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Sir Walter Raleigh
An enthralling new biography of the most exciting and charismatic adventurer in the history of the English-speaking world
Tall, dark, handsome, and damnably proud, Sir Walter Raleigh was one of history’s most romantic characters. An explorer, soldier, courtier, pirate, and poet, Raleigh risked his life by trifling with the Virgin Queen’s affections. To his enemies—and there were many—he was an arrogant liar and traitor, deserving of every one of his thirteen years in the Tower of London.
Regardless of means, his accomplishments are he founded the first American colony, gave the Irish the potato, and defeated Spain. He was also a brilliant operator in the shark pool of Elizabethan court politics, until he married a court beauty, without Elizabeth’s permission, and later challenged her capricious successor, James I.
Raleigh Trevelyan has traveled to each of the principal places where Raleigh adventured—Ireland, the Azores, Roanoke Islands, and the legendary El Dorado (Orinoco)—and uncovered new insights into Raleigh’s extraordinary life. New information from the Spanish archives give a freshness and immediacy to this detailed and convincing portrait of one of the most compelling figures of the Elizabethan era.
Tall, dark, handsome, and damnably proud, Sir Walter Raleigh was one of history’s most romantic characters. An explorer, soldier, courtier, pirate, and poet, Raleigh risked his life by trifling with the Virgin Queen’s affections. To his enemies—and there were many—he was an arrogant liar and traitor, deserving of every one of his thirteen years in the Tower of London.
Regardless of means, his accomplishments are he founded the first American colony, gave the Irish the potato, and defeated Spain. He was also a brilliant operator in the shark pool of Elizabethan court politics, until he married a court beauty, without Elizabeth’s permission, and later challenged her capricious successor, James I.
Raleigh Trevelyan has traveled to each of the principal places where Raleigh adventured—Ireland, the Azores, Roanoke Islands, and the legendary El Dorado (Orinoco)—and uncovered new insights into Raleigh’s extraordinary life. New information from the Spanish archives give a freshness and immediacy to this detailed and convincing portrait of one of the most compelling figures of the Elizabethan era.
622 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
13 people are currently reading
172 people want to read
About the author
Raleigh Trevelyan
37 books5 followersBorn in the Andaman Islands in 1923, Trevelyan moved to England at the age of eight when he was sent to school there. He became an author after a brief career in merchant banking and now lives in London and Cornwall.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 30, 2015
This book not only illuminates Sir Walter Raleigh’s life, but also illuminates his times in a way that brings real benefit to the reader. The author, Raleigh Trevelyan (who died in 2014), does an excellent job of making Raleigh’s story compelling, maintaining focus on his protagonist while bringing in enough of the historical and political background to put Walter Raleigh in the context of his times. (Although if you don’t like poetry, you may not like frequent quotations of Raleigh’s poetry—but those also illuminate the points at hand, and so are well worth paying attention to.)
Raleigh is today mostly remembered for the story of placing his cloak in a muddy puddle so Queen Elizabeth could walk across without getting her clothes dirty. But like so many in those days when merit, constant deadly risk and hard, constant work created a path to rise in the world, he was a polymath: poet, diplomat, warrior, sailor, courtier, and family man. Trevelyan brings all those characteristics of Raleigh, and more, to life.
Almost all of what we see of Elizabethan times is through the lens of Elizabeth herself, or through the lens of viewing Shakespeare. Both Elizabeth and Shakespeare appear here (Shakespeare only a few times and on the edges), but they are not the main focus. Instead, the main focus is on people less grand, and that focus makes Raleigh’s story even more interesting. All sorts of characters are here. Raleigh’s half-brother Humphrey Gilbert, who led butchery in Ireland, claimed Newfoundland for the Crown, and foundered in his ship in a storm, shortly after exclaiming “We are as near to Heaven by sea as by land!” The putative sorcerer John Dee of Mortlake. Francis Bacon. Pocahontas. Edmund Spenser. Robert Devereaux, second earl of Essex, executed by Elizabeth for a pathetic rebellion. Christopher Marlowe. And many more.
A considerable portion of the book is taken up with Raleigh’s voyages to the Americas, in particular to what is now Venezuela and Guyana, searching for gold. Nowadays we associate South and Central America with Spanish colonialism, but the British vied in some parts of South America with the Spanish, though without lasting effect. Raleigh was also largely responsible for the disappeared colony at Roanoke, Virginia and participated in a number of other schemes. Americans typically learn about these events through the prism of the colonists themselves, rather than the organizers, so these sections of the book may be of particular interest to Americans.
