Dominic Sandbrook views the rivalry between Francis Drake and the Spanish as a central element of the broader 16th-century Cold War between the Protestant English and the Catholic Spanish empire.

“And I think that this points to the kind of incredibly outsize role that he played in the great drama of the series, which is the Cold War between England and Spain, between Protestant world and the Catholic world, and of course between Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen of England, and Philip II, the mo”