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Y311: The Origins and Growth of the British Empire 1558–1783

Depth study: Elizabethan Privateers 1558–1603 — attitudes, consequences and interpretations

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 3

Overview

Recall questions on Elizabeth’s and the Court’s attitudes, the economic and military consequences of privateering, personal fortunes, the last Drake and Hawkins voyage, relations with Spain and the debates over empire and imperial vision.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Who and when

How did Court opinion divide over war and plunder at sea?

Key term

What happened to the last great privateering voyage of Drake and Hawkins?

Key term

How do historians disagree about whether Elizabeth had an imperial vision?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Summarise Elizabeth's own attitude to privateering.

    Model answer

    She invested in it heavily and took a large share of the profits, while retaining the option to disown her captains diplomatically whenever peace with Spain seemed worth pursuing.

  2. 2

    How did Court opinion divide over war and plunder at sea?

    Model answer

    Leicester, Walsingham and later Essex pressed for aggressive war against Spain, while Burghley and the cautious party warned of the cost and preferred negotiated peace.

  3. 3

    Assess the economic consequences of privateering for England.

    Model answer

    It brought bullion and goods into London, built merchant capital, marine insurance and shipbuilding, but it also drew investment away from the slower business of settlement and legitimate trade.

  4. 4

    What were the military consequences of the privateering war?

    Model answer

    It trained a generation of seamen, encouraged the design of fast gun-armed ships, and gave England the operational experience at long range that later imperial war depended on.

  5. 5

    How did privateering shape the personal fortunes of its leaders?

    Model answer

    It could bring knighthoods, estates and office, as for Drake and Hawkins, but the wealth was precarious, and Raleigh's disgrace after his secret marriage in 1592 showed how quickly favour could be withdrawn.

  6. 6

    What happened to the last great privateering voyage of Drake and Hawkins?

    Model answer

    The West Indies expedition of 1595 to 1596 achieved almost nothing against strengthened Spanish defences, and both commanders died at sea.

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