Sir Francis Drake III

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Lead: His voyage around the world behind him, Sir Francis Drake, Queen Elizabeth's Golden Admiral, intensified his campaign to make miserable the life of the King of Spain.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: Returning from the East in 1581, Drake made Plymouth his home and was elected mayor of the town. He served with distinction, revamping the municipal water system with such care that his improvements lasted for decades. Ever restless, he returned to the sea which was both the love of his life and source of his fortune. In 1585 Elizabeth sent Drake back to the Caribbean where, over a period of months, he renewed his reputation as the scourge of Spain. His occasionally brutal capture and sacking of Cartagena in Columbia, St. Augustine in Florida, and Santo Domingo, combined with attacks on the Cape Verde Islands, were not as successful or lucrative as previous forays, but caused enormous financial distress to the Spanish and confirmed their hatred for el draque or the dragon, as he was coming to be known. This campaign and other conflicts with England so incensed Spanish King Philip II that he made the fateful decision to assemble a huge naval Armada to invade the island kingdom.

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Sir Francis Drake II

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Lead: Commissioned by Queen Elizabeth to forage and loot the lands of the Spanish King, Francis Drake embarked on a voyage that took him around the world.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: In 1572, after a lengthy apprenticeship, Drake took two tiny ships on a cruise into the Caribbean. His vessels may have been small but his ambition was hefty. He attacked the town of Nombre de Dios in Panama and though not completely successful since he was wounded in the attempt, the foray netted substantial plunder and made him a rich man. Ever the adventurer, he and a small group of his men crossed the Isthmus of Panama and from a high western ridge vowed that he would someday explore the vast Pacific Ocean that lay before him. Elizabeth was engaged in one of her occasional diplomatic flirtations with the Spanish government and, while privately pleased at Drake’s success, could not acknowledge him publicly. For several years, he dropped out of the public eye, quietly helping to suppress a rebellion in Ireland.

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Sir Francis Drake I

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Lead: Part scoundrel, part tyrant, part patriot, Francis Drake, for generations of his countrymen, was the symbol of England’s greatness.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: Drake was born in Devonshire, southwestern England in the early 1540s, the last years of the reign of King Henry VIII. His father was a tenant farmer, but also an ardent Protestant lay preacher. In 1549 the family had to flee to southeast England during one of the Catholic uprisings common to the West Country. In those the years the nation was struggling over whether to stay with Protestantism or return to the Roman Catholic Church. Drake’s lifelong and enthusiastic commitment to the Protestant faith and apparent delight in tweaking the tail of Catholic Spain may be traced to the experiences of his troubled youth.

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Arrest of the Five Members

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Lead: In early 1641, Parliament and King Charles I of England had reached a dangerous impasse.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: Taxation, the war with Scotland, the rights of Parliament, and royal manipulation of the courts were among the subjects of a contentious and sometimes bitter struggle between a majority of the House of Commons and the government of Charles I, but it was religion that generated much of the passion of those years. For nearly a century, the Puritans, a minority in the Church of England, had been agitating for an end to corruption in the clergy, a simpler form of church worship, and greater control of congregations by the local churches.

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Henry’s Wives: Anne Boleyn

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Lead: Anne Boleyn refused to be Henry VIII's mistress.

Intro.: "A Moment in Time" with Dan Roberts.

Content: She was not particularly beautiful, although she had dark hair, fine eyes, a long neck which gave her a certain graceful authority and a vivacious personality. Her sister Mary had been the king's mistress. The teenaged Anne followed her to court. From 1519 to 1522 she was educated and received a measure of social polish in the household of the Queen of France. At the outbreak of war between the two countries Anne returned from France and came back to court. Sometime in the next three years she caught the attention of Henry and he joined a not inconsiderable number of males at court vying for the girl's affection. By 1525 the competition dropped by the wayside and their relationship had become somewhat more than a royal dalliance.

 

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America’s First Century: Baron de la Ware

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Lead: Thomas West was well-connected. He was the Queen’s cousin, had survived the aborted Essex coup d’etat in 1601, and was a large stockholder in the Virginia Company. In 1610 he came to the Chesapeake to rescue his investment.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: The English settlement of North America was supposed to be a business operation. Settlers and investors were encouraged by promises of rich harvests, hidden mineral treasures such as gold and silver, and friendly aborigines willing to trade the products of an abundant interior. Almost all of this was quickly proven an illusion after the colonists established their little fort on a bluff above the James River at Jamestown in 1607.

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Slaughter under Trust: Glencoe, Scotland

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Lead: Glencoe is one of the most beautiful valleys in the Highlands of Scotland. Through it the River Coe flows westward to Loch Leven and the sea. In the winter of 1692 it was witness to one of the saddest events in Scottish history.

Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts

Content: Four years before, England and Scotland had acquired a new King and Queen. Weary of the rule of James Stuart, Parliament had offered the crown to James' sister Mary and her husband William, the rulers of Holland.

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King Henry II II

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Lead: One of England’s most important monarchs, Henry II saw his birthright begin to crumble even before his death in CE 1189.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: Despite his undoubted administrative brilliance and successful imperial ambitions, Henry was not a popular leader, not well-liked, and found himself in almost constant conflict with his wife and sons. He married the remarkable Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, and together they had eight children. As both were strong unbending personalities, their marriage was hardly a work in connubial harmony, and in Henry’s later years he would come to regret the near-constant friction that from the beginning inhabited his household. Two great crises helped undermine the legacy he had worked so hard to build since becoming King of England in CE ll54.

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