The British explorer, poet and historian, Sir Walter Raleigh was probably born in 1552, although the date is not entirely accurate. His father, Walter Raleigh of Fardell, in the parish of Cornwood, near Plymouth, was a gentleman of ancient family, but reduced goods. Walter Raleigh was married three times higher. Its famous son was the son of his third marriage to Catherine, daughter of Sir Philip Champernowne of Modbury, and widow of Otho Gilbert of Compton. In his first marriage had three children, John, Humphrey and Adrian Gilbert. Mr. Raleigh was forced to stop living in their own house Fardell. His son was born in the village of Hayes, near the top of Budleigh Salterton Bay on the Devonshire coast between Exmouth and Sidmouth. The name is written with a diversity exceptional even at that age. Sir Walter, his father and half brother uses different ways. Raleigh spelling was adopted by the widow of Sir Walter, and has been utilized, although there has been a tendency to favor "Raleigh" sometimes. It was almost certainly pronounced "Rawley."

In 1568 he entered as a commoner of Oriel College, Oxford but took no action, and his residence was short. In 1569 he followed his cousin Henry Champernowne, who took charge of a corps of volunteers to serve English with French Huguenots. From a reference in world history has been assumed that he was present at the battle of Jarnac (March 13, 1569), and said he was in Paris during the slaughter of St. Bartholomew in 1572. However, nothing is known with certainty of his life until February 1575, when she was at the Temple. During his trial in 1603, said he had never studied the law, but his education had been "completely cavalier, fully welded." In June 1578 his half brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert obtained a patent for six years authorizing him to take possession of "any remote barbarous and heathen lands not own any other Christian prince or people." The gentlemen of Devon had been actively involved in the maritime adventure of a privateering or even the nature of pirates since the reign of Henry VIII. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth I were leaders in colonial enterprises in conflict with the Spanish in America, In 1578 Humphrey Gilbert led an expedition that was a business of piracy against the Spanish, and had to return after an action them and the loss of a vessel in the Atlantic. Raleigh accompanied his half brother as captain of the "Falcon" and was perhaps with him on a trip next year does not help.

Gilbert was impoverished by their companies, and Raleigh had to seek his fortune in court. During 1580 he was arrested twice for games, and is attached to the queen's favorite, the Earl of Leicester and the Earl of Oxford, the son-in-law of Burghley, for whom was a challenge Sir Philip Sidney. At the end of 1580 he served as captain of a foot company in Munster. He took an active part in suppressing the rebellion of Desmond, and the slaughter of the Spanish and Italian adventurers Smerwick in November. His letters show that he was the advocate of a ruthless policy against the Irish, and did not hesitate in recommending the assassination as a means of getting rid of their leaders.

In December 1581, was sent home with dispatches, and his company had been dissolved in the suppression of the Desmond. His great fortune dates of arrival to the court where it is not unknown. Raleigh had been in correspondence with Sir Francis Walsingham for some time. The romantic stories told by Sir Robert Naunton in the Fragmenta Regalia, and Fuller in his Fame, representing at least the mythical truth as to its place in favor. It is possible that Raleigh, at a time when his court clothes represented "a considerable part of their" heritage, they did (like the old story goes) throw his mantle on the ground to help the queen to walk without getting your feet wet in a pond, and that he wrote verses with a diamond on a pane of glass to get his attention, though we have only rumors of a later generation of our authority. True, his tall and handsome person, stroking his manners and his quick wit pleased the queen. The shower of awards that were out of all proportion to its services in Ireland, which had been more distinguished than those of many others. In March 1582 an award of £ 100, and the command of a company, nominally that could be exercised in war, but in reality as a form of pension, and he was allowed to discharge his office by deputy and remained at court. In February 1583, was included in the escort sent to accompany the Duke of Anjou from England to Flanders. In 1583 the Queen awarded him a grant of Durham House in the Strand (London), ownership of the headquarters of Durham, which had been used however in recent times as a royal guest-house. In the same year the influence of the queen said two contracts beneficial All Saints, Oxford, which he sold to his advantage, and to license the patent to "winemakers" - ie bartenders. I sublet it, and when his agent, Browne, deceived him, obtained the concession revoked and reissued on terms which allowed him to make £ 2,000 a year. In 1584 had a license for the export of woolen cloth, a lucrative monopoly which made him very unpopular with the merchants. He was knighted in 1584. In 1585 came the Earl of Bedford as Warden of Stannaries. Raleigh made good use of the great powers that the concierge gave in the mining districts of the West. He reduced the old customs to order, and was loyal to the workers. In 1586 he received a grant of 40,000 acres of land of Desmond lost by Blackwater in Ireland. He was to plant English settlers, who tried to do, and introduced the potato and snuff. In 1587 he received a grant in England of the ground lost the conspirator Babington.

