Sir Frances Drake
The Queen’s Favorite Pirate

He was the first sea captain to sail around the world and return to tell of it; Ferdinand Magellan’s crew had returned without him 50 years prior. “Sir” Frances Drake, following his knighting by the Queen, had just returned with enough Spanish loot to retire the national debt after a 3-year circumnavigation 1577-1580.

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He also brought his Queen a coconut from the South Seas. Victoria mounted it, etched it in gold, put a tiny replica of his ship on the top and returned it to him in 1583. His ring from Her Majesty sits near by.

Known as El Draco aka the Dragon, by the Spanish and with a

bounty on his head, the Spanish King, Phillip Ii, was sufficiently pissed that he ordered the Spanish Armada to sail against England in 1588.

Drake was waiting.

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