Download - Final humanities
His Life
Born in 1552 in Hayes Barton in Devonshire and died in 1618
During a time when his father leased Hayes Barton from the Duke family of Otterton. He was half brother to Sir Humphrey and Sir John Gilbert, from his mother's first marriage. He had a brother, Carew, and sister, Margaret.
Death by execution, because he committed treason against England, after an attempted suicide in the tower, because he was helping the Spanish after the Death of Queen Elizabeth.
Who He Was
He was an English Explorer
He was a member of the Middle Temple
in 1575
Sir Walter Raleigh was a true man of the
renaissance and a brilliant poet
It was policy of Queen Elizabeth to have
several favorites at once and Raleigh was
one of them.
What He Did
North Carolina’s state capital was named
Raleigh, named after Sir Walter Raleigh.
He’s famous for the discovery of Guiana and
he established the Virginia colony of Roanoke
Island in 1584.
During his early life, from 1553 to
1558, Queen Mary I was on the throne.
What he did (Growing up)
During his early life, from 1553 to 1558, Queen
Mary I was on the throne.
This was a time when the Roman Catholic
church was in favour. Although a large part of
the population had previously become
Protestants, those who were most open about it
were persecuted
In 1581, after seeing action on a number of
occasions, he became a favourite of Queen
Elizabeth the first. There is little to confirm the
famous story of how he spread his cloak across a
puddle so that the Queen could walk over
it, except for the cloak included in his coat of
More about his background
Considering the Queen's evident affection for him, it was not unexpected that she should be displeased with his love affair with one of her Maids of Honour, Bessie , the Queen threw Sir Walter Raleigh in the Tower of London.
He was released after one of his ships brought back a huge treasure on the captured Spanish Ship “Madre De Dios.”
He married Bessie and retired to his manor at Sherborne, Dorset. Here he built Sherborne Castle in 1594.
Sir Walter Raleigh in Prison?
In 1603 Queen Elizabeth the first died
and James the first took the throne.
Raleigh was then framed as a member of
a plot against the throne and sentenced to
life imprisonment
Whilst in the Bloody Tower he wrote the
"History of the World" ( excerpt ) which was
first printed in 1614. It was composed of five
volumes but only reached as far as the second
Macedonian War in 130 BC.
How he died
In the Preface to the book Raleigh says "How unfit, and how unworthy a choice I have made of my selfe to undertake a worke of this mixture." He goes on to refer to those who put him in the Tower as "ungentle and uncourteous Readers" and thanks them for putting him there "For had it been otherwise, I should hardly have had the leisure, to have made myself a foole in print".
Yet again he was released but was then involved in another expedition against the Spanish. Their influence at court managed to have him re-arrested on his previous charge and he was finally sentenced to be beheaded
How he died
At his execution in 1618 he asked to see the axe and said "This is a sharp Medicine, but it is a Physician for all Diseases."
As was common at the time, his head was embalmed and presented to his wife. She apparently carried it with her at all times until she died 29 years later at the age of 82.
The head was finally buried with their son (Carew - like Sir Walter, a one-time Governor of Jersey) alongside the body of Sir Walter to the South side of the alter at St. Margaret's Church. This is just next to Westminster Abbey. It was founded in the 12th century and is the parish church of the House of Parliament
Popular PoemsPOPULAR POEMS
A Farewell to False Love
A Literature Lesson. Sir Patrick Spens in the Eighteenth Century Manner
A Vision upon the Fairy Queen
As You Came from the Holy Land
Epitaph
Even Such Is Time
Farewell to the Court
From Catullus V
Her Reply
His Pilgrimage
Hymn
Life
My Last Will
Nature that Washed Her Hands in Mil
Farewell, false love, the oracle of lies,
A mortal foe and enemy to rest,
An envious boy, from whom all cares arise,
A bastard vile, a beast with rage possessed,
A way of error, a temple full of treason,
In all effects contrary unto reason.
A poisoned serpent covered all with flowers,
Mother of sighs, and murderer of repose,
A sea of sorrows whence are drawn such showers
As moisture lend to every grief that grows;
A school of guile, a net of deep deceit,
A gilded hook that holds a poisoned bait.
.
A fortress foiled, which reason did defend, A siren song, a fever of the mind,
A maze wherein affection finds no end, A raging cloud that runs before the wind, A substance like the shadow of the sun, A goal of grief for which the wisest run
A quenchless fire, a nurse of trembling fear, A path that leads to peril and mishap, A true retreat of sorrow and despair,
An idle boy that sleeps in pleasure's lap, A deep mistrust of that which certain seems, A hope of that which reason doubtful deems.
Sith then thy trains my younger years betrayed,
And for my faith ingratitude I find;
And sith repentance hath my wrongs betrayed,
Whose course was ever contrary to kind:
False love, desire, and beauty frail, adieu.
Dead is the root whence all these fancies grew.