Sir Walter Raleigh Biography

Explorer, fighter, and lover, Sir Walter Raleigh was one of the grand scalawags of the Elizabethan Age.

Walter Raleigh made a name for himself fighting the Irish at Munster; later he was introduced at court and became a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I. Known for his wit and womanizing, Raleigh was in and out of Elizabeth’s favor. (According to a famous legend he once laid his plush and expensive cloak over a mud puddle so that the Queen’s feet would not be dirtied; the legend has long been disputed, but it may actually be true.)

Walter Raleigh also led two expeditions to the new world (in 1594 and 1617), organized three others, popularized tobacco, and found time to write poetry on the side. Raleigh was not a favorite of Elizabeth’s successor, James I, who kept Sir Walter imprisoned in the Tower of London for 12 years; making the best of it, Raleigh used the time to write his famous History of the World, which was published in 1614. His second trip to the new world, in 1617, was a diplomatic disaster and James I finally had Raleigh beheaded in 1618.