Sir Walter Raleigh: In Life & Legend (60 page)

Read Sir Walter Raleigh: In Life & Legend Online

Authors: Mark Nicholls and Penry Williams

Tags: #Nonfiction, #Biography & Autobiography, #History, #England/Great Britain, #Virginia, #16th Century, #Travel & Exploration, #Tudors

63 See K. O. Kupperman, Roanoke: the abandoned colony (Lanham, MD, 2007), passim, and The Jamestown Project (Cambridge, MA, 2007), passim.

CHAPTER 4

1 J. Guy, 'The 1590s: the second reign of Elizabeth I?' in J. Guy (ed.), The Reim of Elizabeth I: court and culture in the last decade (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 1-19.

2 See the excellent recent biography by S. Alford, Burghley: William Cecil at the court of Elizabeth I (London, 2008).

3 N. Mears, Queenship and Political Discourse in the Elizabethan Realms (Cambridge, 2005).

4 P. Hamner, The Polarisation of Elizabethan Politics: the political career of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, 1585-1597 (Cambridge, 1999).

5 R. Naunton, Fra~u,enta Regalia, or, Observations on the late Queen Elizabeth (London, 1641), p. 33.

6 Lambeth MS 3203, fo. 35.

7 Lambeth MS 647, fo. 247r.

8 On the 'Laura' sonnet see P. Ure, 'The poetry of Sir Walter Ralegh', Review of English Literature 1:3 (1961), 19-29;j. L. Mills, 'Sir Walter Raleigh as a man of letters', in H. G. Jones (ed.), Raleigh and Quinn: the explorer and his Boswell (Chapel Hill, 1987), pp. 171-2; W. Erickson, 'Spenser's letter to Ralegh and the literary politics of The Faerie Queene's 1590 publication', Spenser Studies 10 (1989), 139-74; below, Chapter Seven, p. 141.

9 E. Spenser, 'Cohn Clouts Come Home Againe', ll. 164-7, in Poetical Works, ed. J. C. Smith and E. de Selincourt (Oxford, 1912), pp. 535-45. The dedicatory letter to Ralegh is dated 27 December 1591.

10 HMC, Third Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (London, 1872), appendix, p. 42.

11 Lambeth MS 3200, fo. 102.

12 On Udall's career, see ODNB.

13 The Catholic Throckmortons receive their due in a fine collection of recent essays: P Marshall and G. Scott (eds), Catholic Gentry in English Society: the Throckmortons of Cou,EIhton from refrrrnation to emancipation (Farnham, 2009).

14 A. Beer, MyJust Desire: the life of Bess Ralegh, wife to Sir Walter (New York, 2003), p. xvi.

15 A. L. Rowse, Ralegh and the Throckmortons (London, 1962), p. 276.

16 ArthurThrockmorton heard of the marriage on that day (ibid., p. 160).

17 P. Lefranc, 'La date du manage de Sir Walter Ralegh: un document inedit', Etudes anglaises 9 (1956), pp. 193-211.

18 Letters of Ralegh, p. 63.

19 Rowse, Ralegh and the Throckmortons, p. 160, and illustration.

20 Beer, MyJust Desire, p. 55; see Brushfield, Raleghanra, iii, pp. 31-2. Hooker's genealogy is distinctly tangled, maybe deliberately so.

21 Rowse suspects that the nurse was found among the Throckmortons' Middlemore relations, who lived there (Ralegh and the Throckmortons, p. 161).

22 All the dates are drawn from Throckmorton's diary.

23 Letters of Ralegh, p. 70.

24 Bodleian MS Ashmole 1729, fo. 177. See H. E. Sandison, 'Arthur Gorges, Spenser's Alcyon and Ralegh's friend', PMLA 43 (1928), 657-8.

25 On this Petrarchan scene see M. Campbell, 'Inscribing imperfection: Sir Walter Ralegh and the Elizabethan Court', English Literary Renaissance 20 (1990), 233-53, at 234-5. Campbell suggests that these exchanges provide a context in which to read 'The Ocean to Cynthia', a poem that shares the Petrarchan vocabulary of frustrated passion and service unrewarded, and which, she believes, deliberately emphasizes its own sense of disorder and dislocation, even in the title. On the dating of the poem see P. Lefranc, Sir Walter Ralegh ecrivain: l'oeuvre et les ides (Paris, 1968), pp. 101-9 and below, Chapter Seven, p. 150.

