What Remains of Rawleigh, Raleigh, Ralegh

8/22/2019 What Remains of Rawleigh, Raleigh, Ralegh

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VIVIENNE WESTBROOK

What Remains of Rawleigh/Raleigh/Ralegh

(1554-11!"1

Nations do not remember spontaneously and collectively any more than smaller groups do.

Essentially, the bearers of national memory since the arrival of capitalism in each country are the

upper middle classes and the intelligentsia, who have inherited the mantle from the aristocracies,lawyers, and clergy of previous epochs. Memory on this level can be spontaneous or manipulated;

it can involve rhetorical discourses directed at internal or at eternal opponents; it can be internally

divided and fought over. !ts articulation belongs essentially to political elites, however, and is

relatively rarely contested by other social groups"and very rarely with success.#

$his paper eplores how societies fail to remember the figures they see% to memorialise,

and the etent to which those memorials retain, or fail to retain, significance across time

and contets, by focusing on some of the more prominent literary historical and artistic

representations of &ir 'alter (aleigh from the siteenth through to the twentieth century.

!n his seminal wor% On Collective Memory, Maurice )albwachs argued that

collective memory cannot be described as preserving, but rather as reconstructing the past

*with the aid of the material traces, rites, tets, and traditions left behind by that past, and

with the aid moreover of recent psychological and social data, that is to say, with the

present.+3(ather than trying consciously to preserve, the memorialising process, too,

ivienne 'estbroo%- 'hat (emains of (awleigh 6


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intentionally and materially, reconstructs and in that process conveniently ignores the less

desirable aspects of its sub/ect.

0nce constructed, all memorials reuire some social enactments of remembering

that continually revive, refocus and ma%e meaningful the figures of the past for the

present. !n the absence of such enactments memorials can come to be perceived as

obstructions in the space of progress. $here is a distinction to be made between internal

contet, a core memory of a thing that is usually retained, and an eternal contet, the

social contet of a thing that is usually not retained in transmission. !n his etensive

research into social memory 2ames entress has argued that versions of a tradition

become blotted out as they are superseded by newer versions and that this happens in the

first place because of changes in surrounding contet.4$his may help us to understand

how a monumentalised figure may at one time occupy a significant space in the social

memory of a society, only to be superseded by figures that better suit the changed

contet. $he decontetualised monument must be recontetualised- that is to say, it must

acuire new points of reference within the new space in which it stands, and be redefined

by it. !f it fails to do this it is, to all intents and purposes, a dead monument, signifying its

own superfluity in the space of a society that has no desire or need to remember what it

once stood for.

'hy societies choose to remember some figures and not others in the first place is

a uestion that 5eter ur%e7s wor% on mythogenesis can help us to answer. )e has argued

that the attribution of mythogenic status to figures in terms of their biography is the remit

only of literal8minded positivist historians since *myth often attributes ualities to them

which there is no evidence that they ever possessed.+9ur%e offers his theory of *fit,+

ivienne 'estbroo%- 'hat (emains of (awleigh 6:


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which might be better understood in terms of typology, to eplain the perception of a

relationship between an individual and a type, or stereotype. )e argues- *$his fit7 stri%es

people7s imagination and stories about that individual begin to circulate, orally in the first

instance.+6ur%e does not, however, eplain how such a *fit+ can occur without some

element of biographical data to trigger this mythogenic perception. $he narratives

attached to a figure may be appropriated, redefined, embellished and partially lost in

social amnesia in the process of reconstructing, as society deems necessary, or fit, a

monument to a figure of the past. $he monument itself and the space in which it stands

synecdochically define the figure, erasing all other associations for which the monument

might have stood.

$o illustrate how this combination of social memory, social amnesia and

synecdochical definition occurs in the process of memorialisation ! have, in (awleigh,

chosen a figure whose biography contains a wide range of possibilities for triggering this

process. 'illiam &tebbing has noted that the version *(aleigh+ that is most freuently

used now to refer to him is one that (awleigh himself almost never used. $he spelling of

*(awleigh+ is appropriated from a wor% entitledRawleigh his ghost"a translation and

paratetual appropriation of a 2esuit anti8atheistic treatise as a defence of (awleigh

against the charge of atheism"to register not the immateriality, but the trace8materiality

of (awleigh the man to (alegh the cultural monument, as it is determined by ever8

changing ideas about what it is useful and necessary to remember.

