Sir Walter Raleigh
Sunday, March 30th, 2008
Sir Walter Raleigh travelled the world in search of fame and fortune. But it was at opposite ends of what is now Tower Hamlets that the great adventurer had his two ‘homes’ – though one was his choice and the other the King’s. He was born in Hayes Burton, Devon, probably in 1552. After studying at Oriel College Oxford, the young Raleigh went to fight in the French civil wars between 1569 and 1572. Returning to England, the young adventurer found his first home in the East End. He reputedly lived in Blackwall, in a manor house that was finally demolished in 1890 to make way for the Blackwall Tunnel approach.Raleigh was a hero and became a prominent figure at Queen Elizabeth’s court. He became a firm favourite of the Virgin Queen but, despite her insistence that Raleigh stay at court, adventure was in his blood.
Overseas voyages and colonial ventures followed and he fought in Ireland in 1580-1. Raleigh’s sights were set farther afield and on greater fortunes, though. Humphrey Gilbert, a fellow Devonian, had long had dreams of getting one over on the Spaniards and settling America. His first expedition there in 1578 got no further than the Cape Verde islands. Gilbert returned home to raise funds for another attempt, and found an eager backer in Raleigh. He set off again in 1583 and annexed St John’s in Newfoundland. The expedition left no settlers, though, and Gilbert went down with his ship on the way back to England. Raleigh was ambitious to found a permanent colony and in 1585 led an expedition which established 600 settlers on Roanoke Island in Carolina. But a year later the colonists had to be evacuated.
At home, things for Raleigh were no better. The Third Earl of Essex, Robert Devereux, was jealous of the adventurer’s position of court and of his special place in the affections of the Queen. He set about undermining Raleigh’s position, and his secret marriage to royal maid-of-honour Bess Throckmorton – in 1591 – leaked out. The Queen was furious. In 1595 Raleigh had another attempt at making his fortune, leading an expedition to Guyana in search of Eldorado, the legendary hoard of gold that the Spaniards had long sought. Raleigh was unusually popular with the native population, but the Queen was not so pleased. But on his return from yet another, fruitless adventure, he cut his losses by launching a career as a writer, with a hugely successful account of his exploits.
n 1603 the protection the controversial Raleigh enjoyed at court ended with the death of Queen Elizabeth. Raleigh’s attacks on the Spanish fleet had made him popular with the Queen, but the new king, James I, was determined to make peace with the Spaniards and crushed his Spanish adventures.In the same year it seemed Raleigh had at last outplayed his luck. He was convicted as part of the Main Plot, the scheme to replace the new king with his cousin Arabella Stewart. Sentenced to death, Raleigh found his second home in Tower Hamlets – the Tower of London.
For 13 years Raleigh lived under the threat of the executioner’s blade. Never a man to lack ambition, the condemned man busied himself by writing the History of the World. He hadn’t finished his magnum opus when his fortunes took an upturn. King James released Raleigh for another attempt at finding Eldorado. But Raleigh’s skills as an explorer hadn’t improved. All he found was Spaniards, and the Englishman was involved in a series of bloody clashes. It sealed his fate. He returned in 1618 to England and the executioner’s axe. He hadn’t found gold but the adopted East Ender will go down in history as the man who (probably) brought tobacco and the potato to Europe.
