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The History of the World

Walter Raleigh · 1614

Raleigh's vast, unfinished universal history, written during his long imprisonment in the Tower of London.

Raleigh's monumental history, written in prison, showing his learning and his conflict with King James I.

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Engraved title page of The History of the World. Central figure Time/Vitae holds up a globe with an all-seeing eye labelled Providentia above. Winged figures Fama Bona and Fama Mala flank the globe. Lower panels show Experientia and Veritas, with skeletal Mors and Oblivio below, and the title in capitals across the middle.
Walter Raleigh, The History of the World, title page engraving, 1614. British Library / British Museum.

About this source

What it is

Written by Walter Raleigh while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London, this history was begun around 1607 and first published in 1614. It covers human history from the biblical Creation up to the Roman conquest of Macedon. Raleigh planned further volumes but was released, sailed again to Guiana, and was executed before he could finish.

Why it matters

The book shows Raleigh's immense learning and his view that history was shaped by divine providence. King James I reportedly tried to suppress it for being 'too saucy in censuring princes', showing how writing history could be seen as a political act, even a dangerous one, in this period.

Look closer

  • Why might a king object to a history book written about ancient empires?
  • What does writing such an ambitious work while imprisoned tell you about Raleigh?
  • What might the elaborate title-page imagery of Time, Death and Truth suggest about how Raleigh saw history?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Sir Walter Raleigh on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Title page of a 1599 Latin edition published in Nuremberg, printed in black letters, reading 'Brevis & admiranda descriptio Regni Guianae' and naming Walter Raleigh. Below is an engraving of three figures with bows and arrows in a landscape.Book

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Elizabeth I · 1584

Oval miniature portrait of a man with curly brown hair, a full beard and mustache, and light blue eyes, wearing a large white lace-edged ruff and dark clothing against a blue background.Painting

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Nicholas Hilliard · c. 1585

Scan of a handwritten title page in brown ink on aged paper, with a colour calibration bar above and a centimetre scale below. The text reads 'The pictures of sundry things collected and counterfeited according to the truth in the voyage made by Sr Walter Raleigh knight for the discovery of La Virginea' and is dated 1585.Painting

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