



Produced by Irma Spehar, Paul Dring and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
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by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)









  SIR WALTER RALEGH

  _STEBBING_




  HENRY FROWDE, M.A.

  PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

  [Illustration]

  LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK




  [Illustration: SIR WALTER RALEGH
    _From the Duke of Rutland's Miniature_]




  SIR WALTER RALEGH

  A Biography

  By

  WILLIAM STEBBING, M.A.

  FORMERLY FELLOW OF WORCESTER COLLEGE, OXFORD
  AUTHOR OF
  'SOME VERDICTS OF HISTORY REVIEWED'


  _REISSUE_

  _WITH A FRONTISPIECE AND A LIST OF AUTHORITIES_


  Oxford
  AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
  1899




  Oxford

  PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

  BY HORACE HART, M.A.
  PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY




  CONTENTS

                                                      PAGE

           PREFACE                                     vii

           LIST OF AUTHORITIES                        xiii

           CORRIGENDA                                xxvii

     CHAP.

        I. GENEALOGY                                     1

       II. IN SEARCH OF A CAREER (1552-1581)             6

      III. ROYAL FAVOUR (1581-1582)                     22

       IV. OFFICES AND ENDOWMENTS (1582-1587)           32

        V. VIRGINIA (1583-1587)                         42

       VI. PATRON AND COURTIER (1583-1590)              53

      VII. ESSEX. THE ARMADA (1587-1589)                60

     VIII. THE POET (1589-1593)                         69

       IX. THE REVENGE (September, 1591)                82

        X. IN THE TOWER. THE GREAT CARACK (1592)        88

       XI. AT HOME; AND IN PARLIAMENT (1592-1594)      100

      XII. GUIANA (1594-1595)                          108

     XIII. CADIZ. THE ISLANDS VOYAGE (1596-1597)       125

      XIV. FINAL FEUD WITH ESSEX (1597-1601)           141

       XV. THE ZENITH (1601-1603)                      155

      XVI. COBHAM AND CECIL (1601-1603)                168

     XVII. THE FALL (April-June, 1603)                 180

    XVIII. AWAITING TRIAL (July-November, 1603)        186

      XIX. THE TRIAL (November 17)                     207

       XX. ITS JUSTICE AND EQUITY                      222

      XXI. REPRIEVE (December 10, 1603)                232

     XXII. A PRISONER (1604-1612)                      241

    XXIII. SCIENCE AND LITERATURE (1604-1615)          265

     XXIV. THE RELEASE (March, 1616)                   287

      XXV. PREPARING FOR GUIANA (1616-1617)            298

     XXVI. THE EXPEDITION (May, 1617-June, 1618)       313

    XXVII. RETURN TO THE TOWER (June-August, 1618)     331

   XXVIII. A MORAL RACK (August 10-October 15)         343

     XXIX. A SUBSTITUTE FOR A TRIAL (October 22, 1618) 359

      XXX. RALEGH'S TRIUMPH (October 28-29, 1618)      371

     XXXI. SPOILS AND PENALTIES                        380

    XXXII. CONTEMPORARY AND FINAL JUDGMENTS            394

           INDEX                                       401




PREFACE


Students of Ralegh's career cannot complain of a dearth of materials.
For thirty-seven years he lived in the full glare of publicity. The
social and political literature of more than a generation abounds in
allusions to him. He appears and reappears continually in the
correspondence of Burleigh, Robert Cecil, Christopher Hatton, Essex,
Anthony Bacon, Henry Sidney, Richard Boyle, Ralph Winwood, Dudley
Carleton, George Carew, Henry Howard, and King James. His is a very
familiar name in the Calendars of Domestic State Papers. It holds its
place in the archives of Venice and Simancas. No family muniment room
can be explored without traces of him. Successive reports of the
Historical Manuscripts