Tories hit out at ‘Britain-hating’ after Elizabethan hero Sir Francis Drake is added to Parliament’s ‘crazy’ roll of shame for artworks over links to slave trade in the 16th Century

Elizabethan hero Sir Francis Drake has become the latest historical figure added to Parliament’s ‘crazy’ roll-call of links to the slave trade.

Sir Francis played a major role in preventing the country being conquered by the Spanish in the 16th Century, and was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe in one trip.

A favourite of Elizabeth I, he claimed California for England in 1579.

However, artworks featuring the renowned sailor and commander have now been added to a controversial list of connections to slavery.

The move emerged in the latest update to a review of the Parliamentary collection, launched around four years ago in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.

The cross-party committee that oversees art at Westminster says it is wrong to ‘venerate people who have supported and committed acts of atrocity’.

But critics insisted it is ‘daft’ to maintain a list purely based on slavery, which was prevalent around the world, rather than presenting individuals in their wider historical context. They also pointed out that many of those listed had extremely tenuous links to slavery. 

Bizarrely, renowned thinker Edmund Burke is listed on both the pro and anti-slavery list. And the Speaker’s State Coach is included because it is believed to feature a carving of a slave from Roman times. 

Dozens more items have been tagged as featuring people linked to slavery or representations of it in the latest update, taking the total to around 400. 

Sir Francis Drake was born in around 1540 and died at sea near Panama in 1596.

Some historians believe he was a crewman on voyages to West Africa in the 1560s with his cousin John Hawkins, where men and women were captured for slavery. He is also said to have raided Portuguese slave ships. 

Drake has typically been remembered as a scourge of the Spanish, who were also heavily involved in slavery. They nicknamed him ‘El Draque’ – the Dragon.

In 1577 he embarked on a mission to circumnavigate the globe and terrorise Spanish shipping, returning around three years later laden with treasure. Queen Elizabeth came aboard his flagship, the Golden Hind, to bestow a knighthood on him. 

Drake was responsible for a bold attack on Cadiz harbour in 1587 that bought England vital time to prepare for the arrival of Philip II’s invading Armada.

He set sail in December with five small ships, manned by fewer than 200 men, and reached the Brazilian coast in the spring of 1578 

Although he operated on behalf of Elizabeth I, Parliament has yet to designate works showing the monarch as linked to slavery. 

The cross-party Speaker’s Advisory Committee on Works of Art has been considering whether the labelling of the collection or how it is presented should be changed on the basis of the findings. 

The committee insists it does not take a ‘position’ on the people who are included on the register and it is based on ‘rigorous academic research’.

A spokesman said: ‘As the Committee has made clear before, the publication of these documents simply helps to ensure accuracy within Parliament’s collections. 

‘Drawing on rigorous academic research, it includes works depicting people who had financial and political interests in the slave trade, as well as those who had historical or family connections. Inclusion should not be interpreted as the Committee taking a position on the subjects or artworks .

‘The publication of this list is driven by a desire to better understand, explain and contextualise the Collection to as many people as possible. 

‘There are no plans to remove specific artworks from display or change the long-term siting of Parliament’s works of art – It is not a comprehensive document and feedback on its content is always welcome.’

However, Tory MP Alex Stafford told MailOnline: ‘This is absolutely crazy denigrating some of our much loved national heroes. If it wasn’t for Drake we’d all be enslaved to the Spanish.’

Former Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said it was ‘an exercise in self-loathing’, and questioned why Parliament was wasting resources. 

He told MailOnline that the public ‘don’t care and aren’t interested in people who hate the country and just want to complain about it’.

‘It is meaningless and completely arbitrary. They put Charles II and James II on, well that’s like saying Rishi Sunak is linked to illegal migration because he’s PM at the time,’ Sir Jacob said.

‘It is just the way the world was then. 

‘It is the silly element of wokery. This work is not necessary… it makes Parliament look foolish.’ 

‘Even if the people are not directly employed by them there is staff time being used.’ 

He added: ‘We did heroic work in stopping the slave trade.’

The Speaker’s State Coach, an ornate golden carriage last used at the wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981, is on the list.

A carving of a slave from ancient times is apparently responsible for it being marked as ‘depicting enslaved people’.

