Since Elizabeth had decided to remain single she would not give her consent to the marriage of any lady or gentleman connected with her court. But Leicester had married again in spite of her, and had thus placed himself under a cloud. He excited the royal displeasure still further when he was acting as military commander in the Low countries, on account of the regal airs he assumed. He even went so far as to express his intention to hold a court that should rival in display that of England. On hearing of it, Elizabeth not only forbade Leicester's wife to join him, but cut off his supplies of money, saying: "I will let the upstart know how easily the hand that has exalted him can beat him down to the dust."
Sir Walter Raleigh had succeeded Leicester in Elizabeth's esteem, and of course excited the bitter jealousy of the deposed favorite. Raleigh was the younger son of a country gentleman of small fortune. He was a soldier, seaman, statesman, poet, philosopher, and wit. His grace and beauty rendered him particularly attractive to Elizabeth, who never could bear a homely person among her attendants. One day her majesty went out for a walk after a heavy rain; arriving at a muddy gutter she stopped to consider how to get across, when Sir-Walter, with courteous presence of mind, pulled off a handsome plush cloak that he wore for the first time, and spread it on the ground for the queen to walk over. She accepted the attention with pleasure, and rewarded the gentleman with several new cloaks in place of the one he had ruined for her sake.
It is to Sir Walter Raleigh that England is indebted for her first possession in America, which, in compliment to his queen's unmarried state, he named Virginia; and it was he who introduced tobacco into England from the newly discovered coast.
On one occasion he was enjoying the weed himself, when his servant entered with a tankard of ale. Seeing his master enveloped in smoke, that proceeded from his lips, the simple fellow supposed that some internal fire was destroying his vitals, so he dashed the contents of the tankard full into Sir Walter's face, and then ran down stairs to alarm the family before the smoker should be reduced to ashes.
It was Raleigh who first presented the poet Spenser to the queen, and she was so charmed with his poetic genius that she gave him a thousand pounds. In return, he made
[Original]
her the heroine of several poems, and personified her in three different characters in his celebrated work, entitled the "Faerie Queen."