Elizabeth I sided with the hawkish faction of her Privy Council over the cautious, appeasement-minded faction, secretly keeping Drake's plundered treasure and rewarding him rather than returning the loot to Spain.

7:46the course of appeasement that she will hand the treasure back to Spain and effectively sacrifice Drake himself. And lots of sort of foreign policy realists would advise that that's the sensible course because you always you know you you you have to accommodate to the greater power. >> Yes. And among these um people who are pressing Elizabeth to get rid of Drake of course is Philip's ambassador to her

8:11court. A guy called Bernardino Demendoza. And he is a very very menacing foe. He's patrician. He's horty. He is very zealously Catholic. and he is playing the part of a Soviet ambassador in London in kind of 1957, right? >> He is all about the subversion of Elizabeth's regime. And when he sends a message to Elizabeth saying, I want to come and protest about Drake. And Elizabeth says, "No, I'm not seeing

8:39you." Mendoza sends Elizabeth a very blunt warning. A war is easily begun, but not so soon ended. And this, of course, is playing on, you know, Elizabeth knows this. And so too, to be fair, does William Ceell, Lord Burley, um her number two, her effectively her prime minister because he's a man who very much loves to give the forces of popery a bloody nose. He is the, you

9:02know, the great guardian of Protestant England. But he thinks Drake just isn't worth the hassle. You know, come on, he's he's not worth it. Let's try and keep our powder dry and not get into a massive bust up with the Spanish over him. But there are lots of people in Elizabeth's council who say, "Hold on. You know, this bloke is a patriotic hero. He's a Protestant hero. You know,

9:23you should back him." Domestic opinion and ideological solidarity are more important than bowing the knee to proud horty Spain and profit, right? [laughter] All of these things kind of merge. So, let's look at Francis Wilsingham, Elizabeth Spy Chief. um he is an investor in Drake's expedition and so obviously if the treasure is kept he stands to make an enormous profit but of course I mean he's back Drake for

9:52ideological as well as for for financial reasons right >> and there are two other key members of the privy council both of them great favorites of Elizabeth both of them investors in Drake's expedition one of them we talked about in our previous episode and this is Sir Christopher Hatton and his emblem is Golden Hind so Drake has named his ship the golden hind after that emblem. Now, there is a

10:15slight problem with Hatton, namely that Drake had executed Hatton's secretary, Thomas Dowy, right? And lots of listeners will be will be curious about this. [laughter] Yeah. Does Christopher Hatton care more about this bloke who'd been his right-hand man and his secretary, or does he care more about having a ship named after himself and loads of money? What do you think? Well, I know what I would I would care more. I'm a people

10:39person, you know. I'm a loyal person. And I think I'd care more about my secretary. >> Would you? I don't believe you for a minute. [laughter] >> Of course, Hatton is I mean, he's a little you know that Douty's relatives are on the scene and and are petitioning him, but when Hatton is told how much money Drake has brought back, he goes, "Brilliant. Let's keep him. This is