Humphrey Gilbert

Lore & Background

Gilbert was the 5th son of Otho Gilbert of Devon by his wife Catherine Champernowne. His brothers Sir John Gilbert and Adrian Gilbert, and half-brothers Carew Raleigh and Sir Walter Raleigh, were also prominent during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James VI and I. Catherine Champernowne was a niece of Kat Ashley, Elizabeth's governess, who introduced her young kinsmen to the court. Gilbert's uncle, Sir Arthur Champernowne, involved him in the Plantations of Ireland between 1566 and 1572. He was educated at Eton College and the University of Oxford, where he learned to speak French and Spanish and studied war and navigation. He resided at the Inns of Chancery in London in about 1560–1561.

Gilbert was present at the siege of Newhaven in Havre-de-Grâce, Normandy, where he was wounded in June 1563. By July 1566, he was serving in Ireland during the Tudor conquest of Ireland under Sir Henry Sidney against Shane O'Neill. He later presented the Queen with his 'A Discourse of a Discoverie for a New Passage to Cataia' (Cathay), treating of the exploration of a Northwest Passage by America to China. After the assassination of O'Neill in 1567, Gilbert was appointed governor of Ulster and served as a member of the Irish Parliament. In the summer of 1569, he pushed westward across the River Blackwater and joined his kinsman to defeat Sir Edmund Butler. He was promoted to colonel by Lord Deputy Sidney and charged with the pursuit of James FitzMaurice FitzGerald. During this campaign, Gilbert's forces showed no quarter to all Irish people they came across, including women and children. Soldier and author Thomas Churchyard described an intimidation tactic: the heads of those killed were cut off and laid on the ground by each side of the way leading into his tent, so that none could come into his tent without passing through a lane of heads, used 'ad terrorem'.

Reader's Guide

Sir Humphrey Gilbert's significance lies in his role as a pioneer of English colonial ventures in North America and the Plantations of Ireland, setting precedents for later colonization. His military career in Ireland, marked by brutal tactics against non-combatants, reflected the harsh methods of Tudor expansion. His advocacy for a Northwest Passage to Cathay influenced subsequent exploration, though his own maritime expeditions failed, exhausting his family fortune. Gilbert's life illustrates the intersection of exploration, military service, and colonial ambition in Elizabethan England, and his connections to figures like Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Richard Grenville place him within a network of influential adventurers. His legacy is mixed: he advanced English colonial claims but also participated in violent subjugation in Ireland.

Did You Know?

• Gilbert was a maternal half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh and a cousin of Sir Richard Grenville.
• He was knighted on 1 January 1570 for his services in Ireland by Sir Henry Sidney.
• During his Irish campaign, he used a tactic of displaying severed heads around his tent to intimidate the local population.
• He presented Queen Elizabeth I with a discourse on a Northwest Passage to Cathay (China) in 1566.