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Sir Walter Raleigh Biography

Sir Walter Raleigh Image

RALEIGH, ra'lí, or RALEGH, Sir Walter (c.1552–1618). An English courtier, navigator, and explorer. He was the son of Walter Raleigh of Fardell, was born at East Budleigh, and studied for a year or two at Oriel College, Oxford. In 1569 he was in the Huguenot army at the battle of Jarnac, and he seems to have spent some five years in France. In 1577 he was among the hangers-on at court, and in 1578 he sailed with a small fleet belonging to his half brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, upon an alleged voyage of discovery, though the capture of Spanish galleons was probably the real object in view. During 1580–81 Raleigh was a captain in the Irish service and was a member of a commission for governing Munster. Upon his arrival at court with Irish dispatches in December, 1581, his handsome presence and address attracted the attention of Queen Elizabeth. Within a few years he had received appointments and grants which placed him among the most wealthy courtiers. As vice admiral of the western counties of England he was in constant touch with the buccaneering expeditions against Spain, which sailed under pretended commissions from the Prince of Condé or William of Orange. He invested heavily in Sir Humphrey Gilbert's unfortunate expedition to Newfoundland in 1583, and after the latter's death applied to the Queen for a continuation of his patent. The privileges obtained entitled him to fit out expeditions for a period of six years and to take possession of unknown lands in the name of the Queen. In 1584 Raleigh sent Amadas and Barlow to find a place for a settlement. As the Queen refused to allow Raleigh to leave England, he fitted out an expedition consisting of seven ships, which sailed in 1585 under the escort of his cousin, Sir Richard Grenville, and planted a settlement on Roanoke Island, on the Carolina coast, with Ralph Lane (q.v.) as Governor. In June, 1586, however, the settlement was abandoned. Grenville left a new party of colonists, which was reënforced by settlers from England in the year following under John White, but ships sent out by Raleigh failed to reach the colony, and when, in 1590, a relief expedition finally arrived at Roanoke, all trace of the settlement had disappeared. Although the colony was a failure, the enterprise resulted in the introduction of the potato and of tobacco into England.

During 1587 and 1588, when Spanish invasion was threatened, Raleigh was one of a commission to draw up a plan for the defense of the country, and performed important services in levying and forming the militia in the west of England. It is not probable that he took any part in the actions against the Armada. Raleigh was not, as is frequently stated, with Drake in the Portugal expedition in 1589, but at that time was in Ireland, where his friendship with the poet Spenser was formed. In 1591 he was made second in command of an expedition under Lord Thomas Howard to intercept the Spanish plate fleet. Again the Queen refused to let him leave England and his place was taken by Sir Richard Grenville. In 1592 another expedition was equipped. Raleigh had obtained permission to command in person, but at the last moment was recalled and imprisoned in the Tower because of an intrigue with a maid of honor, Elizabeth Throgmorton, which had become known to the Queen. There he remained from July to September, when the expedition returned. Raleigh was permitted to marry, although forbidden to come to court. In 1593 he sat in Parliament as member for Cornwall. In 1594 he sent out an expedition in search of El Dorado (q.v.), which he conceived to be situated in the interior of South America, upon the Orinoco, in the country then designated as Guayana, or Guiana. The effort was unsuccessful, and Raleigh determined to go himself. He fitted out five ships, chiefly at his own expense, and obtained a commission from the Queen to wage war against the Spaniards. He penetrated into the interior, going up the Orinoco a distance of more than 400 miles, but was obliged to return for supplies. Upon reaching England he published his Discoverie of Guiana (1596). He brought back quartz containing gold, and the first mahogany seen in England. An expedition was sent against Cadiz in 1596, in which Raleigh distinguished himself by gallantry in action. In 1597 he was one of the commanders of a fleet sent to the Azores to intercept the Spanish treasure ships. Many valuable prizes were secured. The next few years were passed in administrative duties, as member, of Parliament, and as Governor of Jersey.

For many years Raleigh had active and powerful enemies at court, and although even Essex, Howard, and Cecil could not permanently discredit him in the eyes of Queen Elizabeth, he met with nothing but ill treatment at the hands of James I. His posts and grants of monopoly were withdrawn, and a few months after the King's accession (1603) he was sent to the Tower on the charge of being privy to the plots contrived against the King's person by Lord Cobham and the Spanish agent, Count Aremberg. He was condemned under the harsh procedure of lœsa majestas trials for failing to produce conspicuous proofs of innocence. A reprieve was granted and his personal property restored, but he still remained a prisoner in the Tower until his petition to be allowed to lead another expedition to the Orinoco was granted in 1616. The Spanish Ambassador protested, and Raleigh was ordered not to engage in any hostilities against the Spaniards on penalty of his life. He sailed on June 17, 1617, and encountered an unbroken series of misfortunes. During the voyage the Spanish settlement of San Tomás was attacked and destroyed. Upon his return to England he was at once arrested, and after some deliberation was executed, by virtue of the former sentence, on Oct. 29, 1618. During his long imprisonment in the Tower he wrote the History of the World, one of the monuments of Elizabethan literature. He also wrote treatises on religious and philosophical subjects and several poems of merit.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XIX (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 528-529.