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That Great Lucifer: A Portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh
No lover of history can fail to recognize in the man who cast his cape gracefully across a puddle to protect the feet of his queen, the symbol of the Elizabethan Age. For Sir Walther Raleigh was more, much more than the courtier portrayed in the painting. He was truly the Elizabethan incarnate - soldier, sailor, captain of the Queen's guard, explorer and colonizer of the New World, poet, scientist, military engineer and literary patron. In an age both cruel and romantic, the figure of Sir Walter Raleigh stands high above the contemporaries who eventually cast him down. He it was who devised the plan that brought about the destruction of the Armada, who sailed into Cadiz harbor to grapple with Philip of Spain's war fleet and who, before he laid his head on the block, called to the headsman to let him feel the edge of the axe. Margaret Irwin was a noted authority on the Elizabethan Age. In this biography she brings all her skills as a historian and novelist in telling the story of this most remarkable Englishman.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
About the author
Margaret Irwin
59 books42 followersBorn in 1899 and educated at Oxford, Irwin was recognized as a novelist of well-researched and occasionally heart-breaking historical fiction. She is best known for her trilogy about Elizabeth I: Young Bess, Elizabeth Captive Princess, and Elizabeth and the Prince of Spain. Young Bess was made into a movie starring Jean Simmons.
Irwin also wrote passionately about the English Civil War, causing generations to fall in love with the ill-fated but charismatic Earl of Montrose.
Irwin also wrote passionately about the English Civil War, causing generations to fall in love with the ill-fated but charismatic Earl of Montrose.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 29, 2018
I received this biography of Sir Walter Raleigh free from NetGalley, in exchange for a honest review.
I don’t read much non-fiction and especially not biographies, generally preferring historical fiction, which tends to focus on the interesting parts of a character’s life, and shapes them into a story with some kind of happy ending.
I came across this book in NG’s Read Now section, and decided I wanted to know more about this very famous adventurer, about whom I knew very little - mostly impressions left from an episode of Blackadder 2 in my teens!
The book was written in the sixties, but has been republished recently.
It is a reasonably long (372 dense pages on my ereader) account of the life of Raleigh, a minor noble who came to fame in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, rapidly becoming one of her favourites and thereby gaining wealth, land and titles, but then subject to her whims and jealousy. Having made his mark exploring the New World, in particular establishing the colony of Virginia and introducing tobacco to England, and then defending her against the Spanish Armada, all he wanted was to keep sailing, but she wouldn’t let him go, afraid of losing him.
When he finally marries, she is furious, throwing him and his wife in the Tower, and while he is eventually released, she never really forgives him, and other younger men supplant him in her entourage. Hugely popular with his men and the common people, he arouses the enmity of other courtiers, and when she dies, and the monstrous James VI/I takes the throne, Raleigh is an inevitable victim of their jealous manipulations, and ends up back in the Tower on trumped up charges of treason, for 13 years. (It’s great not having to worry about spoilers, when it’s a well known true story.)
The book does give a comprehensive account of Raleigh’s life, and the other major personalities of the time. The author has a very flowery writing style that I found hard to follow at times, especially as she is constantly veering off on gossipy tangents about other characters relationships and scandals. As with other historical books, it took me ages to read because I was constantly stopping to look people and events up on Wikipedia. This is good for my general knowledge, not so good for my book tally.
I would’ve liked to read more about his travels and adventures at sea, but this is where non-fiction is limited - the author can’t describe what she doesn’t know, although as a prolific writer and poet, I would’ve thought he might have left personal accounts. The author is defensive of his actions, acknowledging the many mistakes he made, explaining them as consequences of his personality. He was a smart man who was too trusting in his “friends”, driven by honour but also hubris, and he paid the ultimate price.
Overall I did enjoy this, but will not be in a hurry to read any more biographies, particularly not when written decades ago. I do feel I have learned a lot about the Elizabethan period, which is the part or the Tudor era I knew least about.
I don’t read much non-fiction and especially not biographies, generally preferring historical fiction, which tends to focus on the interesting parts of a character’s life, and shapes them into a story with some kind of happy ending.
I came across this book in NG’s Read Now section, and decided I wanted to know more about this very famous adventurer, about whom I knew very little - mostly impressions left from an episode of Blackadder 2 in my teens!
The book was written in the sixties, but has been republished recently.
It is a reasonably long (372 dense pages on my ereader) account of the life of Raleigh, a minor noble who came to fame in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, rapidly becoming one of her favourites and thereby gaining wealth, land and titles, but then subject to her whims and jealousy. Having made his mark exploring the New World, in particular establishing the colony of Virginia and introducing tobacco to England, and then defending her against the Spanish Armada, all he wanted was to keep sailing, but she wouldn’t let him go, afraid of losing him.