Altogether, an excellent read.
Raleigh is today mostly remembered for the story of placing his cloak in a muddy puddle so Queen Elizabeth could walk across without getting her clothes dirty. But like so many in those days when merit, constant deadly risk and hard, constant work created a path to rise in the world, he was a polymath: poet, diplomat, warrior, sailor, courtier, and family man. Trevelyan brings all those characteristics of Raleigh, and more, to life.
Almost all of what we see of Elizabethan times is through the lens of Elizabeth herself, or through the lens of viewing Shakespeare. Both Elizabeth and Shakespeare appear here (Shakespeare only a few times and on the edges), but they are not the main focus. Instead, the main focus is on people less grand, and that focus makes Raleigh’s story even more interesting. All sorts of characters are here. Raleigh’s half-brother Humphrey Gilbert, who led butchery in Ireland, claimed Newfoundland for the Crown, and foundered in his ship in a storm, shortly after exclaiming “We are as near to Heaven by sea as by land!” The putative sorcerer John Dee of Mortlake. Francis Bacon. Pocahontas. Edmund Spenser. Robert Devereaux, second earl of Essex, executed by Elizabeth for a pathetic rebellion. Christopher Marlowe. And many more.
A considerable portion of the book is taken up with Raleigh’s voyages to the Americas, in particular to what is now Venezuela and Guyana, searching for gold. Nowadays we associate South and Central America with Spanish colonialism, but the British vied in some parts of South America with the Spanish, though without lasting effect. Raleigh was also largely responsible for the disappeared colony at Roanoke, Virginia and participated in a number of other schemes. Americans typically learn about these events through the prism of the colonists themselves, rather than the organizers, so these sections of the book may be of particular interest to Americans.
Altogether, an excellent read.
March 2, 2021
Sir Walter Raleigh by Raleigh Trevelyan
Lockdowned and exiled, I’ve got no great choice of reading these days and I picked up this bulky biography, straight from the Drake – Nelson - Wellington tradition of English history and written by a distant relative, without any great feeling of anticipation.
Walt was a west-country man of no great pedigree, but there was family history suggesting local fame and influence. He himself was a tall, handsome, brave and highly ambitious man living in a time when the favour of the Queen counted for everything. Walt was well-equipped to receive this favour, but Elizabeth I was a proud, temperamental, easily offended woman and much of Walt’s history was one of being elevated, sidelined, debased and elevated once more. Was there physical intimacy between them? Trevelyan thinks not, and there is always a possibility that the Queen remained what she claimed, a virgin lady married to her nation. There were however a lot of very fond poems from his side, some of which seem to go beyond the normal platonic bounds. The odds are, Trevelyan says, that she was as jealous and possessive as a lover – as she was at other times with Leicester, Oxford and Essex – but her absolute power relied on staying unattached (as her cousin Mary Queen of Scots, after her first youthful marriage to the French king, might have done well to understand).
Raleigh fought in France and fought in Ireland, but his lifelong enemy was the Spaniard, richest and most powerful of European rivals, and in control of the world’s most lucrative trade routes, to Central and South America. Raleigh, with Drake and Hawkins, started off as privateers looking for loot and booty, but the alliance with the Crown, which agreed to loan or rent ships and seamen for their expeditions, developed, until the difference between pirate and patriot became blurred. As any fule kno, Raleigh became fascinated with the story of Eldorado, somewhere upriver on the mighty (and almost un-navigable) Orinoco. Here, it may be said, he spent some of his most vigorous and adventurous years, without ever finding gold. These expeditions, followed meticulously by his biographer nearly five hundred years later, provide some of the most entertaining passages of the book. Compared to most of his contemporaries among captains and explorers, Raleigh emerges as an honourable man, merciful to captives, careful of non-combatants and without obvious cruelty. Is this true to reality? It’s hard to say. Trevelyan likes him and admires him, but there is better evidence, perhaps, in the many poems, which reveal a great deal of sensitivity and thoughtfulness – also of his writings on God and faith (unusual enough to have him labelled an atheist and blasphemer).
