Drake: The Life and Legend of an Elizabethan Hero
by Stephen Coote
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A masterly re-evaluation of a self-made Elizabethan hero, and a fascinating re-creation of the man and his era. Sir Francis Drake: pirate, explorer and Protestant zealot, a man princely in his bearing, heroic if sometimes foolhardy in his enterprise, a genius at once awe-inspiring and riddled with faults. He is the archetypal Elizabethan sea-dog, and Stephen Coote's brilliant new book rescues him from the dusty pages of history to breathe new life into one of the great maritime adventure show more stories. Focusing on the episodes that made Drake's reputation - and exploring not just the nature of that reputation but how it also, for better or worse, came to epitomise a sense of nationhood - Stephen Coote re-creates all the excitement and terror of the raids on Spanish Caribbean ports during Drake's privateering days; the extraordinary feat of the circumnavigation aboard the 'Golden Hind'; and Drake's role in the famous defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Told with novelistic verve, DRAKE is a thoroughly modern re-assessment of a man who embodied all the ebullient courage and personal shortcomings of the great age of Elizabethan expansion. Was Drake just a rabid anti-papist, a state-sponso show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Coote's book contains an interesting discussion of the way in which the Victorians edited the history of Drake to conform with their need for heroic early founders of the British empire.
He makes clear that the current accepted account (which dates from Victorian times) is very selective, and he convincingly puts this right while respecting Drake's tremendous achievements in for example circumnavigating the globe and mapping the Pacific coast of South America.
The author shows that Drake had a giant ego, not permiting anyone to stand in his way, and resulting in one case in the murder (with the thinnest veneer of legality) of his gentleman companion Thomas Doughty on a beach in Patagonia, or for example, ignoring the vital direct order show more of queen Elizabeth I to destroy the regrouped Armada in Santander, preferring as always to pursue piratery and looting Spanish and Portuguese ports for personal gain. Even in the famous battle with Armada he dropped out to loot an enemy ship, much to Frobisher's disgust.
Overall a balanced and readable account of the prototype 16th century English pirate seaman. show less
He makes clear that the current accepted account (which dates from Victorian times) is very selective, and he convincingly puts this right while respecting Drake's tremendous achievements in for example circumnavigating the globe and mapping the Pacific coast of South America.
The author shows that Drake had a giant ego, not permiting anyone to stand in his way, and resulting in one case in the murder (with the thinnest veneer of legality) of his gentleman companion Thomas Doughty on a beach in Patagonia, or for example, ignoring the vital direct order show more of queen Elizabeth I to destroy the regrouped Armada in Santander, preferring as always to pursue piratery and looting Spanish and Portuguese ports for personal gain. Even in the famous battle with Armada he dropped out to loot an enemy ship, much to Frobisher's disgust.
Overall a balanced and readable account of the prototype 16th century English pirate seaman. show less
A nuanced, perceptive portrayal of the man and his environment. The sixteenth-century world is vividly brought to life in this biography.
An excellent account of the so-called pirate, but more like the deliverer of Christian Europe from the greedy clutches of the Vatican. If not for Drake, we'd likely be pittance wage earners for Rome.
You can also see the hand of God in bringing Rome to heel.
Continue the story in the book "Armada".
You can also see the hand of God in bringing Rome to heel.
Continue the story in the book "Armada".
Hervorragende, aber sehr knappe Schilderung mit guter Quellenangabe.
Dec 30, 2007Norwegian
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Author Information
25+ Works 1,009 Members
Stephen Coote was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge and at Birkbeck College, University of London.
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, History, Biography & Memoir, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 942.055092 — History & geography History of Europe England and Wales England 1485-1603, Tudors 1558-1603, Elizabeth I History, geographic treatment, biography Biography
- LCC
- DA86.22 .D7 .C66 — History of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania Great Britain History of Great Britain England History
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 89
- Popularity
- 360,878
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 3
