All language subtitles for James.Mays.Great.Explorers.S01E02.Sir.Walter.Raleigh.1080p.AV1.10bit-MeGusta[EZTVx.to]_0

This is the West Country of England,
famous for seafaring,

and, of course, for seafarers.

And out there, there has always been

the prospect of adventure
and discovery,

and quite possibly
fame and wealth to follow.

By the mid-16th century,
the New World was already on the map

and the Spanish Empire was sending
home galleons stuffed with treasure,

and that was all that one
young Devon lad could dream about.

This is the story of a man who rose
from a relatively obscure background

to dazzle Elizabethan England.

It's a story of deceit,
chicanery, flattery,

not to mention treachery and murder.

He's most famous for things
he didn't actually do.

But, hey, let's not let the facts
get in the way of a good story!

The story of Sir Walter Raleigh.

The age of the great explorers was
one of the most dramatic in history.

HE CHUCKLES

'When men risked their lives...'

Cast off and set sail...

Oh!
Take up on the peak.

Like that?
'..to seek new lands.'

We're somewhere
north of the dog's arse.

Where's the camera gone? Hello.

They crossed thousands of miles
of treacherous ocean.

They built floating fortresses.
They mapped the stars.

They developed whole new branches
of science.

Ew! Absolute pish.

'But were these explorers really
heroes or just a bunch of chancers?'

So, miracle he found
anything at all, really.

Completely made up.
Man was a charlatan.

'And is their legacy
one of triumph...'

Ah!

'..Or destruction?'

Crikey.
Now it's turning a little bit dark.

'I'm doing a bit of discovering
of my own...'

Unbelievably terrible.
Medieval satnav, 2.0, a stick.

Oh, has he just shat on my trousers?

'..To learn how these explorers
conquered the oceans...'

Look at that.

I love it.

Nobody panic yet.

It's not just a map.
It's a weapon.

'..And changed the world forever.'

SHOUTS
Oh, gold!

If you were in the Navy now, the
French would definitely have got us.

HE LAUGHS

Before we set off on this story
properly,

I should first admit to a bit of
a soft spot for the name Raleigh,

because my first bicycle,
aged three,

was a Raleigh, a Raleigh Mayflower,
and I loved it.

Obviously, I grew bigger.

I made my way through
numerous Raleigh bicycles,

and I learned about Sir Walter,
and I liked the association

because my Raleighs
were the ways that I went off

on great voyages of discovery.

But by the time
I got to my Record Ace,

with its 12 speeds
and 531 frame,

I discovered that the bicycle
and the swashbuckler

are not in any way related.

And maybe this shattering
of my youthful fantasy

was a bit of a taste of things
to come,

because it turns out that

the true story of Sir Walter Raleigh
is quite difficult to pin down.

In popular legend, Raleigh cuts
a rather dashing figure,

throwing his cloak over a puddle
for Queen Elizabeth I,

penning great tomes of poetry
and prose,

and gallivanting off
on adventures to the New World.

We're told he created
England's first American colony,

kick starting the British Empire, and
brought home tobacco and potatoes.

It's enough
to make anyone a national hero,

but I suspect a lot of it
might be utter bollocks.

How much of the Raleigh folklore
is actually true?

Let's start with what we do know.

Around 1553, Walter Raleigh was born
here in this house

just outside the Devon village
of East Budleigh.

Now, the family
had been wealthy landowners

with a massive manor house
and what have you,

but they'd fallen on hard times.

And to make things worse,
Walter was the fifth of five sons,

so there was
no inheritance coming his way.

'So how did this Devonshire lad
go from country bumpkin...'

That's very quaint.

'..To one of the
most powerful men in England

'and an intrepid explorer?'

This is all uphill, you bastards!

Step one, go to war.

17-year-old Raleigh,
an ardent Protestant,

went to fight the Catholics
in France

and proved himself a worthy soldier,

willing to die
for the Protestant cause.

But young Raleigh was ambitious.

He wanted wealth, influence,

and the glory of asserting
England's power overseas.

For that,
he needed to win favour

at the royal court
of Queen Elizabeth I...

...and the wily Walter
knew just how to get there.

In 1574, he came here,
and the things he would learn

would change his fortune
and the course of world history.

Now, as you can tell
from this important music,

we are at an important location.

Middle Temple in the heart
of London's Inns Of Court.

It was, and still is, where the
brightest student barristers

honed their skills in front of
the country's top legal minds.

Good morning, m'luds.

Probably should have
brushed my hair.

This place has resonated
to over 500 years of rhetoric,

the art of presenting
a compelling argument.

A cornerstone, really,
of the English legal system,

which is really
just the ultimate battle of wits

between barristers,
prosecution versus defence.

It's also a stark reminder to stay
on the right side of the law,

because you really don't wanna
go up against an institution

that can produce this much
wood carving and portraiture.

But Raleigh wasn't here
to become a bigwig m'lud.

He was here to learn the skills he'd
need to stalk the corridors of power

and talk his way to the top,

skills that barrister

and King's Counsel Benet Brandreth
teaches today.

The Inns Of Court were not just
great places for learning.

Sometimes described at that time
as the third University of England

alongside Oxford and Cambridge,

they were also incredible
networking opportunities.

So, Raleigh coming here was because
he wanted to learn the techniques

of having influence
at the very highest level?

Absolutely.

Raleigh was schooled here
in rhetoric,

and his mastery of it
would shape his entire life.

It's all about
how to win an argument,

so listen up because it might be
handy next time you're down the pub.

Rhetoric is the art of
discerning in any particular topic

the available means of persuasion.

It's about the power of language
to move the minds of others.

And to learn it, Raleigh studied
writings from Ancient Greece.

Aristotle first codified
all the means of persuasion,

the modes of persuasion,
into three groups.

So, ethos are the arguments
from authority.

Why should I listen
to this person on this topic?

Then you've got logos, the facts.

It's the ruthless statistics
and the logic.

Ancl then we have pathos.
Pathos is the argument from emotion.

OK. Ethos, logos, pathos.
Exactly.

To demonstrate how Raleigh honed
his skills, we need a good debate.

Top barrister Benet
will go head-to-head with...

me, a sheer novice
who's absolutely winging it.

I've gotta think in terms
of my ethos, logos, pathos...

Yeah, but you have the gold there,
you have the core.

Why should I be heard?
Why am I right?

Well, I am right.
Does it matter?

That confidence is excellent.
There you go.

The question is,
how can you convey that confidence?

OK. Can I have
ten minutes to think about that?

By all means.
Thank you.

