Early Life
Sir Francis Drake was a British explorer who lived between 1545-1596.
No-one has found any record of Francis Drake's birth but it is believed he was born around 1540 to 1544. Records show he was 22 when he got his first command in 1566. Two portraits help us know the date: one painted in 1581, when he was 42 and the other painted in 1594, when he was 53. Edmund Drake and Mary Drake had Francis Drake and 11 other boys. Francis' dad was a farmer on an estate that Lord Francis Russell owned, who was the second earl of Bedford, who was also Francis' godfather. Francis was mentored by a merchant who sailed coastal waters trading goods between England and France. He took to navigation well and was soon nicknamed by his family, the Hawkinses. Hawkinses' were privateers who traveled around the shipping lanes off the French coast, seizing merchant ships. |