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
Elizabeth of Luxembourg by marrying his first wife, Queen Mary, from whom Elizabeth was not descended. The same year, Sigismund betrothed Elizabeth to the Habsburg Duke Albert V of Austria, then aged 14. Queen Barbara was very unpopular among the nobility, who resented her sympathy for the Hussites, forerunners of the Protestant Reformation. In 1418, they accused her of having committed adultery while her husband was attending the Council of Constance. The resulting strain in the royal marriage led to the queen's banishment and confinement, first in Várad and subsequently in Szakolca, between 1418 and 1419. The fact that Elizabeth accompanied her mother