Francis Drake Stole Spain’s Gold. Elizabeth I Chose to Keep It

Tom Holland: This is a big moment because cautiously, you know, in her kind of classic crabbed and evasive manner, Elizabeth has taken the side of the most hawkish elements in her privy council. So, Leicester and Walsingham and Hatton and so on. And she is actually not afraid to signal this publicly by deploying, you know, her incredible genius for theater, for giving her subjects scenes that will then glow in their collective hearts. So, on the 1st of April, 1581, Elizabeth meets Drake on board the Golden Hind, which is docked in Deptford, down the Thames from London. And there she has him knighted. And it's hard to overemphasize what an insane honor this is for a yeoman's son. Elizabeth is very stingy about handing out knighthoods. So, for instance, Walsingham, who is her chief secretary, her, you know, her her spy chief, he'd only been knighted in 1577 after years of service. And he is from the kind of background that would entitle him to a knighthood. Drake is absolutely not. He's the grandson of a yeoman farmer.

Tom Holland: It has to be emphasized all of this is nonsense. The fact that Elizabeth is ready to accept Anjou's blandishments owes nothing to lust, nor even to her undoubted fondness for him. Because at stake are the needs of her kingdom as Elizabeth understands them. She is using her her her virginity as a diplomatic tool. And if Elizabeth is facing a showdown with Spain, such a menacing enemy, then Elizabeth thinks, I might as well try and do all that I can to build bridges with the other great Catholic superpower, namely France. But, even having said that, France isn't really the focus of her calculations. The real focus of her calculations is what's going on in the Low Countries, which by this point is it's an absolute dumpster fire.

Tom Holland: And amazingly, a cache of her letters were found as recently as 2024 in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and they show conclusively that Mary Queen of Scots, you know, is not a passive bystander in this. You know, she's not just a cipher being used by Guise for his own interest. She was actually an active conspirator in this plot. Yeah. So, this has been debated by historians for decades, for centuries. Was Mary effectively framed? You know, was she being used by more Machiavellian people? Was she naive? Or was you know, did she join in the plots? Was she an Exactly, an active agent in the conspiracy? And and basically, the this recent evidence suggests there's no question whatsoever. Yes, it does. She knew exactly what she was doing. She'd roll up her sleeves. She got stuck in.

Tom Holland: And it is with these goals in mind that in the wake of Throckmorton's execution, Burleigh and Walsingham draw up a really remarkable document. And this is what comes to be called the Bond of Association. 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.