A true ‘renaissance man’ in the cliche sense of the word, Sir Walter Raleigh was a soldier, explorer, courtier, poet, and politician who served Queen Elizabeth I, though he was (perhaps unjustly) executed by her successor, King James. The Queen chartered Raleigh to establish a colony in the New World, but she also forbade him to leave court, so he never landed in Virginia or the other American sites that would later bear his name. He did pay for and organize the expeditions. He also wrote a pretty clever poem rebutting the typical romantic crap others were flinging around.
His life is more interesting than his few screen portrayals would suggest! Only when a QEI frock flick needs a different love interest does he get a starring role. This plot always has to do with his 1591 secret marriage to Bess Throckmorton, one of the Queen’s ladies in waiting, who wasn’t supposed to marry without the Queen’s permission. The transgression landed both husband and wife in the Tower of London for a short while, and Bess lost her position at court. This could have been as much because they broke the rule as due to a love triangle, but y’know, frock flicks gotta go with the drah-mah.
Anyway, let’s look at the fellas who’ve tried to bring a little bit of Raleigh to the screen!
Vincent Price in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
Leslie Bradley in Time Flies (1944)
Richard Todd in The Virgin Queen (1955)
Nicholas Selby in “Sweet England’s Pride,” Elizabeth R (1971)
Simon Jones in “Potato,” Blackadder II (1986)
Ronald Pickup in My Friend Walter (1992)
Derek Riddell in The Virgin Queen (2005)
Ben Pullen in Elizabeth I (2005)
Clive Owen in Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)
Rufus Jones in Bill (2015)
Michael Lindall in A Discovery of Witches (2021)
Who’s your favorite Sir Walter Raleigh onscreen?
So happy to see Simon Jones in Blackadder II. I was hoping to see him before I scrolled down.
Me too! His was the first Sir Walter I thought of.
Me, too! And Tom Baker’s bit in that always leaves me laughing till I hurt!
Reminds me–now that I’ve got a new working telly and a DVD player adapter, I can dig out my Blackadder collection!
I love Queenie’s “So WHAT o REALLY?!” and nursey laughing. That Black Adders episode was incredible. but then they all were!
Clive Owen! He’s a sexy beast, IMHO. :)
Nicholas Selby and Michael Lindell are my favourites. And I can let you borrow my Season 1 of Discovery of Witches, if you need to.
Thanks! I think I can watch it on Amazon Prime. :)
I found “Discovery of Witches” on Prime. I’m still weighing watching it, strictly because of this blog.
Listen, Raleigh is all well and good, but considering Christopher Marlowe is one of my all-time historical crushes (seriously, to those who don’t know, look him up! His life was fascinating), I feel the need to defend him here that nothing he wrote was “romantic crap”, and certainly not typical. ;-)
Lol! I’m prob. feeling rather bitter these days, but Marlowe’s poetry can be rather sappy, so I’m into Raleigh’s reply more.
I quite enjoy them as a pair, as I first encountered them in high school. I think I was rather taken with the sappy love side from Marlowe, but I could see that the nymph made some good points (and in a witty way to boot). I did write an alternative reply poem in which the nymph says she doesn’t want any of the fluff promises but actually just loves the shepherd. I wonder if I have it somewhere–it would be interesting to see what I think of it almost 20 years later!
Well if you watch Discovery, you’re going to hate Kit.
Rufus Jones is the guy on the right (leather cape, blue sleeve, beard).
That’s what I suspected, thanks!
Yep, Discovery of witches is worth watching. Especially for teh costumes in S2. I can’t wait to see, what you think about them.
I’m afraid the desire to watch Discovery of witches ended for me when they said it was a medieval Twilight! BLAH!
I’ve only seen the first episode, but I’ve read the first two books. I will freely admit that they can be a bit hokey in places, and I find the central relationship somewhat problematic. However, medieval Twilight they are not. The history is by far the best part and seems to be meticulously researched.
Richard Todd was my first Raleigh and I still love him, although Clive Owen has the right dash.
Richard Todd can get it. Yowza.
Potato, you eat it, very nourishing
Tobacco. You smoke it. very stimulating.
I’m drooling over his portraits. I want a movie about Raleigh and his pearls, dangit!
Jack Whitehall also played Raleigh in Drunk History which was fun!
Thank you so much for always including Blackadder where applicable. That show is the absolute best, and deserves all of the love it can get <3