Sir Walter Raleigh (c.1554 - 29 October
1618)
East Budleigh and River Dart
Raleigh was an English aristocrat, writer, poet,
soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well
known for popularising tobacco in England.
Raleigh was born to a Protestant family in Devon,
the son of Walter Raleigh and Catherine
Champernowne.
Little is known about Raleigh's birth. Some historians believe Raleigh was
born on January 22, 1552. He grew up in the house of Hayes Barton, a
farmhouse in the village of East Budleigh, not far from Budleigh Salterton.
This house still exists but is privately owned.
People think of Raleigh more as adventurer and courtier than writer but in fact
he wrote many poems and other works such as histories and travelogues.
Raleigh's poetry is written in the relatively straightforward mode known as the
plain style. C. S. Lewis considered Raleigh one of the era's "silver poets", a
group of writers who resisted the Italian Renaissance influence.
The ancestral home of the Raleigh’s was Fardell, near Ivybridge, but Sir
Walter's father liked Budleigh and moved his family to Hayes Barton. The
house is still there and has been little altered. From the outside at least it’s
hardly changed in more than 400 years.
Sir Walter Raleigh was responsible for the joint defence of Devon against the
expected Spanish Armada. In the event his land-based soldiers did not have
the opportunity to fight the Spanish.
After the death of the queen, James I ascended to power and did not favour
Raleigh. The king deprived him of all his offices and in 1603, imprisoned him
in the Tower of London.
During the time he was imprisoned, Walter Raleigh indulged in science and
writing. During this period he wrote The History of the World at the request of
Prince Henry.