John Hopkins

Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.

And by the way, a short history of ancient Rome.

Noiser's first book is out now in paperback, available in all good bookshops.

In July 1569, Drake marries a woman named Mary Newman, possibly the sister of one of her new husband's shipmates.

The profits from these slave voyages allow the new couple to set up home in Plymouth, although Mary is frequently left alone when Francis heads out to sea.

Though he is now a married man with a comfortable house and a growing fortune, Drake continues to obsess over that ambush of a few years ago.

Though disentangling Drake's own myth-making from historical fact is a tricky task, his naval career does become focused on attacking Spanish ships and colonies.

At San Juan de Olua, they made a dangerous and implacable enemy.

By 1571, Francis Drake is commanding ships in fleets not overseen by the Hawkins family.

Building on the knowledge and experience gained in the previous decade, he joins a group of French pirates raiding Spanish outposts in Panama.

They spend several months terrorizing poorly defended ships and ports in lightning-fast attacks.

These missions are not without peril.

In one such expedition, Drake loses two of his brothers, John and Joseph, off the coast of Panama.

The first sustains a gunshot wound, while the second dies of an unknown disease that tears through the crew.

Drake orders an autopsy to learn more about the sickness that killed Joseph, attempting to save others with the knowledge gleaned from his brother's corpse.

Notwithstanding the personal cost, this voyage turns out to be one of Drake's most successful.

Because it is at this moment that he discovers the route by which the Spanish transport the silver they have mined in South America to the Atlantic coast, from where it is shipped back to Seville.

Over the coming years, Drake becomes legendary for his raids on the Spanish main, coastal settlements in the Caribbean Sea, from Mexico down to Colombia and Venezuela.

The legal basis for these attacks on Spanish settlements is shaky.

To the Spanish, Drake is a pirate and a criminal, plain and simple.