minds who enriched english culture during elizabeth's reign and even the gallant courtier explorer and soldier walter raleigh was a poet the sheer breadth of raleigh's experiences encapsulated the excitements and pursuits of the elizabethan age he explored north america founded the first albeit short-lived english colonial settlement in north america at roanoke island captured spanish gold as a privateer in the unofficial service of his queen and is credited with introducing tobacco to england the exciting new frontiers of exploration and trade broadened english horizons immensely just as literary flowering did for english culture and between NUMBER_TOKEN and NUMBER_TOKEN martin frobisher sailed in search of a northwest passage francis drake became the second person ever to circumnavigate the globe in NUMBER_TOKEN for which he received a knighthood and raleigh's older brother sir humphrey gilbert landed in newfoundland in NUMBER_TOKEN officially claiming the island for elizabeth in order to secure england's pre-eminence in the lucrative fishery which had been for more than a century an international open access resource in the region colonization was not considered a priority at this time but became more so the following century with the reign of james the first and most of the profit gleaned from elizabethan exploration came from either legitimate trade or from english privateers plundering bullion from spanish ships and these english naval activities combined with religious differences increased tensions between england and spain the only truly serious military threat elizabeth's regime ever faced the first years of elizabeth's reign saw fairly good relations with spain king philip had more or less permanent offers of marriage on the table with elizabeth and what he wanted least of all was to have her marry a prince of france spain's mortal enemy elizabeth saw no need to endanger england's healthy relationship with spain by refusing him too quickly but finally did reject his pursuit of her on the basis of affinity since philip had been married to her sister this soured philip and within a decade relations between england and spain have begun to degenerate once again the fact that philip was a committed catholic made him especially beholden to the pope whom even the king of spain could not refuse when disgusted with the actions of the english queen the head of all christendom ordered him to invade england and depose elizabeth all of this was tied up with an ongoing succession crisis in which the religion of elizabeth's de facto heir mary queen of scots was the main issue mary was the closest relation to the throne that elizabeth had which she readily admitted saying that she knew of no other with a claim as good as mary's yet elizabeth refused to name her explicitly as the heir to the throne having once been in mary's position herself a position which she referred to as second person she well understood that naming mary as her heir could inspire plots to engineer
NO_SEGMENT_TOKEN