 Tours > Sir Francis Drake > Canterbury
In Search of Sir Francis Drake
by Kathryn Gillett, Elizabethan England on Britannia
Canterbury
16 Miles North-West of Dover
After loading up on memorabilia
and information from the Mary Rose Museum gift shop, I returned to
my car, and headed east on the A27. My destination was Dover, where Drake
took ship to Plymouth before his raid on Cadiz - a daring feat that
would make him famous - and infamous - for 'singeing the King of
Spain's Beard.' I eventually decided against Dover, however, since
traveling this lovely, winding coastal route that slowed through one
seaside village after another, was taking much longer than I'd
anticipated, so I cut northeast on the A28 to arrive at Canterbury before
nightfall.
Although I have seen nothing to
document that Drake visited the Cathedral there, it was such an important
place in his day, he must certainly have gone at least once in his life.
And, since I saw this journey of mine as being a bit of a pilgrimage, I
thought it appropriate to stop and pay my respects.
In 597, St. Augustine arrived
in Kent and established the first Cathedral in Canterbury. Since then
various additions, destructions, and re-buildings have shaped both the
place and its legends. Even though I am not of any of the Christian
religions, as I walked into the Cathedral, the place immediately embraced
me with what felt like the prayers of the ages. As a lonely voyager, it
was beguiling, the safety I felt in this sanctuary. And it was in that
feeling of complete safety that I came upon the site of Thomas Becket's
gruesome murder. I don't want to get into the details, but suffice it to
say that Becket's murder was a grisly one. I was shaken that a ghastly
attack could happen in such a sacred place. And yet it somehow clarified
for me how in Drake's day - a time of belief in a literal heaven and
hell - such places as this must have stood as a lesson on the dangers of
evil - a power that could invade even the holiest of places.
Next Stop: Plymouth's Barbican District
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