A gruesome glimpse of the past.
Sir Walter Raleigh (1554- 1618)
The much used phrase” many- sided
personality” would certainly suit most the one- an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer- Sir
Walter Raleigh (1554-1618)
Raleigh was educated at the Oriel
College, Oxford (1572) and at the Middle Temple law college (1575). His
outspoken criticism of the English policy implemented in Ireland and also his
help to put down a rebellion in Ireland brought him to the attention of Queen
Elizabeth. By 1582, he had become the crown’s favorites, rose to occupy many
positions, became a M.P. and was made a Governor of Jersey. Raleigh was also
made captain of the queen’s guard.
That Sir Walter Raleigh, was a writer,
poet, and adventurer is known to many. But, it may not be known to many that he
was one of the earliest victims of the successive injustices of the crowns.
It was Queen Elizabeth I who knighted Walter
Raleigh in 1585 and the same Queen put him in prison, seven years later, for
not informing his marriage to her. Raleigh married one Elizabeth Throckmorton
– one of the ladies -in waiting to the queen - and kept this as a secret from
the jealous queen for some time. In 1592, the birth of a son betrayed him, and for
this ‘heinous crime’ he and his wife were both imprisoned in the Tower of London.
Somehow, he was released after some time.
After Queen Elizabeth I’s death, her successor James I (reigned
1603–25), a peace-loving monarch, wanted to
have absolutely nothing to do with Raleigh. James I desired to achieve peaceful
relations with other countries. Raleigh’s aggressive policies toward Spain was
not to the liking of the peace lover King James I. Raleigh’s enemies too worked
to bring about his ruin. In 1603, Raleigh and others were accused of plotting
to dethrone the king. Raleigh was convicted on the written evidence of Henry
Brooke, Lord Cobham. As a last minute reprieve to Raleigh, the death sentence was ultimately reduced to a lifetime of imprisonment
in the Tower of London. After twelve years, though Raleigh was released, he was
not pardoned.
After release in 1616, Raleigh was sent out on a mission that he had
already been on—and failed at. That was, finding the elusive city of El Dorado.
Raleigh and his crew didn’t find the mythical city, but what they did find on
the way home was the Spanish. Raleigh getting into a fight with the Spanish
went directly against the king’s wishes and orders, and it was considered an
act of treason for which Raleigh got his second notice of execution. King James
invoked the suspended sentence (of 1603) and Raleigh was finally executed in
October 1618.
The execution
was gruesome. It has been recorded that it took the executioner two blows to
remove Raleigh’s head. The detached head was displayed to the crowd that had
assembled for the event. Later, it was placed in a red bag, covered with velvet
and presented to his wife. The rest of
Raleigh’s body was immediately buried in St. Margaret’s Church in Westminster. He
was laid to rest in a place of honour in spite of the accusations of treason
that eventually led to his death sentence. For reasons that remain unclear, he
was buried in an unmarked grave.
Lady Raleigh (Elizabeth
Throckmorton, former lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth), truly loved her
doomed husband. She did not remarry and kept her embalmed husband’s head with
her until the day she died after 29 years of the execution. According to some
stories, she kept the head in a glass case in her home, and curiosity seekers
and family friends would travel miles to visit and pay their respects to the
head. After her passing away, the head of Raleigh passed on to their son,
Carew. He also continued the tradition of keeping the embalmed head, and when
he passed away, the head was also buried with him in Surrey.
Though
executed for treason, the popular feeling had remained on Raleigh’s side ever
since 1603. After his execution, his occasional writings were collected and
published. Some 560 lines of verse hand written by him is preserved to date. His
best-known prose works in addition to The Discoverie of Guiana are A
Report of the Truth of the Fight About the Iles of Açores This Last Sommer (1591;
generally known as The Last Fight of the Revenge) and The
History of the World (1614).
In the light of the unbelievable happenings,
there is room to present Raleigh either as a hero or as a ‘traitor’.
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