Sir Walter Raleigh was a British explorer, poet, and historian born in 1554 in Devonshire, England. He established the first English colonies in America on Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina in 1585. While imprisoned in the Tower of London in the early 1600s, he wrote his famous book "The History of the World". Raleigh organized several expeditions to the Americas in search of gold and wealth for England. He introduced potatoes and tobacco to Europe from his voyages. Executed in 1618 for treason, his head was embalmed and kept by his wife until her death 29 years later.

1. Sir Walter Raleigh By: Zane Russell

2. History of Sir Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh was a British explorer, poet, and historian, was born probably in 1554, in Devonshire, England, though the date is not quite certain. His father, Walter Raleigh of Fardell, in the parish of Cornwood, near Plymouth, was a country gentlemen of old family, but of reduced estate. His father was married 3 times, his famous son was the child of his third marriage with Catherine, daughter of Sir Philip Champernown of Modbury.

3. In 1569 he followed his cousin Henry Champernown, who took over a body of English volunteers to serve with the French Huguenots. Raleigh sent an expedition from Plymouth, England, which was commanded by Phillip Armadas and Arthur Barlowe. They landed off the coast of what is now North Carolina on July 13,1584. The colonists that were sent by Raleigh would become known as The Lost Colony of North Carolina’s Outer Banks Raleigh was knighted on January 6,1585 by Queen Elizabeth I

4. Sir Walter Raleigh organized expeditions to Newfoundland and what he named Virginia. In 1585 he established the first English colonies in America, on Roanoke Island, in what is today North Carolina. In 1587 Raleigh dispatched another expedition to Roanoke Island, however, none of the colonists of these two expeditions survived. Those that did not die of disease, or return to England, were massacred by the local Indians.

5. Raleigh made Queen Elizabeth mad by secretly marrying Bessie Throckmorton. The queen locked them in the Tower of London. They were released by Christmas Raleigh arranged for the construction of one of the ships involved in fighting the Armada, "The Ark Royal". It had four masts and a normal crew of 270 and weighed 800 tons. The "Ark Royal" was chosen to lead the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588.

6. Around 1589, Raleigh planted the first potato in Europe in the garden of his Irish estate at Myrtle Grove, Youghal, near Cork, Ireland. The potato had been brought back to England by his later expedition to Virginia. He also introduced tobacco to the Old World with leaf from Virginia. In 1595, he sent an expedition to the Orinoco River in Guyana hoping to find gold mines. The trip wasn't a success, though a book, "The Discovery of Guiana" that he wrote about it was.

7. In 1603 Queen Elizabeth I died and James I took the throne. Raleigh was then framed as a member of a plot against the throne Because of this, he was sentenced to being hanged, disemboweled, beheaded, and quartered. At the last minute, his sentence was changed to life in the Tower of London instead. Around 1614, while imprisoned in in the Bloody Tower he wrote his famous book, "The History of the World".

8. When Raleigh returned from his last expedition to Guyana in 1616 his death sentence of 1603 was invoked by the King James I. At his execution on October 29, 1618 he asked to see the axe and said “This is a sharp Medicine, but it is a Physician for all Diseases” As was common at the time, his head was embalmed and presented to his wife. She is said to have carried it with her at all times until she died 29 years later at the age of 82.

9. The head was finally buried with the body of Sir Walter at St. Margaret's at Westminster.

11. "First English Settlement in the New World." State Library of North Carolina. State Library of North Carolina. Web. 2 Sept. 2009. <http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/nc/ncsites/english1.htm#Introduction>. "The Life of Sir Walter Ralegh (1552-1618) [or Walter Raleigh]." Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature. Web. 10 Sept. 2009. <http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/raleghbio.htm>. Sir Walter Raleigh statue. 2006. Photograph. Http://www.learnnc.org/lp/multimedia/5958, London. Learn NC. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 15 Oct. 2006. Web. 2 Sept. 2009. <http://www.learnnc.org/lp/multimedia/5958>.