(awleigh was a dventurer, &ailor, 5oet and

)istorian.: )e was also labelled as a traitor, pirate, seducer, and in ?ewis &tucley7s

complaint to 2ames !, *an angel of dar%ness who did put on him the shape of an >ngel of

ivienne 'estbroo%- 'hat (emains of (awleigh 6@


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light at his departure.+ )e was li%e the 2esuits at $yburn, he argued, insofar as they had

died *in hope of false Martyrdome+ and he *with a desire of a false popular fame.+ 'hen

facing death, he further carped, (awleigh was bent not on eternal rest, but on everlasting

earthly fame bought at the cost of the reputations of his accusers- *No


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to eplain away his political Dand seual betrayal of Fueen EliAabeth in the poetry of

19@#, attempt to /ustify his lac% of gold in his 19@6 pamphlet, The iscoverie of !uiana"

and deny his political betrayal of =ing 2ames in the series of tets written in the months

prior to his eecution.+13(awleigh7s rewritings etended to &cripture. !n hisExcellent

o#servations, for eample, he reinterpreted the message of peace atMatthew9.@ as an

endorsement of the violent means of ensuring it, on the grounds that God wor%s by

secondary means- *blessed are the 5eacema%ers, and therefore doubtlesse blessed are

those means whereby peace is gained and maintained.+14!n fact, in the process of

rewriting the past for present purposes, (awleigh appropriated the biblical tet7s generic

styles, its typologies and the authority of the tet itself, continually rewriting in the light

of the ever8changing spatial and political contets in which he found himself. )owever,

some contets were easier to navigate than others.

>s a $udor courtier at a &tuart court, (awleigh was out of place. eing implicated

in the *Main 5lot+ to %ill 2ames and substitute >rabella &tuart did not ma%e that contet

any easier for (awleigh. )e protested vehemently against what he perceived to be an

unfair trial, and, demonstrating his consummate s%ill for appropriation, he invo%ed the

apocryphal narrative of &usanna in his defence- *&usanna had been condemned, if Haniel

had not cried out- 'ill you condemn an innocent !sraelite, without Eamination or

%nowledge of the $ruthI+ !n this performative moment (awleigh elided the un/ustly

accused &usanna with the /ust /udge Haniel, and created for himself what ! have

elsewhere called a $udor supertype.19y invo%ing the innocent and defenceless &usanna,

condemned by corrupt authority, and Haniel demanding /ustice, (awleigh configured

himself both as the innocent victim and the wisest advocate of 2ames7 corrupt court.



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!n his letters, too, which &tephen Greenblatt has described as (awleigh7s

*miniature stages on which to perform, spaces to be filled with grand"usually tragic"

gestures,+ we can see (awleigh as the alienated Havid of the 5salms. 16!n his letter to

'inwood bemoaning the death of his son in the disastrous epedition to Guiana he

declares- *! would have left my body at &. $homes by my sons, or have brought with me

out of that or other Mynes, so much Gold oar, as should have satisfied the =ing. !

propounded no vain thing; what shall become of me ! %now not, ! am unpardoned in

England, and my poor estate consumed, and whether any 5rinces will give me bread or

no ! %now not.+

1

Escaping the wrath of 2ames, (awleigh imagined himself as Havid,

desolate and desperate even for food. )e continued, ! *beseech you to give a copie of this

to my ?ord t his trial

(awleigh defended himself through an appropriation of ! $amuel#1.1@)e protested, *!

have an Eample out of &cripture for my warrant, that in case of necessitie and for the

safeguard of my life, Havid feigned himself foolish and mad, yet it was not imputed to

him for sin.+#B0f course, feigning sic%ness, or madness, was the least of (awleigh7s

faults and certainly was not the foundation of the case against him, but by rewriting it as

such, and by founding it in &cripture, he attempted to obscure the more serious charges

and ally himself with the chosen =ing.

