History of Britain - Sir Walter Raleigh - Explorer Entrepreneur and English Gentleman
Walter Raleigh - 1552 - 1618
One of Devonshires heroes of the past !.... A man who enjoyed royal patronage and titles, as well as an explorer and coloniser (some say 'privateer'). The typical 'English Gentleman', responsible for throwing his cape over a puddle, to enable the Queen of England, Elizabeth 1, to pass unsoiled.
Not much is known about Raleighs early life. Historians believe he was born on 22 January 1552, although the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography currently favours a date of 1554. He grew up in the house of Hayes Barton,, not far from Budleigh Salterton, in Devon, England. He was the youngest of five sons. His half-brothers, John Gilbert, Humphrey Gilbert, Adrian Gilbert, and full brother Carew Raleigh were also prominent during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. Catherine Champernowne was a niece of Kat Ashley, Elizabeth's governess, who introduced the young men at court.
Raleigh's family was ardently Protestant in religious orientation and had a number of near-escapes during the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary I of England. In the most notable of these, his father had to hide in a tower to avoid execution. As a result, during his childhood, Raleigh developed a hatred of Catholicism and proved himself quick to express it after the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558. In matters of religion Elizabeth was more moderate than her sister Mary.
In 1568 or 1572, Raleigh was registered as an undergraduate at Oriel College, Oxford but does not seem to have taken up residence. In 1575, he was registered at the Middle Temple. At his trial in 1603, he stated that he had never studied law. His life between these two dates is uncertain but in his History of the World he claimed to be an eye-witness at the Battle of Moncontour (3 October 1569) in France.[7] In 1575 or 1576 Raleigh returned to England
Raleigh and his family had estates and interests in Ireland, Between 1579 and 1583, Raleigh took part in the suppression of the Desmond Rebellions. He was present at the siege of Smerwick. Upon the seizure and distribution of land following a rebellion, Raleigh received 40,000 acres, including the fortified coastal towns of Youghal and Lismore. This made him one of the principal landowners in Munster, but he enjoyed limited success in inducing English tenants or colonists to settle on his estates.
During his seventeen years as an Irish landlord, frequently being domiciled at Killua Castle, Clonmellon, county Westmeath, Raleigh made the town of Youghal his occasional home. He was mayor there from 1588 to 1589. His town mansion, Myrtle Grove, is assumed to be the setting for the story that his servant doused him with a bucket of water after seeing clouds of smoke coming from Raleigh's pipe, in the belief he had been set alight. But this story is also told of other places associated with Raleigh: the Virginia Ash inn in Henstridge near Sherborne, Sherborne Castle, and South Wraxall Manor in Wiltshire, home of Raleigh's friend, Sir Walter Long.
Raleigh's management of his Irish estates ran into difficulties, which contributed to a decline in his fortunes.
Raleigh's plan in 1584 for colonisation in the "Colony and Dominion of Virginia" in North America ended in failure at Roanoke Island, but paved the way for subsequent colonies. These expeditions were funded primarily by Raleigh and his friends, but never provided the steady stream of revenue necessary to maintain a colony in America. (Subsequent colonization attempts in the early 17th century were made under the joint-stock Virginia Company, which was able to raise the capital necessary to create successful colonies.)
In 1587, Raleigh attempted a second expedition, again establishing a settlement on Roanoke Island. This time, a more diverse group of settlers was sent, including some entire families. This colony also ran into supply difficulties, and it struggled to survive whilst British ships(including Raleighs) were held back to defend against the Spanish Armada expected onslought.
However, when the supply ships arrived in Roanoke, 3 years later than planned, the colonists had disappeared. The only clue to their fate was the word "CROATOAN" and letters "CRO" carved into tree trunks. White had arranged with the settlers that if they should relocate, the name of their destination be carved into a tree or corner-post. This suggested the possibilities that they had relocated to Croatoan Island (now Hatteras Island). But a hurricane prevented John White from investigating the island for survivors. Other speculation includes their having starved, or been swept away or lost at sea during the stormy weather of 1588. No further attempts at contact were recorded for some years. Whatever the fate of the settlers, the settlement is now remembered as the "Lost Colony of Roanoke Island".
In December 1581, Raleigh returned to England from Ireland to despatches as his company had been disbanded. He took part in Court life and became a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. Various colourful stories are told about him at this period, including the gentlemanly tale of his 'cloak'.
In 1585 Raleigh was knighted, and granted other boons and titles such as, Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall, and vice-admiral of the two counties. Both in 1585 and 1586, he sat in parliament as member for Devonshire.
Raleigh commissioned a ship to be built for him. Originally called Ark, it became Ark Raleigh, following the convention at the time by which the ship bore the name of its owner. The Crown, in the form of Queen Elizabeth I, purchased the ship from Raleigh in January 1587, for the sum of £5,000 (£1,000,000 as of 2013). The ship was renamed Ark and later it became the Ark Royal.
From 1590 to 1603, Sir Walter Raleigh gained in prestige and respectablility, and he married one of Queen Elizabeths 'ladies in waiting'..... However, it was an unauthorised marriage, and he was arrested and imprisoned in 'The Tower'..... there has always been speculation that Raleigh had been in a relationship with the Queen, but that he had to marry Bess Throckmorton, because he had gotten her pregnant. Hence the Queens anger !!
