One of the most important aspects of Sir Walter Raleigh's adult life was his close relationship with Queen Elizabeth I. Their close friendship gave him access to many opportunities that he might never have had otherwise, and it eventually put him on the wrong side of the queen's successor, James I, who had Raleigh beheaded.

Elizabeth was the last of the Tudor dynasty, which ruled England from 1485 to 1603. She was the daughter of King Henry VIII and the second of his eight wives, Anne Boleyn. In 1547, when Henry died, Elizabeth's ten-year-old half-brother, Edward, became king. Edward became ill and died six years later, and Mary Tudor, another of Henry VIII's children, ascended to the throne. Mary was a Catholic, and she did not trust Elizabeth's strong Protestantism, so she had Elizabeth locked up in the Tower of London in 1553 until she signed a document swearing her...