Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellion in Ireland, helped defend England against the Spanish Armada and held political positions under Elizabeth I.
Raleigh was born to a landed gentry family of Protestant faith in Devon, the son of Walter Raleigh and Catherine Champernowne. He was the younger half-brother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and a cousin of Sir Richard Grenville. Little is known of his early life, though in his late teens he spent some time in France taking part in the religious civil wars. In his 20s he took part in the suppression of rebellion in the colonisation of Ireland; he also participated in the siege of Smerwick. Later, he became a landlord of property in Ireland and mayor of Youghal in east Munster.
He rose rapidly in the favour of Queen Elizabeth I and was knighted in 1585. He was granted a royal patent to explore Virginia, paving the way for future English settlements. In 1591, he secretly married Elizabeth Throckmorton, one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting, without the Queen's permission, for which he and his wife were sent to the Tower of London. After his release, they retired to his estate at Sherborne, Dorset.
In 1594, Raleigh heard of a "City of Gold" in South America and sailed to find it, publishing an exaggerated account of his experiences in a book that contributed to the legend of "El Dorado". After Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, Raleigh was again imprisoned in the Tower, this time for being involved in the Main Plot against King James I, who was not favourably disposed towards him. In 1616, he was released to lead a second expedition in search of El Dorado. During the expedition, men led by his top commander sacked a Spanish outpost, in violation of both the terms of his pardon and the 1604 peace treaty with Spain. Raleigh returned to England and, to appease the Spanish, he was arrested and executed in 1618.
Early life
Little is known about Sir Walter Raleigh's birth but he is believed to have been born on 22 January 1552. He grew up in the house of Hayes Barton, in East Devon. He was the youngest of the five sons of Walter Raleigh of Fardel Manor, in South Devon. His mother, Katherine Champernon, was born before 1518 and died on April 19, 1594. Her mother's maiden name was Carew. Raleigh's family is generally assumed to have been a junior branch of the Raleigh family, 11th-century lords of the manor of Raleigh, Pilton in North Devon, although the two branches are known to have borne entirely dissimilar coats of arms, adopted at the start of the age of heraldry.His mother was Katherine Champernowne, the third wife of Walter Raleigh senior. She was the fourth daughter of Sir Philip Champernowne, lord of the manor of Modbury, Devon, by his wife Catherine Carew, a daughter of Sir Edmund Carew of Mohuns Ottery, Devon,. Katherine was the widow of Otes Gilbert of Greenway and of Compton Castle, both in Devon.
Katherine Champernowne's paternal aunt was Kat Ashley, governess of Queen Elizabeth I, who introduced Raleigh and his brothers to the court. Raleigh's maternal uncle was Sir Arthur Champernowne, a Member of Parliament, Sheriff of Devon and Admiral of the West.
Walter Raleigh junior's immediate family included his full brother Carew Raleigh, and half-brothers John Gilbert, Humphrey Gilbert and Adrian Gilbert. As a consequence of their kinship with the Champernowne family, all of the Raleigh and Gilbert brothers became prominent during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I.
Raleigh's family was highly Protestant in religious orientation and had a number of near escapes during the reign of Roman Catholic Queen Mary I of England. In the most notable of these, his father had to hide in a tower to avoid execution. As a result, Raleigh developed a hatred of Roman Catholicism during his childhood, and proved himself quick to express it after Protestant Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558. In matters of religion, Elizabeth was more moderate than her half-sister Mary.
In 1569, Raleigh went to France to serve with the Huguenots in the French religious civil wars. In 1572, Raleigh was registered as an undergraduate at Oriel College, Oxford, but he left in 1574 without a degree. Raleigh proceeded to finish his education in the Inns of Court. In 1575, he was admitted to the Middle Temple, having previously been a member of Lyon's Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery. At his trial in 1603, he stated that he had never studied law. Much of his life is uncertain between 1569 and 1575, but in his History of the World, he claimed to have been an eyewitness at the Battle of Moncontour in France. In 1575 or 1576, Raleigh returned to England.
In 1577 and again in 1579 Raleigh made voyages with his half-brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert in attempts to find a Northwest Passage. They failed to find a passage, but succeeded in raiding Spanish ships.
Ireland
From 1579 to late 1580, Raleigh took part in the suppression of the Desmond Rebellions. He was present at the siege of Smerwick, where he led the party that beheaded some 600 Spanish and Italian soldiers who had surrendered. In September 1584, Queen Elizabeth I had the land surveyed to be divided amongst her "undertakers" to colonize.In 1585, Raleigh received in the Munster Plantation, including the coastal walled town of Youghal and, further up the Blackwater River, the village of Lismore.
