at sea, and Sir Richard Grenville was killed assaulting a Spanish fortress. Grenville’s half brother, Sir Walter Ralegh, the guiding force behind the failed attempts to colonize Roanoke, lost favor at court, and James had him imprisoned in the Tower of London.
John Smith was a gentleman adventurer of the new generation who moved English schemes for colonizing North America forward. He was born of humble origins in 1580, the son of a middling yeoman farmer in Lincolnshire, far below the previous generation of well-heeled gentry with ties to court. He received an elementary education and apprenticed with a merchant in Kings Lynn. At sixteen years old, Smith discovered that he was not going to sea on trading voyages as he wished and then learned of his father’s death. Since he thought his future prospects were dim, Smith traveled to the Low Countries to join an English regiment in aiding the Dutch in their revolt against the brutal rule of Catholic Spain.
After battling Spanish forces for a time, Smith returned to his home of Lincolnshire and received a martial education in the art of war. He read Machiavelli’s Art of War and the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, among other works, and was tutored in the military arts by Theadora Polaloga, who had traveled to England from the Byzantine Empire, which was now controlled by the Ottoman Turks. Seignior Polaloga trained Smith in riding, languages, conversation, and oratory, as befit a young Renaissance gentleman.
In 1600 the restless twenty-year-old Smith left England to battle the Ottoman Turks, who were then threatening Christendom in Eastern Europe. He traveled across France, where four rogues pretending to be adventurers robbed the young man of his gold and baggage. A number of French women patronized his voyage through the country until he boarded a ship at Marseilles bound for Italy.
Smith encountered a great deal of animosity from his fellow passengers. The Roman Catholic passengers from different nations disliked the young English Protestant because of his religion and his nation’s reputation for piracy. He similarly held the Catholics in disdain, particularly because they were on a pilgrimage to Rome. When severe storms threatened the ship, the superstitious among the passengers blamed the Protestant soldier of fortune for their woes and threw him overboard to improve their luck.
Smith was able to swim to a nearby island, where another ship was fatefully riding out the storm and offered to take him aboard. The hapless traveler encountered additional dangers when a Venetian ship fired on the vessel after it entered the Adriatic Sea. The two ships exchanged a ferocious barrage as they lined up broadside. Fifteen men were killed on Smith’s ship, and twenty men lay dead on the opposing ship. As flames raged aboard his vessel, Smith and his new companions boarded the Venetian ship and engaged in hand-to-hand combat in an attempt to take the ship. The Venetians surrendered before the onslaught, and Smith joined in the plunder of the ship for his efforts. The ship carried valuable silks, velvets, gold, and other riches. He netted a princely sum, including £225 in coin and a gold box worth again as much.
Smith spent time in Italy, where he saw the pope, and then made his way over land to the combined armies of Christian Europe arrayed against the Turks. He made an immediate impression upon the leaders of the European forces. In order to help a relief army break the enemy siege of Limbach, Germany, he demonstrated a communication network with torches, which he recalled reading about in Machiavelli’s Art of War. He also offered a means to deceive the enemy by hanging burning cords that emulated soldiers firing their muskets and made the army appear larger than it was. The Turkish army retired and the siege waslifted, and he came to the attention of his superiors, who gave him command of a cavalry unit.
Smith’s unit was deployed in the siege of Szekesfehervar, which
John Smith was a gentleman adventurer of the new generation who moved English schemes for colonizing North America forward. He was born of humble origins in 1580, the son of a middling yeoman farmer in Lincolnshire, far below the previous generation of well-heeled gentry with ties to court. He received an elementary education and apprenticed with a merchant in Kings Lynn. At sixteen years old, Smith discovered that he was not going to sea on trading voyages as he wished and then learned of his father’s death. Since he thought his future prospects were dim, Smith traveled to the Low Countries to join an English regiment in aiding the Dutch in their revolt against the brutal rule of Catholic Spain.
After battling Spanish forces for a time, Smith returned to his home of Lincolnshire and received a martial education in the art of war. He read Machiavelli’s Art of War and the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, among other works, and was tutored in the military arts by Theadora Polaloga, who had traveled to England from the Byzantine Empire, which was now controlled by the Ottoman Turks. Seignior Polaloga trained Smith in riding, languages, conversation, and oratory, as befit a young Renaissance gentleman.
In 1600 the restless twenty-year-old Smith left England to battle the Ottoman Turks, who were then threatening Christendom in Eastern Europe. He traveled across France, where four rogues pretending to be adventurers robbed the young man of his gold and baggage. A number of French women patronized his voyage through the country until he boarded a ship at Marseilles bound for Italy.
Smith encountered a great deal of animosity from his fellow passengers. The Roman Catholic passengers from different nations disliked the young English Protestant because of his religion and his nation’s reputation for piracy. He similarly held the Catholics in disdain, particularly because they were on a pilgrimage to Rome. When severe storms threatened the ship, the superstitious among the passengers blamed the Protestant soldier of fortune for their woes and threw him overboard to improve their luck.
Smith was able to swim to a nearby island, where another ship was fatefully riding out the storm and offered to take him aboard. The hapless traveler encountered additional dangers when a Venetian ship fired on the vessel after it entered the Adriatic Sea. The two ships exchanged a ferocious barrage as they lined up broadside. Fifteen men were killed on Smith’s ship, and twenty men lay dead on the opposing ship. As flames raged aboard his vessel, Smith and his new companions boarded the Venetian ship and engaged in hand-to-hand combat in an attempt to take the ship. The Venetians surrendered before the onslaught, and Smith joined in the plunder of the ship for his efforts. The ship carried valuable silks, velvets, gold, and other riches. He netted a princely sum, including £225 in coin and a gold box worth again as much.
Smith spent time in Italy, where he saw the pope, and then made his way over land to the combined armies of Christian Europe arrayed against the Turks. He made an immediate impression upon the leaders of the European forces. In order to help a relief army break the enemy siege of Limbach, Germany, he demonstrated a communication network with torches, which he recalled reading about in Machiavelli’s Art of War. He also offered a means to deceive the enemy by hanging burning cords that emulated soldiers firing their muskets and made the army appear larger than it was. The Turkish army retired and the siege waslifted, and he came to the attention of his superiors, who gave him command of a cavalry unit.
Smith’s unit was deployed in the siege of Szekesfehervar, which
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