Women Over There - European Attempts to explore & settle North America during the reign Elizabeth I

Queen Elizabeth (1533-1603) succeeds Queen Mary.

1560 Queen Elizabeth I 1533-1603    The Clopton Portrait.

1562 Jean Ribault (1520-1565), French explorer financed by Queen Elizabeth, establishes Huguenot colony (Charles Fort) at Port Royal in South Carolina.

Jean Ribault (1520-1565)

John Hawkins, (1532-1595), English Explorer, makes his1st voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to the West Indies.

John Hawkins, (1532-1595)

1563 Charles Fort in South Carolina is abandoned.

"The French Left in Charlesfort Suffer from Lack of Provisions" Volume II of Theodor De Bry's Grand Voyages. 1590

Second colony of Huguenots, under René de Laudonnière (c 1529-1574), is established on St. John's River in Florida.

René de Laudonnière (c 1529-1574)

French Stone Column in Florida Timucuan Indians worshipping a stone column with the French coat of arms erected by Jean Ribault at the mouth of the River May (St. Johns River) in 1562

John Hawkins makes his 2nd voyage to the West Indies and Guinea.

1565 St. Augustine is established.

Baptista Boazio, Saint Augustine Map (1589)

1567 John Hawkins departs on his 3rd voyage.

1568 Hawkins fights Spanish at Battle of Vera Cruz, later sets ashore at Tampico, Mexico, where 3 of his men begin a 12 month march to the north, reaching Cape Breton.

Illustration of the carrack Jesus of Lübeck The Battle of San Juan de Ulúa

1576 Martin Frobisher's 1st voyage.

1577 Martin Frobisher's 2nd voyage.

Martin Frobisher (c 1535-39 - 1594)

1578 Martin Frobisher's 3rd voyage.

England & Netherlands sign treaty to join together to fight Spain.

Humphrey Gilbert (1539-1583) sails for America with 350 men, but they are forced to return.

Humphrey Gilbert (1539-1583)

Queen Elizabeth granted Sir Humphrey Gilbert (1539-1583) a patent to plant a colony in North America, but he had died at sea on his 2nd attempt. In 1584 Gilbert's half-brother, Walter Raleigh, took over the charter & sent out a reconnaissance expedition of his own, which explored the Outer Banks of North Carolina & Roanoke Island looking for a site that could support a settlement & serve as a base for English privateers to prey on Spanish shipping.  Roanoke was chosen on the advice of the Portuguese pilot Simon Ferdinando or Fernandes (Portuguese: Simão Fernandes) (c 1538 – c 1590), who was familiar with the area from his earlier service with Spain, when he was a Portuguese-born navigator and sometime pirate who piloted the 1585 & 1587 English expeditions to found colonies on Roanoke island. Fernandes trained as a navigator in Spain at the Casa de Contratación in Seville, but later took up arms against the Spanish empire, preying upon Spanish shipping along with fellow pirate John Callis. Charged with piracy in 1577, he was saved from the hangman's noose by becoming a Protestant & a subject of the Queen of England. In 1578 Fernandes entered the service of Sir Humphrey Gilbert & later Sir Walter Raleigh, piloting the failed 1587 expedition to Roanoke, known to history as the "Lost Colony."  Fernandes disappears from the records after 1590, when he sailed with an English fleet to the Azores.  In 1587, Raleigh sent out that colonizing expedition which included the artist John White & the scholar Thomas Hariot, whose reports & drawings gave Europeans their first view of the American inhabitants of Virginia & their culture. 1583 Humphrey Gilbert's voyage to Newfoundland; his ship is lost on the return voyage.

1580 Francis Drake (1540-1596) returns to England from voyage around the world.

Francis Drake (1540-1596) by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (1561–1636)

1584 Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe (c 1550–c 1620) reach Roanoke Island in July, returned to England in September.

In 1585, under the open encouragement of Queen Elizabeth, Sir Francis Drake sailed out to terrorize the Spanish in the West Indies by attacking their cities & capturing treasure.  On the way home, Drake stopped at Roanoke, where he discovered the settlers in grave straits following a harsh winter.  Unloading the "several hundred" passengers he had picked up in the course of his Caribbean adventures—African slaves, South American Indians, & galley slaves (including Europeans & Moors)—Drake made room on his ships & took the Roanoke settlers back to England.  No one knows what happened to the West Indian passengers so unceremoniously left behind at Roanoke.

Roanoke Island from Theodor de Bry after drawing John White

1585 Sir Walter Raleigh's (1522-1618) fleet of 7 vessels & 108 men, under Richard Grenville (1542-1591) & Ralph Lane (c 1532-1603), reach Roanoke Island in June.

Sir Walter Raleigh 1522-1618

1586 In June, Sir Francis Drake arrives from Florida & removes the Lane colony to England.

Sir Richard Grenville & 3 ships arrive at Roanoke in August.

1587 John White (c 1540-1593) with 150 men, women & children sent by Sir Walter Raleigh to plant the Cittie of Raleigh on the Chesapeake Bay, land at Hatorask on July 22.

1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593)  A Native A Fire Ceremony

1590 John White returns to Roanoke Island.

1592 Captain Christopher Newport (1561-1617) sails for the West Indies.

1596 Captain Amias Preston & Sir George Somers (1554–1610) sail to the West Indies.

Sir George Somers (1554–1610)

1602 Sir Walter Raleigh sent Samuel Mace of Weymouth on a voyage to Virginia (North Carolina) to gather plant materials & to search for survivors of the Lost Colony.

Capt. Bartholomew Gosnold (1572 - 1607), Capt. Bartholomew Gilbert, Capt. Gabriel Archer (c1575-c1610), & others sent on voyage to New England coast.

English traders regularly visit Nova Scotia.

1603 Capt. Martin Pring (1580 – 1626) sent to New England coast by Bristol merchants.

Capt. Bartholomew Gilbert sent on voyage to Chesapeake Bay; Gilbert + 4 others went ashore (likely the Eastern Shore) & are killed by Indians.

Allegorical Painting of 1610 Queen Elizabeth I (1538-1603) in Old Age, c.1610 at Corsham Court, Wiltshire.

The Virgin Queen Elizabeth I dies, & James VI of Scotland becomes James I.