The English experience of piracy has usually been glorified as the proleptic wanderings of a future imperial power-piracy as the vanguard of the Empire. Under Elizabeth, England pursued a highly aggressive para-naval policy towards Spain; in the 1570s and 80s, piracy became England's belated answer to Spain's imperial expansion. Long before war became open in 1588, the Queen was giving her not-so-tacit approval to privateering expeditions that ostensibly sought new channels for English trade but in fact consisted mainly of attacks on Spanish colonies in the New World.' Glorified with the name of "privateers," Englishmen such as Francis Drake plundered Spanish colonies and enriched England's treasury. I would like to complicate this narrative of