Over the years Raleigh was at the height of his favor. It was the policy of Queen Elizabeth to have starred several at once, lest any be assumed to have exclusive influence on her. Raleigh was predominant during the period between the dominance of Leicester and the increase of the Earl of Essex, who came to court in 1587. Raleigh should be noted that Elizabeth treated exclusively as a favorite of the court to be enriched by the monopolies and subsidies at the expense of his subjects, but she never gave him a large cargo or she supports the council. Even his position as Captain of the Guard, given in 1587, honorable though, and for a man who take gifts for the use of his influence, lucrative, was mainly ornamental. His many offices and estates should not monopolize the activity of Raleigh. The patent gives his half brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert was run out in 1584. To avoid this loss of Raleigh, in part by his own money and partly to secure the help of the courtiers and capitalists, provided the means for the expedition to Newfoundland in 1583, in which Gilbert, who had been reduced to sell " his wife's clothes back "by his previous misfortunes, finally perished. Sir Humphrey was renewed patent for Sir Walter in March 1584.

Raleigh began the short series of colonization companies have connected his name with the settlement of Virginia. It has been said many times that wise Raleigh showed an originality in their ideas as to colonization. But in truth the patent granted to him, giving him and his heirs the right of ownership over all the territory they occupied subject to payment of one fifth of the proceeds of all precious metal mines to the Crown, is mined near Spanish precedents. Nor was there any originality in his desire to settle English colonists, and encourage other industries of mining. The Spanish had pursued the same goal from the beginning. In April 1584 Raleigh sent two captains, Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, a voyage of exploration. Sailed through the Canary Islands to Florida, and thence followed the coast of North America to the gateway between Albemarle and Pamlico sounds in the modern state of North Carolina. The name of Virginia was given to a vast territory and indefinite, but none of Raleigh's captains or settlers arrived in the state of Virginia. In the same year he became MP for Devonshire, and took the precaution of securing a parliamentary confirmation of grant. His first body of settlers, which was sent in 1585 under Sir Richard Grenville, landed at what is now Roanoke Island, North Carolina. Sir R. Grenville was mostly intended to take prizes, going and coming. The settlers got on bad terms with the natives, despaired, and deserted the colony when Sir Francis Drake visited the coast in 1586. The attempts at colonization in the same place in 1586 and 1587 proved no more successful, and in 1589 Raleigh, who introduced himself as having spent £ 40,000 in the company, gave up his rights to a society of traders, while preserving a rent, and a fifth of gold might be discovered.

