Home › R › Raleigh (SIR WALTER an English explorer)

Raleigh (SIR WALTER an English explorer)

SIR WALTER, an English explorer, historian, and essayist, born at Hayes, Devon, England, about 1554.

He was a half-brother of two other famous Elizabethan "knights-errant of the seas," Humphrey and Adrian Gilbert. For a time he studied at Oriel College, Oxford, but in 1569 he was fighting in France. Tradition has it that he was with Sidney in Paris at the time of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew (1572).

By 1577 he was back in England and a little later had his first over-seas experience under Sir Humphrey Gilbert. In 1580 he was in Ireland, with Lord Grey, returning the next year with despatches, when he attracted the attention of the Queen, according to tradition, by spread- RALEIGH ing his new cloak upon a muddy place in her pathway. He became one of the Queen's secretaries and held many important offices. He was interested in colonizing projects, and in 1584 secured a charter to lands in America. He immediately fitted out two ships for exploration along the coast of Virginia and the Carolinas, and a few months later sent his cousin, Sir Richard Grenville, to plant a colony on what is now the eastern coast of North Carolina. The increasing tension with Spain diverted him from these project projects for a time. He played an important part in the defense against the threatened invasion by the great Armada (1588), and after the peril was over went to Ireland, where the Queen had given him a large estate.

Here he met Spenser, whom he per- SIR WALTER RALEIGH suaded to return to England with the first part of the "Færie Queene." That the two men were on terms of intimacy is shown by the facts that Spenser dedicated his great poem to Raleigh, that Raleigh returned the compliment by writing a beautiful sonnet in praise of his friend's poem, and that Spenser tells, in "Colin Clout," of their talks together and gave him the happy title of "Shepherd of the Ocean." In 1591-1592 Raleigh lost, temporarily, the Queen's favor through his marriage with Elizabeth Throgmorton. He wrote a spirited account of the last fight of the "Revenge," lost in an engagement with the Spanish fleet near the Azores, Raleigh's story being the basis for one RALEIGH RAM of the best of Tennyson's ballads. After ing, its philosophy, and the quality of its he had regained the favor of the Queen, he turned once more to his colonizing schemes. In February, 1595, he began his voyage to Guiana, his object being to fight Spain by cutting off the source of Philip's supplies, the immense wealth of the South American provinces. His story of this expedition is one of the most brilliant stories of travel in our literature, important not only for historical reasons and for the charm of its style, but also because it showed the abiding passion of his life, to found an English nation in the new world. Immediately upon his return he was one of the commanders of an expedition against Cadiz, which resulted, largely through his efforts, in a great victory for England. Descriptions of the battle, and of the later engagements at Fayal, are to be found in his writings; he was both man of action and historian.

It is impossible within the limits of a brief sketch to set down the activities of Raleigh, now at the zenith of his power.

He was in high favor with the Queen.

He had charge of the entertainment of distinguished foreign visitors. He is said to have been the founder of the famous meetings of wits and men of letters at the Mermaid. He sat in Parliament, and played his part as zealously as though his one ambition were to handle parliamentary business. He was Governor of Jersey, and instituted many reforms. He never abandoned his idea of colonization, sending new expeditions to both Guiana and Virginia. He developed his private property as though his sole interest were to be a man of affairs. Yet he won no office at all commensurate with his great ability, and the chief impression we get of these busy years is that of resistless energy spent on a dozen fields, any one of which might have contented a man of ordinary ambition.

With the accession of James (1603) his fortune failed. Accused from the first of hostility to the claims of the new Stuart King, he became the victim of the ambition and jealousy of men who were desperately striving to secure favor for themselves. He was accused of treason, was convicted, and in November, 1603, was sentenced to death. In a short time, so great was the storm of indignation aroused by this treatment, he was reprieved, and began his long imprisonment in the Tower. For 12 years he was a captive, but he made these years glorious by the triumphs of his mind.

He turned his cell into a research laboratory, scientific, historical, and on matters of state. He wrote a "History of the World," distinguished for its learnstyle. He wrote many tracts on government and on England's destiny. He urged the building of a merchant marine, the building of a fleet able to command the seas, and the establishment of an imperial domain in America. Only in this way could England curb the power of Spain. "The matter," he said, "is nothing less than the sovereignty of the whole world." His writings had the power of his personality; they stimulated the imaginations of all Englishmen. He founded no colony, no navy, no merchant marine, yet it was his vision that later became the reality on which so much of England's greatness was to rest. Finally, in 1617, he was released for the purpose of making one more attempt to found a colony in Guiana. The expedition failed, and he returned, a broken old man, to the Tower. He was put through the formality of a second trial for treason, his enemies triumphed, and he was executed, Oct. 29, 1618.