In 2020, following a campaign to remove Drake's Life: the statue of Sir Francis Drake, A Timeline Sir Francis Drake Tavistock Town Council - in partnership The Statue Sir Francis Drake was a famous Tudor mariner. His life story is full of contrasts. with Tavistock Heritage Trust - c.1540 In 1882 - as the 300th anniversary of the Spanish Born at Crowndale, Tavistock Armada approached - a group from Plymouth tried to He was seen as a hero for being the first Englishman to sail right around the world, decided to provide some missing raise funds in Tavistock for a statue of Drake on the information about his life. 1567 Hoe. People in Tavistock did not want Plymouth to and he played a major role in defending England from the Spanish Armada. Involved in one of the first English steal the town's famous son, and tried to raise money However he was also involved in several slave trading expeditions and as a slave trading expeditions for their own statue of Drake. The Ninth Duke of Bedford offered to pay for the statue as a gift to the licensed privateer, he looted and plundered Spanish towns and ships in Europe The Spanish Armada 1570/71 town. Sorry: This portrait is licensed from Trading in the West Indies and throughout their Empire in the Americas. By 1585, Catholic Spain and Protestant England were officially at war. the National Portrait Gallery At a cost of £5,000, the Duke commissioned an Drake attacked Vigo in Spain, raided the Cape Verde islands and 1572 Austrian-born sculptor, Joseph Edgar Boehm, Francis Drake was born in around 1542, at Crowndale, about sacked Spanish ports and cities around the Caribbean. On his voyage to create the statue. Various sites around the town for a single use on the Panel, Privateering in the Spanish Caribbean 1 mile (2km) south west of here. After his father was accused of Circumnavigation home he went to rescue colonists from the failed English settlement at were considered, but Boehm chose Fitzford to robbery and assault, Francis moved with his family to Chatham in Kent. and cannot be shown in detail Roanoke, and returned to a hero's welcome at Portsmouth. Meets Diego who joins his crew showcase his statue, and be closer to Drake's There he learned to become a master mariner. He returned to Devon to work online on the website under birthplace at Crowndale. for his relatives, the Hawkins family, who ran a successful merchant fleet. of the Globe The Spanish were calling him “el Draque” - the Dragon. 1572-3 Drake was the first Englishman to lead a voyage right copyright regulations. Some Spanish sailors believed he had a magic mirror and could see Exploring in Panama around the world, completing only the second known the position of all the ships at sea. 1575 circumnavigation in history. Drake and the Slave Trade In 1587 Drake was sent to disrupt the preparations for Spain's Sent to help repress rebellion In 1999 Boehm's original plaster model for the statue was found hidden in woods on Haldon Hill, near Exeter. It was Drake's relative, John Hawkins, was the first Englishman to Drake was sent to investigate Spanish colonies on the Pacific coast of planned invasion of England. His expedition became known as “the in Ireland Singeing of the King of Spain's Beard”: he destroyed Spanish ships taken to Buckland Abbey where it was repaired and is now establish a slave trading venture. Drake sailed on three of the Americas. He left Plymouth 1 in 1577 with five ships, but only on permanent display. one, the Pelican, safely reached the Pacific 2 , where she was at Cadiz and raided forts along the Portuguese coast. 1577 his expeditions to Guinea and Sierra Leone. The 10ft (3m) high statue, weighing two tons, renamed the Golden Hind. The voyage around the globe begins In 1588 the 130 ships of the huge Spanish Armada set sail, aiming to was officially unveiled with great ceremony They raided African coastal villages, sometimes kidnapping whole Drake secretly sent to attack Spanish on September 27th 1883, followed by celebrations Drake sailed up the coast of South America 3 , pillaging Spanish carry troops to invade England, and overthrow Queen Elizabeth I. communities. Rival tribal chieftains often joined in the attacks. colonies on American Pacific coast throughout the town. settlements and capturing ships, then continued further north to chart the west coast of North America. He landed in California at English ships sailed out from Plymouth to harass the approaching The captives were shipped in terrible 1578 Five months later, in 1884, a copy of the statue “Nova Albion” 4 , claiming the region for England. After resting and Armada. As the Spanish passed further up the Channel, Drake - now conditions to the