26 See the similar treatment meted out to another lady of the privy chamber, Bridget Manners, when she eloped with Robert Tyrwhit two years later (S. W. May, Sir Walter RaleNyh (Boston 1989) p. 13).

27 See M. Nicholls, 'The "Wizard Earl" in Star Chamber: The trial of the earl of Northumberland, June 1606', HistoricalJournal 30 (1987), 173-89.

28 Below, Chapter Seven, pp. 150-60.

29 Nearly four years later, as fortune began again to turn, Ralegh attempted to take his revenge, bidding unsuccessfully to secure Lismore and Waterford for his 'trend' Hugh Broughton. Letters of Ralegh, pp. 136-7.

30 BL, MS Lansdowne 70, to. 88, Hawkins to Burghley, 11 September 1592.

31 Letters of Rale,yIi, p. 79.

32 He arrived the day after Cecil. These events were considered by Burghley to be worthy of inclusion in a manuscript list of events in 1592 (Hatfield MS 333).

33 See Hatfield MS 142/176 for particulars of the division of the spoils. William Sanderson acted for Ralegh on the commission charged with distributing the proceeds from selling the plunder (R. A. McIntyre, 'William Sanderson: Elizabethan financier of discovery', William mid Mary Quarterly, 3rd series, 13 (1956), pp. 197-8).

34 HMC, A. G. Finch MSS, i, p. 34; Beer, MyJust Desire, pp. 64-5.

35 Beer, MyJust Desire, p. 69.

36 [HaringtonI, NugaeAntiquae: a miscellaneous collection of original papers, in prose and verse, by Sir]. Hari,, ton and others (London, 1779), i, pp. 105-6. Reminiscent of William the Conqueror taking possession of England after a similar fall on Pevensey beach.

37 Letters of Rahgh, pp. 107-8.

38 O. L. Dick (ed.), Aubrey's Brief Lives (London, 1949), p. 254.

39 IHarington], NiigaeAntiquae, i, pp. 105-6.

40 C. Monro (ed.), Acta Cancellariae (London, 1847),p. 180. DrAllen Boyer kindly brought this reference to our attention.

41 Letters of Rahecth, pp. 90-1. P. Lefranc, 'Un inedit de Ralegh sur la succession', Etudes Anglaises 13 (1960), 38-46.

42 Letters of Rale,Eh, p. 90.

43 Sir Simonds ll'Ewes, The journals of all the Parliaments during the Reitu of Queen Elizabeth both of the House of Lords and House of Commons (London, 1682), p. 484.

44 Letters of Rnle h, pp. 92-3.

45 Ibid., pp. 96-7, 99-100.

46 HMC, Salisbury, iv, pp. 278, 464; P. Croft, 'Trading with the enemy, 1585-1604', Historical Journal 32 (1989), 281-302.

47 Letters of Ralegh, pp. 68-9, 93-6.

48 Ibid., p. 100, for example.

49 Ibid., pp. 108-10.

50 See, for example, Letters of Ralegh, pp. 100-2, 104-6, 110-13, 115-18, 122-3, drawing from letters written in 1593 and 1594.

51 Letter dated 14 September 1595, Hatfield MS 172/64.

52 See the article on Horsey in ODNB.

53 T. E. Hartley (ed.), Proceedings in the Parliaments of Elizabeth I, Volume 111 1593-1601 (London, 1995), pp. 94, 106, 110; D'Ewes,Journals, pp. 484, 492.

54 Hartley, Proceedincs, pp. 162-3; D'Ewes, Journals, p. 517.

55 Hartley, Proceedings, pp. 142-3; D'Ewes,Journals, pp. 508-9.

56 Letters of kalecli, p. 119.

57 Beer, My. Just Desire, p. 91.

58 An advertisement written to a secretarie of my LTreasurers of Ingland, by an In,Qlishe as he passed throuqhe Germanic towardes Italic ([Antwerp], 1592), p. 18.

