No lover of history can fail to recognize in the man who cast his cape gracefully across a puddle to protect the feet of his queen, the symbol of the Elizabethan Age. For Sir Walther Ralegh was more, much more than the courtier portrayed in the painting. He was truly the Elizabethan incarnate - soldier, sailor, captain of the Queen's guard, explorer and colonizer of the New World, poet, scientist, military engineer and literary patron. In an age both cruel and romantic, the figure of Sir Walter Ralegh stands high above the contemporaries who eventually cast him down. He it was who devised the plan that brought about the destruction of the Armada, who sailed into Cadiz harbor to grapple with Philip of Spain's war fleet and who, before he laid his head on the block, called to the headsman to let him feel the edge of the axe. Margaret Irwin was a noted authority on the Elizabethan Age. In this biography she brings all her skills as a historian and novelist in telling the story of this most remarkable Englishman.
- ISBN10 0749003278
- ISBN13 9780749003272
- Publish Date 20 June 1998 (first published December 1960)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 22 July 2009
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Allison & Busby
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback
- Pages 320
- Language English