The power to persuade was a crucial
skill in the Elizabethan age.

Get it right and you could win
the ear of the Queen.

Get it wrong
and you could lose your head.

It's a bit daunting, this,

because obviously I've got
no training, I've had no practice,

and I've had no real time
to think about my arguments

so I'm going to be busking it,

which I think is not
an accepted practice in law.

Time to enter the debating chamber
where Raleigh's future was moulded.

And as if the rows of portraits
and coats of arms

weren't intimidating enough...

...my rhetoric skills
will be judged by these three -

a board of top Middle Temple
barristers.

Gulp!

The debate is,
is the pen mightier than the sword?

Ancl we will start
with the argument for the sword.

Right, so we're actually
going to just do this for real?

Let's do this for real. Yes.
What shall I talk about? OK.

Well, I'm positively ululating
with the facts at my fingertips

and my extensive research.
I dismiss the pen.

I mean, I refute it thus,

as evinced by my failure to bring
any notes or a notebook of any type.

The privilege of writing
what we all perceive to be the truth

is gifted from history
by people who have used swords.

And I give you the example
above your heads of Charles I,

whose head was severed
from his body, if not by a sword,

at least by a bladed weapon.

And I have a minute left,

but to be brutally honest,
I'm spent.

'That went well.'

And now the argument for the pen.

My lord, my ladies,
though I have been both a soldier

and a barrister,
it is the pen that I chiefly know.

I confess I did not hear
my learned opponent indicate

what experience
he had of the sword at all.

'I'm doomed.'
A sword can destroy a life,

but a pen can destroy
a whole way of life.

A sword can only destroy,
but a pen can build whole worlds,

whether in fiction
or through philosophy.

Ancl I ask you, in your own lives,

which has been the more important,
the sword or the pen?

He's done this before!
LAUGHING

We have decided that the pen has it.

A pox upon me. But they
would say that, wouldn't they?

I just thought that might be
something an Elizabethan might say.

Right, Benet, I'll see you outside.
Bring your pen.

CHUCKLING

Well, OK, I lost at debating
to a man who does it for a living,

but at least
this exercise has shown us

that our Sir Walter was an absolute
master of the art of persuasion

through words. I think he once said,

"Men's fortunes are oftener
made by their tongues

"than by their virtues."

That's exactly
what I would have said.

As it turned out, though,
Raleigh would use both the pen

and the sword to get to the top.

Now, if you've ever lost a pub quiz,
it might be

because one of the questions was,
what was England's first colony?

And you put North America.

Wrong because England's and
Raleigh's first colonial ambitions

were visited on a country
right next door.

England's invasion of Ireland
had started in the 12th century,

and by the late 1570s,

the Irish were really pretty
BLEEP off with it.

An Irish rebellion rose
against the Queen's forces,

and she wanted
some soldiers to crush it.

So our Walter, of course,
interpreted this

as an excellent opportunity
for a scrap with some Catholics.

He used his influence and his
connections to raise a detachment

to quell the rebellion and turn
Ireland into a subservient colony.

At this point,
I'm afraid the image

of our witty and urbane national
hero takes a bit of a beating,

because at the Siege Of Smerwick
in 1580,

he personally oversaw the massacre

of 600 soldiers, women and children.

Rather depressingly,
this was not unusual behaviour

for Tudor English soldiers.

Elizabeth quietly approved,
and it got Raleigh noticed.

He composed some rhetoric-filled
letters to the Queen's minions,

and in 1581 was invited to court
to discuss the conduct of the war.

This was his shot at the big time.

Welcome back, viewers, to 1581,

and a momentous time
in Walter Raleigh's life.

So momentous, in fact, I'm spinning
in circles with sheer excitement.

Imagine beginning your life
in sleepy little East Budleigh,

but then making your way here
to Hampton Court Palace,

the sometime seat
of supreme English power,

the court of Elizabeth I.

If a social media meme
had existed at the time,

it would have been something like,
"How it started, how it's going."

'The Virgin Queen, by now
on the throne for over 20 years,

'had started funding voyages
of exploration to the New World.'

I keep walking...

'For a young, dashing upstart -
no, not me, Raleigh -

'power, influence and cash
for expeditions

'were there for the taking,
if you played your cards right.'

I'm still going.

'Because I am but a lowly commoner
to navigate this royal minefield,

'I need some insider help...'

It's beautiful.

It smells of old stuff, doesn't it?

'Hiram Tudor expert
Dr )oanne Paul'

Would our Walter have come in here?
Oh, probably. Probably.

This is where the court,
when they were at Hampton Court,

would celebrate the mass,
and everyone was expected to attend.

But Elizabeth would have been
up there looking down at everyone.

Her Royal Pew was glassed off,

and she had little, sort of, windows
that she could open to listen.

She was reading letters,
conducting royal business up there

during the mass.

So you have Elizabeth up there

behind a piece of glass doing
the crossword or whatever... Yes!

...but she can at any moment
make decisions about,

"Yes, you can have some money.

"No, you can't have a head anymore."

Um, and then she receives complaints

like, "The Earl of Walsingham
called me a bell end," or whatever.

And this all goes on in here?
Absolutely.

Can we actually go up there?
I think we can.

For Raleigh,
this was the ultimate goal-

climbing the staircase
to courtly success.

This is the Royal Pew.
It's very exclusive.

It's very intimate.

This was a personal monarchy,

which meant that physical proximity
to the monarch was power.

That was how you rose in the court.

Ancl looking down,

imagine
it's like a high school cafeteria.

You've got your different cliques
down there. You've got your poets.

You've got your jousters,
your explorers.

Ancl Raleigh's gotta find his seat
at one of these tables.

I bet he goes for the explorers.
Do you think?

Yeah.

And might you be invited up?

I mean, might you say,
"Come hither, boy"?

Yeah. She might send down
one of her ladies, for instance,

to bring someone up. And of course,
you'd have to genuflect

and do all the etiquette things
in order to impress her.

Ancl everyone would see you go up,
right,

that would be a huge mark of favour.

Massive points, isn't it?
Yeah.

Huge bragging right;

"He's been summoned up
to the Queen's pew."

Wowzers! It must have been
quite scary, actually.

I once had to go and see
the Director-General of the BBC,

and I sort of polished my shoes
on the back of my trousers a bit.

But imagine going
to see, effectively, God. Yes.

'Now that Raleigh
had an audience with the Queen,

'he had to make an impression.'

It's chuff tog freezing
in the rose garden, isn't it?

Yeah.
God!

For Elizabeth,

part of holding power was holding
the hearts of her courtiers.

