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State Papers Relating to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada
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Historical Summary"NEVER was a man so hated and so popular in so short a time." Such was the public verdict on Sir Walter Raleigh at the nadir of his career. Explorer, adventurer, and courtier, poet, philosopher, and historian, Raleigh personified the brilliance and versatility of the Elizabethan age. He was a sixteenth-century freebooter who had outlived his day. Twice arrested for duels, tall, handsome, and quick-witted, Raleigh won the inconstant favor of Queen Bess. Attentive to a fault, that gallant might very well have placed his mantle over a mud puddle to help the queen walk over it and have scribbled verses with a diamond on a pane of glass to attract her eye. Raleigh, the first great English colonizer, commanded a series of expeditions to America, explored the seaboard from Florida to Newfoundland, planted the ill-fated settlement on Roanoke Island, and introduced the tobacco plant (the sotweed) to England. His influence at court took a precipitous dive when he seduced one of the queen’s maids of honor. Nevertheless, as long as the queen lived, Raleigh’s stock was high. In 1601 he took part in suppressing the rebellion of Essex, at whose execution he presided as captain of the Guard. With the accession of James I, Raleigh fell into disfavor. In November, 1603, he was brought to trial at Winchester, accused of high treason. The crown prosecution savored of the methods of the Inquisition. Sir Edward Coke’s brutal treatment of the prisoner is a permanent stain on his memory. As a great legal authority has pointed out, "the extreme weakness of the evidence was made up for by the rancorous ferocity of Coke, who reveled and insulted Raleigh in a manner never imitated, so far as I know, before or since in any English court of justice, except, perhaps, in those in which Jefferies presided." The trial degenerated into a verbal duel between Raleigh and Coke. Raleigh opposed the admission of hearsay evidence against him, but the Chief Justice ruled that hearsay was admissible as corroborative evidence—a rule later abandoned. Raleigh wished to have the last word, for he counted on a letter from Conspirator Cobham exonerating him. But Coke calculatingly countered this move by producing another letter from Cobham in which he retracted his statement to Raleigh. The Cobham correspondence was a fatal link to Raleigh. Deliberating only a quarter of an hour, the jury returned a verdict of guilty. Though condemned to death, Raleigh was reprieved by the king. Hard-pressed for money, James permitted him to go on a search for a fabled mine up the Orinoco River, but warned him not to "entrench" on a Spanish possession. Raleigh failed to find the mine but did attack the Spaniards, and he was accordingly beheaded on his return in 1618. He met death with serenity and courage in the same courtyard of the Tower where he had witnessed the execution of his rival, the Earl of Essex. In 1603, just a few hours before he had expected to be executed, Raleigh wrote a dramatic letter to his wife.1 Critics have pointed out that his farewell note is marked by a "Shakespearian eloquence": "You shall now receive (my dear wife) my last words in these my last lines. My love I send you that you may keep it when I am dead, and my counsel that you may remember it when I am no more. I would not by my will present you with sorrow (dear Bess) let them go to the grave with me and be buried in the dust. And seeing that it is not God’s will that I should see you in this life, bear it patiently, and with a heart like thyself. "First, I send you all the thanks my heart can conceive, or my words can rehearse for your many travails, and care taken for me, which though they have not taken effect as you wished, yet my debt to you is not the less: but pay it I never shall in this world. "Secondly, I beseech you for the love you bear me living, do not hide yourself many days, but by your travails seek to help your miserable fortunes and the right of your poor child. Thy mourning cannot avail me, I am but dust. "Thirdly, you shall understand, that my land was conveyed bona fide to my child: the writings were drawn at mid-summer was twelve months, my honest cousin Brett can testify so much, and Dolberry, too, can remember somewhat therein. And I trust my blood will quench their malice that have cruelly murdered me: and that they will not seek also to kill thee and thine with extreme poverty. "To what friend to direct thee I know not, for all mine have left me in the true time of trial. And I perceive that my death was determined from the first day. Most sorry I am, God knows, that being thus surprised with death I can leave you in no better estate. . . . "Teach your son also to love and fear God whilst he is yet