2.11: Sir Walter Raleigh

Explorer, Courtier, and Writer

A soldier, explorer, scholar, and courtier, Walter Raleigh fought on the side of the French Protestants, the Huguenots, possibly in the Battle of Jarnac during the French Wars of Religion (1562-1598). He also participated in the massacre at Smerwick, brutally suppressing Irish rebels and slaughtering papal troops. He was tutored by the vicar John Ford; enrolled at Oriel College and Oxford University; and studied at one of the Inns of Court, the Middle Temple. Family connections probably won him a place in Elizabeth I’s court as Esquire of the Body Extraordinary.

Royal Favor and Colonial Ambitions

His own charisma won him many favors from Elizabeth I, including a license to tax vintners on the retail sale of wine in England, Durham House, a knighthood, the title of Lord and Governor of Virginia, thousands of acres of land in Ireland, and an appointment as Captain of the Guard. He was also elected to Parliament and appointed Lord Warden of the Stanneries, Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall, and Vice-Admiral of Cornwall and Devon. He used his wealth to fund voyages to Roanoke Island in hopes of establishing a colony there, only for the colonists to mysteriously disappear. Although he did not introduce the potato and tobacco in Virginia, as he is often credited for doing, he did popularize smoking at Court.

Falling from Power and Final Years

Raleigh lost Elizabeth I’s favor when he secretly married one of her maids of honor, Elizabeth Throckmorton (1565-1647), who, as a royal attendant, could only marry with the Queen’s permission. She briefly imprisoned them both in the Tower of London. He soon continued his colonizing efforts by exploring Guiana in South America and futilely searching for El Dorado, the so-called Lost City of Gold.

Raleigh lost much of what he gained from Elizabeth I when she was succeeded by King James I. Raleigh was implicated in two conspiracies against James I, the Bye and the Main Plots. For these conspiracies, Raleigh was condemned for treason and imprisoned in the Tower for over ten years. Upon his release, he courted James I’s favor by again voyaging to Guiana in search of gold. He failed in this intention and, worse, disobeyed James I’s injunction not to violate Spanish rights when his men destroyed the village of Santo Tome de Guyana. Raleigh was beheaded for endangering England’s peace with Spain.

Raleigh’s Writing and Literary Legacy

Raleigh’s writing captures the man's fierce, cynical, plausible voice and his many exploits. His love poetry wooed and “won” Elizabeth I; his book The Discovery of Guiana, which captured the large and beautiful Empire of Guiana, mythologized El Dorado; and his book History of the World educated James I’s son, whom Raleigh befriended during his imprisonment (Raleigh). His pastoral poetry both repeats and renews that classical genre, with his reply to Marlowe’s poem "Passionate Shepherd to His Love" gaining much attention. Raleigh's poem "The Lie," with its all-encompassing attacks on the Court, Church, Men of High Condition, faith, wit, and learning, provoked several answers, often defensive poems. His travelogue, like many that follow, blends fiction with “fact.” Furthermore, Raleigh's book History of the World recovers the past in an attempt to shape the future.

Works Cited

Raleigh, Walter. The Discovery of Guiana. 1595. The Floating Press, 2009. EBSCO, (CRC Library).

---. The History of the World. Edited by C. A. Patrides, Palgrave Macmillan, 1971. EBSCO, (CRC Library).

---. "The Lie." 1595. Poems of Sir Walter Raleigh, BiblioBytes, 1999, p. 2. EBSCO, (CRC Library).