After 1587 Sir Walter Raleigh was called to fight for their favorite place of the Earl of Essex. During 1588, the Navy was more or less in eclipse. It was in Ireland for part of the year with Sir R. Grenville, and was employed as Vice Admiral of Devon in the care of the coast defenses and the listing of the county militia. This year received a challenge of Essex, which did not result in an encounter. In 1589 he was back in Ireland. He had made friends with Edmund Spenser and now visited him at his home in Kilcolman. It was with the help of Raleigh that Spenser received a pension, and real help to publish the first three books of the Faerie Queene. La causa exacta de la desgracia parcial de Raleigh en la corte no se conoce, pero probablemente se debió a la política habitual de la reina de comprobar uno de los favoritos por la promoción de otro. En 1589 acompañó a la expedición a la costa de Portugal, que tenía la intención de provocar una revuelta contra el rey Felipe II, pero no completamente. En 1591 estaba en el último momento prohibido tomar parte en el viaje a las Azores, y fue reemplazado por su primo Sir R. Grenville, cuya muerte en acción con los españoles fue objeto de una de las piezas más vigorosa de Sir Walter de la prosa escrito. En 1592 estaba de nuevo en el mar con una expedición para interceptar el comercio español, pero fue llamado por la reina. La causa de su retiro fue el descubrimiento que él había seducido a una de sus damas de honor, Elizabeth Throgmorton. Raleigh negó en una carta a Robert Cecil que había algo de verdad en las historias de un matrimonio entre ellos. A su regreso, se puso en la Torre de Londres, y si no estaba ya casada se casó allí. Para aplacar a la reina hizo un fantástico despliegue de la desesperación por la pérdida de su favor. Hay que recordar que las damas de honor no podía casarse sin el consentimiento de la reina, que Isabel fue siempre más reacios a dar y sería particularmente reacios a dar cuando el marido era un viejo favorito por su cuenta. Raleigh demostró ser un buen marido y su esposa se dedicó a él a través de la vida. Como los barcos de la expedición había tomado un premio valioso, la carraca portuguesa "Madre de Dios", y como no había una disputa por el botín, fue puesto en libertad para supervisar la distribución. Había sido un gran contribuyente al costo de la expedición, pero la reina, que sólo envió dos buques, ocupa la mayor parte del botín, dejándolo apenas suficiente para cubrir sus gastos.

Raleigh now retired from the court for an estate of Sherborne in Dorsetshire, which just before his fall from grace he had torn the Bishop of Salisbury, to whose see it belonged, by a most unscrupulous use of real influence. A son was born to him here in 1594, and he maintained a friendly correspondence with Sir Robert Cecil, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, Secretary of State. But a life of constant retreat was that Raleigh does not like, and as profuse habits, together with the multiplicity of his interests, had prevented him from making any advantage of their properties in Ireland, he was embarrassed for money. In 1595 therefore sailed on a voyage of exploration with a view to conquest, on the coast of South America. The object was undoubtedly to find gold mines, and Raleigh had heard wild stories of El Dorado which had been common among the Spanish for a long time. The story of his journey, The Discovery of Guiana, published on his return, is the brightest of all Elizabethan adventure stories, but contains a lot of romance manifesto. He was received with disbelief. It was now the most unpopular man in England, not only among the courtiers, but in the country for their greed, arrogance and alleged skepticism in religion. In 1590 he was appointed with the poet Christopher Marlowe and others as an atheist. In court he was not at first received. The party took in the capture of Cadiz in 1596 where he was critically injured, was followed by a restoration of favor in the court, and apparently reconciled to Essex, whom he accompanied on a trip to the Azores in 1597. This cooperation led to a renewal of the fight, and Raleigh, as the enemy of Essex who was the favorite of the soldiers and the population became more unpopular than ever. In 1600 he obtained the governorship of New Jersey, and the following year took part in suppressing the rebellion of Essex, in whose execution he presided as Captain of the Guard. In 1600 he sat as a member of Penzance, in the last parliament of Elizabeth's reign. In parliament was constant friend of religious tolerance, and a fearless critic of the fiscal and agrarian legislation of the time.