They were meant to be
in love with her.

How did the young Walter Raleigh

secure an audience
in the rose garden?

The story goes that he put his cape
over a puddle for her,

but that probably never happened.

It seems that they were writing
very soon after he arrived,

and he was spending
a lot of time with her.

Other men in the court
must have been a bit "jelly"

of Walter Raleigh cos he was
getting all the Queen's attention.

Absolutely, yeah.
His rivals were really annoyed,

and he was rising
as her new favourite very quickly.

And writing poetry.
Ancl writing poetry.

Despite a 20-year age gap,

young Walter wasn't satisfied
with just having the Queen's ear.

He wanted to win her heart, too.

I have come armed with some of the
rapier-like poesy of Walter Raleigh.

You may want to position yourself
where you can vomit

discreetly into a flower bed.

"Fortune hath taken away my love,

"My life's joy
and my soul's heaven above.

"Fortune hath taken thee away,
my princess,

"My world's joy
And my true fantasy's mistress."

There you go. This is like
some lovestruck teenager.

This is Elizabeth's rejoinder.
Right.

"Ah, silly pug, wert thou so afraid?

"Mourn not, my Wat,
nor be thou so dismayed

"|t passeth fickle fortune's
power and skill

"To force my heart
to think thee any ill."

Oh, very nice, very nice.
He is well and truly dismissed.

Do you know, I used to write poems
to people when I was, uh,

a much younger man.
Were they better than this?

To be honest, I think some of them
were, but I never got one back.

Oh!
So you see,

He's already doing quite well,
isn't he? Yes.

What actually made the Queen
fall for Walter Raleigh?

Because, to be brutally frank,
he's not that good.

He's a bit birthday card-ish.

Yeah,
I don't think it was the poetry.

I think he was a bit rough,
a bit rugged.

But most importantly,
he was a very frank speaker.

He spoke very directly to the Queen,

but in a way that
she could kind of get on board

with these wild things
that he was saying.

The Queen became so enamoured
with the handsome Raleigh

that their racy behaviour
almost caused a scandal.

Warning, please cover the ears
of any children in the room now.

When Raleigh was invited over
to sit with her,

and he sits down and the Queen
moves to rub some dirt off his face,

which is a very intimate thing
to do. God, yes.

And what's worse
is that Raleigh stops her hand

and wipes it off himself.

He touched the Queen. Yeah.
Ancl stops her in what she was doing.

And she could have said,
"Off with his head" at that point.

But she didn't. No.
She was absolutely fine with it.

All that sizzling romantic tension

made Raleigh
Elizabeth's new favourite,

and it was about to pay off,
literally.

The boy Walter done good. The Queen
gifted him a mansion in Dorset

and the poshest house in London,

and monopolies on wine
and woollen cloth.

He was made
Lord Warden of the Stannaries,

that is, all the tin mines
in the West Country,

and captain of the Queen's Guard.

Oh, and he was also gifted
40,000 acres

of other people's land in Ireland,

which he promptly turned into
a very lucrative plantation.

The Devon boy had arrived.

However, there was a vital piece
of paper standing between him

and changing the course of England's
and the world's history forever.

Walks off mysteriously.

Vast wealth, tick.
The Queen's ear, tick.

Now the West Country lad
could tackle his greatest ambition -

becoming an explorer.

But for English seafarers
at the time,

the line between exploration
and piracy was a very blurred one,

and Raleigh had a distant cousin
who knew all about that,

fellow Devon lad and captain of
the most famous English voyage yet,

Sir Francis Drake.

This is a replica of his ship,

the Golden Hind,
the first English ship

to circumnavigate the globe,
and of such repute

that it was also the subject
of the first ever Airfix model.

Anyway, that circumnavigation
at the time

was billed as a voyage of discovery
of learning.

In actual fact, it was a raid
because Drake sailed off

round the western side of South
America, looting Spanish gold.

Drake not only returned with

around half a billion pounds'
worth of loot,

he earned himself a knighthood.

For the younger, ambitious Raleigh,
this was a man to aspire to,

but first he'd have to tackle
some English bureaucracy,

because if you wanted to discover
new lands

and plunder Spanish ships en route,
you needed a permit.

This is what you needed -

a chitty, a docket,
a letter from the Queen.

There is her name writ large, giving
you permission as a privateer,

ie, a state sponsored pirate,
to loot any ship or raid any port,

providing they were owned
by enemies of the Crown.

This is a Tudor licence to kill,
and any loot collected

would be split between the privateer
and the Queen herself.

Now, the Queen issued these
in some secrecy,

usually through her counsel, because
that way if the voyage was a success

and she got some more treasure,
she could go hurrah for England!

But if it went wrong, if it caused,
for example, a war with Spain,

she could completely
distance herself from it.

Raleigh wanted a piece of all this,

and he also had a much bigger prize
for the Queen in mind.

Raleigh knew the perfect spot
to capture a Spanish treasure ship.

By now, Spain had conquered much of
the Caribbean and Central America.

Their ships' holds,
bursting with gold and silver,

would travel north up
the American coast

before catching the trade winds
home to Europe.

Raleigh wanted to capitalise on this
by setting up a piracy HQ

in North America, from which
he could launch his attacks.

This was a golden opportunity
for Walter, quite literally.

A new world base would give him

freedom to plunder
as many Spanish ships as he wanted,

and he could also provide land,
people and souls for his queen

to baptise in the Protestant faith.

It would be England's first
New World colony.

Raleigh had a plan
and he had a patent.

All that stood in his way
was 3,500 miles of open ocean.

You rejoin us, viewers, in 1584,

a very exciting time
for Walter Raleigh.

He's won a permit from the Queen

to establish
England's first New World colony.

But how's he going to find his way
to the right spot?

3,500 miles across the Atlantic,

in a time of rather rudimentary
navigational know-how.

"Second star on the right
and straight on till morning."

Those were Peter Pan's instructions
for reaching Neverland.

And to be honest, up until the
invention of satnav in the 1990s,

navigation at sea
was pretty much like that.

It's that time in the program me

when we get in a boat
and do some sailing.

Permission to come aboard, skipper.

Our task is to test

the leading navigational instruments
of Raleigh's day.

And the most common device
at the time

was one that had been around
since antiquity.

It's called an astrolabe.
Normally made of brass,

this is a laser-cut wooden replica
made for us by Alan,

who is our vintage
navigation correspondent.

It's like a miniature map
of the heavens

that you can carry around with you.

This side will tell you
all sorts of stuff about stars,

but most importantly, this side
will allow you to measure the angle

of the sun above the horizon.

