Elizabeth maintained deniability by authorizing secret aggressive missions without formal commissions

Evidence

If this interpretation is correct, Drake was in effect a privateer, a licensed private man-of-war, an instrument of government policy, rather than a pirate, but with the difference that war had not been declared between England and Spain and Drake carried no commission; if he was captured he had nothing that would incriminate the queen. — John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake, 417

Categorization

• XREF: XREF: Elizabeth’s plausible deniability strategy — connects to: Elizabeth’s policy of deliberate inconsistency preserved her freedom of action. — Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 70
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake, 417