This maritime history recounts the exploits of sixteenth century English privateers in conflict with the Spanish Empire. The Sea Dogs were seafaring merchants who originally traded mainly with Holland and France. During Queen Elizabeth’s reign, however, they began sailing further afield, spreading the reach of English exploration and plundering. At that time, England was a relatively impoverished country. But it soon found a new source of wealth in the Caribbean—a region that had been the colonial domain of wealthy Catholic Spain. The first man to trade with the Spanish Main was John Hawkins, who traveled to West Africa, captured the natives and transported them to the Caribbean. There he sold them to plantation owners in exchange for goods such as pearls, hides, and spices. His backers included the Queen herself, who encouraged the Sea Dogs to seek greater riches. This led to conflict with Spanish ships that would spark the Anglo-Spanish War. The main thorn in the Spanish side was Francis Drake. Despite efforts to kill or capture him, he continued to plunder the high seas, bringing back Spanish riches to England. This allowed Elizabeth to flourish. It was thanks in main to the privateering exploits of the Sea Dogs that England became so wealthy, paving the way for the Renaissance that followed.

Elizabeth's Sea Dogs investigates the rise and fall of a unique group of adventurers - men like Francis Drake, John Hawkins, Martin Frobisher and Walter Raleigh. Seen by the English as heroes but by the Spanish as pirates, they were expert seafarers and controversial characters. This riveting new account reveals them for what they were: extremely tough men in extremely hard times. They sailed, fought, looted and whored their way across the globe; in the process, they established a lasting British presence in the Americas, defeated the Spanish Armada, and made Queen Elizabeth I very wealthy, if seldom grateful. Author Hugh Bicheno sets the Sea Dogs in historical context and reveals their lives and exploits through diligent historical research incorporating contemporary testimony. With additional appendices, colour plates, the author's own maps and technical drawings, Elizabeth's Sea Dogs tells their vivid, extraordinary story as it was lived, in the author's trademark engaging style.

In this dramatic hour-by-hour, blow-by-blow account of the Spanish Armada's attempt to destroy Elizabeth's England, Robert Hutchinson spins a compelling and unbelievable narrative. After the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558, Protestant England was beset by the hostile Catholic powers of Europe, including Spain. In October 1585, King Philip II of Spain declared his intention to destroy Protestant England and began preparing invasion plans, leading to an intense intelligence war between the two countries and culminating in the dramatic sea battles of 1588. Popular history dictates that the defeat of the Spanish Armada was a David versus Goliath victory, snatched by plucky and outnumbered English forces. In this tightly written and fascinating new history, Robert Hutchinson explodes this myth, revealing the true destroyers of the Spanish Armada—inclement weather and bad luck. Of the 125 Spanish ships that set sail against England, only 60 limped home, the rest wrecked or sank with barely a shot fired from their main armament. Using everything from contemporary eyewitness accounts to papers held by the national archives in Spain and the United Kingdom, Hutchinson re-creates one of history's most famous episodes in an entirely new way.

Here are the daring exploits of the Elizabethan sea dogs who established England as the foremost maritime and colonial power in the 1500s and thus bequeathed the nation a heritage that would endure for many generations.

The swashbuckling English sea captains of the Elizabethan era were a particular breed of adventurer, combining maritime and military skill with a seemingly insatiable appetite for Spanish treasure. Angus Konstam describes these characters, including such well-known sea dogs as Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, John Hawkins and Martin Frobisher. For about 40 years they fought a private war with the Spanish, and while their success in defeating the Spanish Armada is well known, this book also covers their exploits in the New World.

The human and financial cost of war between 1544 and 1604 strained English government and society to their limits. Paul E. J. Hammer offers a new narrative of these wars which weaves together developments on land and sea. Combining original work and a synthesis of existing research, Hammer explores how the government of Elizabeth I overhauled English strategy and weapons to create forces capable of confronting the might of Habsburg Spain.

This book offers an exploration of unique laws and customs placed around warfare throughout history, from Indigenous Australians to the American Civil War.