And if you do that at midday,
you can work out your latitude,

how far north or south you are.
Now, that all sounds very simple,

but actually it's very tricky
cos I've gotta try and allow it

to hang vertically from there...

and arrange this so that
the sun shines through that hole,

which is a bit like
a camera obscura,

and form a little shiny disc
on that one.

Let's give it a go, anyway.

Hang on, I've got the little dots.

Yep. It's hanging vertically
and it needs to go that way.

Hang on.
This is almost impossible.

'And this is on a calm day.

'Imagine trying to do this
in a Mid-Atlantic swell!'

Oh, there it is.
There it is. Oh, yeah.

Well, I saw the little dot,
and I make that 38 degrees.

38 degrees.

'Now, as responsible mathematicians
we'll do a few readings

'and take an average. This should
be easy now I've had a practice.'

This is impossible.
This would be difficult on land.

There's my dot.
That time I made it 34 degrees.

OK,
that's a few degrees difference.

Shall I do one more?

37 degrees.
Somewhere in the middle.

Well, we know roughly where we are.

Which is interesting
because we haven't moved. Yes.

Time to head below and check
where the astrolabe thinks we are.

That comes out
at a latitude of 48.5 degrees.

48... Oh, it's right at the bottom.
Northern France, near Brest.

Right. So that's quite a long way
off, isn't it?

Because we're actually here.

'The astrolabe has located us
around 140 miles

'from our actual location
in Cornwall. Oh, dear.'

And that's just the latitude.

We've got no idea about longitude
at this point in history.

So all we think is
that we're on a line that goes

around the globe there.
Yeah.

'So, the astrolabe definitely has
room for improvement.

'Luckily, there was
an alternative navigational tool,

'something that could make
Raleigh's expedition

'across the Atlantic
far more accurate -

'a super high-tech,
precision engineered piece of kit.'

Right. This is medievalsatnav,
version 2.0.

A stick, but a very clever stick.
This bit slides along.

It's called a cross-staff
because it's cross-shaped.

And if I put it up to my face
and get the top of that cross piece

at the bottom of the sun and
then the other end on the horizon...

Hold on.

This is a lot easier,

and it makes a lot more sense
than the astrolabe,

but it's still pretty difficult.

I mean, apart from that
you burn your eyeball out,

it's very difficult
to hold it steady.

The sun is so bright
when you actually look at it.

This is why pirates ended up
with eye-patches

going, "Ooh-ah, ooh-ah"
all the time.

Lock it off. And then on the side
there is a scale

that I can read in degrees,

and it's roughly 33.5.

Right. Let's see if Raleigh's
newfangled stick beat the astrolabe.

So, the cross-staff gives us
a latitude of 50.5 degrees.

That doesn't sound quite so bad.

So we're actually... we're actually
on a line of latitude that is north

of the end of Cornwall,
actually heading up towards Padstow.

But it is in Cornwall.
It is in Cornwall.

It is in England.

The cross-staff is only 30 miles out

compared with the astrolabe at 140.

For Raleigh, this improved accuracy
would be a godsend.

We're used to navigating in cars

and they can be accurate
down to a couple of metres.

But, you know,
for the 15th and 16th centuries,

getting the right end of
a whole country, that's not bad.

It's not bad. With a wooden stick.
With a wooden stick.

So, in April 1584,
armed with a wooden stick,

two ships prepared to set sail

on a reconnaissance voyage
for Raleigh's New World HQ.

For Walter Raleigh,
this, his first great expedition,

would be the culmination of years of
expensive planning and fundraising

and writing his ridiculous,
flattering poetry.

But it would be
a voyage of discovery,

of adventure, of conquest,
and of gathering treasure.

Except he wasn't allowed to go.

His fawning and flattery
of the Queen had been so successful

that she now couldn't bear
to be parted from him.

She ordered Raleigh
to stay at court

while his fleet
set sail without him.

So much for the great explorer, eh?

While Raleigh was held
at Her Majesty's pleasure,

his ships followed
the trade winds to the Caribbean,

before sailing north
to a chain of islands

along the coast
of today's North Carolina.

After six weeks of exploring,
they found what seemed like

the perfect spot
for Raleigh's American base -

a small island named Roanoke.

This first attempt at
a New World colony

would be the catalyst
for a powerful force

that would come to dominate
the globe - the British Empire.

Now, this,
I'm sure you recognise it,

is the British Museum, and it is,
depending on who you ask,

either a stunning collection
of artefacts

charting human history
from all over the globe,

or the world's
biggest lost property office.

What it definitely is,
is a testimony to the far reach

of the British state,

otherwise known
as the British Empire.

'And Raleigh's little expedition

'would be the first faltering step
in its creation.'

Do I keep going?

'I'm going behind the scenes
at the museum

'to see the treasures that came back
from a 1585 voyage to Roanoke.

'Not gold or silver
but watercolours.'

Now, the reason these pictures
are so incredibly precious,

apart from because
they're beautifully done, is that,

of course, this was how the story
of this amazing new world was told.

There was obviously no TV or radio
or even Pathe newsreel.

It was people
bringing back pictures.

Pictures that they'd drawn
and painted.

'For the first time,
the people of England

'got a glimpse of North America.'

When Raleigh's men arrived,

they encountered a village
a little like this one.

They shared food. They shared words.

They wouldn't have understood
each other, obviously.

And the locals apparently took to
the English and looked after them.

They fed them, they sheltered them,
they protected them

from other groups in the area.

And later, one of the captains
of the expedition would write,

"A more kind and loving people
there cannot be found in the world."

Not that they'd seen
the whole world yet, obviously,

they hadn't even seen
all of America.

Well, it all appears
to be absolutely delightful.

I bet you it doesn't last.

A qualified hand replaces
this watercolour

with the next one
for our consideration.

I'm obviously not allowed
to touch them.

Now, this is probably Wingina,
the leader of the Secotan people.

'Legend has it that when
the colonists first asked him

'the name of his country,
he replied "Wingandacoa".'

Which actually means,
in the local language,

something like, "Ooh, look at you
with your fancy clothes!"

'Despite confusing
a fashion compliment

'with the name
of his beloved homeland,

'the explorers won Wingina's trust.'

Very significantly, Wingina decided
that he would send back

with the English two senior people
from amongst his clan.

And they arrived in England safely,

and Raleigh put them up
in his big posh house on The Strand.

He dressed them
in Elizabethan finery,

and they caused
an absolute sensation.

He was using them
as a marketing tool.

Here they had
real living people to say,

"Hey, this new place
is going to be fantastic.