ivienne 'estbroo%- 'hat (emains of (awleigh #


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0n the morning of #@ 0ctober 161:, the superlative actor delivered an eecution

speech by which he clearly intended to shape his own monument as one of England7s

great heroes. 0ne surviving account describes the scene in vivid detail-

Jpon $hursday morning this


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!n the account of his final moments (awleigh7s biographer 2ohn &hirley notes that as he

too% his leave of ?ord >rundel he *intreated him to desire the =ing, that no scandalous

'riting to defame him might be published after his Heath.+#4(awleigh7s control over his

own memorial was paramount.#9!ndeed, the successful salvaging of his ruined reputation

on the scaffold immediately generated published defences, or apologies, by those who

were in some way responsible for his death, whose own reputations were now at sta%e.#6

!n% eclaration of the emeanor and Cariage of $ir Walter=ing 2ames7

defence began by maintaining that it was not the duty of a &overeign to /ustify himself to

the people, but that because of (awleigh7s last speech it had been deemed necessary to

offer some eplanation as to why he deserved eecution. $he =ing7s part in (awleigh7s

disastrous epedition to Guiana was reconfigured as a magnanimous gesture. )e didn7t

believe that there was such a city of Gold, but because of the popularity of (awleigh and

his power with the people it was deemed necessary to indulge him-

&ir '. (awleigh had so inchanted the world, with his confident asseveration of

that which every man was willing to beleeve, as his maiesties honour was in amanner ingaged, not to deny unto his people the adventure and hope of so great

(iches, to bee sought and atchieved, at the charge of oluntaries.#

>s ctions of former >ges from the (uines of

$ime, even in its very !nfancy, in a well8compil7d masculine, and learned )istory of the



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'orld,+#@a claim that was emblaAoned on the title leaf of theHistoryitself published in

1614. &hirley maintained that (awleigh was so accomplished that authors were

perplet under what topic% to place him, whether of statesman, seaman, souldier,chymist, or chronologer, for in all these he did ecel. )e could ma%e every thing

he read or heard his own, and his own he could easily improve to the greatest

advantage.3B

Rawleigh# O$li%ion an& Time

!n (obert Naunton7s earlier&ragmenta RegaliaD1644 (awleigh had been described as

a handsome and well8compacted person, a strong natural wit, and a better/udgement, with a cold and plausible tongue whereby he could set out his parts to

the best advantage, and to these he had the ad/uncts of some general learning,which by diligence he enforced to a great augmentation, and perfection; for he

was an indefatigable (eader, whether by &ea or ?and, and none of the least

observers both of men, and the timesC.31

lessed with fortune7s gifts (awleigh was to become, as Naunton termed him, *fortune7s

tennis ballC for she tost him up of nothing, and to and fro to greatnesse, and from thence

down to little more, then to that wherein she found him Da bare Gentleman.+3#>s a

ladies7 man, seaman, and adventurer, (awleigh was certainly accustomed to a tossing. $o

(ichard )a%luyt, (awleigh was the latest in a long tradition of England7s outstanding

sea8faring adventurers.33$o Edmund &penser, his friend and patron, (awleigh was

clearly a source of inspiration for the&aerie 'ueene.34ut his subseuent importance as

a writer of influence rests chiefly on hisHistory of the World, as >nna eer has noted-

$hrough the 16#Bs and 163Bs, (alegh was used in different ways, by different

people, to develop new ideas which often challenged the monarch7s power.Huring the following two decades, the pro/ect of constructing a voice of authority,

most clearly visible in The History of the World, had come to fruition- (alegh had

become an authority himself, cited, applauded, imitated, challenged and, during

the169Bs, relentlessly published by mainstream printers and boo%sellers. Many of



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the politicians and writers seen as important to this period, such as


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!n post8(estoration England, n English Martyr shall ascend the stage,$o shame the last, and warn the present age.

