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SIR WALTER RALEIGH (c. 1552-1618)

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 871 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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See also:

SIR See also:WALTER See also:RALEIGH (c. 1552-1618)  , See also:British explorer, poet and historian, was See also:born probably in 1552, though the date is not quite certain . His See also:father, See also:Walter See also:Raleigh of Fardell, in the See also:parish of Cornwood, near See also:Plymouth, was a See also:country See also:gentle-See also:man of old See also:family, but of reduced See also:estate . Walter Raleigh the See also:elder was three times married . His famous son was the See also:child of his third See also:marriage with See also:Catherine, daughter of See also:Sir See also:Philip Champernown of Modbury, and widow of See also:Otho See also:Gilbert of See also:Compton . By her first marriage she had three sons, See also:John, See also:Humphrey and See also:Adrian Gilbert . Mr . Raleigh had been compelled to give up living in his own See also:house of Fardell . His son was born at the farmhouse of See also:Hayes near the See also:head of Budleigh Salterton See also:Bay, on the See also:coast of See also:Devonshire between See also:Exmouth and See also:Sidmouth . The name is written with a diversity exceptional even in that See also:age . Sir Walter, his father, and a See also:half-See also:brother used different forms . The spelling Raleigh was adopted by Sir Walter's widow, and has been commonly used, though there has been a tendency to prefer " Ralegh " in See also:recent times . It was almost certainly pronounced " Rawley." In 1568 he was entered as a commoner of See also:Oriel See also:College, See also:Oxford, but he took no degree, and his See also:residence was brief .

In 1569 he followed his See also:

cousin See also:Henry Champernown, who took over a See also:body of See also:English See also:volunteers to serve with the See also:French See also:Huguenots . From a reference in his See also:History of the See also:World it has been supposed that he was See also:present at the See also:battle of See also:Jarnac (13th of See also:March 1569), and it has been asserted that he was in See also:Paris during the See also:Massacre of St See also:Bartholomew in 1572 . Nothing, however, is known with certainty of his See also:life till See also:February 1575, when he was See also:resident in the See also:Temple . During his trial in 1603 he declared that he had never studied the See also:law, but that his breeding had been " wholly See also:gentleman, wholly soldier." In See also:June 1578 his half-brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert obtained a patent for six years authorizing him to take See also:possession of " any remote barbarous and See also:heathen lands not possessed by any See also:Christian See also:prince or See also:people." The gentry of See also:Devon had been much engaged in maritime See also:adventure of a privateering or even piratical See also:character since the reign of Henry VIII . In the reign of See also:Elizabeth they were the leaders in colonial enterprises in conflict with the Spaniards in See also:America . During 1578 Humphrey Gilbert led an expedition which was a piratical venture against the Spaniards, and was driven back after an See also:action with them and the loss of a See also:ship in the See also:Atlantic . Raleigh accompanied his half-brother as See also:captain of the " See also:Falcon," and was perhaps with him in an equally unsuccessful voyage ofthe following See also:year . Gilbert was impoverished by his ventures, and Raleigh had to seek his See also:fortune about the See also:court . In the course of 158o he was twice arrested for duels, and he attached himself to the See also:queen's favourite, the See also:earl of See also:Leicester, and to the earl of Oxford, son-in-law of See also:Burghley, for whom he carried a See also:challenge to Sir Philip See also:Sidney . By the end of 158o he was serving as captain of a See also:company of See also:foot in See also:Munster . He took an active See also:part in suppressing the See also:rebellion of the Desmonds, and in the massacre of the See also:Spanish and See also:Italian adventurers at Smerwick in See also:November . His letters prove that he was the See also:advocate of a ruthless policy against the Irish, and did not hesitate to recommend assassination as a means of getting rid of their leaders .