He was released 3 months later, in order to lead a successful expedition against the Spanish.... all was well again. Raleigh was elected a burgess of Mitchell, Cornwall, in the parliament of 1593. He retired to his estate at Sherborne where he built a new house, completed in 1594, known then as Sherborne Lodge. Since extended, it is now known as Sherborne Castle. He made friends with the local gentry, such as Sir Ralph Horsey of Clifton Maybank and Charles Thynne of Longleat. During this period at a dinner party at Horsey's, there was a heated discussion about religion. The argument later gave rise to charges of atheism against Raleigh. He was elected to Parliament, speaking on religious and naval matters.
In 1594, he came into possession of a Spanish account of a great golden city at the headwaters of the Caroní River. A year later he explored what is now Guyana and eastern Venezuela in search of Manoa, the legendary city. Once back in England, he publishedThe Discovery of Guiana (1596) an account of his voyage which made exaggerated claims as to what had been discovered. The book can be seen as a contribution to the El Dorado legend. Although Venezuela has gold deposits, there is no evidence Raleigh found any mines. He is sometimes said to have discovered Angel Falls, but these claims are considered far-fetched.
In 1597, he was chosen member of parliament for Dorset, and, in 1601, for Cornwall. He was unique in the Elizabethan period in sitting for three counties. In 1596 Raleigh took part in the capture of Cádiz, where he was wounded. He was also the second-in-command of the Islands Voyage to the Azores in 1597.
From 1600 to 1603, as Governor of the Channel Island of Jersey, Raleigh modernised its defences.
Royal favour with Queen Elizabeth had been restored by this time but his good fortune did not last. The Queen died in 1603, and Raleigh was arrested at Exeter Inn, Ashburton, Devon and imprisoned in the Tower of London on 19 July 1603. On 17 November, Raleigh was tried in the converted Great Hall of Winchester Castle for treason, due to his involvement in a perceived plot against King James 1.
Raleigh conducted his defence. The chief evidence against Raleigh was the signed and sworn confession of his friend Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham who claimed that Raleigh was an atheist. Raleigh frequently requested that Cobham be called in to testify so that he might recant, "[Let] my accuser come face to face, and be deposed. Were the case but for a small copyhold, you would have witnesses or good proof to lead the jury to a verdict; and I am here for my life!" Raleigh essentially was objecting that the evidence against him was "hearsay"; but the tribunal refused to allow Cobham to testify and be cross examined.... it was a rigged trial. Although hearsay was frowned upon under common law, Raleigh was tried under civil law, which allowed hearsay. King James spared his life, despite a guilty verdict. In October 1994 documents which had previously been imperfectly catalogued at the Bodleian Library were discovered during random checking of papers held there. These included Raleigh's own deposition and Cobham's statement to the tribunal, and provide strong evidence that Raleigh denounced King James and spoke in favour of a Spanish invasion, and went so far as to advise on the best invasion location (he recommended Milford Haven); he also requested a Spanish pension of £1,500 a year in return for his spying.
He remained imprisoned in the Tower until 1616. While there, he wrote many treatises and the first volume of The Historie of the World (published 1628) about the ancient history of Greece and Rome. His son, Carew, was conceived with Bess, and born (1604) while Raleigh was imprisoned in the Tower.
In 1616, Raleigh was released in order to conduct a second expedition to Venezuela in search of El Dorado. During the expedition, Raleigh's men, under the command of Lawrence Keymis, attacked the Spanish outpost of Santo Tomé de Guayana (San Tomé) on the Orinoco River. In the initial attack on the settlement, Raleigh's son, Walter, was fatally shot. On Raleigh's return to England, an outraged Count Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, successfully demanded that King James reinstate Raleigh's death sentence. Raleigh was brought to London from Plymouth, by Sir Lewis Stukeley, and passed up numerous opportunities to make an effective escape.
Raleigh was beheaded in the Old Palace Yard at the Palace of Westminster on 29 October 1618. "Let us dispatch", he said to his executioner. "At this hour my ague comes upon me. I would not have my enemies think I quaked from fear." After he was allowed to see the axe that would behead him, he mused: "This is a sharp Medicine, but it is a Physician for all diseases and miseries." According to many biographers, Raleigh's final words (as he lay ready for the axe to fall) were: "Strike, man, strike!".
Having been one of the people to popularise tobacco smoking in England, he left a small tobacco pouch, found in his cell shortly after his execution. Engraved upon the pouch was a Latin inscription: Comes meus fuit in illo miserrimo tempore ("It was my companion at that most miserable time").
Raleigh's head was embalmed and presented to his wife. His body was to be buried in the local church in Beddington, Surrey, the home of Lady Raleigh, but was finally laid to rest in St. Margaret's, Westminster, where his tomb may still be visited today.
Although Raleigh's popularity had waned considerably since his Elizabethan heyday, his execution was seen by many, both at the time and since, as unnecessary and unjust, as for many years his involvement in the Main Plot seemed to have been limited to a meeting with Lord Cobham. One of the judges at his trial later said: "The justice of England has never been so degraded and injured as by the condemnation of the honourable Sir Walter Raleigh." This view has been less widely held since the discovery of some of the 1603 tribunal's paperwork in the Bodleian Library in 1994, which strongly supports the case against Raleigh.
One of the most colourful of personalities, Raleigh has always been to me, the most gentle of English gentlemen. He was an explorer, a courtesan, a warrior, a poet, a businessman and most of all an intelligent and fair politician.
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