"Sir Walter Raleigh was the most dazzling yet most enigmatic of all Elizabethans, a man who rose from humble origins to become the favorite of the Virgin Queen. Known primarily today for his voyages of exploration in the New World, Raleigh was a true renaissance man of his time. The fifth and last son of a mildly successful English squire, his ambitions and astonishing talents brought him above his lowly beginnings to become a soldier at age sixteen, an explorer, adventurer, courtier, poet, and historian - not to mention a lover of Queen Elizabeth.""Through his advancement into the queen's favor and court - and her bedchamber - Raleigh became one of the most powerful men in England, and also one of the most envied and despised. One of England's staunchest defenders against Spain, Raleigh was locked in the Tower of London for thirteen years on dubious charges of treason when Elizabeth's successor James forged a new political alliance with Spain." "As this epic yet intimate novel opens, Raleigh, at the age of sixty, is released from the Tower for one last voyage in search of the legendary gold of El Dorado. Little does he know, as he sets off in command of his ship the Destiny, that he is being set up by his own king, to fail and to die, and that he will be forced to contend with native insurrection, the Spanish army, mutiny, pirates, tropical disease, and court intrigue, all under the shadow of the executioner's blade."--BOOK JACKET.… (more)
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