CLUB NEWS Leigh WI – March meeting In March Cindy Chant gave us a fascinating insight into the life of Sir Walter Raleigh or ‘Naughty Walter’ as she called him! Cindy is a blue badge guide and has studied his life for many years. She introduced the talk by bringing 10 items which covered his life. First, Cindy brought photos of his childhood. He was born in Budleigh Salterton in 1552 but lived in Sherborne for many years. His father married three times, so Walter had many stepbrothers. In 1569 he fought on the Huguenot (French Protestant) side in the Wars of Religion in France and he is known to have been at Oriel College Oxford and at the Middle Temple law college in 1575. Cindy then showed us a picture of Sherborne Castle. Walter had always liked it and then one of his half-brothers, recovering from a fall from his horse, had a premonition that Walter would live there. So when Queen Elizabeth asked him in 1592 if he would like to move in, he was thrilled. Sadly, it is now a ruin. Cindy brought a collection of potatoes, some tobacco and a clay pipe. He had introduced these items to England and made a great deal of money from them. She then talked about his ships as obviously they played a huge part in his life. He started off as a privateer and then went on to build the ship the Ark Royal. His last ship was called The Destiny. His love life was active! He was in love with Elizabeth 1st but was also a womaniser. However, he and Elizabeth wrote often to each other and his private name for her was Cynthia, the moon goddess. Cindy showed us a picture of The Tower of London where
Raleigh spent 15 years in total for being a naughty boy. He married Beth, Elizabeth’s lady-in-waiting and Elizabeth was furious! Whilst in prison he wrote a book called ‘The History of the World’ which was a best seller. He and Beth had a son, also called Walter, born in Sherborne and christened in Lillington Church (Cindy said this church is worth a visit). A rebellious teenager, he was killed in a fight on 13 February, whilst he and Raleigh were on a second voyage to Guyana. Raleigh was devastated and his son was buried with honours, but he had to break the news to Beth.
After his fall out with the Queen he tried to establish a colony near Roanake Island (in present North Carolina) which he named Virginia, but he never set foot there himself. James 1st disliked Raleigh as he saw him as a threat, so his enemies 39
