Sir Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana

Publisher: Haklyut Society
Publication Date: 2006

Elizabethan politics were, to say the least, complex. One’s personal relationships with the monarch usually played a key role as indeed was the case with Sir Walter Ralegh. In 1592, he fell from favour supposedly because he had married without her consent. That is probably the tip of the iceberg, but for whatever reasons, she threw both Ralegh and his wife in the Tower, and banished him from the Court. She released him after a few months, but his banishment stood. His voyage to “discover” Guiana in 1595, endorsed by Robert Cecil, was intended to persuade the Queen to forgive him, but it didn’t quite work out. Joyce Lorimer has taken Ralegh’s original report drafted on the voyage home, and compared it in meticulous detail with the published version which Cecil had edited. Ralegh’s story told of “a golden empire whose ruler dusted his body with gold”, but his evidence for such riches was flimsy. It was also colourful. Cecil’s careful editing was intended to tone it down, and to make it attractive to investors in a return voyage. It is therefore one of the earliest examples of a “sexed up” dossier in today’s jargon, although Cecil had taken all references to sex out. Lorimer’s scholarly work also contains a 90-page introduction that gives fascinating background. - DWB