ABSTRACT
John Hawkins was a central figure in the story of the Elizabethan Navy. It was his slaving and piratical expeditions in the 1560s which first engaged the Queen's support and complicity. He enjoyed high favour at court, and it was through him that Francis Drake (with whom he fell out in his later years) became 'the Queen's pirate'. This chapter presents few examples of Hawkins's surviving correspondence. Two letters are included chiefly because they represent a further line of archival descent from the Earl of Leicester's servant Sir Richard Browne via Evelyn to Pepys. One of the letters is written by John Hawkins to the Queen. The other letter is the proposal from Hawkins to Leicester. Gonson had served continuously since 1549, and must have been approaching seventy. In the autumn of 1577 he surrendered his letters patent, and received instead a new appointment jointly with Hawkins.
