Raleigh, Sir Walter

raw'li, Sir Walter (1552-1618), an English courtier and soldier. He was a native of Devonshire, and resided for a time at Oriel College, Oxford. The qualities of a fighter, a patriot, and a courtier seem strangely mixed. He was a bitter opponent of Catholicism, and especially of the power of Spain. When a youth of seventeen he fought for the French Huguenots in France. The last public act of his life was an attack on a Spanish village at the mouth of the Orinoco in South America.

When a young gallant, he entered public life through the favor of Elizabeth. In 1584 Elizabeth gave him a patent, practically a deed, to any unoccupied territory he might find in the New World. He sent ships under Amidas and Barlow to explore the American coast, to which he gave the name of Virginia in honor of the Virgin Queen. The next year he sent out a colony. A settlement was made on Roanoke Island, but the colonists spent their time in looking for gold instead of planting a crop. They were brought home to England in 1586 by Drake. Raleigh sent a second colony to Roanoke. Three years later ships sent out found that the colonists had disappeared entirely. There was a tradition that they were adopted by an Indian tribe, but nothing is known certainly of their fate.

Nevertheless, Elizabeth was delighted with Raleigh's efforts to found a commonwealth in the New World. She made him a knight, and, in order to make him rich, gave him a monoply of the trade in sweet wine. Raleigh was granted a tract of land in Munster, Ireland. He introduced the cultivation of the potato, a plant recently brought from the New World. He is said to have introduced the use of tobacco in England. There is a story, probably unfounded, to the effect that his servant, seeing him for the first time smoking, threw water over him thinking him on fire.

Raleigh was one of Elizabeth's advisers in the preparation of the fleet which defeated the Spanish Armada, yet toward the close of her reign he fell into disgrace and narrowly escaped with his life. When James I came to the throne, he distrusted Raleigh. The latter was arrested for treason and was held in the Tower for twelve years. During this time he busied himself writing, his most important work being a History of the World. On his release he set sail for the New World in search for the famous Eldorado, a supposed country of gold. Although he had been warned not to provoke hostilities with Spain, a part of his forces attacked a Spanish village on the Orinoco. On his return to England a sentence of treason, which had been hanging over him for several years, was put into effect and he was executed on the scaffold.

See Elizabeth; Armada; Eldorado