Talks

“The Bird in the Cage”: Sir Walter Ralegh and Henry, Prince of Wales
by Professor Tim Wilks

Date: Thursday 21 February 2019

An illustrated talk on the dangerous relationship between the condemned and imprisoned Elizabethan hero and the young Stuart heir.
“The Bird in the Cage”: Sir Walter Ralegh and Henry, Prince of Wales

Sir Walter Raleigh, inveterate enemy of Spain, was regarded as a loose cannon by James I. Implicated in a plot to overthrow the new king, Raleigh was confined to the Tower of London in late 1603. Prince Henry was then nine years old. Nine years later, Henry was at the centre of his own dazzling court, and wishing to pursue naval expansion and a militant foreign policy. Raleigh remained imprisoned, but had been working on the Prince for his release. New visual evidence indicates Raleigh had invested all his hopes in the heir apparent.

Tim Wilks is Emeritus Professor of Cultural History, Southampton Solent University. He has published widely on 16th and 17th-century visual, material and literary culture, maintaining a special interest in the court of Henry, Prince of Wales, and also in the emergence of the Grand Tour. 

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