$he tragic scene with moving art will tell

)ow brave he fought"how wrong7d the soldier fell.41

>s (obert ?awson85eebles has pointed out, *&ewell7s (awlegh is so irreproachable that

he fills his nation not only with


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&ecretary of &tate, who, in consummate prefatorial rhetoric, was assured that he bore the

ualities of (awleigh and that by accepting the play he would be participating in the

protection of the virtuous memory of &ir 'alter, and, by etension, his own- *5rotect the

virtuous memory of the dead, as you do the brave acts of the living, and the world will be

afraid or asham7d to censure what you approve.+ ?awson85eebles reads this play as a

portrait of (awleigh above all as a family man. !n fact, the play begins with (awleigh in

the tower and ends with his eecution, including only three domestic scenes between

?ady (awleigh and her son, of which (awleigh is present in one.43(awleigh7s scenes

with )oward, Earl of &uffol%, are at least as important. !ndeed, it is )oward who closes

the play on a note of revenge for (awleigh7s death-

>rms are no more; the &oldier7s friend is lost.e idle then my sword, till happy time

&hall bid thy bove 5eter &cheema%er7s

classically sculpted figure, rendered armless,

ivienne 'estbroo%- 'hat (emains of (awleigh :


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George ?yttelton inscribed *&ir 'alter (aleigh a valiant soldier and an able statesman,

who endeavouring to rouse the spirit of his master for the honour of his country against

the ambitions of &pain, fell a sacrifice to the influence of that court, whose arms he had

vanuish7d and whose designs he oppos7d.+49!n the early eighteenth century, then,

(awleigh was remembered primarily as a great soldier, his eecution for treason was

forgotten in the collective amnesia of a culture that preferred, and needed, to reconstruct a

history of victorious England. 'ith such a morally ambiguous character and life as

(awleigh7s, a certain amount of collective amnesia was certainly reuired, but once

reconstructed the attributes of the monument redounded synecdochically to represent the

whole figure unambiguously as heroic.

$hroughout what might be termed the monumentalising nineteenth century,

(awleigh continued to be a popular inspiration for adventure stories and historical

paintings, among the more famous of which is undoubtedly Millais7 painting The

(oyhood of RaleighD1:B. !n reading this painting as a discourse of boundaries,

*between the eotic man8sailor and the aristocratic English boys; between the parrot

Dnature on one side and the toy ship Dculture on the other; between the land and the sea

and the sea and the s%ies beyond- between the representation and the real as emphasiAed

by the bro%en frame,+ (egenia Gagnier also ac%nowledges that to the ictorian beholder

of this painting, it might symbolise emigration from the J= and !reland.46'hat we

should not miss here is the fact that in this obliue memorial Millais has defined

(awleigh in terms of time and tide, as the boy (awleigh

avidly attends to seafaring tales of the %ind in which he will

later feature.

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$he early twentieth century saw numerous appropriations of (awleigh7s glamour

and seductiveness in the promotion of the habit of smo%ing. !t defined him

synecdochically in the 1@6Bs, winning for him a dubious lyric memorial from the also

*legendary+ eatles- *>lthough !7m so tired !7ll have another cigarette >nd curse &ir

'alter (aleigh )e was such a stupid git.+4ut if (awleigh7s popularity was waning in

the mid8twentieth century, ?awson85eebles argues that &eamus )eaney7s 1@9 poem

*0cean7s ?ove to !reland,+ in which (awleigh7s anecdotal seductions are translated into

England7s rape of !reland, finished him off; since then, he observes, *(alegh, it seems,

has absented himself from ritish iconography.+

4:

$he film industry, too, failed to optimise its technologies of capture to re8present

a man who *enchanted the world+ during and beyond his own lifetime.4@$o date, there

are only three films of note in which (awleigh has featured- Michael


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statue from 'hitehall as ritain prepared for the new millennium. $he controversy over

&ir 'alter (awleigh7s small, three feet high, statue in 'estminster provides a suitable

eample of how memorials can become divested of meaning, divided from the figure

they originally memorialised, and even come to memorialise something entirely different.

