Raleigh's El Dorado Expedition Portuguese possessions and shipping, and conduct illicit trading. Sir Walter Raleigh had enjoyed several years of high esteem from Queen Elizabeth I, which stemmed in part from his previous exploits at sea which included the famous Capture of the Madre de Deus. Soon after, however, Raleigh suffered a short imprisonment for secretly marrying one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting, Elizabeth Throckmorton, and bearing her a child. In a bid to restore his influence with the Queen, Raleigh, having promised a "gold-rich empire more lucrative than Peru", had set up an expedition under John Whiddon to find the fabled city of gold
Plimpton Sieve Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I Plimpton Sieve Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I The Plimpton "Sieve Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I" is an oil painting by English painter George Gower dated 1579, and now in the collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. It is one of three near-identical portraits of Elizabeth I by Gower that represent the queen holding a symbolic sieve. It was acquired by George Arthur Plimpton in 1930, hence the name. His son, Francis T. P. Plimpton, willed it to the Folger. Three-quarter length portrait of Queen Elizabeth I holding a sieve, with a globe in the left background and