Ex-PM Peel – known as the founder of the modern police service – was a noted opponent of slavery and his family were not owners.

But he has been included because his father made money from cotton-spinning.

A note under the entry for Robert Peel – who was PM between 1834-35 and 1841-1846 – says: ‘The History of Parliament Trust biography for Sir Robert Peel Senior, father of the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, outlines his links to the cotton trade, and his strong opposition to the abolition of slavery. 

‘The elder Peel helped secure a seat in the House of Commons for his son. The younger Peel also inherited a fortune from his father.’

Edmund Burke, an MP and political thinker, was a critic, but his younger brother apparently speculated on Caribbean plantations.

Robert Walpole, famous for being the country’s first PM in the 18th Century, was included on the list because as a young man he boosted his fortune by investing in the South Sea Company – which was granted a monopoly on slave trading in the South Seas, although it was largely prevented from being active by wars.  

Oliver Cromwell, Charles II and James II have also been categorised as having supported slavery, benefited financially from it, or having close family ties to the trade. 

The review says: ‘In 1665, Cromwell seized Jamaica. This addition to the Caribbean colonies boosted the sugar trade, and the slave trade that sustained it. Cromwell also sent Irish prisoners as slaves to Barbados in 1649.’ 

The study adds: ‘Charles II granted a charter to the Royal Africa Company (originally known as the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading into Africa) to trade enslaved people from the west coast of Africa. Charles’ brother, the future James II, was made governor of the company.’ 

Among those added to the previous update was Sir John Moore, known as the Hero of Corunna for his efforts against Napoleon.

Sir John was born in Glasgow in 1761, and first saw action in the American War of Independence in 1778. He was elected to Parliament, but returned to service as a Major and was wounded in Corsica.

He led troops against the French in St Lucia in 1796, ousting them from the territory. Critics have argued that this meant reinstating slavery, as the French invasion effectively freed men who then fought against the British.

The Commons authorities said they were relying on an ‘audit’ of historic slavery connections to Glasgow, published last year. 

The book states: ‘He was appointed Commandant and Governor of St Lucia in the summer of 1796 and was present on the island until May 1797.

‘Moore was behind initial moves to re-establish a slavery society on the island, including the capture and return of individuals back to enslavement.’ 

But Sir John is separately recorded as playing a role in creating the first units of black troops during the campaign on St Lucia, saying they could be ‘equal to anything’. 

Sir John has been credited with giving Britain an unsurpassed Light Infantry with new methods of training. 

However, he is best known for his role in the Napoleonic Wars, where he first took charge of preparing coastal defences in South-East England and then commanded as Lieutenant General in Spain – taking over from Sir Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington.

Put in an impossible situation and forced to retreat following the surrender of Madrid and the arrival of Napoleon with 200,000 soldiers, Sir John fought a extraordinary rearguard action at Corunna so the bulk of his army could embark on ships.

The evacuation has been compared to Dunkirk, and Sir John’s efforts are regarded as having swung the momentum in the struggle against Napoleon by delaying the French from taking Spain by a year. But he was hit in the chest by a cannonball and mortally wounded. 

When the French eventually took the town they paid respects to Sir John by building a monument. He is celebrated in Britain, including by a statue in Glasgow.

The Irish poet Charles Wolfe also wrote The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna to commemorate the episode. 

Following his final defeat of Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington was said to have remarked: ‘You know, Fitzroy, we’d not have won, I think, without him.’

The review of around 9.000 artefacts was launched in mid-2020, amid a wave of anti-racism protests worldwide that saw the toppling of a statue of merchant Edward Colston in Bristol. 

The committee said at the time: ‘In response to the Black Lives Matter movement, the Parliamentary Art Collection is being reviewed to identify depictions of individuals and activities related to the British slave trade and the use of forced labour of enslaved Africans and others in British colonies and beyond.’

An initial batch of political figures and artworks with links to slavery was unveiled that September prompting anger at ‘wokeism’.

At that stage there were 24 people and 189 items on the list linked negatively to the slave trade.

The number of pieces has continued to climb.

But by the reference to Black Lives Matter has been removed from the updated list.