Founded Upon the Seas

Sir Walter Oakeshott was a British scholar who is best known as the discoverer of the Winchester Manuscript of Malory's Morte d'Arthur while he was an assistant master at Winchester College. He later became Rector of Lincoln College, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1962 to 1964. Oakeshott had a scholarly interest in Elizabethan exploration, which he examines in this volume, first published in 1942. He describes the military and exploratory achievements of the Elizabethan and Stuart navy, including attempts to find the Northwest Passage, the settlement of Virginia and the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Oakeshott also discusses the role of Renaissance thought and contemporary politics in these achievements, through changes in naval tactics and advances in cartography. The personalities of leading explorers including Sir Francis Drake, Sir John Hawkins and Sir Walter Raleigh are also vividly described in this clear and concise historical account.