Raleigh Executed: Explorer Falls to Royal Wrath
Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded at the Old Palace of Westminster on October 29, 1618, after 13 years of imprisonment in the Tower of London. James I had originally condemned him for conspiracy in 1603 but suspended the sentence. When Raleigh's final expedition to find El Dorado on the Orinoco River failed and his men attacked a Spanish settlement, violating James's explicit orders, the king revived the old death sentence under pressure from the Spanish ambassador. Raleigh reportedly felt the axe's edge and remarked 'This is a sharp medicine, but it is a physician for all diseases and miseries.' He had established the Virginia colony, popularized tobacco and potatoes in England, and written a History of the World during his imprisonment. His execution was widely seen as an act of Spanish vengeance.
October 29, 1618
408 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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