Roanoke Colony - Raleigh's Charter

Raleigh's Charter

See also: Anglo-Spanish War (1585)

On March 25, 1584, Queen Elizabeth I granted Raleigh a charter for the colonization of the area of North America known as Virginia. This charter specified that Raleigh needed to establish a colony in North America, or lose his right to colonization.

Raleigh and Elizabeth intended that the venture should provide riches from the New World and a base from which to send privateers on raids against the treasure fleets of Spain. Raleigh himself never visited North America, although he led expeditions in 1595 and 1617 to South America's Orinoco River basin in search of the legendary golden city of El Dorado.

Read more about this topic:  Roanoke Colony

Famous quotes containing the words raleigh and/or charter:

    Even such is Time, which takes in trust
    Our youth, our joys, and all we have,
    And pays us but with age and dust,
    Who in the dark and silent grave
    When we have wandered all our ways
    Shuts up the story of our days.
    And from which earth, and grave, and dust,
    The Lord shall raise me up I trust.
    —Sir Walter Raleigh (1552–1618)

    When Britain first, at Heaven’s command,
    Arose from out the azure main,
    This was the charter of her land,
    And guardian angels sung the strain:
    Rule, Britannia! Britannia rules the waves!
    Britons never shall be slaves.
    James Thomson (1700–1748)