The place most commonly associated with Raleigh in Ireland is the town of Youghal, County Cork. He was mayor of Youghal for one year although his duties were fulfilled by a deputy suggesting absenteeism and it would appear Raleigh ran his various estates from London.
Raleigh encouraged veterans of the earlier attempts of the Roanoke Colony settle in Ireland, including Thomas Hariot and John White from the 1585 trip. Raleigh is credited with introducing potatoes to England and Ireland, though potatoes are more likely to have arrived through the Irish trade with Spain; they were known as An Spáinneach Geal before his time. A potato crop failure in the nineteenth century would lead to the Great Famine when they were the only crop not exported in bulk to Britain from 1840 to 1852, a time when potatoes across the continent were destroyed by a gigantic outbreak of blight known as the European potato failure.
Amongst Raleigh's acquaintances in Munster was another Englishman who had been granted land in the Irish colonies, poet Edmund Spenser. Raleigh's management of his Irish estates ran into difficulties which contributed to a decline in his fortunes. In 1602, he sold the lands to Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, who subsequently prospered under kings James I and Charles I.
New World
On March 25, 1584, Queen Elizabeth granted Raleigh a royal charter authorising him to explore, colonise and rule any "remote, heathen and barbarous lands, countries and territories, not actually possessed of any Christian Prince or inhabited by Christian People", in return for one-fifth of all the gold and silver that might be mined there. This charter specified that Raleigh had seven years in which to establish a settlement, or else lose his right to do so. Raleigh and Elizabeth intended that the venture should provide riches from the New World and a base from which to send privateers on raids against the treasure fleets of Spain. The charter was originally given to Sir Humphrey Gilbert who pitched the idea to Queen Elizabeth I and died at sea while attempting to accomplish it.On April 27, 1584, the Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe expedition set sail from England on an exploratory mission to determine what resources were available in North America. They returned with two of the local inhabitants, Manteo and Wanchese, in August 1584, and reported of their findings. The region received the name "Virginia" for the Virgin Queen Elizabeth I, which is the origin of the name of the modern-day state.
In 1585, he sent a militarized group to North America to set up a fort to raid Spanish ships and become the first English colony in North America. The voyage was led by Sir Richard Grenville and the colony on Roanoke Island was governed by Ralph Lane. The colony ran out of food after clashes with the local inhabitants and eventually left with Sir Francis Drake in June 1586 after resupply attempts failed. Sir Richard Grenvile arrived shortly after the Lane colony left with Drake. He left supplies and 15 men on Roanoke Island and returned to England. They were never seen again.
On July 22, 1587, Raleigh attempted a second expedition, again establishing a settlement on Roanoke Island. This time, a more diverse group of settlers was sent, including some entire families, under the governance of John White. After a short while in America, White returned to England to obtain more supplies for the colony, planning to return in a year. Unfortunately for the colonists at Roanoke, one year became three. The first delay came when Queen Elizabeth I ordered all vessels to remain at port for potential use against the Spanish Armada. After England's 1588 victory over the Spanish Armada, the ships were given permission to sail.
The second delay came after White's small fleet set sail for Roanoke and his crew insisted on sailing first towards Cuba in hopes of capturing treasure-laden Spanish merchant ships. Enormous riches described by their pilot, an experienced Portuguese navigator hired by Raleigh, outweighed White's objections to the delay.
When the supply ship arrived in Roanoke, three years later than planned, the colonists had disappeared. The only clue to their fate was the word "CROATOAN" and the letters "CRO" carved into tree trunks. White had arranged with the settlers that if they should move, the name of their destination be carved into a tree or corner post. This suggested the possibility that they had moved to Croatoan Island, but a hurricane prevented John White from investigating the island for survivors. Other speculation includes their having assimilated into the pre-existing local population, starved, or been swept away or lost at sea during the stormy weather of 1588. No further attempts at contact were recorded for some years. Whatever the fate of the settlers, the settlement is now remembered as the "Roanoke Colony", later known as the "Lost Colony".
Raleigh himself never visited North America, although he led expeditions in 1595 and 1617 to the Orinoco river basin in South America in search of the golden city of El Dorado. These expeditions were funded primarily by Raleigh and his friends but never provided the steady stream of revenue necessary to maintain a colony in America.