Walter Ralegh: Architect of Empire

by Alan Gallay

From a Bancroft Prize-winning historian, a biography of the famed poet, courtier, and colonizer, showing how he laid the foundations of the English Empire

Sir Walter Ralegh was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth. She showered him with estates and political appointments. He envisioned her becoming empress of a universal empire. She gave him the opportunity to lead the way.

In Walter Ralegh , Alan Gallay shows that, while Ralegh may be best known for founding the failed Roanoke colony, his historical importance vastly exceeds that enterprise. Inspired by the mystical religious philosophy of hermeticism, Ralegh led English attempts to colonize in North America, South America, and Ireland. He believed that the answer to English fears of national decline resided overseas -- and that colonialism could be achieved without conquest. Gallay reveals how Ralegh launched the English Empire and an era of colonization that shaped Western history for centuries after his death.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Audiobook, World History, British Literature

576 pages, Hardcover

Published November 19, 2019

About the author

Alan Gallay is an historian of early America and the Atlantic World, with special interest in Native America, the American South, and the histories of slavery. Gallay has been a Fulbright teaching fellow at the University of Auckland, NZ, a Mellon Faculty Fellow in the Humanities at Harvard University, and twice received year-long research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He holds the Lyndon B. Johnson Chair of U.S. History at Texas Christian University. Gallay is currently conducting research on First Nations art, stories, and history in the Pacific Northwest.

Reviews

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not really a biography. It does not walk step-by-step through Raleigh's life in any sort of narrative arc. It jumps back and forth between Raleigh's efforts in Ireland, North America, and South America, with some discussion of his activities in the Elizabethan court. It takes a generally positive view of English colonization, even in Ireland. It does not mock Raleigh's quest for El Dorado in Guyana, considering the fact that El Dorado was originally believed to be a man, not a place, with great riches. His existence continues to be plausible, even if historically not.

I was least familiar with Raleigh's extensive efforts in Ireland. He was granted vast tracts of land by the queen, taken from rebels against the British crown. Raleigh was successful in developing this land and thus the local economy--an island full of Raleighs would probably have made a big difference in the crown's future efforts to maintain control.

Sir Walter's efforts in North America are less well covered. In fact, I'd argue that this book assumes a good bit of previous knowledge of the man and his efforts. A lot is assumed rather than stated. As mentioned earlier, the narrative does not flow smoothly. Large gaps are evident. Even the treatment of Raleigh's completely undeserved imprisonment and execution at the hand of James I is oddly ho-hum.

I did appreciate Gallay's taking Raleigh at his own word, especially regarding his colonial activities. Raleigh was broad-minded and generally supportive of local populations. He was not out for conquest or impoverishment. He sought to improve the land and establish peaceful relations with Indians and Irishmen. Some may want to bash Raleigh and everything he stood for, but Gallay is not interested. Hooray for that.

Gallay has adopted the modern scholarly spelling of "Ralegh," though I've maintained the older preference. The subject himself spelled it several different ways over the course of his life.

[Robbie Forkish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Walter Raleigh (spelled Ralegh here, as Raleigh himself did in his later years) was an interesting historical character. He had a unique and one could say enlightened view of empire and colonization, which led to him founding colonies in Virginia, South America, and Ireland. He was also a courtier at Queen Elizabeth's court; a poet; an alchemist; a Hermetic and astrologer; an entrepreneur who popularized tobacco in England; and a historian who wrote a 700-page History of the World while imprisoned in the London Tower.

Because of my interest in Elizabethan times, and how singular Raleigh was as a man of his times, I really wanted to like this book. But for each chapter I felt like I was being dropped into the middle of an ongoing conversation, and I never got a feel for Raleigh as a flesh and blood person. Didn't finish.

[The Pink Panther · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ralegh's view of colonisation differed from the Spanish, who persecuted American natives. Ralegh wanted to coexist alongside the indigenous tribes, actually he hoped they would side with him against the Spanish. He was a Hermeticists who believed god was present in the conscience of the natives. Ralegh was also an author and a Alchemist; the book covers this and gives a great insight into the Elizabethan court.

[Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a biography of Walter Ralegh, the reader unfamiliar with him would be strongly advised to look elsewhere. It also presupposes a pretty solid grasp of Tudor England, but that is not as important. What it is is an apologia for the life of Ralegh, and a hagiography. It is focused on the author’s imagined idea of a Hermeticist world view, and for the idea of Raleigh as a philosopher of colonization. It’s chief interest lies in its conflation of Elizabeth’s Irish policy of plantations, in Munster, and Ralegh’s assumptions of native Americans.

The author seems to have no knowledge of 16th century Spanish philosophy or rhetoric on colonialism, the book is so anglocentric that the Black Legend is taken as absolute fact in the blackest form imaginable.

