About: West Country Men
The West Country Men were a group of individuals in Elizabethan England who advocated theEnglish colonisation of Ireland, attacks on the Spanish Empire and other overseas colonial expansion. The group included Humphrey Gilbert, Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, John Hawkins, Sir Richard Grenville and Ralph Lane. Five of these individuals originated in the far southwest of Britain known as the West Country, particularly associated with the sea ports of Devon including Plymouth.
