Dimensions
162 x 242 x 43mm
Regarded by the Spanish as the most hated of pirates, Raleigh had a thirst for wealth and power that was coupled with extraordinary creative energy. Soldier, explorer, parliamentarian, chemist, reputed atheist, patron of poets and himself a fine poet, Raleigh is the epitome of the English Renaissance man. A glittering courtier in the shark pool of Elizabethan politics, he could also be a ruthless administrator.
For the generation of republicans after his death on the scaffold, Raleigh was a hero; for the Victorians he represented the gentlemanly ideal of disinterested loyalty to the crown, while more recent studies have focused on his imperialist attitudes and the tensions between himself and Queen Elizabeth I. However he is seen, Raleigh cuts as controversial and tragic a figure now as he did in his own times.
A brilliantly realised portrait of the man and his age, it benefits from the author's several visits to places connected with Raleigh, including sites of the fabled El Dorado, and from extensive research in Spanish archives.