young, that the fear of God may grow with him, and then God will be a husband The SPANISH NAVY IN ATTACK POSITION IN The ENGLISH CHANNEL The SAINTS PERSUADE The SINNERS TO SIGN UPThe Mayflower Compact, 1620 to you, and a father to him; a husband and father which cannot be taken from you. . . . "I cannot write much, God he knows how hardly I steal this time while others sleep, and it is also time that I should separate my thoughts from the world. . . . "My dear wife farewell. Bless my poor boy. Pray for me, and let my good God hold you both in his arms. "Written with the dying hand of sometimes thy husband, but now alas overthrown. "Yours that was, but now not my own. "WALTER RALEIGH" While in the Tower of London, Raleigh wrote his History of the World, which contains his famous apostrophe to death: "It is . . . death alone that can suddenly make man to know himself. He tells the proud and insolent, that they are but abjects, and humbles them at the instant; makes them cry, complain, and repent; yea, even to hate their forepassed happiness. "He takes the account of the rich, and proves him a beggar; a naked beggar, which hath interest in nothing, but in the gravel that fills his mouth. He holds a glass before the eyes of the most beautiful, and makes them see therein their deformity and rottenness; and they acknowledge it. "O eloquent, just, and mighty death! . . . thou hast drawn together all the farstretched greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition of men, and covered it all over with these two narrow words, Hic jacet." So Raleigh took leave of this world. The report of Raleigh’s trial is excerpted from State Trials.
Key Quote"Never was a man so hated and so popular in so short a time."
G. B. Harrison
A Jacobean Journal
Routledge
London
n.d.
Sir Walter Raleigh Tried for Treason
[1603]
November 17, 1603: This day was Sir Walter Raleigh indicted at Winchester before the Commissioners. He was indicted on many counts, principally that he did conspire to deprive the King of his government; to raise up sedition within the realm; to alter religion; to bring in the Roman superstition and to procure foreign enemies to invade the kingdom.
The case for the King was opened by Sergeant Hele, who spoke briefly of the particulars of the indictment, which were that Raleigh had conference with Cobham on the 9th June last of an insurrection to be made to depose the King and to kill his children; and that the money for this was to be procured by the Count Aremberg (the Archduke’s Ambassador) from the King of Spain, five or six hundred thousand crowns, and of this Raleigh should have 8,000. Furthermore that Raleigh would have Cobham go to persuade both the Archduke and the King of Spain to assist the pretended title of Lady Arabella; "and as for the Lady Arabella," quoth
Sergeant Hele, "she, upon my conscience hath no more title to the Crown than I have, which before God I utterly renounce." And after a few more words he gave way to Master Attorney-General.
The Attorney began a long speech to the jury, in which first he sought to include Sir Walter in the Bye plot, being the treason of the priest Watson, and then to speak of Cobham’s treasons.
To which Sir Walter, after he had been speaking for some time, answered, "Here is no treason of mine done. If my Lord Cobham be a traitor, what is that to me?"
To which Mr. Attorney replied:
"All that he did was by thy instigation, thou viper; for I ’thou’ thee, thou traitor."
The examination of the Lord Cobham was then read, wherein he de-dared that he had never entered into these courses but by Raleigh’s instigation, and that he would never leave him alone.
To these accusations of Cobham, Sir Walter answered in his own defense, saying that it would be a strange thing for him to make himself a Robin Hood, or a Kett or a Cade, for he knew England to be in a better state to defend itself than ever it was, Scotland united, Ireland quieted and Denmark assured. Moreover, he knew the Spaniard was discouraged and dishonored.
Then passed further passages between Sir Walter and his judges in the which he prayed that his accuser should be brought face to face and be deposed, but the Lord Chief Justice answered: "You have no law for it; God forbid any man should accuse himself upon his oath." And Mr. Attorney said: "The law presumes a man will not accuse himself to accuse another."
This matter of Lord Cobham’s accusation was long disputed between Sir Waiter and his judges, until at length he declared that they had not proved any one thing by direct proofs, but all by circumstances. Hereupon Mr. Attorney answered: "Have you done? The King must have the last."
To which Sir Walter replied: "Nay, Mr. Attorney, he which speaketh for his life must speak last. False repetitions and mistakings must not mar my cause. . . . I appeal to God and the King in this point whether Cobham’s accusation be sufficient to condemn me."