West Indies and sold as Becomes the first Englishman to was erected on Plymouth Hoe. slaves to the Spanish. They were forced restocking, the Golden Hind sailed across the Pacific Ocean 5 to the appointed Vice-Admiral of England - captured their flagship, Nuestra Spice Islands of the East Indies , and home again by way of the Señora del Rosario, a valuable prize. navigate the Straits of Magellan to work on plantations and in the silver 6 Railings were added around the statue in Cape of Good Hope 7 . mines of South America. Around 1,200 - Tavistock in 1885, after vandals broke Drake's 1,400 people were enslaved in this way. The Armada anchored off Calais, 1580 where Drake organised a night- Drake returns to England - the first sword and drunken railway navvies were found Engraving of the unveiling, from The Graphic, 6th Oct. 1883 sleeping on the steps below. In 1568, Hawkins’ and Drake's third time attack. He set fire to eight of Englishman to circumnavigate the slaving expedition ended in failure when his ships, which drifted among the globe - with plundered treasure the Spanish ambushed them. Drake panicking Spanish fleet. English On three sides of the Tavistock statue's plinth are Portrait of Sir Francis Drake, by an unknown artist, painted c. 1581 guns bombarded the Armada, and escaped, and was left with a deep hatred [©National Portrait Gallery] 1581 The medallion of the in adverse winds many Spanish bronze bas reliefs depicting key moments in Drake's career. British Anti-Slavery Society,(1795). of Spain. He was never involved in slave Knighted by the Queen 8 ships were swept away up to the The Society was established trading again, but instead focussed on 1 Buys Buckland Abbey over 200 years after Drake’s attacking the Spanish. 4 North Sea. They tried to make involvement in the slave trade. their way home around the coasts Elected Mayor of Plymouth of Scotland and Ireland, but many 5 more were lost. 1585 5 Sails to the Caribbean to sack & Drake the Privateer 6 The threat of invasion had passed plunder Spanish cities. Rescues and England celebrated the defeat Between 1570 and 1572, Drake sailed as a privateer - a pirate 3 English colonists of Roanoke Island licensed by the government to attack enemy ships and settlements. of the Armada. In two ships, with small crews from Plymouth and Tavistock, he plundered 1587 , 2021 , 2021 ports and seized ships around the Spanish Main. This was the area of the 7 Cape of Good Hope Destroys 30 Spanish ships in raid Spanish Empire which had coastlines around the Caribbean Sea and on Cadiz - “The Singeing of the King Gulf of Mexico. From here, enormous wealth - including gold, silver and 2 Strait of Magellan Drake’s Leat of Spain's beard” gemstones - was being shipped back to Spain. Back in Plymouth in 1589, Drake was involved in improvements to the city's water supply. An 18½ mile ©Richard Downer Photography ©Richard Downer Photography (30 km) leat was built from the River Meavy on 1588 4th April 1581: 19th July 1588: During an attack on a Spanish Drake returned to Plymouth in November 1580 8 . Dartmoor, with six water-driven corn mills along its The Spanish Armada sails Drake is knighted at Deptford Drake’s game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe Diego settlement in Panama, an escaped In recognition of his achievement - and of the wealth length. Water from the leat and flour from his mills As Vice-Admiral, Drake helps to Five months after his voyage around the world, An unproven story tells that when Drake was African slave called Diego sought he brought back for her - he was later knighted by supplied the fleets leaving Plymouth. thwart the invasion plans the Golden Hind was brought to Deptford where told of the approach of the Spanish Armada, he refuge with Drake's fleet, and Queen Elizabeth I. the Queen met and honoured Drake. insisted that he still had time to finish his game warned him of an approaching 1589 and then finish the Spanish fleet. Spanish attack. Unsuccessful attack on Lisbon He introduced Drake to the Life Ashore After his voyage around the world, Sir Francis 1595 Cimaroons, a band of escaped spent a few years ashore, buying an impressive Unsuccessful expedition against the 29th January 1596: African slaves. They joined Drake home at Buckland Abbey, 4 miles (6.5 km) south Spanish in Panama & the Caribbean in ambushing Spanish mule trains - of Tavistock (below - now owned by the National Drake's burial at sea helping him to capture huge Trust and open to the public). In 1581 he was elected 1596 Drake died of dysentery off Panama. His body, amounts of silver. dressed in full armour and sealed in a lead coffin, Mayor of Plymouth and he also served as an MP.