Elizabeth tired of him and banished him from court, partly because he committed the crime of marrying (without the royal permission) one of her Ladies-in-Waiting. Since such permission was never granted, courtiers were anyway obliged to disappear from court and marry in secret. From being a hero and a favourite, Raleigh was soon cast into the Tower of London. He was out soon enough because needed to help deal with the Spanish, but he never returned to the Queen’s favour and when she died (1601) and was succeeded by James I (James VI of Scotland), Raleigh soon found himself back inside, accused of treason. The trials that followed, which endeavoured to prove that one of Spain’s most obdurate foes was actually in that country’s pay, became famous in English legal history. Despite speeches which to neutrals and to the public proved Raleigh’s innocence as well as his good temper, he was found guilty because it was the King’s wish. He was sentenced to death and lived on at the Tower of London as a sort of non-person, without rights, property, title or prospects. Finally, the King James, greedy for gold, allowed him one further expedition to Guyana, where Raleigh lost his eldest son, his health and what was left of his reputation, returning empty-handed and disgraced.
Life in the Tower was surprisingly comfortable – a set of furnished rooms, a shed in the garden for chemical experiments, companions and a servant, good food brought in. But these were sops to a man still desiring to found colonies in North America and bring back gold from Spanish lands. He was also separated from his wife Bess, with whom he seems to have had a long and affectionate relationship. The poems of that time were deeply felt and touching:
(once) … Love’s fire and beauty’s light I then had store
But now, close kept, as captives wonted are
That food, that heat, that light I find no more.
Despair bolts up my doors, and I alone
Speak to dead walls, but those hear not my moan.
Raleigh was executed 15 years after his trial. The speech he made from the scaffold is held up as a masterpiece of courage and candour at the end. The head fell after two blows of the axe, still apparently murmuring in prayer.
Yes, I know, this is not a book review but a brief biography. Why? Perhaps because I’m aware that the old skeleton of English history is being rapidly dismantled by ignorant educationalists and cultural polemicists. Soon no one will know about Raleigh, Drake and Hawkings or about James I’s way with the legal system, nor will they have much idea of why they should. Henry VIII, Mary Queen of Scots, the Boleyns and Thomas Cromwell are kept alive in books and on screens, but Walt belongs to a slightly later era.
Thanks to Raleigh Trevelyan for a readable and absorbing account of his life and times.
Lockdowned and exiled, I’ve got no great choice of reading these days and I picked up this bulky biography, straight from the Drake – Nelson - Wellington tradition of English history and written by a distant relative, without any great feeling of anticipation.
Walt was a west-country man of no great pedigree, but there was family history suggesting local fame and influence. He himself was a tall, handsome, brave and highly ambitious man living in a time when the favour of the Queen counted for everything. Walt was well-equipped to receive this favour, but Elizabeth I was a proud, temperamental, easily offended woman and much of Walt’s history was one of being elevated, sidelined, debased and elevated once more. Was there physical intimacy between them? Trevelyan thinks not, and there is always a possibility that the Queen remained what she claimed, a virgin lady married to her nation. There were however a lot of very fond poems from his side, some of which seem to go beyond the normal platonic bounds. The odds are, Trevelyan says, that she was as jealous and possessive as a lover – as she was at other times with Leicester, Oxford and Essex – but her absolute power relied on staying unattached (as her cousin Mary Queen of Scots, after her first youthful marriage to the French king, might have done well to understand).
Raleigh fought in France and fought in Ireland, but his lifelong enemy was the Spaniard, richest and most powerful of European rivals, and in control of the world’s most lucrative trade routes, to Central and South America. Raleigh, with Drake and Hawkins, started off as privateers looking for loot and booty, but the alliance with the Crown, which agreed to loan or rent ships and seamen for their expeditions, developed, until the difference between pirate and patriot became blurred. As any fule kno, Raleigh became fascinated with the story of Eldorado, somewhere upriver on the mighty (and almost un-navigable) Orinoco. Here, it may be said, he spent some of his most vigorous and adventurous years, without ever finding gold. These expeditions, followed meticulously by his biographer nearly five hundred years later, provide some of the most entertaining passages of the book. Compared to most of his contemporaries among captains and explorers, Raleigh emerges as an honourable man, merciful to captives, careful of non-combatants and without obvious cruelty. Is this true to reality? It’s hard to say. Trevelyan likes him and admires him, but there is better evidence, perhaps, in the many poems, which reveal a great deal of sensitivity and thoughtfulness – also of his writings on God and faith (unusual enough to have him labelled an atheist and blasphemer).