The death of the queen and the accession of James I were ruinous to Raleigh. James, who saw in Essex and his party had been hurt, and longing to Raleigh for prolonging the war with Spain was utterly against the peace policy of the king. Raleigh was embarrassed by money, and was forced to sell his Irish lands to Richard Boyle, later first Earl of Cork, in 1602. He was expelled from Durham House, which was claimed by the bishop, dismissed from the captaincy of the Guard, deprived of their monopoly, which abolished the king, and the government of Jersey. In his anger and despair that undoubtedly played a role in the complication of conspiracies which arose in the early months of the reign of James, and was sent to the Tower on July 19, 1603. Here he made what seems to have been an honest attempt to stab himself, but only produced a small wound. His trial at Winchester, November 1603, was conducted with such outrageous unfairness as to shock the opinion of the time, and his gallant against the brutality of the Attorney General, Sir Edward Coke, turned public opinion in their favor. It is now impossible to reach the truth, but in general it seems likely that Raleigh was aware of the conspiracies, despite the evidence against him was insufficient to prove his guilt. Much was retained by the council, and the jury was influenced by the knowledge that the council believed him guilty.

La sentencia de muerte dictada contra el Raleigh, y otros trataron más o menos al mismo tiempo, fue en la mayoría de los casos no se cumplen. Raleigh fue enviado a la Torre, donde permaneció hasta el 19 de marzo de 1616. Su finca de Sherborne, que había trasladado a su hijo, fue tomada por el rey, que se aprovechó de una irregularidad técnica en la transferencia. Una suma de £ 8000 ofreció en compensación se pagó en parte. confinamiento de Raleigh fue fácil, y se dedicó a la experimentación química y la literatura. Él había sido conocido como uno de los más poéticos de los poetas líricos menores de una edad de la poesía desde su juventud. En la cárcel compuso muchos tratados, y el único volumen de su Historia de la vasta Mundial publicó. También inventó un elixir que parece haber sido un charlatán formidable estimulante. La esperanza de la liberación y de una reactivación de la actividad nunca lo abandonaron, y se esforzó por llegar al oído del rey, apelando a los sucesivos ministros y favoritos. Al fin obtuvo su libertad de manera vergonzosa a todos los interesados. Prometió el rey de encontrar una mina de oro en Guayana, sin apertura de zanjas en una posesión española. Debe haber sido notorio a todos que esto era imposible, y el embajador español, Gondomar, advirtió al rey que los españoles habían asentamientos en la costa. El rey, que estaba necesitado de dinero, contestó que si Raleigh era culpable de piratería, debe ser ejecutado a su regreso. Raleigh dio promesas que, obviamente, sabía que no podía seguir, y se embarcó en el 17 de marzo 1617, basándose en el capítulo de accidentes, y en intrigas vaga que había asumido en Saboya y Francia. La expedición, en la que se gastaron los restos de su fortuna, estaba mal nombrado y mal tripuladas. Se llegó a la desembocadura del Orinoco en el último día de 1617. Raleigh estaba enfermo con fiebre, y se mantuvo en Trinidad. Él envió cinco barcos pequeños de hasta el Orinoco en virtud de su capitán de más confianza, Lawrence Keymis, con quien se fue por su hijo Walter y un sobrino. La expedición encontró un asentamiento español en el camino a la mina supone, y se produjo una pelea en la que el hijo de Sir Walter y varios españoles fueron asesinados. Después de algunos días de lucha de Bush con los españoles, y de la vana búsqueda de la mina, Keymis regresó a Sir Walter con la noticia de la muerte de su hijo y su propia ruina. Picado por Keymis reproche de Raleigh se mató, y después de una escena miserable de recriminaciones, dudas y motín, la expedición regresó a casa. Raleigh fue detenido, y en cumplimiento de la promesa del rey de Gondomar fue ejecutado bajo su vieja sentencia sobre el 29 de octubre 1618. Durante su confinamiento, ha descendido a algunas súplicas indigno y dispositivos, pero cuando supo que su final inevitable de su muerte con serenidad y dignidad. Su esposa le sobrevivió, y dejó un hijo, Carew Raleigh. Su enemistad a España lo hicieron un héroe popular.

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