|
|
| Birth: | Bet Jun 1554 and Nov 1554 in Hayes Barton, East Budleigh, Devon, England |
| Death: | 29 Oct 1618 in Tower of London, Middlesex, England |
| Sex: | M |
| Father: | WALTER RAWLEIGH b. 1521 in Fardell Manor, Ivybridge, Devonshire, England |
| Mother: | KATHERINE ELIZABETH CHAMPERNOUN b. 1519 in Modbury, Kingsbridge, Devonshire, England |
| | |
| |
 | Spouses & Children |  | |
| | |
 | |  |
|
| |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
|
| |
|
| |
| Notes | | |
| | |
| | |
|
| |
Individual:
Sir Walter Raleigh[1] (1552 or 1554 – 29 October 1618), was a famed
English writer, poet, courtier and explorer. He was responsible forestablishing the first English colony in the New World, on June 4,1584,[2] at Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina. When thethird attempt at settlement failed, the ultimate fate of the colonistswas never authoritatively ascertained, and it became known as "TheLost Colony".
Raleigh was born in the year 1552 or 1554 in the house of Hayes Barton, not far from Budleigh Salterton in Devon, England. He was ahalf brother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and also had a full brothernamed Carew Raleigh. Raleigh's family was strongly Protestant inreligious orientation and experienced a number of near-escapes duringthe reign of the Catholic Queen Mary I of England. In the most notableof these, Raleigh's father had to hide in a tower to avoid beingkilled. Thus, during his childhood, Raleigh developed a hatred ofCatholicism, proving himself quick to express it after the ProtestantQueen Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558.
In December 1581 Raleigh came back to England from Ireland with despatches as his company had been disbanded. He took part in Courtlife and became a favourite of Queen Elizabeth. The various colourfulstories told about him at this period are unlikely to be literallytrue.[4][5] In 1592, Raleigh was given many rewards by the Queen,including Durham House in the Strand and the estate of Sherborne,Dorset. He was appointed Captain of the Guard, and as Lord Warden ofthe Stannaries of Devon and Cornwall. Raleigh was knighted in 1585.[6]However, he was not given any of the great offices of state. In theArmada year of 1588 he was employed as Vice Admiral of Devon, lookingafter the coastal defenses and military levies. He does not seem tohave taken part in the sea battles.
In 1591, Raleigh was secretly married to Elizabeth ("Bess") Throckmorton (or Throgmorton), eleven years his junior, one of theQueen's ladies-in-waiting and pregnant for the third time. She gavebirth to a child who was given to a wet nurse at Durham House, but theinfant does not seem to have survived, and Bess resumed her duties.When, during the following year, the unauthorized marriage wasdiscovered, the Queen ordered Raleigh imprisoned and Bess dismissedfrom court. He was released from prison to divide the spoils from acaptured Spanish ship, the Madre de Dios ("Mother of God").
It would be several years before Raleigh returned to favor. The couple remained devoted to each other and during Raleigh's absences; Bessproved a capable manager of the family's fortunes and reputation. Theyhad two sons, Walter (known as Wat) and Carew. Raleigh retired to hisestate at Sherborne where he built a new house, completed in 1594,known then as Sherborne Lodge but is now extended and known asSherborne (new) Castle. He made friends with the local gentry, such asSir Ralph Horsey of Clifton Maybank and Charles Thynne of Longleat.During this period at a dinner party at Horsey's, there was a heateddiscussion about religion which later gave rise to charges of atheismagainst Raleigh. He was elected to Parliament, speaking on religiousand naval matters.
In 1594 he came into possession of a Spanish account of a great golden city at the headwaters of the Caroní River, and a year later heexplored what is now eastern Venezuela in search of "Manoa", thelegendary city in question. Once back in England, he published "TheDiscovery of Guiana" an account of his voyage which made exaggeratedclaims as to what had been discovered. The book can be seen as acontribution to the El Dorado legend. Although Venezuela has golddeposits, there is no evidence Raleigh found any mines.
Raleigh took part in the capture of Cadiz in 1596, where he was wounded. He also participated in a voyage to the Azores in 1597.
From 1600 to 1603, Raleigh was the Governor of the Channel Island of Jersey, and he was responsible for modernizing the defenses of theisland. He named the new fortress protecting the approaches to SaintHelier Fort Isabella Bellissima — or, in the less ebullient Englishversion, Elizabeth Castle.
Though royal favour with Elizabeth had been restored by this time, it did not last. Elizabeth died in 1603, and Raleigh was imprisoned inthe Tower of London on 19 July. Later that year, on 17 November,Raleigh was tried in the converted Great Hall of Winchester Castle fortreason due to his supposed involvement in the Main Plot against KingJames. Raleigh conducted his defense with great skill, which may, inpart, explain why King James spared his life, despite the guiltyverdict. He was left to languish in the Tower of London until 1616.While imprisoned, he wrote many treatises and the first volume of TheHistorie of the World, about the ancient history of Greece and Rome.
In 1616, Sir Walter was released from the Tower of London in order to conduct a second expedition to Venezuela in search of El Dorado. Inthe course of the expedition, Raleigh's men, under the command ofLawrence Keymis, sacked the Spanish outpost of San Thome on theOrinoco. During the initial attack on the settlement, Raleigh's sonWalter was struck by a bullet and killed. On Raleigh's return toEngland, the outraged Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, the Spanishambassador, demanded that King James reinstate Raleigh's deathsentence.
The Spanish ambassador's demand was granted. Raleigh was beheaded with an axe at Whitehall on 29 October 1618. "Let us dispatch," he askedhis executioner. "At this hour my ague comes upon me. I would not havemy enemies think I quaked from fear." After he was allowed to see theaxe that would behead him, he mused: "This is a sharp Medicine, but itis a Physician for all diseases and miseries". According to manybiographers — Raleigh Trevelyan in his book Sir Walter Raleigh (2003)for instance — Sir Walter's final words (as he lay ready for the axeto fall) were: "Strike man, strike!"
His widow claimed the corpse and had it buried in the local church in Beddington, Surrey, the home of Lady Raleigh, however other sourcessuggest that he was buried with "his father at St Margaret's,Westminster, on 1 January 1667". "The Lords," she wrote, "have givenme his dead body, though they have denied me his life. God hold me inmy wits".[7] After Raleigh's execution, his head was embalmed andpresented to his wife. She carried it with her in a velvet bag untilshe died twenty-nine years later and it was returned to Raleigh's tombat St Margaret's. [8]
Although his popularity had waned considerably since his Elizabethan heyday, his execution was seen by many, both at the time and since, asunnecessary and unjust. It has been suggested that any involvement inthe Main Plot appears to have been limited to a meeting with LordCobham. One of the judges at his trial later said: "the justice ofEngland has never been so degraded and injured as by the condemnationof Sir Walter Raleigh."[9]Beheaded
|
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
|
| |
|
| |
| Sources | | |
| | |
| | |
|
| |
- Title: WorldConnect of Rootsweb
Publication: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com
Text: Jeanshaw@mediaone.net
Page: Larry Overmire overmac@comcast.net
|
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
|
| |
|
| |
| SmartMatches | | |
| | |
| | |
|
| |
Individuals from other files that are believed to be the same person:
Click the  icon to see a SmartMatch in side-by-side windows.
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
|
| |
|
|
|
