I wholeheartedly concur with Peter Milward's condemnation of those villains Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins in Milward's March 27 letter, "A look back at the Elizabethan Era."
Indeed Milward has gone too easy on them, omitting to mention their heinous role in defeating the Spanish Armada -- that gallant fleet sent to bring recalcitrant England (and John Knox's Scotland, too, by the way) back to the bosom of the Holy Catholic Church and the enlightened rule of the Spanish Inquisition.
The pious Philip II of Spain had no doubt the welfare of all Christendom at heart when he proclaimed the equivalent of a fatwa upon that "wicked queen," the heretical Elizabeth I. If only Elizabeth had followed the righteous example of her half-sister, unfairly dubbed "Bloody Mary" (another example of vicious English propaganda), who spared no effort (or firewood) to expunge all traces of vile heresy in the English nation! More power to Milward's elbow.
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