Why was Sir Walter Raleigh executed?

His first fall from grace came when Elizabeth found out he had secretly married one of her ladies-in-waiting, Elizabeth ‘Bess’ Throckmorton, in 1591, earning him a stay at the Tower of London.

While Raleigh managed to rally from that, things went wrong again in 1603 when James VI of Scotland succeeded Elizabeth I and came to the English throne, as James VI and I.

Raleigh had “made no overtures to the presumptive heir, before Elizabeth died in 1603,” writes Mathew Lyons. “Which was doubly unfortunate, because one of James’s closest English confidantes was Lord Henry Howard, a former associate who had grown to deeply loathe Raleigh. Thus, when James came south in the late spring of 1603, he was already disposed to distrust Raleigh. Even if that weren’t the case, James simply had no need of him. Moreover, James had Scottish friends and supporters whom he needed to reward.”

In mid-1603, Raleigh was implicated in the Main Plot, which favoured the removal of James from the throne and the insertion of Arbella Stuart, James’s first cousin, in his place.

Hearing that Raleigh was involved in a plot to overthrow him, James swiftly had Raleigh imprisoned for treason. Ahead of Raleigh’s trial in November 1603, it seemed certain that he would be convicted and executed. And yet Raleigh put on such an audacious display at his trial that he transformed himself into a public hero.

• Read more about Walter Raleigh on trial

He was found guilty and sentenced to death, and then – largely due to concern over his public support – was not executed. Instead, Raleigh spent 13 years in the Tower, legally dead, but very much alive.

“James, his authority only recently established, baulked at proceeding further,” writes Mathew Lyons. “Raleigh’s execution was stayed, but the treason verdict was not rescinded. Raleigh would remain in the Tower, alive for now – but with the legal status of a dead man.”

Having escaped the axe, he somehow clawed himself back up again until he was permitted to lead an expedition in 1616 to find the mythical El Dorado in the New World, attempting to find gold in South America. (Raleigh had led an earlier, failed expedition in 1585). But Raleigh’s men attacked a Spanish fort, against James’s express royal orders. The Spanish wanted revenge; willing to oblige, in 1618 the king finally delivered on the death sentence handed out 15 years earlier.

During his final moments on the executioner’s block, Raleigh reportedly urged the executioner wielding the axe to “Strike, man, strike!”