Editing Walter Raleigh (section)

==Ireland==
{{see also|Plantations of Ireland}}
[[File:Raleigh's first pipe in England.jpeg|thumb|"Raleigh's First Pipe in England", an illustration included in [[Frederick William Fairholt]]'s ''Tobacco, its history and associations''{{sfn|Fairholt|1859|p=}}]]

From 1579 to late 1580, Raleigh took part in the suppression of the [[Desmond Rebellions]]. He was present at the [[siege of Smerwick]], where he led the party that beheaded some 600 Spanish and Italian soldiers who had surrendered.{{sfn|St. John|1869|pp=52–77}}{{sfn|Nicholls|Williams|2011|p=15}}  In September 1584, [[Elizabeth I|Queen Elizabeth I]] had the land surveyed to be divided amongst her "undertakers" (people she appointed to undertake supervision of colonization of the region) to colonize.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=The Munster Plantation, 1584–98 |url=https://core.ecu.edu/umc/munster/settlement_munster.html |website=ecu.edu |quote="extensive crown-sponsored surveying of his lands began in September, 1584" |access-date=6 June 2023 |archive-date=7 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230607053833/https://core.ecu.edu/umc/Munster/settlement_munster.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=1584 – the Plantation of Munster |url=https://www.coleslane.com/1584---plantation-of-munster}}</ref>

In 1585, Raleigh received {{cvt|40000|acre}} (approximately 0.2% of Ireland) in the [[Munster Plantation]], including the coastal walled town of [[Youghal]] and, further up the [[Munster Blackwater|Blackwater River]], the village of [[Lismore, County Waterford|Lismore]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

Raleigh made the town of [[Youghal]] in Ireland his occasional home during his 17 years as an Irish landlord, frequently being domiciled at [[Killua Castle]], [[Clonmellon]], [[County Westmeath]]. He was mayor there from 1588 to 1589.<ref name=":1" />  Raleigh encouraged veterans of the earlier attempts of the [[Roanoke Colony]] settle in Ireland, including [[Thomas Harriot|Thomas Hariot]] and [[John White (colonist and artist)|John White]] from the 1585 trip. (He was the governor of the 1587 trip, but returned with the delivery ship to acquire additional supplies.)  Raleigh is credited with introducing potatoes to England and Ireland,<ref name=":3" /> though potatoes are more likely to have arrived through the Irish trade with Spain;<ref>{{cite web | url=https://thecolumbianexchange.weebly.com/potato.html | title=Potato }}</ref> they were known as ''An Spáinneach Geal'' (the bright Spaniard) before his time. A potato crop failure in the nineteenth century would lead to the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]] when they were the only crop not exported in bulk to Britain from 1840 to 1852, a time when potatoes across the continent were destroyed by a gigantic outbreak of blight known as the [[European potato failure]].<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24624391 | jstor=24624391 | title=Remembering and Forgetting the Great Famine in France and Ireland | last1=Neville | first1=Grace | journal=New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua | date=2012 | volume=16 | issue=4 | pages=80–94 | doi=10.1353/nhr.2012.0051 }}</ref>

Amongst Raleigh's acquaintances in Munster was another Englishman who had been granted land in the Irish colonies, poet [[Edmund Spenser]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />  Raleigh's management of his Irish estates ran into difficulties which contributed to a decline in his fortunes. In 1602, he sold the lands to [[Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork]], who subsequently prospered under kings [[James VI and I|James I]] and [[Charles I of England|Charles I]].{{sfn|Laughton|Lee|1896}}