59 E. A. Strathnnann, John Dee as Ralegh's "Conjurer"', Huntington Library Quarterly 10 (1947), 365-72; J. W Shirley, Thomas Harriot: a biography (Oxford, 1983), p. 180.

60 These ideas culminated in M. C. Bradbrook's study, The School of Niicht and F. A. Yates's A Study of Love's Labour's Lost, both published in 1936.

61 E. A. Strathmann, Sir Walter Raleigh; a study in Elizabethan skepticism (New York, 1951). See S. Clucas, Thomas Harriot and the Field of Knowledge in the English Renaissance (Oxford, 1995), pp. 2-5.

62 BL, Harley 6848, p. 190, see R. Trevelyan, Sir Walter Raleigh (London, 2002), pp. 200-1.

63 S. A. Tannenbauin, TheAssassination of Christopher Marlowe: a neu' view (New York, 1928). On this subject see C. Nicholl, The Reckoning: the murder of Christopher Marlowe (London, 1992) and 13 E. J. Hanmier,'A reckoning refrained: the "murder" of Christopher Marlowe revisited', E,i lish Literary Renaissance 26 (1996), 225-42. See also Shirley, Thomas Harriot, pp. 181-6.

64 Nashe, Pierce Penilesse his Supplication to the Divell (London, 1592), sig. B2v.

65 Nashe, Christs Tares OverJerusalem (London, 1593), pp. 58v, 59v, 60.

66 Shirley, Thomas Harriot, p. 187.

67 Clucas, Harriot and the Field of Knowledge, p. 36. On Harriot as atheist see also J. Jacquot, 'Thomas Harriot's reputation for impiety', Notes and Records of the Royal Society 9 (1952), 164-87, and S. S. Webb, 'Raleigh, Harriot and atheism in Elizabethan and early Stuart England', Albion 1 (1969), 10-18.

68 Titled 'Notae ex discursu Thomae Hariotae...de deo et prima causa & de multis ahis rebus', BL, Add. MS 64078; Clucas, Harriot and the Field of Knowlerhe, pp. 39-45.

69 Clucas, Harriot and the Field of Knowledge, p. 43.

70 Ibid., pp. 44-5

71 Shirley, Thomas Harriot, p. 199.

72 Clucas, Harriot and the Field of Knowledge, p. 45.

73 Shirley, Thomas Harriot, p. 203. Shirley could not at first account for the fact that Harriot did not appear on the list of Northumberland's household pensions and retainers until the later 1 590s, when he was in receipt of £80 per annual (ibid., pp. 211-14), but in fact the Earl had long since granted him a revenue out of certain northern estates.

74 Shirley, Thomas Harriot, p. 223.

75 BL, Harley MS 6489, fos 187v-188r.

76 BL, Harley MS 6849, fos 183-90.

77 BL, Harley MS 6849, fo. 184r.

78 Rowse, Rah:Eh and the Throckmortons, p. 177.

79 Letters of kalecli, p. 107.

80 P Hyland, Ralech'a Last Journey (London, 2003), pp. 71-2.

81 In September 1600, Hatfield MS 251/37.

82 Letters of kah,Eh, pp. 190-1.

83 Dick, Aubrey's Brief Lives, p. 259; HMC, De L'Isle and Dudley, ii, p. 173.

84 Rowse, Rnlcgh and the TI,rock',nortoi,s, p. 268.

85 May, Sir Walter Ralegh, p. 126.

CHAPTER 5

1 The name 'Guiana' is potentially misleading: most of the region so called by Ralegh and his contemporaries is now part of Venezuela and Colombia.

2 A voyage immortalized in the film Aguirre, the Wrath of God, directed by Werner Herzog (1972).

3 J. Lorimer (ed.), Sir Walter Ralegh's Discoverie of Guiana (London, 2006), p. 59 (hereafter Lorimer, Discoverie). This superb edition is indispensable for any student of the subject.

4 Lorimer, Discoverie, pp. 229-30.

5 Ibid., pp. xl-xlvii; J. Hemming, The Search for El Dorado (London, 197H), passim.

6 J. Lorimer, 'Ralegh's first reconnaissance of Guiana', Terrac Incognitae 9 (1997), 7-21; Lorimer, Discoverie, pp. xlii, 249-50.

