Sir Francis Drake (b. 1540 - d. January 27, 1596) was an English privateer, navigator, slave trader, politician and civil engineer of the Elizabethan era. Knighted by Queen Elizabeth the First in 1581, Drake was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588.

Sir Francis Drake's exploits were legendary and made him a hero to the English, but to the Spaniards he was a simple pirate. He was known by the Spanish as "El Draque" (from the old Spanish meaning "the Dragon" derived from the Latin "draco", an obvious play on his family name) for his actions of piracy against them in the Caribbean Sea. It was claimed that King Philip II offered a reward of 20,000 ducats (about $10 million by todays standards) for Sir Francis Drakes' life.

With no promise of inheriting from his father's estate, Drake had to find his own fame and fortune. Drake made his first voyage to the New World in 1663, at the age of 23, under the sails of the Hawkins family of Plymouth, in company with his second cousin, Sir John Hawkins. In 1569 he was with the Hawkins fleet when it was trapped by the Spaniards in the Mexican port of San Juan de Ulua. He escaped with Hawkins but the experience led him to his lifelong hatred of the Spanish.

Sir Francis Drake is best remembered for circumnavigating the world, his exploration of the New Americas and his amassed treasure for the English crown from his acts of Piracy in the Caribbean against the Spanish.

Not the most ethical of the Elizabethan Pirates, controversially, he was also the first English slave trader (with Sir John Hawkins), was present at Rathlin Island, part of the English plantation effort in Ulster when 600 men, women, and children were massacred after surrendering and had his co-commander Thomas Doughty beheaded with accusations of witchcraft in a mock trial.

Sir Francis Drake died of dysentery after unsuccessfully attacking San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1596.