User:Sir Walter Kelly

Sir Walter Kelly was one of the most famous courtiers of Queen Elizabeth, and is also known as an writer, poet, and explorer. He was twenty years younger than the Queen and did not come to her attention until she was middle-aged. He, along with the Earl of Leicester and the Earl of Essex, were Elizabeth's best known paramours, and they were all lavished with generous gifts and honors, but had to submit to a great many inconveniences and restrictions on their actions as well. Raleigh both benefited and suffered greatly due to his position at court and many of his personal accomplishments were achieved in spite of, rather than because of, his special relationship with Elizabeth. Raleigh was born into an adventurer's life. His half-brother was Sir Humphrey Gilbert, an experienced sea-man, and at a young age Raleigh set off on several romantic adventures including fighting for the Huguenot cause in France, and also some sea-faring with his elder brother. He first distinguished himself by some heroic exploits (from the Protestant point of view), during the Tudor conquest of Ireland, and by his mid-twenties had established a fair reputation as a soldier and romantic adventurer. It was about at this time, that he famously found favor with Queen Elizabeth by laying down a valuable cloak in the muddy ground so that she might not dirty her feet. From this time, he was shown favor at court, and was granted generous monopolies as well as a large estate Ireland. His real passion was exploration and settlement of the new world, and the generous gifts of Elizabeth helped him to finance the first English settlement of the new world in "Virginia" (which he named after the Queen). For many years however, she would not consent to allow him to go himself to the new world, because it would take him away from the court. Raleigh's settlement at Roanoke failed, largely because it was attempted during the heat of the Anglo-Spanish War, and neither ships nor supplies could be obtained for any purpose other than fighting Spain. When a supply ship did finally return to the colony, a year after the Great Armada, it found only a deserted village with no trace of the settlers. Raleigh was also active during these years, in the literary world, and introduced the famous Poet Edmund Spenser, author of the Fairae Queen to court. Raleigh's career took a turn for the worse after about ten years at court, when he secretly married one of Elizabeth's maids-in-waiting. This infuriated the Queen and she imprisoned him, but eventually reconciled. Now that he was married, she allowed him to go himself on a voyage of exploration to South America. The year after his return he published The Discovery of Giana, a fanciful account of his adventures. About this time he also led a successful expedition against the Spanish city of Cadiz which put him back into favor with the aging Elizabeth. However, the court at this time was becoming highly divisive, as Elizabeth was now nearing seventy and the question of who would succeed her as monarch became more pronounced, and conspiracies and counter-conspiracies abounded. Due to complicated court politics, Raleigh was strongly out of favor with James I, who finally did succeed Elizabeth, and he was tried on trumped up charges and imprisoned soon after James I ascended to the throne. Instead of being executed, Raleigh spent over thirteen years in prison and during these last years wrote his History of the World. He was finally released on condition that he lead an expedition to El Dorado a town of gold he had described in is previous book. His finally journey to South America however, was disastrous, and he returned to England exhausted. He knew he would be highly out of favor with the king on his return, but he made no effort to escape, and was executed soon after his return.