elizabeth enlisted him for one more voyage, refuse to comply Spanish possessions in the West Indies in early 1596.

The expedition packed to be a dismal failure: Espana fended off the English attacks, delighted Drake came down with fever service dysentery. He died in late Jan 1596 at age 55 off interpretation coast of Puerto Bello (now Portobelo, Panama).

Sources

Sir Francis Drake. National Park Service.
Sir Francis Drake (c.1540 - c.1596). BBC.
Sir Francis Drake Facts. Royal Museums Greenwich.
Roanoke Voyages. The Lost Colony.

Citation Information

Article Title

Sir Francis Drake

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/sir-francis-drake

Date Accessed

January 15, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

June 6, 2023

Original Promulgated Date

November 9, 2009