Drake's first wife, a Cornish woman named Mary Newman, whom he had married in 1569, had died in 1583, and in 1585 he marries again.

His second wife, Elizabeth Sydenham, is an heiress and the daughter of a local Devonshire magnate, Sir George Sydenham.

In keeping with his new station, Drake purchases a fine country house—Buckland Abbey (now a national museum)—a few miles from Plymouth. (Drake's only grief is that neither of his wives had borne him any children.)

During these years of fame when Drake is a popular hero, he can always obtain volunteers for any of his expeditions, but many of his great contemporaries regard him very differently.

Such well-born men as the naval commander Sir Richard Grenville and the navigator and explorer Sir Martin Frobisher dislike him intensely.

He is the parvenu, the rich but common upstart, with West Country manners and accent and with none of the courtier's graces.

Drake has even bought Buckland Abbey from the Grenvilles by a ruse, using an intermediary, for he knows that the Grenvilles would never have sold it to him directly.

It is doubtful, in any case, whether he cares about their opinions, so long as he retains the goodwill of the queen.

This is soon enough demonstrated when in 1585 Elizabeth places him in command of a fleet of twenty-five ships.

Hostilities with Spain have broken out once more, and he is ordered to cause as much damage as possible to the Spaniards' overseas empire.