1-632-687 - Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images

Title page from The Historie of the World by Sir Walter Raleigh, 17th century. Raleigh (1554-1618) was an English adventurer, explorer and writer, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, who knighted him in 1585. In 1584-1589 he was involved in an unsuccessful attempt to establish a colony in North America, but did introduce tobacco and the potato to Britain from the New World. Accused of treason by Elizabeth's successor, James I, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London until 1616. Raleigh began writing his Historie of the World whilst in prison. He was executed in 1618 after the Spanish ambassador demanded that he be put to death for his sacking of a Spanish outpost on the Orinoco River in South America.