Charles Chester and Richard Hakluyt

Charles Chester was satirized frequently for his indiscreet speech by 1590s writers including Thomas Nashe, Thomas Dekker, and Sir John Harington. But this article retraces his career from his merchant origins in Bristol, through his imprisonment in the Canaries, and his work as an agent of Sir Walter Raleigh, in which capacity he traveled to Paris with the captured conquistador Pedro Sarmiento. Chester's career as Hispanist, informer, and spy meant that he was well known both to Richard Hakluyt and to Hakluyt's patron Robert Cecil: thus, Hakluyt's account of Chester in Principal Navigations is already involved in a complex network of accusation and betrayal.