Raleigh

Raleigh, or Ralegh, Sir Walter c.1552–1618), English adventurer and explorer, born near Budleigh Salterton, Devon. As a young man he fought with the French Huguenots and attended Oriel College, Oxford.

Raleigh, whose name was almost certainly pronounced Rawley by his contemporaries, had a half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert (c.1539–83), who, in 1578, obtained a patent from Elizabeth I to ‘discover and take possession of any remote, barbarous and heathen lands not possessed by any Christian prince or people’. This was the type of adventure which had long attracted the gentlemen of Devon, and Raleigh accompanied Gilbert. However, the expedition was driven back after an engagement in the Atlantic, and a second expedition the following year was equally disastrous. Raleigh was forced to look elsewhere for his livelihood and attached himself to the court in London, obtaining employment as captain of a company of soldiers sent to Ireland to suppress the rebellion of the Desmonds in Ireland. He played a significant, if somewhat unsavoury, part in the ruthless defeat of the rebels, resorting to massacre and assassination.

He returned to England at the end of 1581, and immediately became a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, who showered honours and rewards upon him—he was knighted in 1585—and he grew exceedingly rich with the grants and monopolies he received from her. Among them was nearly 65,000 acres of the land forfeited by the Desmonds after the rebellion; here he introduced the potato as a suitable crop, and attempted the cultivation of tobacco. He probably did lay his cloak over a puddle that the queen might walk dry-shod over it, and it is equally possible that he did scribble a verse with a diamond on a pane of glass where he was sure the queen would see it.

When Gilbert's patent ran out the year after his death, Raleigh had it renewed in his own favour, and used it to start a series of expeditions. In theory, these were designed to settle colonists in the new land of Virginia, but in practice they were an attempt to discover gold and silver mines. These expeditions were all unsuccessful and Raleigh claimed to have lost as much as £40,000 through them.

During 1588, the year of the Spanish Armada, Raleigh was appointed vice admiral of Devon, a legal and administrative post, and he took no part in the defeat of the Spaniards. The following year he took part in an expedition to the coast of Portugal to foster a revolt against Philip II of Spain. This failed miserably, and, with the rise of the Earl of Essex as the queen's prime favourite, Raleigh's popularity with his sovereign now declined. He finally fell from favour in 1592 when the queen discovered his marriage to her maid of honour Elizabeth Throckmorton. Both Raleigh and his wife were imprisoned in the Tower of London and though Raleigh managed to buy their release he never regained his importance at the royal court. Raleigh then retired with his wife to an estate in Dorset, but in an effort to find favour with his queen he left for South America in 1595 to sail up the Orinoco River in search of the mythical golden city Eldorado. He found no gold, but wrote an account of his voyage in The Discoverie of Guiana which was more romantic than truthful; and though his attack on Cadiz in 1596 was largely successful the queen remained unimpressed.

The death of Queen Elizabeth spelled Raleigh's ruin. One by one his estates and privileges, granted by the queen, were stripped from him. He was accused, perhaps with reason, of taking part in conspiracies against the life of James I, who succeeded Elizabeth in 1603. He was condemned to death, but instead of execution was confined in the Tower. However, James was chronically short of money, and in 1616 Raleigh was released on condition he discovered a gold mine in Guiana for the king without infringing any Spanish possession. This was impossible, as Spain had many settlements there. When the Spanish ambassador in London pointed this out, the king promised the ambassador that if a clash with the Spaniards did occur he would execute Raleigh on his return.

The ships reached the mouth of the Orinoco at the end of 1617. Raleigh, who was sick with fever and remained at Trinidad, sent five small vessels up the river under the command of his most trusted captain. Inevitably, they found a Spanish settlement in the way and fighting broke out in which Raleigh's son was killed, as well as some Spaniards. After a fruitless search for a gold mine, the vessels returned. Their commander committed suicide, and when the expedition returned home Raleigh was arrested and executed on 29 October 1618. He died, a brave man, with dignity and serenity.

During much of his life Raleigh was unpopular in England, particularly during his time as a favourite of Queen Elizabeth, mainly because of the grasping and extortionist means by which he built up his fortune. But with the death of the queen the mood changed. His hatred of Spain endeared him to a public that was suspicious of King James's close relations with that country, and the patent falsity of Raleigh's trial in 1603, and his long years in captivity in the Tower, made him a popular hero. His execution, at the Spanish ambassador's instigation and insistence, enhanced his popularity; and he has remained one of the heroes of Elizabethan England, whose name is linked with such men as Sir Francis Drake, Sir Martin Frobisher, and Sir John Hawkins. He also had a persuasive pen, and his literary and historical works rank him among the first strategic writers on sea power.

Bibliography

Greenblatt, S. J. , Sir Walter Raleigh (1973).
Hyland, P. , Ralegh's Last Journey (2003).
Irwin, M. , That Great Lucifer (1960).