Elizabeth tired of him and banished him from court, partly because he committed the crime of marrying (without the royal permission) one of her Ladies-in-Waiting. Since such permission was never granted, courtiers were anyway obliged to disappear from court and marry in secret. From being a hero and a favourite, Raleigh was soon cast into the Tower of London. He was out soon enough because needed to help deal with the Spanish, but he never returned to the Queen’s favour and when she died (1601) and was succeeded by James I (James VI of Scotland), Raleigh soon found himself back inside, accused of treason. The trials that followed, which endeavoured to prove that one of Spain’s most obdurate foes was actually in that country’s pay, became famous in English legal history. Despite speeches which to neutrals and to the public proved Raleigh’s innocence as well as his good temper, he was found guilty because it was the King’s wish. He was sentenced to death and lived on at the Tower of London as a sort of non-person, without rights, property, title or prospects. Finally, the King James, greedy for gold, allowed him one further expedition to Guyana, where Raleigh lost his eldest son, his health and what was left of his reputation, returning empty-handed and disgraced.
Life in the Tower was surprisingly comfortable – a set of furnished rooms, a shed in the garden for chemical experiments, companions and a servant, good food brought in. But these were sops to a man still desiring to found colonies in North America and bring back gold from Spanish lands. He was also separated from his wife Bess, with whom he seems to have had a long and affectionate relationship. The poems of that time were deeply felt and touching:
(once) … Love’s fire and beauty’s light I then had store
But now, close kept, as captives wonted are
That food, that heat, that light I find no more.
Despair bolts up my doors, and I alone
Speak to dead walls, but those hear not my moan.
Raleigh was executed 15 years after his trial. The speech he made from the scaffold is held up as a masterpiece of courage and candour at the end. The head fell after two blows of the axe, still apparently murmuring in prayer.
Yes, I know, this is not a book review but a brief biography. Why? Perhaps because I’m aware that the old skeleton of English history is being rapidly dismantled by ignorant educationalists and cultural polemicists. Soon no one will know about Raleigh, Drake and Hawkings or about James I’s way with the legal system, nor will they have much idea of why they should. Henry VIII, Mary Queen of Scots, the Boleyns and Thomas Cromwell are kept alive in books and on screens, but Walt belongs to a slightly later era.
Thanks to Raleigh Trevelyan for a readable and absorbing account of his life and times.
July 30, 2022
I don't think I've ever read a book about Raleigh so this was interesting. I agree with the author that Raleigh was probably a genius - a man who wrote poetry and a famous history book, while also attempting to colonize the Americas and defeat the Spanish. He was quite brave while leading the attack at Cadiz.
Conversely the author was not quite so positive about the monarchs Raleigh served under. Elizabeth truly built a cult of personality - the men all had to pretend they were deeply in love with her - and a surefire way to fall out of favor was to get married. At least that's the only thing Raleigh apparently did to fall out of favor. And apparently that was the way a young man of talent but not means got ahead in England - win the queen's favor by writing her love poetry. Was there no other way men of talent to advance themselves? What a waste!
Meanwhile King James - yes, THAT King James - found it expedient to take off Raleigh's head because he was trying to marry his son off to a Spanish princess, and all for her dowry. How embarrassing that the English built a name for themselves beating the Spanish under Elizabeth only to have such a feckless monarch come to the throne.
I say "beating" the Spanish loosely. The English were nothing more than pirates, let's face it. It was the Spanish who were wealthy and powerful. Next to them the English were mere brigands. Well, all is fair in love and war!
So, in the end Raleigh was like a comet blazing across the sky. The author is quite an expert on the subject, quoting extensively from letters, which can get a little pedantic. So this book would probably appeal more to people who have already read up on Raleigh. Still I enjoyed this window into the age of Elizabeth.
Conversely the author was not quite so positive about the monarchs Raleigh served under. Elizabeth truly built a cult of personality - the men all had to pretend they were deeply in love with her - and a surefire way to fall out of favor was to get married. At least that's the only thing Raleigh apparently did to fall out of favor. And apparently that was the way a young man of talent but not means got ahead in England - win the queen's favor by writing her love poetry. Was there no other way men of talent to advance themselves? What a waste!
Meanwhile King James - yes, THAT King James - found it expedient to take off Raleigh's head because he was trying to marry his son off to a Spanish princess, and all for her dowry. How embarrassing that the English built a name for themselves beating the Spanish under Elizabeth only to have such a feckless monarch come to the throne.
I say "beating" the Spanish loosely. The English were nothing more than pirates, let's face it. It was the Spanish who were wealthy and powerful. Next to them the English were mere brigands. Well, all is fair in love and war!
So, in the end Raleigh was like a comet blazing across the sky. The author is quite an expert on the subject, quoting extensively from letters, which can get a little pedantic. So this book would probably appeal more to people who have already read up on Raleigh. Still I enjoyed this window into the age of Elizabeth.
