Sir Walter Raleigh had already cheated the executioner once. Convicted of treason within months of Queen Elizabeth’s death, after rivals whispered that he had opposed the accession of King James, he was spared at the last moment and spent thirteen years locked in the Tower of London instead.
Released in 1616 to hunt for gold in Guiana, Raleigh promised the voyage would bring no trouble with Spain. It did: his men attacked a Spanish outpost against direct orders, the expedition found no gold, and Raleigh came home to a king eager to please Madrid and an old death sentence still on the books. It was carried out in London on 29 October 1618.
On the scaffold he asked to examine the axe himself, running a thumb along the blade before remarking, “This is a sharp medicine, but it is a physician that will cure all diseases.”
