OCTOBER 29, 1618

English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded on the orders of King James I of England (James VI of Scotland) after men under his command ransacked a Spanish outpost in Venezuela, a violation of a peace treaty with Spain.

On Raleigh’s return to England, an outraged Count Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, demanded that Raleigh’s death sentence, imposed for a previous plot against James but never carried out, be reinstated by the King, who had little choice but to do so.