The Seahawks

Elizabeth also condoned, as we shall see, the raids of her seamen on the Spanish Main - a further example of how far a nation could go without actually declaring open war. Elizabethan England was full of men who were ready to fight papists or to chase galleons, with the clear understanding that if they should fail, Elizabeth and Cecil would disavow their acts to protesting ambassadors.

(From A History of England and the British Empire. The situation described here is what is depicted in the Errol Flynn movie The Seahawks.)