Walter Cunningham (1550-) was an English adventurer and military officer who fought in the Anglo-Spanish War.
Biography[]
Walter Cunningham was born in Preston, Lancashire in 1550, and he became a Royal Navy sailor at the age of 14. Cunningham later came to serve under Francis Drake, who privateered for England against the Spanish Empire, and he became one of Drake's lieutenants during the Anglo-Spanish War. In 1586, he acccompanied Drake on his raid on St. Augustine in Spanish Florida, and Cunningham was himself entrusted with disrupting Spain's overseas trade and colonies in Florida and given a handful of settlers to create a colony in Florida for that purpose. Cunningham founded Fort St. Albans in the Everglades and raised a considerable force of English soldiers and Native American raiders before attacking and destroying the Spanish Army outpost of Fort Luz del Pantano. Cunningham and his army then pressed their advantage and attacked the French outpost of Fort Espoir du Sud, whose colonists had been interfering with the English colony's trade. With the Catholic colonies destroyed, Cunningham and his colonists abandoned their temporary settlement, as their mission was completed successfully, and Cunningham set out to raid other Spanish colonies in the region.
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