[130:B] Smith, i. 144.
CHAPTER X.
Sir Walter Raleigh—His Birth and Parentage—Student at Oxford—Enlists in Service of Queen of Navarre—His stay in France—Returns to England—At the Middle Temple—Serves in Netherlands and Ireland—Returns to England—His Gallantry—Undertakes Colonization of Virginia—Member of Parliament—Knighted—In Portuguese Expedition—Loses Favor at Court—Retires to Ireland—Spenser—Sir Walter in the Tower—His Flattery of the Queen—She grants him the Manor of Sherborne—His Expedition to Guiana—Joins Expedition against Cadiz—Wounded—Makes another Voyage to Guiana—Restored to Queen's Favor—Contributes to Defeat of Treason of Essex—Raleigh made Governor of Jersey—His Liberal Sentiments—Elizabeth's Death—Accession of James the First—Raleigh confined in the Tower—Found guilty of High Treason—Reprieved—Still a Prisoner in the Tower—Devotes himself to Study—His Companions—His "History of the World"—Lady Raleigh's Petition—Raleigh Released—His Last Expedition to Guiana—Its Failure—His Son killed—Sir Walter's Return to England—His Arrest, Condemnation, Execution, Character.
During the same year, 1618, died the founder of Virginia colonization, the famous Sir Walter Raleigh. He was born at Hayes, a farm in the Parish of Budley, Devonshire, 1552, being the fourth son of Walter Raleigh, Esq., of Fardel, near Plymouth, and Catharine, daughter of Sir Philip Champernon, and widow of Otho Gilbert, of Compton, Devonshire. After passing some time at Oriel College, Oxford, about the year 1568, where he distinguished himself by his genius and attainments, at the age of seventeen he joined a volunteer company of gentlemen, under Henry Champernon, in an expedition to assist the Protestant Queen of Navarre. He remained in France five years, and while in Paris, under the protection of the English embassy, he witnessed the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day. On returning to England he was for a while in the Middle Temple; but whether as a student is uncertain. His leisure hours were devoted to poetry. In the year 1578 he accompanied Sir John Norris to the Netherlands. In the following year he joined in Sir Humphrey Gilbert's first and unsuccessful voyage. Now, when at the age of twenty-seven, it is said that of the twenty-four hours he allotted four to study and only five to sleep; but this is rather improbable, for so much activity of employment as always characterized him, demanded a proportionate degree of repose. In 1580 he served in Ireland as captain of horse, under Lord Grey, and became familiar with the dangers and atrocities of civil war. In 1581, the following year, he became acquainted with the poet Spenser, then resident at Kilcolman. Disgusted with a painful service, Raleigh returned to England during this year, and it was at this period that he exhibited a famous piece of gallantry to the queen. She, in a walk, coming to a "plashy place," hesitated to proceed, when he "cast and spread his new plush cloak on the ground" for her to tread on. By his graceful wit and fascinating manners, he rose rapidly in Elizabeth's favor, and "she took him for a kind of oracle." His munificent and persevering efforts in the colonization of Virginia ought to have moderated the too sweeping charge of levity and fickleness brought against him by Hume.
During the year 1583 Raleigh became member of Parliament for Devonshire; was knighted, and made Seneschal of Cornwall and Warden of the Stanneries. Engaged in the expedition whose object was to place Don Antonio on the throne of Portugal, Sir Walter for his good conduct received a gold chain from the queen. The rivalship of the Earl of Essex having driven Raleigh into temporary exile in Ireland, he there renewed his acquaintance with the author of the "Faëry Queen," who accompanied him on his return to England.
Sir Walter was arrested in 1592, and confined in the Tower, on account of a criminal intrigue with one of the maids of honor, who was imprisoned at the same time; and this incident is alluded to in Sir Walter Scott's "Fortunes of Nigel." The lady was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, and a celebrated beauty, whom Raleigh afterwards married. In a letter written from the Tower, and addressed to Sir Robert Cecil, Raleigh indulged in a vein of extravagant flattery of the queen: "I that was wont to behold her riding like Alexander, hunting like Diana, walking like Venus—the gentle wind blowing her fair hair about her pure cheeks like a nymph; sometime sitting in the shade like a goddess; sometime singing like an angel; sometime playing like Orpheus." Elizabeth was at this time about sixty years old.
In 1593 she granted him the Manor of Sherborne, in Dorsetshire. About this period he distinguished himself in the House of Commons. In 1595 he commanded an expedition to Guiana, in quest of the golden El Dorado, and another in the following year. In an expedition against Cadiz he led the van in action, and received a severe wound in the leg. Upon his return to England he embarked in his third voyage to Guiana. In 1597 he was restored to his place of captain of the guard, and entirely reinstated in the queen's favor.
Essex having engaged in a rash treasonable conspiracy, the object of which was to seize upon the queen's person, so as thereby to control the government, Raleigh aided in defeating his designs. But after the execution of his popular rival, Raleigh's fortune began to wane. Nevertheless, in 1600 he was made Governor of the Isle of Jersey. In the following year, in a speech made in Parliament on an act for sowing hemp, Sir Walter said: "For my part, I do not like this constraining of men to manure or use their grounds at our wills, but rather let every man use his ground to that which it is most fit for, and therein use his discretion." Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, and Raleigh's happiness ended with her life.