Sir Walter Raleigh

One of the most colorful, politically powerful members of the court of Queen Elizabeth I, Walter Raleigh (sometimes spelled Ralegh) is one personification of the English Renaissance. Born at Hayes Barton, Devonshire, most likely in 1554, Raleigh came from a prominent family long associated with seafaring. In his mid-teens, Raleigh interrupted his education to fight with Huguenot forces in France. After returning to England in 1572, he attended Oxford University for two years and left without earning a degree to study law in London. 

One of the first examples of Raleigh’s poetry appeared in 1576 as the preface to George Gascoigne's satire The Steele Glas. Two years later, Raleigh and his half-brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed to North America in an unsuccessful attempt to find the Northwest Passage. In 1580, Raleigh took part in the English suppression of Ireland, earning a reputation as a war hero primarily for leading a massacre of unarmed Spanish and Italian troops. After he returned to England, Queen Elizabeth summoned him to serve as an advisor on Irish affairs. 

The Queen was taken with Raleigh's personal charm, and he soon became one of her court favorites. In addition to lucrative royal commissions and grants, he was knighted in 1585 and in 1587 was named captain of the Queen's personal guard. The majority of Raleigh's poetry was written during this period, much of it designed to flatter Elizabeth and secure her royal favor. He was able to use that influence to ensure her favorable reception of his friend Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590). Raleigh also used his influence to gain the Queen's support for his plan to establish the first English colony in North America, on Roanoke Island, in what is now North Carolina. Established in 1587, the colony was soon abandoned, and its inhabitants vanished without a trace.

In 1592, Queen Elizabeth discovered that Raleigh had secretly married Elizabeth Throckmorton, a member of the royal court, some time during the late 1580s. Furious over what she believed to be their betrayal, Elizabeth ordered the couple imprisoned in separate cells in the Tower of London. Although Raleigh was released within months, he was stripped of many of his privileges and exiled from the court. In February of 1595, Raleigh sailed to the Orinoco River in what is now Venezuela in search of gold. He regained the Queen’s favor in 1596 by taking part in a daring raid on the Spanish at Cádiz. He was named governor of the Isle of Jersey, and in 1601, he put down a rebellion led by his longtime rival, the Earl of Essex.

Elizabeth's successor, James I, disliked and distrusted Raleigh and in July 1603 charged him with treason. He was tried in November. Convicted and sentenced to death, Raleigh was again imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he spent the next 13 years. During this time, he wrote The History of the World, considered by many a literary, if not a historical, masterpiece. Raleigh eventually convinced King James to release him to lead an expedition to find gold and silver in South America. Spain had become rich and powerful through the gold it had stolen from the Americas, and with England's treasury nearly depleted, the King reluctantly agreed to back the plan. Because of his earlier voyage to the Orinoco River, Raleigh knew there was little chance of finding gold there; he planned instead to capture Spanish ships carrying gold back to Spain. Although King James had ordered Raleigh not to tempt war with Spain, he believed that if he could pirate enough gold, the King would overlook his disobedience. 

Unfortunately, the expedition was a disaster. Raleigh encountered and attacked Spanish forces near Santo Tomé, and in the ensuing battle, his eldest son was killed. Upon his return to England, he was again imprisoned and his order of execution reinstated. Raleigh was beheaded outside the palace of Westminster on October 29, 1618.