"The King’s safety and your clearing cannot agree," cried Mr. Attorney. "I protest before God I never knew a dearer treason."
To this Sir Walter replied that he never had intelligence with Cobham since he came to the Tower, but Mr. Attorney interrupted him, saying: "Go to, I will lay thee upon thy back for the confidentest traitor that ever came at a bar. Why should you take 8,000 crowns for a peace?"
Hereupon the Lord Cecil spoke to Mr. Attorney willing him not to be so impatient, to which he answered in a chafe: "If I may not be patiently heard, you will encourage traitors and discourage us. I am the King’s sworn servant and must speak; if he be guilty, he is a traitor; if not, deliver him."
Then he sat down and would speak no more until the Commissioners urged and entreated him. So after much ado he went on, and made a long repetition of all the evidence for the direction of the jury; and at the repeating of some things, Sir
Walter interrupted him and said he did him wrong.
To which Mr. Attorney made reply: "Thou art the most vile and execrable traitor that ever lived."
"You speak indiscreetly, barbarously and uncivilly," answered Sir Walter.
"I want words sufficient to express thy viperous treasons," said Mr. Attorney.
And Sir Walter answered: "I think you want words indeed, for you have spoken one thing half a dozen times."
This was the last evidence. So a marshal was sworn to keep the jury private. The jury departed and stayed not a quarter of an hour, but returned and gave their verdict of guilty. So Sergeant Hele demanded judgment against the prisoner, and Sir Walter being asked whether he had aught to say, desired that the King should know of the wrongs done him by Mr. Attorney. Further he desired them to remember three things to the King. "First," quoth he, "I was accused to be a practicer with Spain: I never knew that my Lord Cobham meant to go thither. I will ask no mercy at the King’s hands if he will affirm it. Secondly, I never knew of the practice with Arabella. Thirdly, I never knew of my Lord Cobham’s practice with Aremberg, nor of his surprising treason."
So the Lord Chief Justice made a speech to the prisoner, saying that he had two vices chiefly lodged in him, an eager ambition and a corrupt covetousness. Then he spoke somewhat of the heathen and blasphemous opinions with which the world taxes him, praying him not to go out of the world with these imputations upon him, for saith he: "Let not any devil Persuade you to think there is no eternity in Heaven; for if you think thus, you shall find eternity in hell fire."
The Lord Chief Justice said further: "You have showed a fearful sign of denying God in advising a man not to confess the truth. It now comes in my mind, why you may not have your accuser come face to face; for such an one is easily brought to retract when he seeth there is no hope of his own life. It is dangerous that any traitors should have access to or conference with one another; when they see themselves must die, they will think it best to have their fellow live, that he may commit the like treason again, and so in some sort seek revenge."
So judgment was passed upon him that he should be hanged and quartered.
It is much noted that Raleigh answered with that temper, wit, learning, courage, and judgment that, save that it went with the hazard of his life, it was the happiest day that ever he spent. And so well he stifled all advantages that were taken against him that were not fama malum gravius quam res and an ill name half hanged, in the opinion of all men he had been acquitted. A Scotsman that brought the news to the King said that whereas when he saw him first he was so led with the common hatred that he would have gone a hundred miles to see him hanged, he would ere he parted have gone a thousand to have saved his life. Never was a man so hated and so popular in so short a time.
1 Actually, Raleigh lived fifteen years longer.
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Chicago: G. B. Harrison, ed., "Sir Walter Raleigh Tried for Treason," State Papers Relating to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada in History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, ed. Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Co., 1951), Original Sources, accessed November 21, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=VC5ACH3XPDUE7JB.
MLA: . "Sir Walter Raleigh Tried for Treason." State Papers Relating to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, edited by G. B. Harrison, in History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, edited by Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris, Harrisburg, Pa., Stackpole Co., 1951, Original Sources. 21 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=VC5ACH3XPDUE7JB.
Harvard: (ed.), 'Sir Walter Raleigh Tried for Treason' in State Papers Relating to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada. cited in 1951, History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, ed. , Stackpole Co., Harrisburg, Pa.. Original Sources, retrieved 21 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=VC5ACH3XPDUE7JB.
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