Lanzarote Information

Walter Raleigh 1552 - 1618

Raleigh was a famed English poet, explorer and privateer.

Raleigh spent 17 years in Ireland as a landlord of land and property confiscated from the Irish; also he was reported to have been responsible for the planting of the potato.

Raleigh was favoured by Queen Elizabeth I, he was believed to have laid his cloak over a puddle so that the Queen could walk over it without getting her feet wet. In 1585 he was knighted for his exploration of North America. Raleigh's link to the Canary Islands is that he would sail to La Gomera first to replenish supplies before heading west to the Indies.

During 1591, Raleigh secretly married Bess one of the Queen's ladies in waiting, a year later when Queen Elizabeth I, found out she had him imprisoned in the tower and dismissed Bess from court.

In 1594 Raleigh sailed to South America to find the city of gold, starting the legend of El Dorado.

In 1596 Raleigh was wounded in the capture of Cádiz.

After Queen Elizabeth died in 1603 Raleigh was imprisoned in the Tower again for treason, he was reportedly involved in a plot against James I, he was then released in 1616 for a second expedition to El Dorado.

When he returned back to England in 1618 he was arrested and beheaded at Whitehall. Apparently Sir Walter's final words as he waited for the axe to fall was "strike, man, strike!"