Raleigh, explorer, poet, sailor and courtier, was one of the most spectacular figures of the Elizabethan period. There are many stories of his gallantry as a courtier, of which this scene is an example.

Captain Raleigh found the queen walking , till, meeting with a plashy place, she seemed to scruple going thereon. Presently Raleigh cast and spread his new plush cloak on the ground; whereon the queen trod gently, rewarding him afterwards with many suits.
- Thomas Fuller's 'Worthies'.

His brilliant career ended on the scaffold in 1618, where he bore himself nobly.

It is no time flatter or to fear princes, I who am subject only unto death.
- Raleigh on the scaffold, 1618

He was a gallant and courageous leader, who through his disastrous attempts at colonisation in the New World, nevertheless set Britain on the path of overseas empire.