This first attempt at colonisation was abandoned within a year due to harsh weather and insufficient supplies. They were charged with surveying and mapping the new territory and recording the indigenous people, plants and animals found there. The first group of 107 men landed in July 1585, and included artist John White and scientific adviser Thomas Harriot. He sponsored a number of attempts to establish an English colony at Roanoke Island, which he named 'Virginia' in honour of Queen Elizabeth ‘the Virgin Queen’ in 1585.
Raleigh’s initial forays into the colonisation of America were funded by private investors. Queen Elizabeth I did not allow high-risk ventures to be sponsored by the state, offering only royal permissions. He lobbied vigorously for state funding but to no avail. Raleigh and Roanoke IslandĪfter an exploratory voyage in 1584, Raleigh decided that Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina, was the spot to plant a colony. He used his influence at court to promote a colonial policy that challenged Spain's global domination. In addition to his patent for America, Raleigh was granted a wine-trading monopoly in 1583, and appointed Captain of the Queen's Guard in 1586. He charmed Queen Elizabeth I with his good looks, wit and manners, and became one of her favourites during the early 1580s. Raleigh was a soldier, poet, courtier and adventurer.
The following year, Elizabeth granted a patent to his half-brother, Walter Raleigh, transferring Gilbert's rights to a large swathe of land on America's east coast. Sir Humphrey Gilbert led three unsuccessful attempts to establish a colony in America, but in 1583 was lost at sea while returning home. In the 1570s and 1580s, Queen Elizabeth I granted royal permission to two Englishmen to colonise America.Īs Spain had laid claim to much of South and Central America, England’s attention was directed to the eastern coast of North America.