Drake Stole Spain’s Gold. Elizabeth Chose to Keep It | Elizabeth I vs The Catholics (Part 3)

Dominic Sandbrook: Also, she knows from Drake, because Drake has found out this for himself, that one of the reasons why the Spanish forces under Parma in the Low Countries are starting to do better is because technological advances in South America are fueling increased silver extraction from the great minds there. So, there is an increased flow of silver, which is being fed back to Spain and ultimately to Philip's war against Protestantism. And this war against Protestantism is actively raging in the low countries, but it is also funding the cold war against Protestant England. And so, I think Elizabeth feels, well, if Philip is benefiting from all this silver in his cold war against me, why shouldn't I use his silver against him? And actually, not just the cold war. She ships some of the silver to the Dutch rebels in the low countries. You know, this sense of proxy battles being fought, again, that's kind of very American-Soviet in the Cold War, isn't it?

Dominic Sandbrook: But I think she is also playing four-dimensional chess. And she is very good at playing four-dimensional chess. And her move works on a kind of couple of levels. So first of all, it obviously plays well with her subjects. Drake is the great national hero. And Elizabeth knows that by having him knighted, it gilds her own brand... she wants to make herself the great beloved of the English people. And so therefore it is desperately important to her to project a sense of her rule as something glamorous and golden and self-confident to kind of portray herself as Gloriana. And to that end, having Drake knighted works superbly because to this day, I think, the image of Elizabeth personally dubbing Drake a knight on the deck of the Golden Hind remains one of the great iconic scenes of English history... Elizabeth is sending a public message to Spain about the strength of her relationship with France.

Tom Holland: And it begins with a very simple but ingenious provision. And this provision is that anyone who is responsible for the death of Elizabeth will be ineligible to succeed her. And this will become law. Mary isn't mentioned by name, but she doesn't need to be mentioned by name. It's obviously targeted at her. And by the time this Bond of Association is signed off by the Privy Council at a meeting in Hampton Court on the 19th of October 1584, a further crucial provision has been added. And this states that anyone who is responsible for the death of Elizabeth will be put to death whether they were aware of the assassination plot or not. So, just to spell out what that means. If a Catholic assassin kills Elizabeth with the aim of putting Mary Queen of Scots on the English throne, Mary will be subject to death even if she didn't know anything about the assassination plot.