When Sir Walter Raleigh set out to South America to find the legendary city of El Dorado, he paved the way for a series of adventurers who would struggle against the harsh reality of South America’s wild jungles. Six decades later, when a group of English gentlemen expelled from England chose to establish a new colony in what is now Suriname, they named the settlement in honour of its founder Sir Francis Willoughby.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to author Matthew Parker. His book Willoughbyland: England’s Lost Colony tells the story of how this one-time paradise became a place of terror and cruelty, of sugar and slavery. 

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

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