Harry Kelsey’s Sir Francis Drake: The Queen’s Pirate published in 1998 is a well-researched, impressively scholarly revisionist tomb (coming in at 566 pages) about the celebrated explorer. Kelsey introduces the reader to a more troubled man, a merciless naval captain, a man perhaps too ambitious for his effectiveness.

Kelsey’s using primary source and extensive research – recreating the relationships, voyages and finances of this popular man – did not shy away from conflicting accounts.  The text offered up a revisionist approach to Drake’s activities in the New World, his circumnavigation of the globe and his privateering vs. piracy actions.

Was Drake a man of patriotism and religion or one of imperial expansion and greed? Was he loyal to his country and Queen or self-serving only.  Could he have been a mix of all these? Must it be an either-or situation from hero to opportunist?  Could Kelsey have led with the historical records and derived negative characteristics via interpretation rather then often seeming to proclaim Drake was flawed and then set about to prove it.  One must remember that the contexts of the 16^th Century offer differing motivations for public figures than now—for example, the conflict with Spain. 

This book is not for the faint of heart.  The writing is dense, very detailed and assumes a level of knowledge from the reader of the political and cultural history of the Elizabethan world.  An excellent Index and Bibliography are only second to the extensive citation of sources of which Kelsey impresses his readers.

Four Tudor Roses out of Five