(Born around 1552- Died October 29, 1618)
Son of Walter Raleigh and Catherine Champernowne
Married to Elizabeth Throckmorton.
Father of Damerei, Walter (also known as Wat), and Carew Raleigh.
Sir Walter Raleigh was a writer and an adventurer who helped establish a colony near Roanoke Island. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London a few times and was later executed for treason.

Sir Walter Raleigh was born around 1552, although some believe he was born in 1554, to Walter Raleigh and Catherine Champernowne in Devon. He was the youngest of five sons born to the couple. His half-brothers John Gilbert, Humphrey Gilbert, and Adrian Gilbert, and his full brother Carew Raleigh were also prominent during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. Catherine Champernowne was a niece of Kat Ashley, Elizabeth’s governess. The Raleigh family were very devout Protestants and they were persecuted during the reign of Mary I, especially Sir Walter Raleigh’s father who had to hide in the Tower of London to avoid execution. From a young age, Raleigh had a deep hatred for Roman Catholicism and was an extremely devout Protestant, even more than Elizabeth I herself.

In 1569, Raleigh went to France to help the Huguenots in the religious wars, at the age of seventeen. In 1572, he attended Oriel College, Oxford, but he left a year later without a degree. He would later attend the Middle Temple law college in 1575, but in his trial in 1603, he would deny that he studied law. It was during this time that Raleigh’s love for poetry is said to have started.

In 1578, Raleigh set out with his half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert on a voyage to North America to find the Northwest Passage. They never reached their destination and the mission degenerated into a privateering foray against Spanish shipping. Raleigh’s actions were not well received by the Privy Council, the monarch’s advisors, and he was briefly imprisoned. Between 1579 and 1583, Raleigh took part in the suppression of the Desmond Rebellions. These rebellions were motivated to maintain the independence of feudal lords from their monarch, but also there was an element of religious antagonism between Catholic Geraldines and the Protestant English state. He was known for his ruthlessness at the siege of Smerwick and establishing English and Scottish Protestants in Munster. One of the people he met while in Munster was the English poet Edmund Spenser.

By 1582 he had become one of Elizabeth’s favourites, and he began to acquire monopolies, properties, and influential positions. In 1583 the queen secured him a lease of part of Durham House in the Strand, London, where he had a monopoly of wine licenses, in 1583, and of the export of broadcloth in 1585. In 1585, Raleigh was knighted and he became warden of the Cornish tin mines, lieutenant of Cornwall, and vice admiral of Devon and Cornwall and frequently sat as a member of Parliament.

In 1584, Queen Elizabeth granted Raleigh a royal charter authorising him to explore, colonise and rule any lands that were not under Christian rule, in return for one-fifth of all the gold and silver that might be mined there. This charter specified that Raleigh had seven years in which to establish a settlement, or else lose his right to do so. Instead, he sent others to found the Roanoke Colony, later known as the “Lost Colony”. In 1588, he did help

In 1591, Raleigh was secretly married to Elizabeth “Bess” Throckmorton. She was one of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting, 11 years his junior, and was pregnant at the time. She gave birth to a son, believed to be named Damerei, but he died in October 1592 of plague. The following year, the unauthorised marriage was discovered and the Queen ordered Raleigh to be imprisoned and Bess dismissed from court. Both were imprisoned in the Tower of London in June 1592. He was released from prison in August 1592 to manage a recently returned expedition and attack on the Spanish coast. The fleet was recalled by the Queen, but not before it captured an incredibly rich prize off a merchant ship. He was sent back to the Tower, but by early 1593 had been released and become a member of Parliament. It was several years before Raleigh returned to favour, and he travelled extensively in this time. Walter and Elizabeth had two more sons, Walter (known as Wat) and Carew.

Raleigh himself never visited North America, although he led expeditions in 1595 and 1617 to the Orinoco River basin in South America in search of the golden city of El Dorado. In 1596, Raleigh took part in the Capture of Cadiz, where he was wounded. He also served as the rear admiral of the Islands Voyage to the Azores in 1597. On his return from the Azores, Raleigh faced the major threat of the 3rd Spanish Armada during the autumn of 1597.

Raleigh’s aggressive policies toward Spain did not recommend him to the pacific King James I His enemies worked to bring about his ruin, and in 1603 he and others were accused of plotting to dethrone the king and was consigned to the Tower. In 1616 he was released but not pardoned. With the king’s permission, he financed and led a second expedition to Venezuela , promising to open a gold mine without offending Spain. Raleigh’s son Walter died in the action. King James invoked the suspended sentence of 1603, and he remained imprisoned in the Tower until 1616. In 1617, Raleigh was pardoned by the King and granted permission to conduct a second expedition to Venezuela in search of El Dorado. During the expedition, a detachment of Raleigh’s men under the command of his long-time friend Lawrence Keymis attacked the Spanish outpost of Santo Tomé de Guayana on the Orinoco River, in violation of peace treaties with Spain, and against Raleigh’s orders. A condition of Raleigh’s pardon was avoidance of any hostility against Spanish colonies or shipping. On Raleigh’s return to England,Count Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, demanded that Raleigh’s death sentence be reinstated by King James, who had little choice but to do so. On October 29, 1618, Sir Walter Raleigh was executed.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Raleigh
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/raleigh_walter.shtml
https://www.biography.com/people/walter-raleigh-9450901
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Walter-Raleigh-English-explorer