History UsefulNotes / SirFrancisDrake

In 1577, Drake set out to become only the second person known to successfully circumnavigate the globe. Given a top-secret assignment by the Queen herself, Drake put his famed navigational skills to the test, to sail around the Americas and into the Pacific, to assess the boundaries of the Spanish Empire, and to hit them right where they lived. And he did his job disturbingly well: by striking targets on the Pacific coasts of Peru and Mexico – places the Spanish thought were simply too far away to be targets for English Privateers – Drake ascended to the very top of Spain's shitlist, becoming the most hated and feared pirate of his day. Somewhere on North America's Pacific Coast (people are still debating exactly where), he stopped for a resupply, then planted a flag and claimed the land for England, declaring it ''Nova Albion'' – New England.

By the time the Armada was ready to sail in 1588, Drake and his fellow Vice Admiral Lord Charles Howard had bought enough time to adequately prepare for the invasion. With the help of some fortuitous weather and some outside-the-box strategies, Drake and Howard handed the Armada a crushing defeat. Unfortunately, a botched counter-initiative failed to net a decisive victory for England, and the Anglo-Spanish War dragged on for another sixteen years.

* The character of Captain Geoffrey Thorpe played by Creator/ErrolFlynn in ''Film/TheSeaHawk'' is an {{Expy}} of Drake, sharing similar exploits such as his raid on Panama and involvement with stopping the Spanish Armada.

Under Elizabeth, England experienced a period of political stability and cultural growth, where it began to come into its own as a nation and a potential player on the world stage. England being a Protestant nation, this development did not sit well with Spain, the Catholic superpower of the day. That, plus Elizabeth’s clear intent to rule in her own right rather than honor the Spanish King Phillip II's (actually somewhat legit) claim to the English throne, meant that Spain and England were very soon butting heads. Unfortunately for England, in the 16th Century, Spain had naval supremacy. The grand and glorious Royal Navy of future centuries was barely a gleam in anyone’s eye. So, England did what she could with what she had. And what she had was a RagTagBandOfMisfits known as the Sea Dogs, who would plunder and pillage and engage in acts of dubious morality in the name of Queen and Country (and Spanish gold). And Francis Drake was the most famous.

[[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/176px-1590_or_later_marcus_gheeraerts_sir_francis_drake_buckland_abbey_devon_2716.jpg]]
->[[caption-width-right:150:'''Sic Parvis Magna'''[[note]]"Greatness from humble beginnings."[[/note]]]]

'''Sir Francis Drake''', (c. 1540– 28 January 1596). Sailor. Adventurer. Pirate. ''Legend.''

* Nathan Drake, the protagonist of the ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'' video game series, originally claimed to be a descendant of Francis Drake.[[note]] The historical Francis Drake had no children from either of his wives and no known descendants. [[/note]]. In reality, his surname is actually “Morgan” and he and his brother chose the name to honor their historian mother who believed Drake had heirs. ''[[VideoGame/UnchartedDrakesFortune Drake's Fortune]]'', we learn that Sir Francis faked his death and went on one last secret voyage to find El Dorado.

* ''Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}'': In games like ''VideoGame/FateExtra'' and ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', a GenderFlip version of Francis Drake can be summoned as Rider, where she appears as a PirateGirl. However, it is heavily implied that this is not actually Drake, but Queen UsefulNotes/ElizabethI pretending to be Drake. At least until ''Grand Order'' cleared up that it is actually [[PronounTrouble him (or her)]]. Apparently, her crew thought of her so manly and boasted about her as such that she was recorded in history as a man.

* ''Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}'': In games like ''VideoGame/FateExtra'' and ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', a GenderFlip version of Francis Drake can be summoned as Rider, where she appears as a PirateGirl. However, it is heavily implied that this is not actually Drake, but Queen UsefulNotes/ElizabethI pretending to be Drake.

Sir Francis Drake towers over many in the public imagination. He is perhaps the Ur-Example of the dashing pirate-adventurer who has been everywhere and done everything. He is the inspiration for the likes of Han Solo and Jack Sparrow. He is the guy who singlehandedly made pirates cool. He has even ascended to King Arthur like status, with the legend of Drake's Drum, a snare drum that he took on his circumnavigation of the world, and he swore that if England was ever in danger and someone beat the drum, he would return. And apparently, the drum has been heard to beat itself during wars or especially significant events...

Of course, it's not all good things. Like all national heroes, Drake's reputation was conflated with time and distance, with the positives well remembered, and the negatives quietly downplayed. Like all Privateers, Drake was technically a pirate, except that he had a piece of paper from the government authorizing him to do so. Many of the things he did in service to the Crown would probably get him classified as a terrorist by today's standards: one of those "outside-the-box" strategies he used against the Armada was to employ fireships, considered at the time to be a ''very'' dirty tactic, on par with landmines and {{Deadly Gas}}. Like all pirates, his raids on Spanish port cities resulted in indiscriminate killing of soldiers and civilians alike. And lest we forget, his first command was a slave ship. And not even a "legitimate" slave ship, but an illegal venture of his cousin's, capturing free Africans and selling them on the black market, in an attempt to bypass the legal channels over which Spain held a monopoly.

* Nathan Drake, the protagonist of the ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'' video game series, claims to be a descendant of Francis Drake[[note]]The historical Francis Drake had no children from either of his wives and no known descendants, though the third game implies that Nate made up the name[[/note]]. In ''[[VideoGame/UnchartedDrakesFortune Drake's Fortune]]'', we learn that Sir Francis faked his death and went on one last secret voyage to find El Dorado.

* In the ''ComicBooks/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'' he's featured as the one who first built a settlement in the area of present-day Duckburg, and his descendant Howard tries to [[SinsOfOurFathers make the descendants of the Mad Duke of Duckburg and his friend the Count of Bad Luck pay for how their ancestors outsmarted Drake]].

* The Creator/{{Syfy}} [[Film/SyfyOriginalMovie Original]] ''The Immortal Voyage of Captain Drake'' features Adrian Paul in the title role, on a [[Creator/RayHarryhausen Harryhausen-esque]] quest for the Fountain of Youth.

'''Sir Francis Drake''', (c. 1540–1596). Sailor. Adventurer. Pirate. ''Legend.''