September 7, 2025
The book on Sir Walter Raleigh is nothing short of an endurance test. At nearly 600 pages of dense print, it is a monumental account of one of Elizabethan England’s most fascinating figures. Raleigh himself led a life of remarkable variety - soldier, courtier, explorer, poet, adventurer - and Trevelyan certainly captures this breadth.
However, in telling Raleigh’s story, the author also seems determined to recount the lives of nearly every other English noble or courtier who crossed paths with him. The result is a book stuffed with so many names and genealogies that at times the reader risks going cross-eyed trying to keep track. The detail is exhaustive, sometimes to the point of exhaustion.
That said, for those deeply interested in Sir Walter Raleigh and the world he inhabited, the book has much to recommend it. Trevelyan provides rich context, insightful anecdotes, and a sense of the political and social intricacies of the time. Yet one can’t help feeling it could have been trimmed by at least 150 pages without losing any substance.
In short: this is a book for the committed enthusiast, not the casual reader. If you have the stamina, you’ll come away with an unparalleled understanding of Raleigh and his era—but don’t expect a brisk read.
However, in telling Raleigh’s story, the author also seems determined to recount the lives of nearly every other English noble or courtier who crossed paths with him. The result is a book stuffed with so many names and genealogies that at times the reader risks going cross-eyed trying to keep track. The detail is exhaustive, sometimes to the point of exhaustion.
That said, for those deeply interested in Sir Walter Raleigh and the world he inhabited, the book has much to recommend it. Trevelyan provides rich context, insightful anecdotes, and a sense of the political and social intricacies of the time. Yet one can’t help feeling it could have been trimmed by at least 150 pages without losing any substance.
In short: this is a book for the committed enthusiast, not the casual reader. If you have the stamina, you’ll come away with an unparalleled understanding of Raleigh and his era—but don’t expect a brisk read.
November 23, 2017
Very hard going biography. The biography has hardly any information about Walter but more about other Elizabethan personalities, gave up after 15o pages.
June 5, 2013
What struck me most about the contents of Sir Walter Raleigh, a lengthy biography by Raleigh Trevelyan, was why a man so talented and so proactive in defending his country against all her enemies would have had his head chopped off for treason.
First observation: don’t make powerful enemies. Raleigh was a brilliant, exciting, unique individual. He was very literate, knowledgeable in many subjects, quick-witted, courageous, and virile: simply put, superior to most men. His great mistake was that he flaunted his talents, was exceedingly ostentatious in his attire, and strived always to sway people to his way of thinking. Raleigh rose rapidly in Queen Elizabeth’s court after the Queen became acquainted with him. Rarely allowing him to leave her sight, she bestowed upon him special economic privileges, heeded his advice as much as she did any councilor, and permitted him to select subordinates to implement his plan to establish an English outpost in North America. His enemies resented that he was not of noble birth. His disdain for them, exhibited especially by his dismissal of their malice, infuriated them. They circulated vicious stories about him. He was a liar, an opportunist, a thief, an atheist, a traitor.
Second observation: don’t underestimate the scorn of a woman. Elizabeth bestowed her favoritism on several virile young men during her lengthy reign: Robert Dudley (the Earl of Leicester), during the early years; Sir Christopher Dutton during the late 1570s and early 1580s; Raleigh; and, finally, Robert Devereux (the Second Earl of Essex). Raleigh’s downfall occurred after the Queen discovered that he had secretly married one of her maids of honor, whom he had impregnated. Elizabeth did not give her favorite courtiers permission to marry. Rarely did she permit a maid of honor to marry. Dudley had done so and been punished. Raleigh’s punishment was worse: several months in the Tower of London in 1592 and, after his release, banishment from the Court for nearly five years, although Elizabeth did permit him to lead an expedition to Guiana in 1595 to search for gold. It wasn’t until Raleigh’s worst enemy, Essex, had fallen substantially out of favor that Elizabeth allowed Raleigh back to Court, in June 1597; and he remained more or less in the Queen’s good graces up to her death March 24, 1603.
Third observation: a monarch’s will trumps justice. As Elizabeth’s death neared, Raleigh’s enemies filled the ears of their future king with incessant lies. Raleigh was selfish, disloyal, an atheist, dangerous. Everything about Raleigh, James I disliked. Raleigh fell instantly out of favor. The economic privileges that he had received from Elizabeth were withdrawn. Raleigh’s worst enemies were appointed to the Privy Council. James wanted above anything else a peace treaty with Spain. Because Spain hated Raleigh, he had to be eliminated. He was tried and conviction of treason before the end of 1603 for having consented to spy for Spain. He had been offered an annual pension of 1,500 pounds. (Unbeknownst to James at least two of his Privy Council advisors were receiving such pensions) Raleigh had refused the offer. The confederates of this treasonous act lied at Raleigh’s trial. It didn’t matter. He was sentenced to be hung, drawn, and quartered. James, fearing a public outcry, stayed the execution. He imprisoned Raleigh in the Tower, where he stayed for nearly 15 years.
