I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. My favorite period in history and I learned a lot well written

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. If you look back in my history reviews you will know I love anything to do with the Tudor era. This was absolutely fascinating! I highly recommend it if you are into that historical period. Very informative.

This is an overview of the privateers, or 'Sea Dogs', who sailed the waters during Elizabeth's reign, plundering the Spanish treasure ships and refilling not only their own wallets, but England's as well. While Francis Drake gets the focus, others are described including Hawkins, Oxenham, and Raleigh. With repetitive, flat, and dry writing, often jerking the reader back and forth in time, this book had a hard time keeping my attention or interest. It might be more for people who already know a lot about these people and their adventures and have no need of additional descriptions about the lives of the sailors or how Elizabeth and her politicians used them. Personally, I could have used those details to stay interested in the book.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I really enjoyed this book! Of all the British monarchs, I probably know the most about Elizabeth I, but I definitely don't know much about her. Her "sea dogs" was so fun to learn about! I enjoy all things pirates, and despite the author stating over and over again that these men (specifically Sir Francis Drake) weren't pirates despite doing pirate things, for a non-British person, most of these guys were pirates.

Structure and Formatting 4/5
There were a few things that stuck out at me with regards to the formatting. There was one chapter which seemed like a "catch-all" chapter to try to cover all the guys not mentioned in the main chapters. It was fine, but it threw off the flow of the story and made that chapter feel more like an encyclopedia rather than a narrative. There was also a whole chapter on the death of Mary Queen of Scots, and that felt like it could have been a paragraph to explain the significance of Elizabeth's mindset. I spent the whole chapter thinking "when are we getting back to the sea dogs?"

Thoroughness of Research 5/5
This was so full of personal accounts and military records, that it really brought life to the stories and people involved. Loved the variety of sources used!

Storytelling/Writing 4/5
As mentioned before, the issues with formatting threw off the pacing and flow of the book a little bit, but otherwise, this was a very accessible book as far as the writing and language used.

Level of Enjoyment 4/5
This was so fun! I could have used more of an actiony-pirate feel, but that's just me and my pirate fascination. :-P

Prior Knowledge Needed 5/5
I think this is a book that pretty much anyone can pick up without knowing anything about Elizabeth I or any of the sea dogs. The few detours that threw off the storytelling/formatting for me definitely help to explain things that anyone new to the time period and people involved would want to know.

Overall rating 4.4/5

I have previously enjoyed reading about Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh so I was very interested in this book to learn more about them and others.

Best gives a detailed account of those who were known as Elizabeth’s Sea Dogs and their adventures including Drake's circumvention and Hawkin's many journeys such as the disastrous San Juan Uno where he almost lost his and his crews lives.

A number of seafarers are detailed including many I was previously unaware of and their expeditions across the seas, battles, discoveries or in one instance, the first man to use blueprints of ships.

Drake was a favourite of Elizabeth and although she denied knowing of his plans she would secretly support and provide finance for his attacks against Spanish ships.

The Armada is explained in great detail from the differences between the English and Spanish ships such as the reason the English ships were faster down to the clothing worn by those involved.

I thoroughly enjoyed diving into the depths of the adventures of these men, their successes and failures and learning why some of them are still well known names today. I have learnt alot, not just about the men involved but also the development of ships, the Royal Navy and why Elizabeth’s Sea Dogs were feared by their enemies.

For anyone with an interest in the Armada, this is fascinating but I would also recommend to anyone with an interest in the Elizabethan era. This book is clearly the result of much research.

The bibliography has provided me with more reading I'll be adding to my list.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pen and Sword for an advanced copy of this book.

Pirate or Privateer, Hero or Villain…it depended on which side you were or what the captain decided that day. This is a biographical sketch of the famous, like Sir Francis Drake, and the not so well-known of Elizabeth I’s “sea dogs” who sailing under a letter of marque could fire on, seize and then take the cargo of ships but it was grey area of whose ships they were allowed to take. Often they would take Spanish ships and England was not at war with them at those times. Sometimes they leave the crews adrift near land with enough supplies, sometimes not. Other times they would seize ships, fighting and dying included, without the least bit of legal pretense that the ships qualified under the letter of marque. So hero or villain…private war against the Spanish or just looking to make a buck. It depended on the captain and depended on the time.

