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Quick Facts
- NAME: Walter Raleigh
- OCCUPATION: Explorer
- BIRTH DATE: c. 1552
- DEATH DATE: October 29, 1618
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Devon, England
- PLACE OF DEATH: London, England
Best Known For
Sir Walter Raleigh was an English adventurer and writer who established a colony near Roanoke Island, now known as Virginia. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London and eventually put to death for treason.
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Play NowSir Walter Raleigh. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 06:00, May 25, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/walter-raleigh-9450901.
Sir Walter Raleigh. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/walter-raleigh-9450901 [Accessed 25 May 2013].
"Sir Walter Raleigh." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 25 2013, 06:00 http://www.biography.com/people/walter-raleigh-9450901.
"Sir Walter Raleigh," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/walter-raleigh-9450901 [accessed May 25, 2013].
"Sir Walter Raleigh," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/walter-raleigh-9450901 (accessed May 25, 2013).
Sir Walter Raleigh [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 25] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/walter-raleigh-9450901.
Sir Walter Raleigh, http://www.biography.com/people/walter-raleigh-9450901 (last visited May 25, 2013).
Sir Walter Raleigh. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/walter-raleigh-9450901. Accessed May 25, 2013.
Synopsis
Sir Walter Raleigh was an English explorer, soldier and writer who was imprisoned in the Tower of London and eventually put to death after being accused of treason by James I. Before serving in the Huguenot army in France he studied at Oxford, and became a favorite of Queen Elizabeth after serving in her army in Ireland. He was knighted in 1585, and within two years became captain of the queen's guard. Between 1584 and 1589 he established a colony near Roanoke Island,
which he named Virginia. Much of his writings and poetry from this time were destroyed.
Profile
Courtier, explorer, soldier, and writer, born in Hayes Barton, Devon, SW England, UK. He studied at Oxford before serving in the Huguenot army in France (1569). A rival of the Earl of Essex for the queen's favors, he served (1580) in Elizabeth's army in Ireland, distinguishing himself by his ruthlessness at the siege of Smerwick and by the plantation of English and Scots Protestants in Munster. Elizabeth rewarded him with a large estate in Ireland, knighted him (1585), and gave him trade privileges and the right to colonize America.
In 1587 he explored from North Carolina to present-day Florida, naming the region Virginia in honor of Elizabeth, the "Virgin Queen." In 1587 Raleigh sent an ill-fated second expedition of colonists to Roanoke. In 1588 he took part in the victory over the Spanish Armada. He led other raids against Spanish possessions and returned with much booty. Raleigh forfeited Elizabeth's favor by his courtship of and subsequent marriage to one of her maids-of-honor, Bessy Throckmorton, and he was committed to the Tower (1592). Hoping, on his release, to recover his position, he led an abortive expedition to Guiana to search for El Dorado, a legendary land of gold. Instead, he helped to introduce the potato plant and tobacco use in England and Ireland.
Elizabeth's successor, James I, distrusted and feared Raleigh, charged him with treason and condemned him to death, but commuted the sentence to imprisonment in the Tower (1603). There Raleigh lived with his wife and servants, and wrote his History of the World (1614). He was released in 1616 to search for gold in South America. Against the king's undertaking to the Spanish, he invaded and pillaged Spanish territory, was forced to return to England without booty, and was arrested on the orders of the king. His original death sentence for treason was invoked, and he was executed at Westminster. A gifted poet, writer, and scholar, many of his poems and writings were destroyed. A pioneer of the Italian sonnet-form in English, he was a patron of the arts, notably of Edmund Spenser in his composition of The Faerie Queene (1589–96).
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