After the death of her husband, Bess Raleigh was said to have kept something of his in a red bag—the most macabre of keepsakes. She kept it in a cupboard beside her bed and refused to part with it. It was the embalmed head of Sir Walter Raleigh. Bess was born in 1565 to Anne Caro and Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, a family of noble standing with a special connection to the crown.
Her father’s cousin was Queen Catherine, the last wife of Henry VIII. From an early age, Bess was determined to raise her family’s status among the English nobility. When she was just four years old, she watched her father being taken away on suspicion of conspiring with the Duke of Norfolk, who had hoped to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I. The charges never stuck, but Sir Nicholas never regained the queen’s favor.
His fall left the family in a difficult position, and when he died in 1571, matters grew worse. Bess resolved to make her own way. She studied hard from a young age, and her mother watched her grow into a clever, diligent, and well-educated young woman. Her elder brother Arthur gathered enough money to pave the way for Bess to become a lady-in-waiting at court, and she secured a position serving Queen Elizabeth.
By 1582, she had built enough connections among the courtiers to receive her first marriage proposal from a nobleman named Bassingbourne Gaudy. But Bess and her mother agreed that marriage would be a step backward. She was already doing well on her own. By 1584, her hard work paid off when the queen appointed her a Lady of the Privy Chamber.
She became one of the closest personal attendants trusted by Queen Elizabeth. She met many of the richest people at court, and while most of the nobles left her cold, Sir Walter Raleigh was different. As one of the queen’s favorites, Raleigh spent a great deal of time around Bess, and the two fell passionately in love. Soon Bess was expecting a child.
It would have been a scandal of the highest order if the queen had learned that one of her most trusted ladies was involved with her favorite. So when Bess and Raleigh married in 1591, they did so behind closed doors and without the queen’s permission. The couple was overjoyed when their first child was born in March 1592. They had one ally they could trust: Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex, another favorite of the queen and a close friend.
They confided their secret to him and made him godfather to their son. But Bess could not afford to give the queen any reason for suspicion. Although she should have taken more time to recover after the birth, she did not have that luxury. She returned to court soon afterward and left her child with a wet nurse in Enfield.
While she was away, the plague struck England and tragically took the life of her newborn son. Bess and Raleigh continued their forbidden relationship, even though their lives were at risk. Bess needed royal permission to marry, and the queen would have considered marriage to one of her favorites the ultimate betrayal. Queen Elizabeth was not foolish.
She suspected something, but found no concrete evidence until early 1592. She did not confront them immediately. She watched and waited, and her anger grew as they continued to carry out their duties at court. Finally, she faced the couple.
At first she placed them under house arrest, then sentenced them to imprisonment in the Tower of London. The punishment did not last long, because the queen still needed Raleigh’s skills. By that time he had commanded several naval expeditions. On returning from a voyage in September 1592, his fleet had captured a Spanish merchant ship with all its treasures.
Entitled to divide the spoils himself, Raleigh regained his freedom after only a few months. By December, the queen released Bess from the Tower, and the lovers were reunited. The queen eventually forgave Sir Walter and accepted his return to court. But she refused to show the same mercy to Bess.
Raleigh had confessed his choices and begged for pardon; Bess’s pride prevented her from doing the same, and she was permanently banished from court. She had spent most of her life trying to win the queen’s favor, yet she seemed happier for losing it. No longer forced to hide her marriage, she could focus on her more satisfying role as Lady Raleigh. Every day spent away from London made her more grateful to live elsewhere.
Some historians have described Bess as domineering, but it is hard to argue her marriage to Raleigh was unhappy. They remained loyal to one another through secrecy and imprisonment. In 1593, they welcomed their second son, Walter. Bess had left behind all hope of returning to royal court, but in 1603 the death of Queen Elizabeth opened the door once more.
King James took the throne, and his wife, Anne of Denmark, became queen. Courtiers from all over England flocked to meet her. Bess, content with her new life, thought it a good idea to try to rejoin her husband at court. She traveled to where Anne of Denmark was staying in Northamptonshire to greet her.
The two exchanged the usual pleasantries, but Bess sensed it was useless. By the time she returned home, she realized she had not made a strong impression on the new queen. Her peaceful life was soon torn apart. Because Sir Raleigh had supported another claim to the throne, King James placed him under arrest for treason.
Raleigh denied any involvement in the conspiracy, but the crown was not convinced. Believing his end was near, he wrote a letter to Bess expressing his eternal love and urging her to find another husband after his death. But he asked a favor as well. He revealed he had another child, an illegitimate daughter, and asked Bess to take the girl in.
To everyone’s surprise, King James proved more reasonable than expected. Although Raleigh was convicted of treason, the king refused to execute him and instead sentenced him to life imprisonment. Because Raleigh was still a nobleman, the punishment was not as harsh as it might have been. He was given two private rooms where his family could join him at any time.
He and Bess remained together as a family, and they welcomed a third son, Carew, in 1605. King James had been firm about Raleigh’s sentence, but he soon faced a dilemma Queen Elizabeth had also faced. Raleigh’s services were needed again. The legend of the lost golden city of El Dorado had excited all of Europe, and since Raleigh was one of the greatest explorers of his age, King James released him in 1617 with orders to find the city for England.
Bess happily accepted the terms of her husband’s freedom, and even when Raleigh left on the expedition, taking their twenty-four-year-old son Walter with him, she encouraged them. A year later, she received a letter. Raleigh told her their son had been killed in an unauthorized attack on the Spanish. Bess had lost another son, and her husband was on his way to execution.
England and Spain had recently signed a peace treaty, and when Raleigh’s men ambushed the Spanish, he was held responsible even though he had not given the order. Refusing to flee, he returned and surrendered himself to the crown. Before that, he spent his final two weeks with his beloved wife. As before, Bess accompanied her husband to the Tower of London, but this time it was not entirely her choice.
As Raleigh’s partner, she was ordered imprisoned beside him by King James. Along with Raleigh’s return to custody, the crown seized his property, leaving Bess with fears greater than the loss of her husband alone. Raleigh had escaped death several times before, but this time fortune abandoned him. He and Bess shared a moment of farewell before the guards led him to the Old Palace Yard and beheaded him.
Although the king had seized all of Raleigh’s property, he eventually took pity on Bess and granted her compensation of eight thousand pounds, along with a yearly pension of four hundred pounds for life. Having lost two children and her husband, Bess wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of her days with her surviving son, Carew. After Raleigh’s head was embalmed, she placed it in a red velvet bag and kept it in a cupboard near her bed. Immediately after his execution, she began the struggle to clear his name and restore his reputation.
Her efforts succeeded: the Act of Restitution of 1628 finally acknowledged Raleigh’s legacy, allowing Carew to inherit his father’s assets. Bess lived for several decades after her husband’s death and never remarried. She died in 1647, and only then did her family see fit to return Raleigh’s head to the rest of his body, which lay buried in St.
Margaret’s Church.