Walter raleigh biography

Sir Walter Raleigh  ©Raleigh was an adventurer, courtier to Elizabeth I, navigator, author and poet.M

Walter Raleigh (also spelled Ralegh) was born into a well-connected gentry family at Hayes Barton in Devon in around 1552.

He attended Oxford University for a time, fought with the Huguenots in France and later studied law in London.

In 1578, Raleigh sailed to America with explorer Sir Humphrey Gilbert, his half brother. This expedition may have stimulated his plan to found a colony there.

In 1585, he sponsored the first English colony in America on Roanoke Island (now North Carolina).

Sir walter raleigh biography

The colony failed and another attempt at colonisation also failed in 1587. Raleigh has been credited with bringing potatoes and tobacco back to Britain, although both of these were already known via the Spanish. Raleigh did help to make smoking popular at court.

Raleigh first came to the attention of Elizabeth I in 1580, when he went to Ireland to help suppr