IN SEARCH OF A KINGDOM
Francis Drake, Elizabeth I, and the Perilous Birth of the British Empire
by Laurence Bergreen
The swashbuckling life and times of the explorer who achieved what Magellan could not—and made England’s fortune in the process.
In his latest wide-ranging work, Bergreen, who has written biographies of Columbus, Marco Polo, Magellan, Casanova, and others, trains his well-honed historical eye on Francis Drake (circa 1540-1596). A Protestant preacher’s son who cut his teeth on slaver ships (under his cousin John Hawkins) and decided that accumulating booty from the Spanish was his preferred trade, Drake took off from Plymouth in 1577 with a small fleet and the tacit approval of Queen Elizabeth I to drive the Spanish from mineral-rich regions of South America and beyond. Demonstrating his deep knowledge of the era, the author energetically recounts Drake’s action-packed journey, which included a near mutiny and the execution of the ringleader. In 1580, Drake returned along with a handful of survivors, having successfully circumnavigated the globe, a feat that Magellan, murdered in the Philippines, was unable to accomplish. Drake also delivered a staggering amount of gold and jewels, which, Bergreen shows, essentially saved the queen from an ill-suited marriage to a French duke, bolstered the state’s woeful finances, and allowed her to build up the English navy in preparation for the eventual invasion by the Spanish Armada in 1588. Drake’s success allowed England to challenge the seemingly invincible Spanish empire for the first time—and begin to establish its own. “For Elizabeth,” writes the author, “the expedition was a challenge to the global order, which ranked Spain dominant and England a second-rate island kingdom.” The narrative is long but never boring, as Bergreen masterly portrays the principal characters in this drama: the relentless, arrogant Drake; the cautious, cunning Elizabeth; and the mortified Spanish king, Philip II, and his spy in London, Bernardino de Mendoza, who informed his liege of Drake’s every outrageous move.
A smooth, dramatic, and well-fleshed world history perfect for library collections.