Drake's circumnavigation and plunder turned him into the paramount English hero, and the £400,000 he brought back—more than Elizabeth's entire annual income—made his fate a political crisis because England and Spain were not yet at war.

0:00Francis Drake has returned to England after circumnavigating the entire globe. His ship is crammed full of gold, silver, and spices. Together, his whole is worth more than the entire annual income of Queen Elizabeth. But his triumph creates a dangerous political crisis because England and Spain are not yet officially at war. Some of Elizabeth's ministers urge a policy of caution. Appease Spain. Return the treasure. Sacrifice Drake. Others,

0:36however, argue that Philip II of Spain is already preparing for war against England, and that Drake's voyage has revealed both the weakness of the Spanish Empire in the New World and that incredible riches can be plundered from it. Now the Queen Elizabeth I must decide her options whether to reign in her most famous and predatory subject or to embrace him. The dragon that are seized did raise his

1:20crest and brought back heaps of gold into his nest. Unto his foes more terrible than thunder, glory of his age, after ages wonder, excelling all those that excelled before. It's feared we shall have none such anymore. affecting all he sold and undertake valiant, just, wise, mild, honest, godly drake. This man, when I was little, I did meet. As he was walking up top Ness's long street, he asked me whose I was, I

1:56answered him. He asked me if his good friend was within. A fair red orange in his hand. He had he gave it me, whereof I was right glad. takes and kiss me and praise God bless my boy which I record with comfort to this day. So that was a poem published in 1628 by a man from Devon as you can tell from the reading. >> Yeah, you could.

2:24>> But interestingly the first ever poet in Canada to write in English. So that's a lovely little gift there to our rest history club member Mark Carney. uh who will surely enjoy that. And to all our Canadian listeners as well. >> And now you've had some Canadian history. No more complaints for the rest of this year, please. So this bloke's name, the first ever poet in Canada to

2:49write in English. He was Robert Haymon, and he served between 1618 and 1628 as the governor of a short-lived English colony in New Finland. And his father had been the MP in Toness in Devon. And this was how as a boy the young Robert Haymon had come to meet Sir Francis Drake and he had been given this orange by the great man. Of course the orange an exotic fruit. Red he just calls it,

3:18doesn't he? >> Yeah. The red orange. >> It's really interesting. Yeah. >> That is a reminder of Francis Drake's exotic travels and his circumnavigation of the globe. And obviously this bloke Heymon. Yeah. This is the kind of thing you would remember all your life because Drake, the preeminent, the paramount English hero of the age perhaps of the entire century and it's a tribute to the effect that Drake had on generations

3:46>> of English men and women. You know, the fact that he's embedded in the national imagination as a hero really without peer. >> I think it's a very touching poem. I mean kind of there's a quality of naivity to it which is yeah very affecting >> which I record with comfort to this day you know it's lovely >> and tribute to kind of Drake's enduring fame both at the time when Hmon is