Editing Francis Drake (section)

===Execution of Thomas Doughty===
{{Main|Thomas Doughty (explorer)}}
On his voyage to interfere with Spanish treasure fleets, Drake had several quarrels with his co-commander Thomas Doughty and on 3 June 1578, accused him of witchcraft and charged him with [[mutiny]] and [[treason]] in a shipboard trial.{{sfn|Coote|2005|p=133}} Drake claimed to have a (never presented) commission from the Queen to carry out such acts and denied Doughty a trial in England. The main pieces of evidence against Doughty were the testimony of the ship's carpenter, Edward Bright, who after the trial was promoted to master of the ship ''Marigold'', and Doughty's admission of telling [[William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley|Lord Burghley]], a vocal opponent of agitating the Spanish, of the intent of the voyage. Drake consented to his request of [[Eucharist|Communion]] and dined with him,{{sfn|Kelsey|2000|p=109}} of which [[Francis Fletcher (priest)|Francis Fletcher]] had this account:

{{blockquote|And after this holy repast, they dined also at the same table together, as cheerfully, in sobriety, as ever in their lives they had done aforetime, each cheering up the other, and taking their leave, by drinking each to other, as if some journey only had been in hand.{{sfnp|Barrow|1843|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=zo0xAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA102 102]}}<ref name="Hampden1972">{{cite book |last1=Hampden |first1=John |title=Francis Drake, Privateer: Contemporary Narratives and Documents |year=1972 |publisher=Eyre Methuen Limited |isbn=978-0413284303 |page=150 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zmNnAAAAMAAJ&q=%22holy%20repast%22}}</ref>}}

Drake had Thomas Doughty beheaded on 2 July 1578. In January 1580, when Drake became stranded upon a reef off the Celebes Sea, the ship's chaplain, Francis Fletcher, in a sermon suggested that the woes of the voyage were connected to the unjust demise of Doughty, Drake chained the clergyman to a hatch cover and pronounced him excommunicated.{{sfnp|Sugden|2006|page=143}}