The second part of the book deals with the Spanish Armada and the important role the sea dogs played in destroying various incarnations of the fleet before the Spanish ever left port and then in the big clash. While there is some discussion of ship design and battle tactics, it is easy enough for the layman to follow for this is not an in-depth treatise naval warfare. It is a narrative history that details the events, before, during and after the meeting of the English and Spanish fleets.

It is eye-opening to find out the inadequacies in supplies and in top leadership that were often appointed for political favor or just whim of the monarch. Add in the uncertainties of weather and wind and it is amazing that navies could even find each other, much less engage in deliberate maneuvers. In the end it was not the superior might of the English navy—they fought the Spanish to draw without overwhelming damage done to the Spanish, when the Spanish left—but a lack of ammunition on the Spanish side to continue the fight and then terrible storms that sunk a number of ships that did in the Spanish.

This work is friendly to people who don’t know much of the details of the Spanish Armada or the sea-dogs that helped establish British superiority at sea for centuries to come. It has enough details to keep the reader’s interest with things they probably didn’t know without being bogged down with extraneous tidbits. It also isn’t a tome that would take days to read through. I was surprised that there weren’t footnotes/endnotes. But Best does give credit to the appropriate speaker and authors but to find exactly where that information came from is not as clear. There is a bibliography that gives the reader other works to read and support for his presentation of facts.

I learned things and this was an easy read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review.

This was a well written, engaging look at a fascinating period of history. Best does an excellent job of keeping the material detailed without becoming too dry as he explores the nuances of the period, the methods of the Sea Dogs and I thoroughly enjoyed delving into this book.

Brian Best offers a well researched account of a truly amazing time in European history. He shows us what the background of the conflict between the English navy and the Spanish Armada was, he also gives us a detailed account of the lives of the main actors of the English side of the conflict. Best also gives us an insightful analysis of the difference in colonisation and exploitation which I found thought provoking.
The problem with this book, in my opinion, are the digressions and unnecessary "ab ovo" segments. For example we get a segment lasting several pages that covers the life of Sir Francis Drake's father. We also get a detailed account of strange animals. This is very interesting, but has no place in a book whose title clearly states that the main topic of the book will be the war against Spain.
The author also repeats the same information several times throughout the book. There is sometimes a need to do that in a longer book, but here, in a book with fewer than 180 pages, there is really no need to do that.
These "problems" left me with a feeling that the author did not have enough material to fill those 176 pages, so he needed to fatten the text a bit, which was disappointing.

This is truly a story of greed. While Elizabeth was on the throne at the end of the sixteenth century, her treasury was empty except for the huge amount of plunder that her Sea Dogs (read privateers) were able to wrest from Philip, the King of Spain. At the beginning of her reign, there was great speculation that she would marry Philip but she wouldn't convert to Roman Catholicism. He never got over her refusal and spent years planning to overthrow her and replace her with her half-sister Mary, Queen of Scots.

At this time Spain was at its' height of power and was exploiting the riches of the New World. Twice each year, a treasure fleet would leave from Santa Domingo (after concentrating their plunder from the rest of the New World) and sail for Spain. Elizabeth's Sea Dogs (who she never acknowledged openly), men like Francis Drake would swoop down of the cities of Spanish America and attack these fleets as the prepared to sail for Spain.

Most of the time the Sea Dogs sailed under a "Letter of Marque" which made them legal pirates. They were able to capture and steal any ship that they considered to be that of an enemy of England. The booty that was seized from these ships was considered spoils of war. While Philip accused Elizabeth of perfidy and piracy, she was happy to take a payment of supplication from each of her 'Privateers'.

Eventually Philip decided to construct a large naval force (the Armada) to invade England and replace Mary on the throne and convert England back to Roman Catholicism. This led Elizabeth to eventually have Mary beheaded as a traitor. The Armada was never able to land on the English shore (though many of the ships circumnavigated the British Isles) and were destroyed by the combined ships of the Sea Dogs and the dangerous winds and storms that surrounded England.

The book is on an interesting topic, which I suppose will intrigue not only readers but also historians for a long time to come. I am grateful to the publisher for allowing me to read the book in advance!

As much as is known about the Elizabeths period, there are still many "dark spots" on the map. This book contributes to clarifying details of history - such as the so-called Se Dogs. There are many nuances in geopolitics and the use of all methods to defeat the enemy - this book shows some of these tools, which in the hands of Elizabeth and her experienced advisers, become legends.

An interesting read on a turbulent time in England’s history. The stories about the various captains and their adventures were compelling and a great read. I learned quite a bit about this and thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.