Elizabethan Sea Dogs

The Sea Dogs were a group of English privateers and explorers authorised by Queen Elizabeth I to raid England's enemies, whether they were formally at war with them or not.

[1][2] "Sea Dogs" was an informal name bestowed upon English privateers who were authorised by Queen Elizabeth I to raid England's enemies, even during times of peace.

Once Elizabeth died in 1603, one year prior to the conclusion of the Anglo-Spanish War, many former Sea Dogs sought employment in the Barbary States, becoming corsairs and attacking European merchant shipping.

He engaged in slave trading for about five years, making three voyages to Sierra Leone and Guinea and selling 1,200–1,400 enslaved Africans to Spanish colonists in the Americas.

[4] Sir Walter Raleigh was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth, he received a title that allowed him to claim any land that he discovered in the name of England.

On his second expedition to find "El Dorado", he ended up in a bit of a predicament after men under his subordinate Lawrence Keymis sacked a Spanish outpost despite England and Spain being at peace.

Cumberland with Sir Walter Raleigh and Martin Frobisher combined financial strength and force that led to the most successful English naval expedition of the war.

The expedition's reward equalled nearly half the size of the Kingdom of England's royal annual revenue and yielded Elizabeth a 20-fold return on her investment.

[6] In 1595 Walter Raleigh went on an expedition to explore the Orinoco river in an attempt to find the mythical city of El Dorado; in the process the English plundered the Spanish settlement of Trinidad.

Raleigh would, however, exaggerate the wealth found there upon his return to England publishing his adventure under the title of The Discovery of rich and beautiful empire of Guiana.

Despite this, Newport continued privateering – the blockade of Western Cuba in 1591 saw ten Spanish ships including two galleons were captured, making a 200 per cent profit, from which Queen Elizabeth and the Lord High admiral, Charles Howard took half of.