Raleigh was released in 1617 on his promise to find and mine gold in Guiana. James, in serious debt, needed his treasury replenished. He warned Raleigh that he would execute him should Raleigh attack Spanish forces. (The desired peace treaty with Spain had been signed in 1604) Raleigh tried his best to avoid confrontation during his journey to Trinidad. An old man, he was too sick to journey up Guiana’s Orinoco River. That task fell to a subordinate, who lacked good judgment. Raleigh warned the subordinate not to engage the one Spanish village on the river. Attacked by a small Spanish reconnaissance party, he and his ill-disciplined men retaliated, took the village, and burned it. Various false accusations were made against Raleigh at his trial. None carried sufficient weight to convict him, Raleigh’s prosecutors concluded. But Raleigh had to be executed. The Spanish ambassador (James’s very close friend) and King Philip III demanded it. And James wanted it. He needed the 500,000 pound dowry that Philip had promised him should his son Charles marry Spanish royalty. Consequently, James lifted his stay of execution. For the trumped up verdict of Raleigh having committed treason by agreeing in 1603 to receive a pension from Spain for spying, Raleigh was beheaded October 29, 1618.
Although tedious at times due mostly to the book’s wealth of detail (which included many excerpts of Raleigh’s poetry), I found this biography well worth reading.
First observation: don’t make powerful enemies. Raleigh was a brilliant, exciting, unique individual. He was very literate, knowledgeable in many subjects, quick-witted, courageous, and virile: simply put, superior to most men. His great mistake was that he flaunted his talents, was exceedingly ostentatious in his attire, and strived always to sway people to his way of thinking. Raleigh rose rapidly in Queen Elizabeth’s court after the Queen became acquainted with him. Rarely allowing him to leave her sight, she bestowed upon him special economic privileges, heeded his advice as much as she did any councilor, and permitted him to select subordinates to implement his plan to establish an English outpost in North America. His enemies resented that he was not of noble birth. His disdain for them, exhibited especially by his dismissal of their malice, infuriated them. They circulated vicious stories about him. He was a liar, an opportunist, a thief, an atheist, a traitor.
Second observation: don’t underestimate the scorn of a woman. Elizabeth bestowed her favoritism on several virile young men during her lengthy reign: Robert Dudley (the Earl of Leicester), during the early years; Sir Christopher Dutton during the late 1570s and early 1580s; Raleigh; and, finally, Robert Devereux (the Second Earl of Essex). Raleigh’s downfall occurred after the Queen discovered that he had secretly married one of her maids of honor, whom he had impregnated. Elizabeth did not give her favorite courtiers permission to marry. Rarely did she permit a maid of honor to marry. Dudley had done so and been punished. Raleigh’s punishment was worse: several months in the Tower of London in 1592 and, after his release, banishment from the Court for nearly five years, although Elizabeth did permit him to lead an expedition to Guiana in 1595 to search for gold. It wasn’t until Raleigh’s worst enemy, Essex, had fallen substantially out of favor that Elizabeth allowed Raleigh back to Court, in June 1597; and he remained more or less in the Queen’s good graces up to her death March 24, 1603.
Third observation: a monarch’s will trumps justice. As Elizabeth’s death neared, Raleigh’s enemies filled the ears of their future king with incessant lies. Raleigh was selfish, disloyal, an atheist, dangerous. Everything about Raleigh, James I disliked. Raleigh fell instantly out of favor. The economic privileges that he had received from Elizabeth were withdrawn. Raleigh’s worst enemies were appointed to the Privy Council. James wanted above anything else a peace treaty with Spain. Because Spain hated Raleigh, he had to be eliminated. He was tried and conviction of treason before the end of 1603 for having consented to spy for Spain. He had been offered an annual pension of 1,500 pounds. (Unbeknownst to James at least two of his Privy Council advisors were receiving such pensions) Raleigh had refused the offer. The confederates of this treasonous act lied at Raleigh’s trial. It didn’t matter. He was sentenced to be hung, drawn, and quartered. James, fearing a public outcry, stayed the execution. He imprisoned Raleigh in the Tower, where he stayed for nearly 15 years.