"Why not fund a second expedition?"

And they did.

'Investors opened their purses

'and planning
for another voyage began.

'Raleigh was headline news.'

lnjanuary 1585,
Walter Raleigh was knighted.

Soon after that, he also assumed

the title Lord and Governor
of Virginia,

naming the new colony
after his beloved Virgin Queen.

Sir Walter
must have been chuffed to bits.

He had a knighthood.
He had a lordship.

He had fame.
He had immense fortune.

He had the Queen of England
eating out of his hand.

But despite being
the first Governor of Virginia,

he still wasn't allowed to go there.

But there was a new danger
on the high seas.

Catholic Spain had had enough
of the English looting their ships

and backing Protestant rebels.

Open war was about to break out.

Raleigh's second expedition now
faced the prospect of sea battles,

and his new colony would need
a heavy defence

against the threat
of Spanish attack.

His answer? Call in the big guns.

Half of Raleigh's
600-strong expedition

were soldiers packing heat.

Raleigh ordered £400 worth,

that's about £100,000
in today's money,

of gunpowder
from the Tower of London.

That was enough
to fill around 120 barrels.

120 wooden barrels of gunpowder
stored on wooden boats,

where people cooked
over an open fire,

lit candles and what have you.

And there wouldn't have been
a risk assessment,

because in those days,
that would have been considered

ye right load of oldy nonsense.

And they brought guns, lots of guns.

'With the help
of my glamorous assistant,

'ballistics expert Charlie,
and his high-tech diagnostic kit,

'I'm putting the weapons Raleigh
had in his arsenal to the test.'

He's going to fire the weapons
for me because, unfortunately,

I've injured my wrist, so...

We need to talk about black powder.

Can I dispense a little bit?

You can. Yeah.

Look at that.

This revolutionised warfare forever.

Potassium nitrate
was the vital ingredient,

is actually made
from urine and faeces.

So we were actually shooting
at the Spanish

with our own piss and shit.

'The most common gun used
by Raleigh's men was the matchlock,

'which works by touching a burning
wick to the gunpowder to ignite it.'

So, you've got to make it land
in the pan, haven't you? Yeah.

'These hadn't changed much
since they were first introduced

'in the late 1400s, and they had
some serious shortcomings.'

In battle,
that would be left smouldering,

which would be quite risky,

cos when you were loading up
with black powder,

you could easily
blow yourself to bits.

OK, let's load her up.

Straight down the barrel.

The wadding will give you
a gas tight seal.

Then we put our ball in.

It is a faff, isn't it?

I mean, to be honest,
a good enemy could just run up

and kick you in the bollocks
while you're doing this. Yeah.

'But once we're loaded...'

Safety on.

'..The time for faff is over.'

Oh.

It's a bit anti-climactic, Charlie.

Cor. Whoa.

'Let's see that
on Charlie's monitor.

'The ball hurtles out
at around 300 miles an hour.

'But only once
you finally get the powder lit.'

That's actually a bit hopeless,
isn't it?

By the time you've faffed around,
someone's just wandered up

and casually cut your head off.

Yeah, not for me.

'Luckily for Raleigh,

'a new gun technology
had recently been invented.'

OK, does it need
a little prime in the pan?

'Using a flint spark
to ignite the gunpowder.'

Ancl I think we're ready to fire it.

'This protected it
from the rain and the high seas.

'And you could fire it
twice as fast.'

Ooh-hoo-hoo-ooh.

I like that, because you can be
pretty certain it's gonna work.

Compared with the matchlock.

'So, we've tested
Raleigh's small arms firepower.

'But that's not all
he was packing on board.

'He would need something much bigger
to take on a Spanish fleet.'

Why are we in a tunnel?

Our next experiment requires
an enclosed environment.

Right. Is it the sort of projectile
that could go a long way?

That kind of carry on, yeah.
Right.

If you're wondering what
we're talking about, viewers.

Well, it's at the other end
of the tunnel outside.

Follow us.

'What we're about to test
was one of the most powerful,

'yet mobile,
weapons so far invented.'

I'm very excited about it going off.

It's a cannon!

More specifically, a falconet.

So called because the main cannon
that they used on the ships

was called the falcon.

This is a small version
which is designed to be portable.

You can take it ashore.

You can install it
in a fort you've built.

'Perfect for the busy explorer
who enjoys a scrap on the move.'

It takes a one pound projectile

and uses half a pound
of black powder.

This is the cannonball.

I wonder what that would be worth
in a game of marbles at school?

Hundreds and hundreds.

Can I shove that up the spout?

You can shove that up the spout.

That is seated.

Ball, please.
Ball.

Ba ll.

The target is ready.

Anyone in the tunnel?

There you are,
that's health and safety satisfied.

Right. Let's, as they say,
retire to a safe distance.

Earplugs in, everyone.

DOG WHIMPERS

Stand by.

Firing. Three, two, one.

Ooh-hoo-hoo-ooh.

That's a proper bang.

Hang on,
you've completely obliterated it.

Where's the target?

It's smashed it.

That's a one pound cannonball.

That's a small one, a falconet.

I think that was a pretty good shot,
to be fair,

considering it was a cannon.

JAMES CH UCKLES
It's tremendous.

'Charlie's team are on the case
with an action replay

'that Raleigh
could only have dreamed of seeing.'

That is
a state-of-the-art Tudor weapon.

This is state-of-the-art
21st century analysis,

including slow motion.

Wow.

Ooh.

A piece of wood finds out.

What velocity was that?
230 metres per second.

So that was by far
the fastest thing in the world...

in Raleigh's time, wasn't it?
Yeah.

I mean, by a long, long way.
By a long way.

That's really absolutely...

Ronnie Scott-ed it, hasn't it?

'Such was the terrifying power
of Raleigh's new weapons.

'But that terror would not
be reserved just for the Spanish.

'Raleigh's new colony would
descend into chaos and violence.'

Welcome back, viewers, to 1585.

Sir Walter Raleigh is held
at court by his doting Virgin Queen,

but he's about to send off
his second voyage

to the land he's calling Virginia.

This time, Raleigh sent seven ships

full to bursting
with supplies and weapons.

They swung by the Caribbean
for a spot of plunder,

before heading north
to set up base on Roanoke Island.

But just as they arrived, the ship,
carrying all the food,

ran aground on a sandbank
and their supplies were lost.

Unable to feed themselves,
the starving settlers began bullying

the locals into sharing
their precious food stores.

Unsurprisingly, Chief Wingina
soon got fed up

with his English house guests.

The situation called
for a tactful diplomatic response.

