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Trading, Slaving, Piracy and the Spanish Armada
Trade was very important in Elizabethan times. England traded mostly with Europe and Africa. Elizabeth encouraged men like Humphrey Gilbert to open trade routes to China and the New World. Men such as Sir John Hawkins traded in slaves in Africa.
England's main rival was Spain, who tried to block the trade routes to the New World. This led to constant skirmishes at sea between the Spanish and English.
Finally the situation at sea and in the Netherlands drove Spain to prepare the Armada which sailed in 1588. The Spanish intended to land their army in Kent and fight a battle, they had orders to avoid a major naval confrontation and therefore when Drake attacked them outside Plymouth they raced for the French harbours opposite the Kent coast. They had not calculated the depth of the waters and their ships were too large to enter the harbours, they had to anchor outside. During the night the English sent in fire ships, the Armada scattered, a south-westerly gale drove any survivors out into the North Sea. This victory achieved very little apart from high morale and loyal support for Elizabeth in England.
Sir Francis Drake |
SIR FRANCIS DRAKE (c. 1542-1596)- From a fiercely Protestant Devon family
- Apprenticed to a Thames captain and in 1563
- In 1566 joined his distant cousin John Hawkins on voyages to Africa
- Drake's first command coincided with a Spanish attack on Hawkins's smuggling trade
- Fighting the Spanish, usually off the coast of America, became a pastime
- Circumnavigated the world between 1577 and 1581
- This last expedition brought Drake great wealth and Elizabeth knighted him on his return
- In the 1580s his feud with the Spanish was openly backed by Elizabeth
- Raided the Spanish Caribbean between 1584 and 1585
- Wrecked the Spanish fleet at Cadiz in 1587
- Masterminded the fireships which broke the Armada in 1588
- After the Armada his career declined
- Led a disastrous attack on Portugal in 1589
- Died from sickness during another disastrous venture in the Caribbean in 1596
- His ship the Golden Hind is preserved at Deptford
The Spanish dubbed Sir Francis Drake "the Master Thief of the Unknown World".
 
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| 1558 | England loses Calais to France
Mary I dies
Elizabeth I becomes Queen of England
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| 1565 | Mary Queen of Scots marries Lord Darnley
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| 1567 | Darnley is murdered and Mary marries Bothwell
Mary abdicates and James becomes VI of Scotland
(later I of England)
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| 1568 | Mary flees to England and is imprisoned
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| 1570 | The Pope excommunicates Elizabeth I
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| 1587 | Execution of Mary Queen of Scots
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| 1588 | The Spanish Armada is defeated
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| 1603 | Elizabeth I dies
James I becomes King of England
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| GREAT ELIZABETHAN EXPLORERS | | • | Humphrey Gilbert |
| • | Sir Walter Raleigh |
| • | Martin Frobisher |
| • | Sir John Hawkins |
| • | Sir Francis Drake |
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