312 



RALEIGH. 



Raleigh, the exiled king of Portugal in his attempt to recover 



Sir Walter. fa s t h rone . Upon his return from this expedition, he 



x < -Y"""*'' went to visit his estates in Ireland, where he either 



formed or renewed his acquaintance with Spenser the 



poet, who has celebrated him under the appellation of 



the shepherd of the ocean, and who acknowledges the 



obligation which he owed to Raleigh, of having first 



introduced him to the queen. Spenser also prefixed to 



his Fairy Queen an introductory letter to Raleigh, in 



which he explains the plan and object of that poem. 



Eager for new enterprises, our military knight con- 

 ceived the design of attacking Panama, and intercept- 

 ing the Spanish Plate fleet. No fewer than thirteen 

 ships were fitted out by himself and his friends for that 

 purpose, and these were joined by two men of war, all 

 of which were put under the management of Raleigh. 

 He was, however, recalled by the queen, when he had 

 scarcely set sail ; but before he returned he proceeded 

 to Cape Finisterre, and divided his fleet into two squa- 

 drons with cruising orders. A rich carrack which fell 

 in the way of one of these squadrons, was the only 

 prize of the expedition. In the year 1594 he obtained 

 from the queen a grant of the manor of Sherborne, in 

 the county of Dorset, upon which he erected a magni- 

 ficent house ; but the tide of fortune, which had thus 

 lifted him to the highest summit of its wave, was now 

 beginning to subside gently beneath him. An infamous 

 person of the name of Parsons, a Jesuit, wrote a libel, 

 in which he charged Raleigh with atheism. This im- 

 putation, groundless as it was, is still said to have crea- 

 ted some disagreeable feelings towards him on the part 

 of the queen; but these feelings were increased to a 

 still greater degree by an intrigue with one of her maids 

 of honour, the daughter of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton. 

 The court of the queen was scandalised by this inde- 

 cent amour ; but her favourite made all the reparation 

 which he could, by marrying the lady, with whom he 

 lived in great conjugal felicity. The queen, however, 

 testified the weight of her displeasure, by committing 

 him to the Tower for some months, and subsequently 

 banished him from her presence. 



In the solitude of his confinement, the imagination of 

 Raleigh seems to have been fascinated by the marvel- 

 lous tales which had been circulated respecting the 

 riches of Guiana, and he projected an expedition for 

 exploring that country. Guided by some private in- 

 formation which he had obtained from an old naviga- 

 tor whom he had dispatched on purpose, he embarked 

 in July 1595, with a squadron of ships, and made for 

 the island of Trinidad. After taking possession of the 

 town of St. Joseph, he sailed up the great river Oroo- 

 noko; but the impediments to its navigation which he 

 experienced, and the intolerable heat of the climate 

 compelled him to return, after taking possession of the 

 country in the queen's name. Raleigh appears to have 

 been annoyed with the unsuccessful issue of this ex- 

 pedition ; and it is not easy to reconcile with his cha- 

 racter as an honest man, the account of the country 

 which he published on his return, under the title of, 

 " Discovery of the large, rich, and beautiful Empire of 

 Guiana." Hume stigmatises this production as " full 

 of the grossest and most palpable lies that were ever 

 attempted to be imposed on the credulity of mankind." 

 The queen had so far forgotten her displeasure a- 

 gainst Raleigh, as to give him a naval command as ad- 

 miral, in the successful expedition against Cadiz in 1 596', 

 which was sent out under Lord Howard of Effingham 

 and the.Earl of Essex. In 1597 he held the post uf 

 rear-admiral in the expedition commanded by Essex, 

 and sent to the Azores for the purpose of intercepting 



the Spanish West India fleet. Having arrived with his BaK-i-rh, 

 squadron at Fay al before Lord Essex, and waited for ^ ir Wllltei - 

 a considerable time, he deemed it prudent to make an * ~v " 

 attack on the place, which, fortunately for himself, 

 turned out successful. This event gave deep offence to 

 the Earl of Essex. He considered Raleigh as having 

 intentionally defrauded him of the glory of the action; 

 and he would not have scrupled to cashier him, had not 

 Lord Howard exerted himself in bringing about an ap- 

 parent reconciliation. On the return of the expedition, 

 Lord Essex publicly found fault with the conduct of 

 his officers ; but the queen, after deliberately consider- 

 ing the whole transaction, seems to have considered the 

 conduct of Sir Walter and the other officers as justified 

 by the circumstances of the transaction. 



Sir Walter now devoted himself, with his usual ar- 

 dour, to the affairs of parliament, and we find him tak- 

 ing a leading part in all jousts and tournaments. In 

 the year 1600 he went out as joint ambassador to Flan- 

 ders along with Lord Cobham, and on his return he 

 was appointed governor of Jersey. In lb'01 he attend- 

 ed the queen in a progress through part of the king- 

 dom, and he was soon after appointed to receive and 

 confer with the Duke of Biron, on his arrival as am- 

 bassador from France. 



When his rival, the Earl of Essex, had been con- 

 demned to death for high treason, Raleigh is said to 

 have indecently urged his execution on the minister 

 Cecil ; and, what is still more unworthy of his name, he 

 is reported to have been an eye-witness of the execu- 

 tion. The death of Queen Elizabeth in the beginning 

 of 1603, which was probably accelerated by the fate of 

 her favourite Essex, gave a blow to the fortunes of Ra- 

 leigh from which he never recovered. 



When James VI. ascended the throne, he brought 

 with him many feelings which were not favourable to 

 the interests of Sir Walter. James had naturally a pre- 

 possession against him as the enemy of Essex ; and this 

 was much increased when he found that he was one of 

 a party that had conceived the design of forcing the 

 king to limit the number of Scotsmen whom he was to 

 bring along with him. Although Raleigh made no 

 slight struggle to displace Sir Robert Cecil from the 

 king's confidence, yet his efforts were in vain, and he 

 was scarcely received with ordinary civility. Accus- 

 tomed to the sunshine of royal favour, and to the re- 

 spect and admiration of all ranks, the chivalrous spirit 

 of Raleigh could but ill brook this haughty and unme- 

 rited treatment. At first, indeed, he seems to have 

 sunk under the royal frown ; but, by a revulsion not 

 unnatural in his circumstances, a sentiment of revenge 

 speedily displaced that of despondency, and the in- 

 fluence of his name and his talents was thrown into 

 the scale of disaffection. The enemies of James, who 

 had conspired to place Lady Arabella Stuart on the 

 throne, appear to have availed themselves of Raleigh's 

 excited feelings, and to have induced him to participate 

 in this ill-contrived and absurd treason. Raleigh was 

 immediately apprehended and charged with the highest 

 of political crimes. His accuser was Lord Cobham, an un- 

 principled nobleman, who was himself concerned in the 

 plot, and to whose own proposals Raleigh seems only to 

 have listened. Sir Walter was indicted for conspiring 

 to deprive the king of his throne, to raise up sedition 

 within the realm, to alter the religion, to bring in 

 the Roman superstition, and to procure foreign enemies 

 to invade the kingdom. The principal overt act laid 

 in the indictment was, that he had a conference with 

 Lord Cobham on the best means of advancing Lady 

 Arabella Stuart to the crown, and of applying to the 



