1684 sketch by Jan Luyken | Captain Lambert with six ships carrying prisoners and sent to Algiers. 125 pirates are thrown, per two prisoners tied back to back, into the sea before Algiers. | Amsterdams Historisch Museum. A41724 | Public Domain | Source
When it comes to pirates in Elizabethan England, they are truly fascinating because all of the glorious pirate action you see in big hollywood blockbuster films, was a real thing. Not only that, but for Elizabethan England, pirates were a integral part of the nations international naval strategy.
Under Queen Elizabeth I, there were lawful pirates who were officially authorized by the English government to attack treasure bearing ships of enemy nations. Given what is called a “letter of marque” they were appointed to their position of Privateer and given official license to plunder the ships of their enemies.
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Replica of the Elizabethan galleon, The Golden Hind, captained by Francis Drake in 16th Century, Southwark, London, UK. Photo taken and owned by Jose L. Marin. Used under Creative Commons License 2.5 Generic License which gives permission to use the photo with appropriate attribution. Read license and original source photo here.
Known as the Golden Age of Pirates, the Elizabethan era saw many of the explorers from England who were seeking out new lands for the Queen, labeled as pirates by the enemies who suffered at their hands. Technically, they were explorers for England, but their activities of pillaging, plundering, and sinking/attacking ships on their way to and from these expeditions, drew a fine line between hero and villain, determined mainly by whether or not you were their friend.
As the film says, they weren’t really rules, but more like guidelines anyway.
Some of England’s most famous pirates included Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Martin Frobisher, Sir Richard Hawkins, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Sir Richard Greenville, and Sir John Hawkins.
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Portrait of John Hawkins, National Maritime Museum, London. Unknown artist. 1581. Source
1588 Portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh, as displayed at the National Portrait Gallery. Public Domain. Source
1600 Potrait of Richard Hawkins, held at NMM Greenwich, UK. Public Domain. Source
Post 1590 portrait of Sir Francis Drake, by Marcus Geeraerts the Younger (contemporary of Shakespeare). Public Domain. Source
So why were these men pillaging for England? Well, that was mainly due to the fact that England arrived late to the colonial game. It would not be until the founding of Jamestown under King James of England, just 4 years after the death of Queen Elizabeth that England established its first real colony in the New World. While Roanoke as well as a few other landing sites gave colonization a good go under Elizabeth, many historians record that there were no colonies for England under Elizabeth I.
Whether or not you count a few of the journeys that happened in the late 16th century as legitimate colonies or not, the fact was that England’s land conquests internationally paled in comparison to that of the Spanish and Portuguese, who had already been generating revenue from these new settlements long before England decided to follow suit.
In response to their being behind in the game, England decided to steal the gold and treasures off the Spanish ships as they made their way back to Europe from the new colonies.England supported these efforts, as the confiscated treasure was a revenue source at home for England. As you can imagine, however, Spain greatly disliked this behavior, and it would eventually lead the the Anglo-Spanish War from 1585-1604 (the eruption of which is one reason colonies like Roanoke remained under supplied in the New World), and these same English privateers which were stealing from the Spanish as lawful pirates were the same group of men who formed the naval assault which famously defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588.
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“La batalla de Gravelinas” |Described as “Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada; the Apothecaries painting, sometimes attributed to Nicholas Hilliard. A stylised depiction of key elements of the Armada story: the alarm beacons, Queen Elizabeth at Tilbury, and the sea battle at Gravelines.” Attributed to Nicholas Hilliard, for National Geographic. This image is in the public domain due to its’ age of over 70 years. Source
In addition to English pirates, the Dutch also supported pirateering, establishing Protestant Privateers to attack the Catholic Spanish ships. Protestant England under Queen ELizabeth supported these efforts, and allowed the Dutch pirates to enjoy safe harbour in English ports.
These entire group of pirates established by the English were known collectively as The Sea Dogs. In essence, it was ENgland’s way of making it ok to attack Spain during peacetime. The group was started in 1560, just 4 years before Shakespeare was born, and would remain in operation in England through to 1604. At the conclusion of the Anglo-Spanish war, the Sea Dogs moved to operations off the Barbary Coast of Africa, eventually developing into the Caribbean pirates.
