Sir John Hawkins: Queen Elizabeth's Slave Trader

While not as lively as Kelsey's biography of Sir Francis Drake, this book is as much about Hawkins' important (if controversial) career as a naval administrator and as a possible double agent of Spain as it is about the man's activities as a slaver, merchant, and privateer. To put it another way Kelsey mostly comes to critique Hawkins, not so much to praise him, and those looking for Elizebethan daring-do by self-made men should look elsewhere for unambiguous high adventure; the focus of the book is often more on court and organizational politics. Still, for all the gimlet eye that Kelsey trains on Hawkins, he seems to have a grudging admiration for Drake's mentor that he did not display for the nominally more glamorous pupil.

I can't decide who was worse....John Hawkins a man with no regard for human life, capable of unspeakable acts of brutality....Or Queen Elizabeth who was aware of all his doings but chose to ignore them and use them to her advantage for her own personal gains. A tragic period of history.