'hat we see in the parliamentary engagement is a growing frustration over where to

relocate what is deemed to be a ridiculous monument in relation to the other monuments

in that space. >t no point during the debate is it suggested that the monument be

demolished. )aving agreed that its current location is inappropriate the debate circulates

around what might be a more appropriate space in which to put it. ut it is precisely this

problem of appropriate space that leads us to much more comple uestions about the

role of memorials in society, and what topographical space they might /ustifiably occupy

after they have ceased to occupy a space in the collective memory; after all, it is the

collective memory that gives life to monuments, not the material from which they are

constructed. !n the computer8enhanced photograph below, the statue of (awleigh that

was at the centre of the debate has been

decontetualised in order to facilitate our

conception of it in the variety of suggested contets

that follow.9B

0n 1# >pril 1@@@ aroness $rumpington

enuired about progress regarding the removal of

the (awleigh statue from 'hitehall *to a more

appropriate site.+91!t had been suggested that &t

Margaret7s churchyard might be suitable, a

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suggestion that had been approved in principle but denied planning permission by

'estminster


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?ord Mc!ntosh, responding to ?ord >nnan, eplained that &t. Margaret7s

churchyard was deemed more appropriate since (awleigh was already buried there,

thereby suggesting a relationship between the dead man and the dead monument. &t.

Margaret7s was, he said, *more appropriate than 0ld 5alace Oard"our car par%"where

he lost his head.+ $he space in which the scaffold speech, with which &ir 'alter had

changed the public perception of him, from pirate and traitor to national hero, had been

delivered, had been culturally transformed to accommodate cars, and, it seems, it was this

cultural transformation of what was undeniably an important space for (awleigh that

made the monument inappropriate. rom the perspective of the cultural geology of the

car par%, (awleigh7s historical moment was merely a layer of cultural memory amid

other chronologically layered and obscured cultural memories that had lost the argument

for memorialisation, ultimately, to the utilitarian argument for the car par%. 'hat ma%es

?ord Mc!ntosh7s remar% amusing is not only the anachronism which transforms the

narrative from an eecutioner7s euphemism to a modern idiom for acting rashly, but the

visual flash of &ir 'alter in *our car par%.+ $he anachronism which ma%es this amusing

and absurd stands in rhetorically for the inappropriateness of having such a memorial in

such a space.

!n spite of the ob/ections raised by 'estminster


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ridiculous, that the car par% where he lost his head would render it similarly ridiculous,

and that it was considered to be a threat to the character of &t. Margaret7s in a way that

hot8dog stands were not.

0n the 14 November #BBB at #.49pm the (awleigh monument was yet once more

on the parliamentary agenda. >n easperated aroness $rumpington as%ed again, *'hen

is this ridiculous saga about moving that tiny little statue of 'alter (aleigh going to

endI+ ?ord Mc!ntosh concurred- *! entirely agree with the noble aroness that it seems

to be ta%ing a very long time and that it is inappropriate to have the small statue of &ir

'alter (aleigh net to three very much larger statues of #B

th

8century generals.+

9#

iscount &lim then remar%ed that his own father7s statue was net to (aleigh7s, adding

*he would be very proud to be alongside a pirate+LI. $o this ?ord Mc!ntosh responded

*My ?ords, yes, ! am well aware of that. ! am sure the noble iscount, ?ord &lim, is right

to say that, if we are thin%ing about the character of &ir 'alter (aleigh. ut it is not the

character that is the issue here; it is the scale of the monument.+ $his debate about the

memorial was not about (awleigh at all, it seems, merely about the siAe of an ob/ect in

relation to those with which it stood. 'ithin this debate (awleigh7s statue had become a

dead monument occupying the space of a more appropriate memorial to come.

?ord 5uttnam argued that the current choice of figures to memorialise suggested

to visitors that England was a nation obsessed with militarism and politics. ?ord

Mc!ntosh concurred but added that *Jnfortunately, ! am afraid that it is true that the vast

ma/ority of the population of this country and visitors pass by statues without ever

loo%ing at them, let alone loo%ing at the names on the plinth.+ )is interesting reply raises

a more provocative uestion as to the purpose of erecting public memorials. 5ublic



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memorials that have no purchase on living cultural memory of the community in which

they are erected are still8born monuments. 'hy erect a monument in the full %nowledge

that however public the space in which one situates it, the vast ma/ority will not even

loo% at itI &uch memorials have less to do with cultural memory and more to do with

private vested interest; they are merely claims to power through the very public claim to

public space.