While glamorous and powerful in their heyday, it would be his involvement as a Sea Dog which ultimately lead to the death of one of England’s most famous pirates, Sir Walter Raleigh. During one expedition for England, after the peace treaty had been established with Spain, a subordinate of Raleigh raided a Spanish outpost (undoubtedly due to this action being a force of habit by this point, and it being hard to convince pirates to stop hating their enemies just because the monarchs signed an agreement). Nevertheless, the action violated the peace treaty with Spain, and while Raleigh was granted clemency under Elizabeth I who favored Raleigh, King James I would order the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1618, in a direct effort to appease the anger of Spain over the looting of their outpost.
Francis Drake in California, 1579. Published 1590. Unknown Artist. Public Domain. Source
From his birth until his death, the reign of pirates across the sea for England was a reality for William Shakespeare’s lifetime, which may explain why the word “pirate” show up over 20 times in the words of William Shakespeare, claiming they are everything from “warlike” pirates in Hamlet, to “sanctimonious” in MEasure for Measure. It seems Shakespeare’s impression of pirates matches that of our historical records in thinking there was a great overlap between good vs bad and villain vs hero when it came to understanding a pirate.
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Your podcast and illustrated article are interesting and informative; thank you. But, your statement that the English privateers “famously defeated the Spanish Armada” is overstated, if not downright inaccurate. The Armada did fail in its attempt, but weather played a significant role in the defeat, as did other non-privateering factors.
I recently discovered your podcasts and am enjoying them.
Thank you for reading and participating in Shakespeare history here on the website. I’m glad you like my illustrated article and that you found the research informative. I am very glad to hear you are enjoying the podcast!
I will grant you that it takes many factors, including a great deal of what might be called good fortune, to win a naval battle, but the entire defeat of the Spanish Armada can hardly be attributed solely to weather patters of the day. In addition, while there are probably articles on the website where I could provide additional citations, I try as often as possible to include the source links to the articles I use in the research I share here. In this case, my sources are linked in the show notes and this fact I wrote that you identify with your comment comes from the National Park Service with the US Department of the Interior based at Fort Raleigh, NC, who run the For Raleigh National Historic Site. They wrote an article on the Sea Dogs of the Elizabethan Era, saying “The year 1588 saw the sometime pirate in command of one of the four English squadrons in the campaign against the Spanish Armada. When Sir Francis Drake couldn’t resist taking a ship for spoil during the middle of the engagement, Frobisher flew into a rage and left the following utterances to history: “…..she (the Spanish Galleon) had spent her masts, then like a coward he (Drake) kept by her all night because he would have all the spoil. He thinketh to cozen us of our shares of 15 Thousand ducats: but we will have our shares or I will make him spend the best blood in his belly: for [I have] had enough of those cozening cheats already.” Despite the almost unbearable distraction of Drake making off with more than his fair share of the spoils of war, the outraged Frobisher managed to concentrate on the business at hand, distinguished himself in the engagement and earned a knighthood. Sir Martin Frobisher, Elizabethan extraordinaire, pirate and patriot, died in Plymouth in 1594 of wounds suffered while fighting the old Spanish nemesis off the coast of France. The brilliant career of Sir Martin Frobisher, played out during that turbulent and reckless time when England was forging its destiny on the seas, was not unique. There are many similarities and parallels to be drawn between Sir Martin and his equally brilliant and famous contemporaries: Drake, Ralegh (sic), Hawkins, Grenville, the Gilberts (among many others) who rose to rank and prominence despite frequent lapses into acts of outright piracy.”
You can read the source article in full at the link I already included above, or you can find it again here
https://www.nps.gov/fora/learn/education/piracy-and-privateering-with-elizabethan-maritime-expansion.htm
It makes a great deal of sense to me to think that the ferocity required to be a Sea Dog and naval pirate was a huge benefit to the greatly outmatched English navy when facing down the attack of the internationally renowned and fearsome Spanish Armada. Plenty of primary records attest to the valiant fighting acts of these men who were not only in official service to her majesty the Queen of England, but also known to simultaneously be pirates. So while there may be a case for suggesting the wording is overstated, I am solidly on defensible ground to say that what I wrote here is completely accurate.