It would be interesting to hold everyone to that standard, eh? Think of all the "hate speech" entertainers could be punished (or posthumously turned into a non-person) for. The crown was looking for a reason to chop off his head. He first got in trouble for knocking up, then marrying Bess Throckmorton, and that imprisonment was a rule-by-decree, no real justice involved.
He was executed based on false accusations (the Main Plot) by James I, who obviously was cleaning house of old supporters of his cousin Eliz I. And that's all that he was doing. Since Raleigh conformed to the discipline in the chain of command, ultimately the commanding officer was responsible for what happened -- if anything. There's no verification that any of it happened, maybe on the next dig. Even so, saying he deserved execution is ludicrous, he was just another victim of the ever-bloodthirsty institution of monarchy.
Maybe this slaughter will make you feel better:
Armor piercing bullets?
Killing trooos in combat is fine. Slaughtering prisoners is not. I guess he could plead he was “just following orders” and he may very well have been a victim of preventative purging by James I.
But that episode with the elopment happened during Elizabeth’s reign and she pardoned him, if i recall.
Agreed. Also, Bess' father was Nicholas Throckmorton, who was Elizabeth's ambassador to Scotland at the time of Mary's deposition and James' coronation by the rebels. He was a friend of Mary and supported her restoration. I wonder if Raliegh's father-in-law's involvement in Scottish intrigues contributed to James' decision to get rid of such a prominent courtier of Elizabeth's.