$he ?ord ishop of 'a%efield argued that since 'estminster >bbey was full of

memorials to poets, artists and musicians, it would not be true to say that ?ondon was full

of military statues, to which ?ord Mc!ntosh responded that visitors had to pay five

pounds to get into 'estminster >bbey. 'hat we might reasonably conclude from this

engagement is that although memorials to ritish culture are housed and accessible to

those with the money and the will to pay, military and political memorials are in the

public space and free, to be ignored. ?ord >cton made the point that due to the prolonged

debate over the (awleigh memorial it had become, to members of the house who had to

pass it each day, a memorial, rather, of aroness $rumpington"very amusing"but once

more demonstrating that it is not the ob/ect but the associations that are alive in the

collective memory of a community that ma%e it a memorial for that community.

>mid the growing ehaustion over where to put the statue of &ir 'alter

(awleigh, petitions for it from East udleigh, close to (awleigh7s birthplace, were met

with repeated refusals. >s )ugo &wire, M.5. for East Hevon, reported on 1 ebruary

#BB9, *My predecessor &ir 5eter Emery tried hard to get the eisting statue of &ir 'alter

moved from 'hitehall Green near the )ouse of


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>merican $obacco, and, much to his relief, they agreed to support financially the

commission of a new full8length sculpture cast in bronAe by the artist ivien Malloc%.94

ar from epecting no one to notice it, Mr &wire hoped that it would become a

tourist attraction, adding that *! thin% it is very eciting that, after all these years, we will

finally have a lasting tribute to our most famous local son.+99! as%ed Mr Michael

5rideau, Hirector of ffairs at ritish >merican $obacco,

why .>.$. wanted to fund the pro/ect, to which he

replied- *it seemed to us to be a pity that there was no

statue of &ir 'alter near his birthplace.+ )e admitted

that, unfortunately, it might be denounced by anti8

smo%ing groups as *a cunning plan to sell more

cigarettes.+ 'hen ! as%ed ivien Malloc% what she

hoped to convey in the new statue, pictured here as a

ghostly apparition prior to bronAe casting, she replied,

*$he brief was fairly open but essentially ! was invited

to show him in his prime, with an air of arrogance and

a whiff of mischiefP+96

ivien Malloc% has created a portrait sculpture

of (awleigh, si feet tall, dressed in EliAabethan

costume. )is sheathed sword, which rests on his left hip, is half obscured by *the cape,+

suggesting a negotiation between courtier and soldier. (awleigh7s shoulder carries all of

the synecdochical weight of his representation to the new millennium. 0nly time will

reveal whether this portrait sculpture of (awleigh will attract tourists, contribute to the



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economy of its locality, regenerate (awleigh7s reputation as a courtier and soldier in the

collective memory of East udleigh, or, indeed, whether it will resist the pressure of

progress to transform the space in which he is now defined. !n the meantime, the *tiny

little statue+ of (awleigh which formerly resided both outside 'hitehall and within its

debating arena as the new millennium approached, now stands outside the (oyal Naval

>cademy in Greenwich and (awleigh is synecdochically redefined there as the *great+

>dmiral.9

$his paper has focused on /ust a handful of ritish monuments to (awleigh, but

he has, of course, been memorialised elsewhere in the world. Oou would not be surprised

to learn that the eponymous J.&. town of (aleigh, North


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1$his paper was first presented at *$he $udors and &tuarts on ilm+


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been done to him by those who had misread his life, ill readers to whom he owed than%s for this leisure time in the $ower

in which to write theHistory. &ee 'alter (aleigh, The History of the World D?ondon- 'illiam &tansby, 1614, &$

Documents

What Remains of Rawleigh, Raleigh, Ralegh