So what did the settlers do?

When a cup went missing,
they burned down a local village.

And when Chief Wingina withheld
provisions as a protest,

they shot him, and then cut
his head off for good measure.

Relations with Wingina's tribe
had now descended into violence,

and the colonists
were still starving.

When a passing English ship
stopped by to check in on them,

the settlers jumped aboard
and fled for home.

Raleigh's New World colony
was an utter fiasco,

and his reputation was in tatters.

Well, it should have been...

...but the facts were no match
for his skill at spin doctoring.

Raleigh hastily commissioned a book
giving a behind-the-scenes peek

at his fantastically successful
and glamorous colony.

He talks about all the fine things
that are available there,

like cedar, wine, oils,
furs, copper, pearls.

It's just abundant with great stuff,
and especially food.

And they talk about beans.

They loved the beans, the English,
and said,

"They were in taste,
the equal of our English peas."

So, Raleigh's thinking essentially,
was that he wanted to make

this new place exciting, exotic,
alluring, an adventure.

But he also wanted to emphasise
that it was safe and friendly.

A bit like saying, you know,
back in the 1960s,

come to the Costa del Sol,
it's warm, it's fantastic.

But don't worry
cos you can get egg and chips.

He seems to have left out the bit
about the starvation

and the chief they'd beheaded,

and put in a bit
about the Secotan people

that says a lot
about England's ambitions.

It says that the people
may be quickly brought to civility

and true religion.

Uh-uh.
And here's a very telling passage.

Now, this is what
the indigenous people were thinking.

"That there were more
of our generation yet to come

"to kill theirs
and take their place."

That was the fear of the locals.

And they were right, weren't they?

They were right to fear that.

'Raleigh's propaganda attracted

'eager new colonists
in their droves.'

And seduced by his PR,
117 civilians,

men, women and children,
signed up for it.

And in 1587,
the third expedition set sail.

And guess what? Walter Raleigh again
was not with them.

At first, things went well.

They fixed up the old colony's
abandoned wooden fort,

built some huts,
and there was even a new baby -

the first English child
born in the Americas.

Aww! It didn't last, though.

After a couple of months,
it was the same old, same old.

The settlers were starving.
The locals were hostile.

So john White, the settlers' leader,
hot-footed it,

if that were possible back then,
back to England

to organise supplies and equipment
for a relief mission.

But there was a problem.

Open war had finally broken out
with Spain, and in 1588,

they sent the Spanish Armada
to invade England.

This would be one
of the biggest naval battles

the world had ever seen,

and every last English ship
was needed.

The fledgling colony,
3,500 miles away

and desperate for relief,
would have to wait for three years.

When an English ship
finally made it back to Roanoke,

they found it completely deserted.

There was no sign of the families,
the children, even the garrison.

All they found
was the word "Croatoan"

carved on a piece of wood.

Now, Croatoan was another tribe
on an island some 50 miles away.

Time for a rescue mission.

But then a storm blew up
and they thought,

"Well, sod this
for a game of sailors",

and they went back to England.

If Tripadvisor had been around
in the time,

well, Raleigh's resort
would have probably scored

something like one out of five
and the comment,

"Verily, forsooth,
I would not recommend ye place."

But even despite all this,

Walter Raleigh still came up
smelling of potatoes.

Now, let's put aside for one minute
things like Virginia and the Armada

and concentrate on the things for
which our Wally is properly famous.

Which means, of course, spuds.

The story goes
that fresh from Virginia,

Raleigh brought home
the nation's very first potatoes.

With a new, reliable
and calorie-packed crop

to power the nation,

the flea-ridden masses
danced with joy.

Well, it wasn't quite that simple.

The trouble is, in the 16th century,

nobody really knew what to do
with them.

At first, they actually thought
they were poisonous.

They called them
"the Devil's apples".

And then they decided
that they gave you leprosy.

And finally, they decided that
potatoes would fill you with lust.

Which is why
in The Merry Wives Of Windsor

by William Shakespeare,

Falstaff cries,
"Let the sky rain potatoes,

"let it thunder to the tune
of Greensleeves",

which I think was him saying
that he expected

to get his card stamped that night.

Potatoes had a bit of a PR problem.

Solution, put them in England's
favourite dish of the day, the pie.

Elizabeth was apparently a pie fan.

Hooray! And her subjects were
chucking any old thing into pastry.

So, why not a newfangled potato,

along with dates, lemons,
nutmeg and, er... bone marrow?

They had
this rather weird pie recipe.

A potato pie, spelt P-Y-E,
for supper.

Gadzooks!

Ooh.

Right, I'm going in,

as they've said
in every action film ever made.

That's the stodgiest thing
ever created.

You couldn't eat that whole slice,
you'd explode.

And the idea that
that might fill you with bodily lust

because it's got potatoes in.

I can't imagine a bigger
passion killer, to be honest.

It's worse than massive pants.

'So, it might not be
the sexiest of vegetables,

'that's obviously the aubergine,

'but the potato is undeniably
the most delicious.'

Mmm.

'And once we realised spuds
could also become lovely things

'like roasties and jackets and mash,
the nation went potato crazy.'

The peasants started growing
potatoes in their millions.

They were easy to grow,
we all know that.

They were cheap.

The government hadn't cottoned on
to a way of taxing them.

But of course,
the government did eventually notice

how popular potatoes were,

and they used the potato to build up
the population and to feed armies.

So in a roundabout way, through
the good offices of the potato,

Sir Walter Raleigh did
have a hand in empire building.

Except that's not actually true,
because he had absolutely sweet FA

to do with the discovery
of potatoes.

They were probably, to be honest,
brought to England by the Spanish.

And in any case,
they didn't grow in Virginia.

They grew in Colombia,
where he also hadn't been.

For once, Raleigh isn't actually
responsible for his own spin.

It was the empire-loving Victorians
who couldn't bear the thought

that our beloved spuds were brought
to Europe by the Spanish.

So they picked out a handy
national hero to pin it on instead.

So, empire, fail. Potatoes, fail.

But there was one product
of the new world

that he did have a hand in.

For this next bit, viewers,
health and safety requires us

to move outside to the fire escape.

This is tobacco, of course.

Virginia was absolutely thick
with the stuff.

We don't know for sure that Raleigh
personally introduced tobacco

to England,
but he definitely made it famous.

Apparently, he encouraged
the Queen to have a puff.

It was said, actually,

that the first time Raleigh
smoked a pipe back home in England,

his servant threw a jug of ale
over him

because he thought he was on fire.

Which I suppose he was,
technically speaking.

