Elizabeth I Kept a Pirate's Stolen Treasure Worth More Than Her Yearly Income
She had the loot logged at the Tower, kept three payments totaling 124,000 pounds off the books, and sent some of the silver to Dutch rebels fighting Spain.
The Rest Is History · Francis Drake Stole Spain’s Gold. Elizabeth I Chose to Keep ItIn the autumn of 1580, Francis Drake, the English sea captain who had just sailed around the world while robbing Spanish ships and ports, loaded a train of pack horses with gold and silver and pointed them toward London.
He had been waiting in Plymouth while the queen's Privy Council was split over what to do with him. Then a letter arrived from Elizabeth I, the queen of England. She reassured him about his safety and told him to bring her a share of what he had taken.
When Drake reached court, Elizabeth granted him a six hour interview. She was dazzled by the treasure, and taken with Drake himself, with his stories of the Strait of Magellan and the Spice Islands. She liked his bold and swaggering manner as a seaman. By the end, she had made her choice. She would keep the plunder, and reward the pirate who brought it.
That decision was worth a fortune. The haul was valued at about 400,000 pounds, greater than the queen's entire annual income at a time when English monarchs were desperately short of money. Returning such a windfall to Spain would have been unthinkable. Elizabeth decided to keep it and use Spain's own silver against Spain.
She did it with careful bookkeeping, in two sets of books. Officially, the treasure was registered and sent to the Tower of London. At the same time, three payments totaling 124,000 pounds were kept off the books, out of sight of Spain. Drake set aside 10,000 pounds for himself, a colossal fortune. Elizabeth looked the other way while he set aside another 14,000 pounds for his men. And Drake quietly handed 100,000 pounds directly to the queen.
Elizabeth had a strategic reason as well as a financial one. Drake had seen in South America how improved mining was producing more silver, and how that silver was flowing back to Philip II, the king of Spain, to pay for his war against Protestants in the Low Countries and his pressure on Protestant England.
So Elizabeth turned the flow around. She shipped some of the stolen silver to the Dutch rebels fighting Spanish forces in the Low Countries. She had funded a proxy war against Spain with Spain's own money.
Questions people ask
Who was Francis Drake?
Drake was an English sea captain and privateer, meaning he sailed with the queen's unofficial blessing to raid enemy ships. From 1577 to 1580 he circled the globe, seizing gold, silver, and spices from Spanish possessions in South America, then returned to England fabulously rich and politically radioactive.
Why did Spain think the treasure was theirs?
Philip II of Spain demanded that Elizabeth return all of the plunder and punish Drake as a pirate. Spain claimed the treasure as its own, from its mines and ships in the Americas, and saw England's tolerance of Drake as an act of theft and a cause for war.
How much was 400,000 pounds really worth?
About 400,000 pounds in 1580 was an enormous sum, larger than Queen Elizabeth's regular yearly revenue. Historians often compare it to hundreds of millions of dollars today, enough to fund governments and wars, not just to enrich one crew.