| Pocahontas (c.1595-1617) | |
| A native American princess | |
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 Virginia. English Captain Argall takes Pocahontas the daughter of King Powhatan on board his ship. © NMM |
Creating peace between the Englishmen colonising Jamestown and the native American tribes of Eastern Virginia.
Her life ended with a triumphal tour of England, where she was treated as a visiting princess. She met James I, the Royal Family and the best of London society.
Before her ship left London, she contracted an unknown disease - possibly pneumonia, smallpox or tuberculosis. When it became apparent that she would not survive the voyage home to Virginia, she was taken ashore and died.
She was buried in a churchyard in Gravesend, aged only 21 or 22.
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| The Portraictuer of Captayne John Smith Admirall of New England. © NMM |
Powhatan, her father, allegedly had 100 wives, with one child by each. James I had Powhatan crowned Emperor of Virginia, making Pocahontas a princess outranking a lot of English nobility.
When John Rolfe - whom she later married - first sailed to Jamestown he was shipwrecked in Bermuda by a terrible storm. A report of this event, by a fellow passenger, may have inspired Shakespeare’s play The Tempest.
| c.1595 | Born in the Tidewater area of Virginia to a native American chief, Powhatan, and one of his many wives. |
| 1607 | Met Captain John Smith, an English explorer taken captive by her tribe. Legend has it that she saved him from being executed by her father and they became friends. |
| 1610 | She apparently married a native American named Kocoum. |
| 1612 | Another English explorer named Captain Samuel Argall captured. |
| 1613 | While captured, she met John Rolfe, an English tobacco planter. Dale obtained her ransom and she was returned to her family. |
| 1614 | Pocahontas was baptised and married John Rolfe. They had a son named Thomas. |
| 1616 | Sir Thomas Dale went to London to raise funds for his Virginia Company. For extra publicity, he took Pocahontas with him. She was presented to James I and reunited with John Smith, whom she believed was dead. |
| 1617 | Rolfe decided to return to Virginia with his family but Pocahontas was ill. She died and was buried in Gravesend. |
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