Tracking down Elizabeth dashing young men in London

This autumn I will be giving a day-school on "Singing the beard of the King of Spain".
A great topic that I am really looking forward to, especially as it will be a cooperation with a dear colleague and historian.
The idea is to trace the history of the English and Dutch war against Spain and Portugal under Elizabeth and James I on one side and the Dutch Republic under William, Maurice and Johan of Orange on the other.

I suspect our problem will not be what to include, but rather what to exclude as the period is rich in sources and frankly lots of derring-do and the odd pirate shenanigan.

St.Giles' Cripplegate and the London Wall.
Copyright B.Hoffmann 

As part of the preparations, I decided to track down some of the memorials in London to the men, who were involved in these wars. People like Francis Drake (in Portobelo Bay, Panama (definitely out of reach for my budget at the moment) and Walter Raleigh (in St.Margaret's in Westminster), but frankly there are so many more to look into.

The father of Anne Clifford of Civil War fame, George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland is one of these and I am looking forward to visiting Skipton Castle later this summer.

Martin Frobisher (of the North West Passage is another one), as is Humphrey Gilbert (founder of Newfoundland and half-brother to Walter Raleigh). These two are both commemorated in St.Giles' Cripplegate in London.

St. Giles' Cripplegate is the medieval church in the centre of the Barbican complex in London. Surrounded by Modern Brutalist architecture and lots of fountains and some impressive remains of London'S city wall, it is easy to rush dismiss it on your way to or from the Barbican Centre or the Museum of London. Connoisseurs of Organ music love the place (for its beautiful organs and the associated concerts). But as one of the few surviving medieval churches in London it is actually worth visiting, despite the damage caused by the Cripplegate Fire of 1897 and the bombs during the Blitz.

For those interested in what was lost, there exists a description of the original monuments in the church dating to 1806, in D.Hughson's London (from p. 353 onwards), but what survives is still of interest to the history or literature enthusiast and in a way, it helps not to have to find your way through hundreds of other memorials as in St.Margaret's in Westminster.

Memorials to John Speed and Martin Frobisher in St. Giles' Cripplegate. 

With links to Shakespeare, John Speed the mapmaker, Milton, John Foxe and numerous others, St.Giles must have been a real centre of Elizabethan and Stuart society and one wonders, how much the members of the congregation mingled after Sunday services. Either way, its modern position between the Museum of London and its historical displays and the Barbican Centre with its exhibitions and theatre and music productions seems strangely appropriate.

So next time you are in the area, make the effort and come down the stairs and take a look, it is a real gem.