Raleigh was released in 1617 on his promise to find and mine gold in Guiana. James, in serious debt, needed his treasury replenished. He warned Raleigh that he would execute him should Raleigh attack Spanish forces. (The desired peace treaty with Spain had been signed in 1604) Raleigh tried his best to avoid confrontation during his journey to Trinidad. An old man, he was too sick to journey up Guiana’s Orinoco River. That task fell to a subordinate, who lacked good judgment. Raleigh warned the subordinate not to engage the one Spanish village on the river. Attacked by a small Spanish reconnaissance party, he and his ill-disciplined men retaliated, took the village, and burned it. Various false accusations were made against Raleigh at his trial. None carried sufficient weight to convict him, Raleigh’s prosecutors concluded. But Raleigh had to be executed. The Spanish ambassador (James’s very close friend) and King Philip III demanded it. And James wanted it. He needed the 500,000 pound dowry that Philip had promised him should his son Charles marry Spanish royalty. Consequently, James lifted his stay of execution. For the trumped up verdict of Raleigh having committed treason by agreeing in 1603 to receive a pension from Spain for spying, Raleigh was beheaded October 29, 1618.
Although tedious at times due mostly to the book’s wealth of detail (which included many excerpts of Raleigh’s poetry), I found this biography well worth reading.
December 25, 2016
La vita come un gioco di passioni. Un sonetto può sintetizzare la vita di Sir Walter Raleigh, cortigiano, navigatore e scrittore inglese (Hayes, Devon, 1552 circa - Londra 1618). Dopo aver combattuto in Francia per la causa ugonotta (1569-1576), si dedicò alla carriera marinaresca nel 1578, con il fratellastro sir Humphrey Gilbert, compiendo un primo viaggio a Terranova. Nel 1580 si mise al servizio di Robert Dudley, conte di Leicester, e combatté in Irlanda.
WHAT is our life? The play of passion.
Our mirth? The music of division:
Our mothers’ wombs the tiring-houses be,
Where we are dressed for life’s short comedy.
The earth the stage; Heaven the spectator is,
Who sits and views whosoe’er doth act amiss.
The graves which hide us from the scorching sun
Are like drawn curtains when the play is done.
Thus playing post we to our latest rest,
And then we die in earnest, not in jest.
-----
Che cos’è la nostra vita? Un gioco di passioni,
La nostra gioia è la musica della divisione.
Il grembo materno sono le nostre noiose case
Dove ci vestiamo per questa breve commedia.
Il cielo ci è giudice spietato e spettatore,
Che siede e giudica chi sbaglia.
Le nostre tombe che ci nascondono al sole che tramonta
Sono come un sipario tirato quando lo spettacolo è finito.
Così procediamo, giocando, fino all’ultimo riposo,
Solo che moriamo davvero, e questo non è un gioco.
Divenuto il favorito della regina Elisabetta, ne ebbe in dono lucrosi monopoli commerciali e vasti domini in Inghilterra e in Irlanda, di cui fu amministratore capace. Nel 1584 finanziò un viaggio di esplorazione lungo le coste dell’America Settentrionale, tra la Florida e la Carolina del Nord, dando il nome di “Virginia” (in onore di Elisabetta detta “la Regina Vergine”) a un vasto territorio, l’esplorazione del quale, tuttavia, non si spinse fino all’attuale Stato della Virginia. Seguì nel 1585-1587, un tentativo di colonizzazione (sbarco nell’isola di Roanoke) ma senza successo.
Sostituito nel 1587 dal rivale conte di Essex nel favore della regina, nel 1592 fu imprigionato per aver sedotto un’ancella di questa, che sposò. Nel 1595 riprese l’attività marinara ed esplorò le coste dell’America Meridionale, sperando di scoprire il favoloso Eldorado; quindi partecipò alla presa di Cadice (1596). Nominato nel 1600 governatore di Jersey, nel 1601 partecipò alla repressione della ribellione di Essex, presenziando come capitano della guardia alla sua esecuzione.
All’avvento di Giacomo I fu imprigionato (luglio 1603) sotto l’accusa, infondata, di avere complottato contro di lui; processato nel novembre fu condannato a morte, ma la sentenza non fu eseguita, e Raleigh rimase prigioniero nella Torre di Londra fino al marzo 1616.
