Brazen as Falstaff, Devious as Iago: Sir Ralph Lane's Approach to Holding Office in Ireland and Virginia

Abstract Much has been made of the ideological connection between mental world servitors in Elizabethan Ireland and origins early English colonial endeavor North America. In this vein, case Sir Ralph Lane, first governor Roanoke colony and, later, muster-master general Ireland, would seem to present a historiographically promising test case, one that might not only link Colony but also could show, following recent suggestions, how attitudinal, behavioral, aspirational commonalities existed modern military culture ethos endeavor. Lane's record on both sides Atlantic, however, rather than painting picture applicability martial virtue discipline at times crisis, demonstrates instead stark reality impulsive appetitive garrison period its corrosive effects. remarkable capacity for corruption, willful mismanagement, wily self-defense an Irish context fact amplifies complements troubling tendencies scholars have recently detected famous discourse his government what was commonly termed Virginia printed Hakluyt's Principal Navigations . Lane can indeed serve as emblem common features shared by Englishmen drawn office Elizabethan/Jacobean settle Virginia, largely because mendacity, venality, irresponsibility.