In See also:

December 1581 he was sent See also:home with despatches, as his company had been disbanded on the suppression of the Desmonds . His See also:great fortune See also:dates from his arrival at court where he was already not unknown . Raleigh had been in See also:correspondence with See also:Walsingham for some See also:time . The romantic stories told by Sir See also:Robert See also:Naunton in the Fragmenta See also:Regalia, and by See also:Fuller in his Worthies, represent at least the mythical truth as to his rise into favour . It is quite possible that Raleigh, at a time when his court clothes represented " a considerable part of his estate," did (as the old See also:story says) throw his See also:mantle on the ground to help the queen to walk dry-shod over a puddle, and that he scribbled verses with a See also:diamond on a See also:pane of See also:glass to attract her See also:attention, though we only have the See also:gossip of a later See also:generation for our authority . It is certain that his tall and handsome See also:person, his caressing See also:manners and his See also:quick wit pleased the queen . The rewards showered on him were out of all proportion to his services in See also:Ireland, which had not been more distinguished than those of many others . In March 1582 he was granted a See also:reward of boo, and the command of a company, nominally that he might be exercised in the See also:wars, but in reality as a See also:form of See also:pension, since he was allowed to See also:discharge his See also:office by See also:deputy and remained at court . In February 1583 he was included in the escort sent to accompany the See also:duke of See also:Anjou from See also:England to See also:Flanders . In 1583 the queen made him a See also:grant of See also:Durham House in the Strand (See also:London), the See also:property of the see of Durham, which had however been used of See also:late as a royal See also:guest-house . In the same year the queen's See also:influence secured him two beneficial leases from All Souls, Oxford, which he sold to his See also:advantage, and a patent to grant licences to " vintners,"—that is, See also:tavern keepers . This he subleased, and when his See also:agent, one See also:Browne, cheated him, he got the grant revoked, and reissued on terms which allowed him to make £2000 a year .

In 1584 he had a See also:

licence for exporting woollen cloths, a lucrative See also:monopoly which made him very unpopular with the merchants . He was knighted. in 1584 . In 1585 he succeeded the earl of See also:Bedford as See also:Warden of the See also:Stannaries . Raleigh made a See also:good use of the great See also:powers which the wardenship gave him in the See also:mining districts of the See also:west . He reduced the old customs to See also:order, and showed him-self See also:fair to the workers . In 1586 he received a grant of 40,000 acres of the forfeited lands of the Desmonds, on the See also:Blackwater in Ireland . He was to plant English settlers, which he endeavoured to do, and he introduced the cultivation of the See also:potato and of See also:tobacco . In 1587 he received a grant in England of part of the forfeited See also:land of the conspirator See also:Babington . During these years Raleigh was at the height of his favour . It was the policy of Queen Elizabeth to have several favourites at once, lest any one might be supposed to have exclusive influence with her . Raleigh was predominant during the See also:period between the predominance of Leicester and the rise of the earl of See also:Essex, who came to court in 1587 . It is to be noted that Elizabeth treated Raleigh exclusively as a court favourite, to be enriched by monopolies and grants at the expense of her subjects, but that she never gave him any great office, nor did she admit him to the See also:council .

Even his See also:

post of captain of the Guard, given in 1587, though See also:honourable, and, to a man who would take gifts for the- use of his influence, lucrative, was mainly ornamental . His many offices and estates did not monopolize the activity of Raleigh . The patent given to his half-brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert was to run out in 1584 . To avert this loss Raleigh, partly out of his own See also:pocket and partly by securing the help of courtiers and capitalists, provided the means for the expedition to See also:Newfoundland in 1583, in which Gilbert, who had been reduced to sell " the clothes off his wife's back " by his previous misfortunes, finally perished . Sir Humphrey's patent was renewed in favour of Sir Walter in March 1584 . Raleigh now began the See also:short See also:series of ventures in colonization which have connected his name with the See also:settlement of See also:Virginia . It has often been said that Raleigh showed a See also:wise originality in his ideas as to colonization . But in truth the patent granted to him, which gave him and his heirs the proprietary right over all territory they occupied subject to See also:payment of one-fifth of the produce of all mines of See also:precious metals to the See also:crown, is See also:drawn closely on Spanish precedents . Nor was there any originality in his See also:desire to See also:settle English colonists, and encourage other See also:industries than mining . The Spaniards had pursued the same aim from the first . In See also:April 1584 Raleigh sent out two captains, Philip Amadas and See also:Arthur Barlowe, on a voyage of exploration . They sailed by the Canaries to See also:Florida, and from thence followed the coast of See also:North America as far as the inlet between See also:Albemarle and Pamlico sounds in the See also:modern See also:state of North Carolina .

