Sir Walter Raleigh English aristocrat writer poet soldier courtier spy explorer tobacco England Protestant costume
Sir Walter Raleigh 1554 – 29 October 1618 was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England. Royal favour with Queen Elizabeth had been restored by this time but did not last. The Queen died in 1603, and Raleigh was arrested at Exeter Inn, Ashburton, Devon and imprisoned in the Tower of London on 19 July. On 17 November, Raleigh was tried in the converted Great Hall of Winchester Castle for treason, due to alleged involvement in the Main Plot against King James. Raleigh conducted his defence with great skill. The chief evidence against Raleigh was the signed and sworn confession of one Cobham. Raleigh frequently requested that Cobham be called in to testify so that he might recant, "[Let] my accuser come face to face, and be deposed. Were the case but for a small copyhold, you would have witnesses or good proof to lead the jury to a verdict; and I am here for my life!" Raleigh essentially was objecting that the evidence against him was "hearsay"; but the tribunal refused to allow Cobham to testify and be cross examined (1 Criminal Trials 400, 400-511, 1850). Although hearsay was frowned upon under the common law, Raleigh was tried under civil-law, which allowed hearsay. King James spared his life, despite a guilty verdict. He remained in the tower until 1616. While imprisoned, he wrote many treatises and the first volume of The Historie of the World (London, 1628) about the ancient history of Greece and Rome. His son Carew was conceived and born (1604) while Raleigh was imprisoned in the tower. In 1616, Raleigh was released to conduct a second expedition to Venezuela in search of El Dorado. During the expedition, Raleigh's men, under the command of Lawrence Keymis, attacked the Spanish outpost of Santo Tomé de Guayana (San Tomé) on the Orinoco River. In the initial attack on the settlement, Raleigh's son Walter was killed by a bullet. On Raleigh's return to England,
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