Meet the Boss Walter Raleigh was born in the west of England in around 1554 but no one is sure of the exact date He spent his childhood by the sea Later he became a favorite of the Tudor ruler Queen Elizabeth I Did you know Although the Raleighs were not a noble family they were prominent in public life Walter’s half brothers John Humphrey and Adrian Gilbert and his brother Carew Raleigh were advisors UNKNOWN CHILDHOOD Seafaring father Religious family Walter Raleigh right was the youngest of five sons His father also called Walter was a ship’s captain and the family lived near the coast in Hayes Barton in Devon Little is known about Raleigh’s childhood He did not go to school but was probably educated at home As a young man he studied for a short time at college in Oxford He then went to fight with the French Protestants or Huguenots against the Catholics in France in the Wars of Religion 1562 1598 RALEIGH IN IRELAND A soldier in the English army Receives land as a reward 4 TRAVEL WITH THE GREAT EXPLORERS to the British court In his early 20s Raleigh served as a soldier in Ireland The Irish who were mostly Catholic were rebelling against the rule of the Protestant queen Elizabeth Raleigh commanded his own company and fought to put down rebellions against the English Raleigh gained a reputation for bravery He also met the queen when he visited the court in London to report on the progress of the military campaign Raleigh was rewarded for his work with estates taken from the Irish rebels
A FAVORITE Raleigh meets the queen Becomes a knight Queen Elizabeth liked Raleigh’s outgoing personality and made him one of her favorites in 1582 She gave him lands that made him rich and a knighthood in 1585 But some of the queen’s other courtiers disliked him They were jealous of him and thought he was proud and over-confident A SECRET MARRIAGE Falls in love Tragic loss of first child In 1591 Raleigh secretly married Elizabeth Throckmorton right known as Bess who was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth By then Raleigh was famous for starting an English colony in North America However it was illegal for a courtier to marry without permission from the queen and Elizabeth was angry when she found out Raleigh and Bess had a son the following year named Damerei but the baby died from the plague BANISHED TO THE TOWER Poet and Prisoner In June 1592 Elizabeth sent Raleigh and his wife to prison in the Tower of London left as punishment for marrying without her consent Raleigh spent some of his time in prison writing poetry Raleigh and Bess were released after two months when one of Raleigh's ships returned to England with treasure from a captured Spanish ship EXPLORE WITH SIR WALTER RALEIGH 5 Famous Poet Raleigh wrote poems using simple direct language His poems were usually short and about personal matters His most popular poems included The Lie and A Farewell to False Love
Where Are We Heading Raleigh planned several expeditions to the Americas The queen kept him at court at first but he later became the first European to visit Guiana now Guyana in South America The Orinoco River stretches Big River from the mountains of Venezuela to the Atlantic Ocean Its name means a place to paddle in the language of the local Warao people TO VIRGINIA Expanding the empire But you can’t go In 1584 Queen Elizabeth gave Raleigh permission to explore far-off parts of the world She wanted to become a more powerful ruler and she wanted England to rival the empire Spain had created in the New World or the Americas after Christopher Columbus had sailed there in 1492 Raleigh believed the Americas contained resources such as gold He sent expeditions to establish a colony in North America He named the land Virginia for Elizabeth who was known as the Virgin Queen because she never married 6 TRAVEL WITH THE GREAT EXPLORERS ROANOKE The first settlement Raleigh chose Roanoke a sandy island off what is now North Carolina above as the site for his settlement Several European families moved there but they faced problems including hostile Native peoples poor harvests and a lack of supplies The island was abandoned in 1586 then resettled in 1587 The last group to live there disappeared mysteriously in 1590 and Roanoke became known as the Lost Colony Whosoever commands the sea commands the trade whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world and consequently the world itself Walter Raleigh on English attempts to build an empire
TRAVEL UPDATE Follow the River Travelers heading into regions without roads should try using rivers as highways Raleigh followed the Orinoco River right which flows for 1,498 miles 2,410 km and has many tributaries and a broad delta The rivers carried Raleigh and his men through dense rain forests grassy plains and mangrove swamps FALLS OF THE CARONÍ Impressive spectacle As he explored the Orinoco Raleigh described coming across a dozen waterfalls He said that each one rose over the other as high as a church tower He recorded that the water fell with such great fury that it seemed to create a permanent shower of rain in the air Some people claim that Raleigh had discovered Angel Falls the highest waterfall in the world More likely he had found falls on the Caroní River left close to where it meets the Orinoco River CITY OF GOLD Promise of riches Pulls Raleigh onward One of Raleigh’s goals in Guiana was to find a legendary city called El Dorado which Spanish stories claimed was built from gold Raleigh believed the city was in the mountains at the head of the Caroní River The story of El Dorado was originally about a native leader who coated himself in gold dust The story eventually included a city of gold Raleigh believed that Guiana must have gold mines similar to those used by the Aztec in Mexico and the Inca in Peru EXPLORE WITH SIR WALTER RALEIGH 7