When he finally marries, she is furious, throwing him and his wife in the Tower, and while he is eventually released, she never really forgives him, and other younger men supplant him in her entourage. Hugely popular with his men and the common people, he arouses the enmity of other courtiers, and when she dies, and the monstrous James VI/I takes the throne, Raleigh is an inevitable victim of their jealous manipulations, and ends up back in the Tower on trumped up charges of treason, for 13 years. (It’s great not having to worry about spoilers, when it’s a well known true story.)
The book does give a comprehensive account of Raleigh’s life, and the other major personalities of the time. The author has a very flowery writing style that I found hard to follow at times, especially as she is constantly veering off on gossipy tangents about other characters relationships and scandals. As with other historical books, it took me ages to read because I was constantly stopping to look people and events up on Wikipedia. This is good for my general knowledge, not so good for my book tally.
I would’ve liked to read more about his travels and adventures at sea, but this is where non-fiction is limited - the author can’t describe what she doesn’t know, although as a prolific writer and poet, I would’ve thought he might have left personal accounts. The author is defensive of his actions, acknowledging the many mistakes he made, explaining them as consequences of his personality. He was a smart man who was too trusting in his “friends”, driven by honour but also hubris, and he paid the ultimate price.
Overall I did enjoy this, but will not be in a hurry to read any more biographies, particularly not when written decades ago. I do feel I have learned a lot about the Elizabethan period, which is the part or the Tudor era I knew least about.
March 6, 2014
[image error] imported:
Pre-isbn Penguin book with 8 plates and costing five bob in 1961.
non fict
dip in
biog
hist
tbr
spring
tudor
Opening: The year 1587 was a dangerous cross-road in some of the greatest lives in Europe. It was the last year of the precariously balanced Elizabethan peace. The English Queen had contrived to spin it out on a cobweb-thread of diplomacy that had danced to and fro with every breeze and glittered with the dewy innocence of her protestations, ever since she had come to the throne twenty-nine years before, and all Europe had laid bets that she would be at war and defeated within six months.
Excellent start; the tone was pitched just right. Raleigh was a bastard though, and good-looking, cheeky, vain and self-serving; bet I would have had a crush on him until he pushed me too far. That was his trouble, he never knew when to calm it down or apologise.
This is another one of those dip-in dip-out books where the book mark was so close to the end I wonder just why I didn't finish up there and then the last time. Probably lies in the fact that it is a book of tiny pale font upon yellowed page.
Started 2009
Finished 2012
4* goodness
Pre-isbn Penguin book with 8 plates and costing five bob in 1961.
non fict
dip in
biog
hist
tbr
spring
tudor
Opening: The year 1587 was a dangerous cross-road in some of the greatest lives in Europe. It was the last year of the precariously balanced Elizabethan peace. The English Queen had contrived to spin it out on a cobweb-thread of diplomacy that had danced to and fro with every breeze and glittered with the dewy innocence of her protestations, ever since she had come to the throne twenty-nine years before, and all Europe had laid bets that she would be at war and defeated within six months.
Excellent start; the tone was pitched just right. Raleigh was a bastard though, and good-looking, cheeky, vain and self-serving; bet I would have had a crush on him until he pushed me too far. That was his trouble, he never knew when to calm it down or apologise.
This is another one of those dip-in dip-out books where the book mark was so close to the end I wonder just why I didn't finish up there and then the last time. Probably lies in the fact that it is a book of tiny pale font upon yellowed page.
Started 2009
Finished 2012
4* goodness
November 6, 2018
A bit hagiographic, but an interesting read.
April 14, 2019
Great read - well presented & very easy to follow
Read
January 4, 2017An idiosyncratic biography of the great sailor, adventurer, poet, historian and of course spud evangelist Sir Walter Ralegh. Published in 1960, it’s emphatically not a sixties book, deriving instead from the same New Elizabethan spirit informing the Ladybird histories of the great Devon mariners which served as my first introduction to them. Though that's not the whole truth either, for it suggests a rather kinder attitude to Gloriana herself than is on display here, who comes across like some nightmare grab-bag from 'Management Don'ts Of The Sopranos': jealous; forever refusing to let Ralegh far from her despite that being where he worked to best advantage; incapable of coming to terms with her own actions. Still, she fares considerably better than her successor James, "the nervously superstitious Scots bigot", who gets painted plenty worse than that before the story's done - shabby, cruel, deceitful and hypocritical the least of it. Now, I’m often charmed by non-fiction in which the author is clearly a little in love with their subject (so long as it’s not an autobiography, anyway) - but at times Irwin takes it a little far. I'm no great fan of James, say, but you get the feeling that her bold statement of his son Henry being "the most promising heir to the throne that England ever had" is motivated mostly by Henry having treated Ralegh with the appropriate awe. Meanwhile, Shakespeare is often quoted in passing, yet whenever he crops up directly tends to be at least lightly needled, simply for having been the client of one of Ralegh's rivals*. And as for Essex...he comes across as pretty much Jude Law's Bosie, except with sillier hair. Incidentally, have the Essex/Diana parallels been noted before - the love of the people for Queen Elizabeth taking its greatest blow when the popular younger favourite, now on the outs with the Crown, meets their end?