7 E. G. R. Taylor, 'Harriot's instructions for Ralegh's voyage to Guiana, 1595',Journal of the Institute of Navigation 5 (1952), 345-50.

8 Lorimer, Discoverie, pp. xliv-xlvii.

9 R. A. McIntyre, 'William Sanderson: Elizabethan financier of discovery', William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series, 13 (1956), 184-201; C. Nicholl, The Creature in the Map: Sir Walter Ralegh's quest for El Dorado (London, 1996), pp. 64-5; J. W. Shirley, 'Sir Walter Ralegh's Guiana finances', Huntington Library Quarterly 13 (1949-50), 55-69.

10 For the ships see Nicholl, Creature in the Map, pp. 354-60; for the events during the crossing see ibid., pp. 89-91, based on Spanish sources. Ralegh does not name his own ship: it was either the Bark Raleigh or the Roebuck. A 'gallego' was a small vessel with sails and steering oars (Lorimer, Discoverie, p. 19).

11 Lorimer, Discoverie, pp. 28-9.

12 Lorimer, Discoverie, pp. 30-1. [Ralegh], N. L. Whitehead (ed.), The Discoverie of the Large, Rich and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana (Norman, 1997), pp. 60-1 (hereafterWhitehead (ed.), Discoverie).

13 Trevelyan, Raleigh, pp. 227-8. See also BL, Add. MS 3616, fos 151 et seq.

14 A wherry is a light rowing boat (Lorimer, Discoverie, p. 13, fn. 2).

15 Lorimer, Discoverie, pp. 32-3.

16 Ibid., pp. 34-5.

17 Ibid., pp. 95-9. Ferdinando, an Indian, is not to be confused with the Portuguese pilot, Simon Fernandez.

18 Ibid., pp. 104-5. Drake, another strong disciplinarian, had made the gentlemen row with the rest on his great voyage of circumnavigation.

19 Whitehead, Discoveric, pp. 65-71, 85-7.

20 Lorimer, Diswverie, pp. 138-45.

21 Ibid., p. 148.

22 Ralegh called the river the Caroli. Caroni is the modern spelling.

23 Lorimer, Discoverie, pp. 152-3.

24 Ibid., pp. 154-5.

25 Ibid., pp. 164-77. However, another account says that the jaguar story was false and was told to the Spanish to prevent them from capturing Goodwin.

26 Putijma had earlier killed a Spanish friar.

27 Lorimer, Disco eerie, pp. 184-7.

28 See Nicholl, Creature in the Map, pp. 222-3.

29 The supposed 'mine' on the Iconuri became a crucial question in the expedition of 1617: see below, Chapter Twelve, pp. 285-6.

30 The Spanish report was made by Francisco deVides, governor of Cumana, on 23 June 1595, and is printed (in English) in VT. Harlow (ed.), The Discoverie...of Guiana (London, 1928), app. B, p. 130. DeVides probably exaggerated the number of the English dead: John Gilbert, for one, was said to have been alive some years later.

31 Letters of Ralc(h, p. 125.

32 Ibid., p. 127.

33 Ibid., p. 133.

34 See above, fn. 3.

35 Lorimer, Discoverie, pp. 206-7. Also Whitehead (ed.), Discoverie, intro.

36 Lorimer, Disarverie, pp. 210-11.

37 Loriiner, Discoverie, pp. xlvii-1xi.

38 ESTC, 20634, 20635, 20636.

39 Lorimer, Discoverie, pp.134-5.

40 Ibid., pp. lxxii-lxxiv, 62-5.

41 Ibid., pp. 154-9; Whitehead (ed.), Discoverie, pp. 91-101.

42 Lorimer, Discoverie, p.127.

43 Ibid., pp. 200-1, 120-1.

44 Ibid., p. lxx.

45 The document is in BL, Sloane MS 1133, fos 45-52, and is printed in Lorimer, Disawerie, pp. 253-63. See also ibid., pp. xxxv-xxxvii.

46 Keymis's account, 'A relation of the second voyage to Guiana', is contained in R. Hakluyt, Tlie Principal Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the Erglisli Nation (Glasgow, 1903-5), x, pp. 441-501.

47 Ibid., p. 443.

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