The name of Virginia was given to a vast and undefined territory, but none of Raleigh's captains or settlers reached the state of Virginia . In the same year he became member of See also:

parliament for Devonshire, and took the precaution to secure a See also:parliamentary See also:confirmation of his grant . His first body of settlers, sent out in 1585 under Sir See also:Richard See also:Grenville, landed on what is now See also:Roanoke See also:Island in North Carolina Sir R . Grenville showed himself mainly See also:intent on taking prizes, going and coming . The settlers got on See also:bad terms with the natives, despaired, and deserted the See also:colony when Sir See also:Francis See also:Drake visited the coast in 1586 . Attempts at colonization at the same See also:place in 1586 and 1587 proved no more successful (see NORTH CAROLINA), and in 1589 Raleigh, who represented himself as having spent 40,000 on the venture, resigned his rights to a company of merchants, preserving to himself a See also:rent, and a fifth of whatever See also:gold might be discovered . After 1587 Sir Walter Raleigh was called upon to fight for his place of favourite with the earl of Essex (see EssEx, and EARL OF) . During the See also:Armada year 1588 he was more or less in See also:eclipse . He was in Ireland for part of the year with Sir R . Grenville, and was employed as See also:vice-See also:admiral of Devon in looking after the coast-defences and See also:militia See also:levy of the See also:county . During this year he received a challenge from Essex which did not See also:lead to an encounter . In 1589 he was again in Ireland .

Phoenix-squares

He had already made the acquaintance of See also:

Edmund See also:Spenser and now visited him at his house at Kilcolman . It was by Raleigh's help that Spenser obtained a pension, and royal aid to publish the first three books of the Faerie Queen . The exact cause of Raleigh's partial disgrace at court is not known, but it was probably due to the queen's habitual policy of checking one favourite by the promotion of another . In 1589 he accompanied the expedition to the coast of See also:Portugal, which was intended to cause a revolt against See also:King Philip II., but failed completely . In 1591 he was at the last moment forbidden to take part in the voyage to the See also:Azores, and was replaced by his cousin Sir R . Grenville, whose See also:death in action with the Spaniards was the subject of one of Sir Walter's most vigorous pieces of See also:prose See also:writing . In 1592 he was again at See also:sea with an expedition to intercept the Spanish See also:trade, but was recalled by the queen . The cause of his recall was the See also:discovery that he had seduced one of her maids of See also:honour, Elizabeth Throgmorton . Raleigh denied in a See also:letter to Robert See also:Cecil that there was any truth in the stories of a marriage between them . On his return he was put into the See also:Tower, and if he was not already married was married there . To placate the queen he made a fantastic display of despair at the loss of her favour . It must be remembered that the maids of honour could not marry without the consent of the queen, which Elizabeth was always most reluctant to give and would be particularly unwilling to givewhen the See also:husband was an old favourite of her own .

Raleigh proved a good husband and his wife was devoted to him through life . As the See also:

ships of the expedition had taken a valuable See also:prize, the Portuguese carrack " Madre de Dios," and as there was a dispute over the See also:booty, he was released to superintend the See also:distribution . He had been a large contributor to the cost of the expedition, but the queen, who sent only two ships, took the bulk of the spoil, leaving him barely enough to See also:cover his expenses . Raleigh now retired from court to an estate at See also:Sherborne in See also:Dorsetshire, which just before his disgrace he had extorted from the See also:bishop of See also:Salisbury, to whose see it belonged, by a most unscrupulous use of the royal influence . A son was born to him here in 1594, and he kept up a friendly correspondence with Sir Robert Cecil, afterwards earl of Salisbury, the secretary of state . But a life of See also:constant retirement was uncongenial to Raleigh, and as his profuse habits, together with the multiplicity of his interests, had prevented him from making any advantage out of his estates in Ireland, he was embarrassed for See also:money . In 1595 he therefore sailed on a voyage of exploration with a view to See also:conquest, on the coast of See also:South America . The See also:object was undoubtedly to find gold mines, and Raleigh had heard the See also:wild stories of El Dorado which had been current among the Spaniards for See also:long . His See also:account of his voyage, The Discoverie of See also:Guiana, published on his return, is the most brilliant of all the Elizabethan narratives of adventure, but contains much See also:manifest See also:romance . It was received with incredulity . He was now the most unpopular man in England, not only among the courtiers, but in the nation, for his greed, arrogance and alleged See also:scepticism in See also:religion . In 1590 he was named with the poet See also:Marlowe and others as an atheist .