Oh, and he didn't just propagate
the use of tobacco.

He absolutely loved
the stuff himself.

After his death,
his tobacco pouch was found

and it had inscribed on it,

"You were my friend
when I was in need."

'Finally, something
Raleigh actually succeeded at.'

So I suppose you could argue,
actually,

that our hero has ultimately
been responsible for...

tens of millions of deaths
and bronchial disorders

and smelly jumpers.

But, you know, if he hadn't done it,
somebody else would have.

Just like tobacco,

Raleigh's celebrity status
spread like wildfire.

Despite his own failure,

he had ignited English excitement
for a North American colony,

and he was still riding high
at Elizabeth's court.

But then he made a grave mistake.

He fell in love.

Ah, the rose garden.

What better place
to discuss romance, love

and a treacherous betrayal.

So, what actually happened?

Well, Raleigh had a relationship

with one of Elizabeth's
ladies-in-waiting,

named Bess Th rockmorton.

She ended up pregnant,
and the two married secretly.

'Raleigh had to accept
he wouldn't be marrying the Queen.

'But with Bess,
he got pretty close.'

So, trying to keep something
like that secret from the Queen

is a bit of an ask, isn't it?

Especially in a court filled
with gossiping people.

Mm.
She does find out eventually.

She feels betrayed by her favourite.

She felt that she owned him,

but also his choice
of one of her ladies-in-waiting.

Her crush has gotten off with
her younger, hotter, close friend.

Yeah, well, he's gonna regret that
in a couple of seconds

when I appear outside
the Tower of London.

Because hell hath no fury
like a virgin monarch scorned.

CAWS

The Queen was absolutely livid.

She barred him from court
and locked him... in the Tower.

He wasn't there for long, though.

You rejoin us, viewers,

at a troubling time
for our faltering hero.

It's 1592. Queen Elizabeth
has locked Raleigh in the Tower

for secretly marrying
one of her ladies-in-waiting.

But luckily for Raleigh,
one of his raiding fleets

arrived home with the biggest
single haul of pilfered treasure

ever known, which proved
too enticing to the ship's crew,

who started disappearing
with bits of it,

including the Queen's share.

So, Walter was let out of prison
to go and round up the missing loot,

and because he was still barred
from court,

that meant he could actually
go on a real adventure.

Potentially the most lucrative
of his life.

Raleigh had heard
a tantalising tale,

the greatest legend
of the Age of Exploration, in fact,

that, if true, could make him
the richest man in England.

A rumour was doing the rounds.

One of a city of pure gold.

The legend of the lost city
of El Dorado.

Raleigh was determined to find it,
so he raised £60,000,

that's about 10 million quid
in today's money.

And because he'd fallen
out of favour with the Queen,

he was going to go himself.

The clock was ticking,

as the Spanish were also rumoured
to be looking for El Dorado.

In 1595, he set off from Plymouth,
charting a course from the Canaries

to the mouth of the Orinoco River
in present day Venezuela.

Finally, Raleigh was on
an expedition.

He knew, as he put it,
that people found him too easeful

and sensual to undertake
a journey of such great travail.

So he marched up the Orinoco River

and gave some Spaniards
a good shoeing.

And he also found gold. Or at least
that's what he wrote to the Queen.

"This area hath more gold than
the best of the Indies," he said.

What he'd actually found
was iron pyrites - fool's gold.

The Queen was not amused.

Elizabeth clearly wasn't going
to fund any more expeditions.

But Raleigh didn't give up
that easily.

He would raise it
from the gullible public instead.

This is Walter's version
of fake news.

His book,
The Discovery Of The Large, Rich

And Beautiful Empire Of Guiana.

It's beautifully written.
It's lavishly illustrated.

It's complete bullshit.

It's really a sales pitch,
because what he wanted to do

was persuade people to invest
in his voyage,

because of this marvellous land that
would await them if they took part.

And I'm going to read you a bit
from it cos it's fantastic.

It says,
"More rich and beautiful cities,

"more temples adorned
with golden images,

"more sepulchres filled with
treasure than either Mexico or Peru.

"And the shining glory
of this conquest

"will eclipse the Spanish nation."

Now, let's have a look
at some of the pictures.

The land was filled with exotic
and very friendly animals,

including this one which had
a nice, soft, furry body,

long claws, and the head
of lain Duncan Smith.

He also talked about a people
who didn't have heads.

They had their faces in the middle
of their chests like this.

All lies, though.
All of it completely made up.

The man was a charlatan.

It might have all been
complete tosh,

but it was page-turning tosh.

Raleigh was now
a best-selling author and explorer

and an A-list celebrity.

But then a plot twist.

The Queen died. In an instant,
the Tudor era was over,

and the new kid on the block was
an entirely different proposition.

BAGPIPES PLAY

James I, a Scot...

...an absolutist monarch
who wanted peace with Spain.

And he immediately started
annoying Parliament

with his high-handed speeches
and his constant demands for money.

Pretty soon, rumours of plots
started to circulate

throughout his court,
and James decided

that he had to take down anybody

who might pose a threat
to his precarious rule.

Over the years,
the flashy, outspoken Raleigh

had rubbed most of the court
up the wrong way.

His rivals seized their chance

and began turning Kingjames
against him.

Soon, Raleigh was implicated
in a plot to overthrow the King.

James had him arrested
and put on trial for treason.

This would be the ultimate test
of Raleigh's silver tongue.

Time to roll out the rhetoric.

So, our Walt is now at the point
where he's essentially arguing

for keeping his head on.

He's on trial for his life.

He's got to deploy all of the skills
and knowledge that he has gathered

over the years in an attempt
not just to persuade the jury,

but also
the court of public opinion.

'We don't know if Raleigh
had been plotting against the King,

'but the Crown's case
was extremely shaky.

'Resting on the evidence
of a single witness,

'Raleigh repeatedly demanded
that his accuser

'be brought before the court
for questioning.'

Ancl when that was refused him,
he drew attention to it by saying,

"|f you proceed to condemn me
without an oath,

"without witnesses
upon a paper accusation,

"you try me
by the Spanish Inquisition."

Ancl this enraged the prosecutor
who said,

"This is treasonable speech."

Ancl Raleigh replies,
"|t is no rare case for a man

"to be falsely accused, aye,
and falsely condemned, too."

Ooh, I like that.

'Everyone in the courtroom
was spellbound

'by Raleigh's performance.'

One commentator said
that before the trial,

he would have ridden 100 miles
to see Raleigh hanged.

But after hearing him,

he would have ridden
a thousand miles to save his life.