Liberato purché comandasse una spedizione nella Guiana alla ricerca di una miniera d’oro, senza venire a conflitto con i coloni spagnoli, salpò nel marzo 1617 raggiungendo in dicembre la foce dell’Orinoco. Ma l’oro non fu trovato, e gli uomini di Raleigh si scontrarono con gli Spagnoli; per cui al suo ritorno Giacomo I, secondo l’impegno preso con l’ambasciatore spagnolo Gondomar, lo fece giustiziare in base alla sentenza del 1603. Fra i suoi scritti, oltre a numerose poesie, si ricordano la Descrizione della Guiana e una Storia del mondo, rimasta incompiuta. Da lui fu introdotta in Inghilterra la coltivazione del tabacco e, secondo alcuni, quella della patata. Per lui la vita fu davvero "un gioco di passioni".
WHAT is our life? The play of passion.
Our mirth? The music of division:
Our mothers’ wombs the tiring-houses be,
Where we are dressed for life’s short comedy.
The earth the stage; Heaven the spectator is,
Who sits and views whosoe’er doth act amiss.
The graves which hide us from the scorching sun
Are like drawn curtains when the play is done.
Thus playing post we to our latest rest,
And then we die in earnest, not in jest.
-----
Che cos’è la nostra vita? Un gioco di passioni,
La nostra gioia è la musica della divisione.
Il grembo materno sono le nostre noiose case
Dove ci vestiamo per questa breve commedia.
Il cielo ci è giudice spietato e spettatore,
Che siede e giudica chi sbaglia.
Le nostre tombe che ci nascondono al sole che tramonta
Sono come un sipario tirato quando lo spettacolo è finito.
Così procediamo, giocando, fino all’ultimo riposo,
Solo che moriamo davvero, e questo non è un gioco.
Divenuto il favorito della regina Elisabetta, ne ebbe in dono lucrosi monopoli commerciali e vasti domini in Inghilterra e in Irlanda, di cui fu amministratore capace. Nel 1584 finanziò un viaggio di esplorazione lungo le coste dell’America Settentrionale, tra la Florida e la Carolina del Nord, dando il nome di “Virginia” (in onore di Elisabetta detta “la Regina Vergine”) a un vasto territorio, l’esplorazione del quale, tuttavia, non si spinse fino all’attuale Stato della Virginia. Seguì nel 1585-1587, un tentativo di colonizzazione (sbarco nell’isola di Roanoke) ma senza successo.
Sostituito nel 1587 dal rivale conte di Essex nel favore della regina, nel 1592 fu imprigionato per aver sedotto un’ancella di questa, che sposò. Nel 1595 riprese l’attività marinara ed esplorò le coste dell’America Meridionale, sperando di scoprire il favoloso Eldorado; quindi partecipò alla presa di Cadice (1596). Nominato nel 1600 governatore di Jersey, nel 1601 partecipò alla repressione della ribellione di Essex, presenziando come capitano della guardia alla sua esecuzione.
All’avvento di Giacomo I fu imprigionato (luglio 1603) sotto l’accusa, infondata, di avere complottato contro di lui; processato nel novembre fu condannato a morte, ma la sentenza non fu eseguita, e Raleigh rimase prigioniero nella Torre di Londra fino al marzo 1616.
Liberato purché comandasse una spedizione nella Guiana alla ricerca di una miniera d’oro, senza venire a conflitto con i coloni spagnoli, salpò nel marzo 1617 raggiungendo in dicembre la foce dell’Orinoco. Ma l’oro non fu trovato, e gli uomini di Raleigh si scontrarono con gli Spagnoli; per cui al suo ritorno Giacomo I, secondo l’impegno preso con l’ambasciatore spagnolo Gondomar, lo fece giustiziare in base alla sentenza del 1603. Fra i suoi scritti, oltre a numerose poesie, si ricordano la Descrizione della Guiana e una Storia del mondo, rimasta incompiuta. Da lui fu introdotta in Inghilterra la coltivazione del tabacco e, secondo alcuni, quella della patata. Per lui la vita fu davvero "un gioco di passioni".
Read
July 28, 2016Status should indicate i "tried to read" it. I so rarely give up on books I don't have a shelf for that. However, this book was just not for me. The style was more straight history than I can take in. I'm a spoiled modern being who likes the facts to be written in a more "novelized" way - at least as far as you can when writing the truth. Definitely is the book for someone, just not for me.
June 9, 2015
Exhaustive biography of the name-sake of Raleigh, North Carolina (properly pronounced "Rawley", although Raleigh himself spelled it many different ways), a most interesting and modern man in a violent and backward time.
Currently reading
April 19, 2009Just started it. Interesting start, by an author who has a favorable connection to his subject, but its not been too biased yet...
January 3, 2016
Very readable
January 13, 2015
Excellent biography of one of the great movers and makers of the Elizabethan age. I feel that I now understand the man as well as the myth.
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