At court he was not at first received . The See also:

share he took in the See also:capture of See also:Cadiz in 1596, where he was seriously wounded, was followed by a restoration of favour at court, and he was apparently reconciled to Essex, whom he accompanied on a voyage to the Azores in 1597 . This co-operation led to a renewal of the See also:quarrel, and Raleigh; as the enemy of Essex who was the favourite of the soldiers and the populace, became more unpopular than ever . In 1600 he obtained the governorship of See also:Jersey, and in the following year took a part in suppressing the rebellion of Essex, at whose See also:execution he presided as captain of the Guard . In 1600 he sat as member for See also:Penzance in the last parliament of Elizabeth's reign . In parliament he was a steady friend of religious See also:toleration, and a bold critic of the fiscal and agrarian legislation of the time . The death of the queen and the See also:accession of See also:James I. were ruinous to Raleigh . James, who looked upon Essex as his See also:partisan, had been prejudiced, and Raleigh's avowed desire for the prolongation of the See also:war with See also:Spain was utterly against the See also:peace policy of the king . Raleigh was embarrassed for money, and had been compelled to sell his Irish estates to Richard See also:Boyle, afterwards 1st earl of See also:Cork, in 1602 . He was expelled from Durham House, which was reclaimed by the bishop, dismissed from the captaincy of the Guard, deprived of his monopolies, which the king abolished, and of the See also:government of Jersey . In his anger and despair he unquestionably took some part in the complication of conspiracies which arose in the first months of James's reign, and was committed to the Tower on the 19th of See also:July 1603 . Here he made what appears to have been an insincere See also:attempt to stab himself, but only inflicted a small See also:wound .

His trial at See also:

Winchester, November 1603, was conducted with such outrageous unfairness as to See also:shock the See also:opinion of the time, and his gallant bearing in See also:face of the brutality of the See also:Attorney-See also:General, Sir See also:Edward See also:Coke, turned public opinion in his favour . It is now impossible to reach the truth, but on the whole it appears probable that Raleigh was cognizant of the conspiracies, though the See also:evidence produced against him was insufficient to prove his See also:guilt . Much was kept back by the council, and the See also:jury was influenced by knowing that the council thought him guilty . The See also:sentence of death passed on Raleigh, and others tried at about the same time, was in most cases not carried out . Raleigh was sent to the Tower, where he remained till the of 4 acres known as See also:Union Square, in which is the State 19th of March 1616 . His estate of Sherborne, which he had Capitol and from which extend four broad streets . On the transferred to his son, was taken by the king, who availed western border of the See also:city is Pullen See also:Park (about 40 acres), himself of a technical irregularity in the See also:transfer . A sum of f8000 offered in See also:compensation was only paid in part . Raleigh's confinement was easy, and he applied himself to chemical experiments and literature . He had been known as one of the most poetical of the See also:minor lyric poets of an age of See also:poetry from his youth . In See also:prison he composed many See also:treatises, and the only See also:volume of his vast History of the World published . He also invented an See also:elixir which appears to have been a very formidable See also:quack stimulant .

See also:

Hope of See also:release and of a renewal of activity never deserted him, and he strove to reach the See also:ear of the king by appealing to successive ministers and favourites . At last he secured his freedom in a way discreditable to all concerned . He promised the king to find a gold mine in Guiana without trenching on a Spanish possession . It must have been notorious to everybody that this was impossible, and the Spanish See also:ambassador, See also:Gondomar, warned the king that the Spaniards had settlements on the coast . The king, who was in need of money, replied that if Raleigh was guilty of piracy he should be executed on his return . Raleigh gave promises he obviously knew he could not keep, and sailed on the 17th of March 1617, relying on the See also:chapter of accidents, and on vague intrigues he had entered into in See also:Savoy and See also:France . The expedition, on which the See also:wreck of his fortune was spent, was See also:ill-appointed and ill-manned . It reached the mouth of the See also:Orinoco on the last See also:day of 1617 . Raleigh was ill with See also:fever, and remained at See also:Trinidad . He sent five small vessels up the Orinoco under his most trusted captain, See also:Lawrence Keymis, with whom went his son Walter and a See also:nephew . The expedition found a Spanish settlement on the way to the supposed mine, and a fight ensued in which Sir Walter's son and several Spaniards were killed . After some days of See also:bush fighting with the Spaniards, and of useless See also: