IN the present work an attempt is made to give a general
view of the circumstances under which England first be-
came a controlling force in the European system by virtue
of her power upon the sea. In centering the history of
such a movement upon the life of one of its leaders, there
must be almost inevitably a tendency to present him too
much as its author, where he was in reality only the
foremost of men similarly inspired who determined its
direction and extent.

Still, for the adoption of the method in the present
case history affords ample justification. Not only was
Drake intimately connected, in all the various phases of
his life, with every aspect of the Elizabethan maritime
upheaval, but throughout Europe he was recognised and
applauded, even in his lifetime, as the personification of
the new political force. Nor has recent research disclosed
any reason for reversing the verdict of his contemporaries.
The romantic fascination of his career as a corsair and
explorer began, it is true, very shortly after his death to
overshadow his work as an admiral and a statesman, but
in his own time it was not so; and a principal object of
the present work is to restore him to the position he
once held as one of the great military figures of the
Reformation.

-v-