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Hatton backed his secretary's executioner
Hatton's stake
Drake named his ship the Golden Hind after Hatton's emblem, a golden hind. Hatton was a great favorite of Elizabeth and a member of her Privy Council, and he was an investor in Drake's expedition. The man Drake had executed was Thomas Doughty, Hatton's right-hand man, and Doughty's relatives were on the scene petitioning Hatton.
Drake's allies
When Hatton was told how much money Drake had brought back, he wanted to keep him. Francis Walsingham, the spy chief, was an investor too and stood to make an enormous profit, and he had backed Drake for ideological reasons as well. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Elizabeth's ultimate favorite and a hardline Protestant, was on Drake's side with the Puritan wing of the council.
Burghley's doubts
On the other side, Lord Burghley loved giving the forces of popery a bloody nose, yet he thought Drake wasn't worth the hassle of a bust-up with Spain. The council split, and the decision fell to Elizabeth.
Why did Drake execute Thomas Doughty?
Doughty sailed with Drake as a gentleman commander, and during the voyage he fell under suspicion of plotting mutiny. In June 1578, at Port San Julián on the coast of Patagonia, Drake held a trial of Doughty and had him executed on July 2. Accounts of the evidence differ, and the case was still argued over in England after Drake returned.
Why did Drake rename his ship the Golden Hind?
Drake's flagship was first named the Pelican. During the voyage, at the Strait of Magellan in August 1578, he renamed it the Golden Hind in honor of Sir Christopher Hatton, one of the expedition's backers. A golden hind, a female deer, appeared on Hatton's coat of arms.
How did voyages like Drake's get financed?
Elizabethan voyages were usually financed as joint-stock ventures, where investors put in money for a share of the profit. The Crown, nobles, and merchants all took part, and investors accepted that they could lose everything if the ship was wrecked or captured. Drake's circumnavigation paid exceptionally well: Elizabeth's own return alone was reckoned to have been many times her investment.