Elizabeth I vs The Catholics: England’s Greatest Hero (Part 3)

**Tom Holland** (0:03)
This episode is brought to you by Claude by Anthropic.

**Dominic Sandbrook** (0:06)
Tom, as you know, recently I've had to work through all kinds of issues. One of them was having to write the notes for a series about the First World War in 1915 Would have been so easy to be overwhelmed by that, like an Italian soldier trudging up a limestone hill towards Austrian guns. But whereas the Italians often felt alone, I knew that I always had you, and that was very special.

**Tom Holland** (0:26)
You did, Dominic.

**Dominic Sandbrook** (0:27)
And if I'd had to do it on my own, I'd have probably been daunted. And the good news is that when you need help, there's Claude.

**Tom Holland** (0:34)
Claude is the AI for minds that don't stop at good enough. It's the collaborator that actually understands your entire workflow and thinks with you. So whether you're debugging code at midnight or strategizing your next business move, Claude extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter. For problems worth solving, get started with Claude at claude.ai/rest Is History. That's claude.ai/rest Is History.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:05)
Introducing Meta Glasses. You have questions, they've got answers.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:11)
Hey Meta, what's the capital of Peru? Lima.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:14)
How do you say, where's the restroom in Spanish?

**Tom Holland** (1:18)
Dónde está el baño?

**SPEAKER_3** (1:19)
Hey Meta, is a hot dog a sandwich? Technically, no. Spiritually, yes. Hey Meta, what should I do with my life?

**SPEAKER_4** (1:28)
That's one of life's biggest questions. What do you think?

**SPEAKER_3** (1:32)
Ask anything with the new Meta Glasses.

**Tom Holland** (1:39)
Hello, everyone. And before today's show, I have incredibly exciting news for you about a live show. On Friday, the 4th of September, Dominic and I will be at The South Bank to do something that we have not done before. So you will be the first people to hear it. We are telling the story of what is the ultimate Victorian adventure. The date is 1868 The location is Abyssinia.
And the Emperor of Abyssinia has been writing letters to Queen Victoria, who rather rudely has not replied to them.
So the Emperor of Abyssinia, annoyed about this, has kidnapped a number of British subjects. In response, Britain sends an expedition to rescue the captives. And it is no exaggeration to say, it is massive.
On this expedition, 13,000 soldiers, 40,000 animals, including 44 elephants, and the British even put down a railway line to transport everything. It's an incredible story full of jaw-dropping events, ludicrous characters, lots of moustaches, lots of general Victorian shenanigans. And as I say, it is the first time that we have ever done it on The Rest Is History. I don't want to blow our trumpet, but I think it's going to be an absolute Rest Is History classic. So if you want to get a ticket for the ultimate Victorian adventure at the Southbank in London on Friday, the 4th of September, you know where to go. therestishistory.com.

**Dominic Sandbrook** (3:36)
Drake, he was a Devon man, and ruled the Devon seas. Captain, are they sleeping there below?
Roving though his death fell, he went with heart at ease, dreaming all the time of Plymouth Ho.
Take my drum to England, hang it by the shore, strike it when your powder's running low. If the darn sight Devon, I'll quit the poor heaven and drum them up the channel as we drummed them long ago.
So that is Drake's Drum by Tom Holland's favourite poet, Sir Henry Newbolt, and it was written in 1897 The high point of late Victorian patriotism, the high point of faith in the British Empire, and indeed in the Royal Navy. But it's a point in Britain's history, the late 1890s, when people are beginning to get a little bit worried that the next century, the 20th century, might not be as good as the 19th. And so they're looking for reassurance. They're worried that the foundations of the British Empire are crumbling, and they're looking for reassurance back to the glory days of the Virgin Queen and the origins of English sea power. And in particular, they're looking back to the great maritime hero of the Elizabethan age, probably the greatest English hero between Henry V and Horatio Nelson, and that is Sir Francis Drake. So Nelson had beaten the French. Sir Francis Drake was famous, was celebrated in endless storybooks and textbooks for children as the man who had seen off the Spanish, the Dons as they're called, specifically in the Spanish Armada of 1588 But Tom, there's more to him than that, isn't there? Because he was also the great English explorer. At the time, the only man in history who had set off to circumnavigate the world and had been in command of the expedition from the very start of it to the end. So he'd gone up the coast of California, he'd almost gone to Canada. And in fact, in San Francisco, there is still, well, there is St. Francis Drake Boulevard, there's Drake's Bay. It's brilliant that in San Francisco, which you would think of as very woke. They love Sir Francis Drake. Actually, we might touch on this in a second. But when he died, he died at sea. He died off the coast of Panama, and he was consigned to the waters. So the poem says, slung between the round shore in Nombre Dios Bay. And the story goes, so the myth, which is celebrated by this poem, is that in Britain's hour of need, rather like King Arthur, he will return and you will hear the beating of Drake's ghostly drum. That's why the poem is called Drake's Drum. And supposedly, we've done Trafalgar twice, and yet we weirdly, we forgot to mention this, that before the Battle of Trafalgar as Nelson and Collingwood and the victory and the royal sovereign, are sailing into action against the French. And the Dons, of course, and the Spanish, of course. Yeah, you're right. They hear the beating of Drake's drum. Also, in the First World War, when we were fighting the Kaiser, Drake's drum again, and no doubt, I mean, I don't hear much about this, but people should talk about this more, Falklands veterans, because I bet they heard Drake's drum before the Battle of Goose Green or some such.