Raleigh is “spiritual” and obsessed with the “hermetic” and thus his search for gold, glory and preferment is on a higher plain than his opponents.

Plenty of good stuff here, but the bad is very very hard to take. His coverage of Ralegh in Ireland, not to mention English policy as a whole is beyond one sided, when contrasted with his discussion of Roanoke Indians it becomes a little nauseating. But it us by no means a bad book.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful biography shows us the many sides to Walter Ralegh's life. Most of the content is not taught in schools but this book lets us see the real Sir Walter and his influence on Britain and the world. It is written in a way that makes the information accessible to the average reader. Not a fast read but a thought provoking read.

[Mr. Karkazis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story of a true Renaissance man. And a great look at Queen Elizabeth and later king James through the eyes of sir Walter Ralegh

[Jules · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has great information. However, I found myself confused at times by the organizational structure.

[Dirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Those readers looking for a more traditional biography of Walter Ralegh, a tome assaying the entirety of his life from beginning to end, may find this book disappointing. However, as is clear from the title, Alan Gallay has narrowed his focus to one aspect of Ralegh's richly lived and quite extraordinary play upon the stage of Elizabethan England, his efforts on expanding England's standing in the world by expanding its physical presence beyond its island shores into Ireland, the eastern seaboard of North America, and Guyana in South America. Empire building, for short.

As Gallay's title suggests, and the text of his well-researched history makes clear, Ralegh's role in England's growth into an empire was an important but narrow one. He wasn't much of a builder. Ralegh had a vision, or a design, for establishing English settlers on foreign soil. Although other historians have lumped Ralegh into criticisms focusing on the horrific injuries inflicted by colonialism, Gallay notes that, by the standards of the day, Ralegh's approach was far more enlightened in that he envisioned settling the English alongside and peacefully co-existing with indigenous peoples. Think of it as cultural cross-pollenization. The author contrasts this with Spain's efforts at the time, which could be short-handed as "kill 'em all, take their gold."

Gallay does a wonderful job of drawing the aforementioned distinctions, and of exploring the inner workings of the Elizabethan court--the fawning for the Queen's affection and financial backing and the attendant power struggles with others seeking her favors. While seeking good relations with native peoples is an admirable goal, painting Ralegh in a favorable light is a tough chore, because as an architect his design might have looked good on paper, but there remained the underlying issue of building an empire on a foundation of presumed sovereign superiority over other peoples and their lands and the fact that the investors and builders rarely shared any such high-mindedness but were focused, like the Spanish, on wealth accumulation through resource extraction. What struck me the most about Ralegh's efforts in the Americas was how often the expeditions sent to establish colonies were quick and happy to satisfy themselves by attacking Spanish colonies and ships and plundering their wealth, which was perfectly fine with the Queen as long as she was remunerated. In light of that, I wrote Alan Gallay and told him that his next book should explore piracy during the Elizabethan era and that he should title it The Pillage People. He replied that the costuming alone would be worth it. I like an author with a good sense of humor.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walter Raleigh is someone whose name is recognized by people but few know what he did. Alan Gallay has done an excellent job of summarizing his incredible life. A soldier, explorer, philosopher, and most importantly a colonizer. Raleigh tried to accommodate and respect the rights of both the Irish and Indians whose lands he was colonizing.

The narrative about Roanoke Island gives a great deal of information of what may have become of the Lost Colony. I was particularly struck by the tale of the stolen silver cup. Indians may have stolen a silver cup from Sir Humphrey Gilbert. When he accused them of this, they acted indifferent, even amused. In their culture, if A steals from B, then B should steal something from A. Gilbert attacked and destroyed the nearest settlement in retaliation. The colony could have been destroyed in revenge for this by Indians or perhaps by the Spanish who massacred French colony in Florida on the grounds that they were on territory given them by the Pope. I guess Gallay thought less of him for that.

In Ireland, attempts to live in peace also ran into cultural difficulties, Though Raleigh tried to respect the Irish religion and property, he found that because they did not delineate property lines precisely, disputes inevitably arose. His tolerance of Catholicism would lead to accusations of harboring treasonous ideas.

Even harder than navigating the culture of the Indians and the Irish, was his attempts to mingle with the nobility and the royalty in Queen Elizabeth's court. A complex dance of manners in which courtiers like Raleigh would almost court the Queen, had to be done precisely right. And when Raleigh secretly married one of her ladies in waiting, it was the beginning of spiral that would lead to the scaffold. The Queen felt that her "lover" had spurned her in favor of one of her friends.

Throughout the book there are DEI comments that I found annoying. And then we had one of the last lines of the books that said that Walter Raleigh was a man of faith like today's scientist who search for the unknown not knowing if they will find it. No, he wasn't. Sir Walter Raleigh was a Christian. His faith was in God.