Who was William Berkeley and what place did he have in early American history?
Sir William Berkeley (1605–1677) influenced colonial Virginia more than any other man of his era. An Oxford-educated playwright, soldier, and diplomat, Berkeley won appointment as governor of Virginia in 1641 after a decade in the court of King Charles I. Between his arrival in Jamestown the following year and his death, Berkeley became Virginia’s leading politician and planter, indelibly stamping his ambitions, accomplishments, and, ultimately, his failures upon the colony.