That was the power of the rhetoric
that he deployed that clay.

The public didn't get a vote,
though, and the trial was fixed.

Raleigh was found guilty
and condemned to death,

but his defiant performance
had elevated him

to national hero status,
and fearing public outcry,

King James was forced
to spare him the axe.

He was simply commuted
to life imprisonment,

and it's because
of that powerful impact

that his presence
in the courtroom had.

So the pen did turn out
to be mightier than the sword then.

On this particular occasion,
absolutely.

But while Raleigh may have weasel led
his way out of a beheading,

he was still thrown
in the Tower of London.

Bet you he can't talk his way
out of this one.

Welcome back, viewers, to 1603
and the Tower of London,

where Kingjames has locked up
Sir Walter Raleigh for treason.

Raleigh, the great adventurer,

spent 13 years here
in the Bloody Tower,

and presumably it didn't take him
very long to explore his two rooms,

so he resorted to what
had always helped him in the past.

He wrote another bloody book.

And it seems he may have been
a little overambitious,

even for a man
with absolutely nothing else to do,

because this pile of books here
represents the volume of writing

in Sir Walter Raleigh's
History Of The World.

This number of words is greater

than the entirejK Rowling
Harry Potter series,

and it doesn't even include
any flying cars or owls.

It did, however, include
some light roasting of the monarchy

with zingers, such as describing
a previous King, Richard Ill,

as "a spectacle of shame
and dish on our".

So scandalous was its tone
that it became a bestseller...

until the King got a copy
for Christmas.

This, of course, annoyed James,
and he had it banned,

saying that it was "too saucy
in censuring the acts of princes".

Crikey.

I mean, I've sat in
a few historic prison cells,

and many of them are smaller
and damper

and more windowless than this one.

But even so, what has he got?

A grimy window and his boring book
to write for 13 years.

Thirteen years?

I'd have cut my own head off.

But as befitting a man
of national hero status,

Raleigh's prison cell
also came with a small garden,

which he swiftly realised he could
use to claw back some influence

by reinventing himself
as a pharmacist.

He grew plants from the seeds
he collected on his travels,

and he turned a small hen house
into a laboratory

where he concocted potions to cure,

amongst other things,
sore eyes, piles and diarrhoea.

And quite by chance,

some of the recipes are here
in the herb beds.

Here, for example,
is the simple remedy for ye piles.

"For the piles,
take the oil of shoemaker's shreds

"made by boiling them in water.

"Beat this oil with the herb mullet
and apply it.

"Also, if you burn frankincense
and set it in your stool,

"that the fume may come
to the fundament..."

Ie, go up yourjacksie.

"..It cureth them or the emerods."

And believe it or not,
these were very popular.

Even James' wife, Anne of Denmark,
was a customer...

...because, clearly,
she had the "emerods".

'And so it seemed Raleigh would live
out his remaining days in the Tower,

'curing piles for the ladies
of the court.

'But, no, he had one last
audacious con up his sleeve.'

King James had fallen out
with Parliament so badly

that he'd suspended it,
and as a result,

had completely run out of money.

Now, Sir Walter Raleigh,
in his prison cell, got wind of this

and wrote to the King, offering
to help with promises of gold.

And like many desperate people
before him,

the King fell for Raleigh's patter

and decided he would
do something with this offer.

Raleigh had done it again.

He was released from prison,
given a fleet of ships,

and off he went to find El Dorado.

There was only one rule.

Impoverishedjames had made peace
with the Spanish king,

and on no account was
the fervently anti-Spanish Raleigh

to rock the boat.

Raleigh set sail, but this time,
things didn't go so smoothly.

The fleet was blown off course
by storms,

hitting South America
700 miles east of their destination,

and they were forced to crawl
up the coast to the Orinoco River.

Then Raleigh came down
with a terrible case of the ague

and was laid up in his cabin
when the fleet arrived.

He sent his men upriver
to find gold,

but instead, flouting
the explicit orders of King James,

they looted and burned
a Spanish outpost,

killing three of its inhabitants.

King James was furious
and accused Raleigh

of trying to start a war with Spain,
and there was, of course, no gold.

It was a colossal cock-up,
and it sealed Raleigh's fate.

This time, unfortunately,

his silken tongue
could not save him.

And so it turned out, before Raleigh
could write another book

or perfect a medicinal cure
for flatulence,

he was beheaded just over there,

the other side
of St Margaret's Church,

and he was buried here as well.

Or most of him was, because even
in death he could create a story.

His devoted wife, Bess, carried
his severed head around with her

in a bag for the next 30 years.

And just like his severed head,
Raleigh's influence lived on.

His king-bashing books
and defiant speech from the scaffold

would inspire
future anti-monarchists,

particularly Oliver Cromwell,
who 30 years later,

would behead Kingjames' own son,
Charles.

Raleigh's genius rhetoric
would strike its final blow

from beyond the grave.

But what did his voyages achieve?

Was Sir Walter Raleigh
a great explorer?

Well, it seems he didn't go
on half the expeditions.

And although I've said he was
the catalyst for the British Empire,

most of his attempts at colonisation
were a bit dismal, let's be honest.

It was while Raleigh was locked up
in the Tower that England's

first real American colony
was established - Jamestown.

But at least Raleigh's naming
of Virginia stuck.

And what did he discover?

Well, not potatoes, as it turns out.
Not tobacco, not a city of gold.

And even the bicycle
isn't named after him.

Most of those fantastical images
of Raleigh

were just made up rubbish,

inventions of an era that loved
a bit of colonial propaganda.

I think he might have been
a bit of a wide boy,

a bit of an arch manipulator

with an unhealthy taste
for violence.

The trouble with this, though,
is that the popular legend

of Walter Raleigh
is a rather lovely one.

Here's this bloke poncing around
in his doublet and hose

with his ruff
and his neat little beard,

winning the heart and the ear
of the Queen,

and writing poetry and saving
the nation through spuds.

It's one of those stories
that's too good to check.

The trouble is, I have checked it,
and now I've spoilt it.

So all I can do, really, viewers,
is apologise. I'm very sorry.

Join me in the next episode
when I spoil Captain Cook for you.

'Next time...'

Cast off and set sail.

'..Captain James Cook.'

He would chart the final
unknown third of the globe.

This was a massive boost
to our scientific esteem.

Look at that.

Everybody on board
was absolutely "gangplanked".

This chart that he produced,
it's a weapon.

MAN: Fire!

The British invented time.
It's ours.

WOMAN: Right, James,
put some effort into it.

Wah!

I think the dog does better
than this.