So yes. This is to say the least a partial book, and if you're not already quite a fan of Sir Walter, I imagine it's a trying one. He's not just the martial hero throughout, but consistently generous and forgiving to a fault, free of racism and intolerance, in favour of progressive taxation, a foe to any inroads on liberty - in short, pretty much the only reason Englande was Merrie. And the main reason little men such as Cecil and James take against him is that he's so really, really ridiculously good looking (and smart, and noble, and funny) - in short, 'haters gonna hate', which I've always found a fairly feeble argument since not that many people are primarily motivated by envy. Even having always considered him a great man (if not, like Irwin, pretty much the only great man) in a great age, I can well understand how he might get people's backs up for reasons other than effortlessly overshadowing them. But for all that...it's more true than not. As a man of action and as a man of letters, his work endures centuries on, and few enough can claim either, never mind both. He was treated appallingly by James, who had him killed on an old and trumped-up charge of conspiracy with Spain despite James having himself conspired with Spain in that very execution. And if I'm not sure revulsion at this can be directly blamed for the Civil War, it surely didn't help. It's a sad read at the end, which if I'd thought through I might not have chosen as my first book proper to finish in 2017. Yet there are worse fates than that of the gallant, quixotic old mariner, stiff-backed and wry to the scaffold.
*Also, apparently "It was said that he died of the sack and supper celebrations with Ben Jonson at their old haunt the Mermaid" following the premiere of The Tempest. Which, given half a decade separate the show and the decease, mean it must have been quite the bender.
So yes. This is to say the least a partial book, and if you're not already quite a fan of Sir Walter, I imagine it's a trying one. He's not just the martial hero throughout, but consistently generous and forgiving to a fault, free of racism and intolerance, in favour of progressive taxation, a foe to any inroads on liberty - in short, pretty much the only reason Englande was Merrie. And the main reason little men such as Cecil and James take against him is that he's so really, really ridiculously good looking (and smart, and noble, and funny) - in short, 'haters gonna hate', which I've always found a fairly feeble argument since not that many people are primarily motivated by envy. Even having always considered him a great man (if not, like Irwin, pretty much the only great man) in a great age, I can well understand how he might get people's backs up for reasons other than effortlessly overshadowing them. But for all that...it's more true than not. As a man of action and as a man of letters, his work endures centuries on, and few enough can claim either, never mind both. He was treated appallingly by James, who had him killed on an old and trumped-up charge of conspiracy with Spain despite James having himself conspired with Spain in that very execution. And if I'm not sure revulsion at this can be directly blamed for the Civil War, it surely didn't help. It's a sad read at the end, which if I'd thought through I might not have chosen as my first book proper to finish in 2017. Yet there are worse fates than that of the gallant, quixotic old mariner, stiff-backed and wry to the scaffold.
*Also, apparently "It was said that he died of the sack and supper celebrations with Ben Jonson at their old haunt the Mermaid" following the premiere of The Tempest. Which, given half a decade separate the show and the decease, mean it must have been quite the bender.
November 8, 2013
Overall I really enjoyed this book. Even though at times I was confused where the Author was going..? Some ramblings...
Learned a lot about Sir Walter and James I of England who
I grew to dislike intensely (understatement).
Although Sir Walter named the land he founded and colonized "Virginia", after Queen Elizabeth, he never set foot on the land! That I didn't know; it surprised me.
Not to give anything away; I also discovered people that I've read about before surprise me by their traitorous actions.
Learned a lot about Sir Walter and James I of England who
I grew to dislike intensely (understatement).
Although Sir Walter named the land he founded and colonized "Virginia", after Queen Elizabeth, he never set foot on the land! That I didn't know; it surprised me.
Not to give anything away; I also discovered people that I've read about before surprise me by their traitorous actions.
October 2, 2008
One of the better biographies I've ever read. Does a superb job of bringing Raleigh, Elizabeth, James, and the other personalities of the era to life.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews