thumb|Richard Grenville, portrait in [[Heroologia Anglica, London, 1620, inscribed: Rihardus Grenvilus Neptuni proles qui magni Martis alumnus Grenvilius patrias sanguine tinxit aquas ("Richard Grenville, a scion of Neptune, nourished by Mars,... stained the waters with his blood"]]

thumb|Arms of Grenville: "Gules, three [[Clarion (heraldry)|clarions or"]]

Sir Richard Grenville ( – ), also spelt Greynvile, Greeneville, and Greenfield, was an English privateer and explorer. Grenville was lord of the manors of Stowe, Cornwall and Bideford, Devon. He subsequently participated in the plantations of Ireland specifically the Munster plantations, the English colonisation of the Americas and the repulse of the Spanish Armada.

Grenville also served as Member of Parliament for Cornwall twice, High Sheriff for County Cork and Sheriff of Cornwall. In 1591, Grenville died at the battle of Flores fighting against an overwhelmingly larger Spanish fleet near the Azores. He and his crew on board the galleon fought against the 53-strong Spanish fleet to allow the other English ships to escape. Grenville was the grandfather of Sir Bevil Grenville, a prominent military officer during the English Civil War.

Origins

Richard Grenville was the eldest son and heir of Sir Roger Grenville (d. 1545), who was captain of when she sank in Portsmouth Harbour in 1545, by his wife Thomasine Cole, daughter of Thomas Cole of Slade. Thomasine remarried to Thomas Arundell.) died when he was an infant, aged 3, and his mother remarried to Thomas Arundell of Clifton Arundell House, where Grenville spent much of his childhood. At age 17, Grenville began law studies at the Inner Temple.

Early career

On 19 November 1562, aged 20, he was in an affray in the Strand in London in the company of his cousin, Nicholas Specott, gentleman, with Lewis Lloyd and Edward Horseman, their attendants. Upon encountering Sir Edmound Unton, Fulke Greville, Robert Bannister, gentleman, and Thomas Allen, yeoman, (with their servants), Grenville ran Robert Bannister through with his sword, then left him to die. Grenville and company were outlawed for three months and then pardoned for public duelling and manslaughter.

At age 21, he inherited his grandfather's estates at Stowe in Cornwall, and at Bideford and Buckland Abbey in Devon. About 1565, he married Mary St Leger, daughter of Sir John St Leger.

He was appointed High Sheriff of Cork in 1568.

Military career

Hungarian campaign

In pursuit of his military career, with his West Country cousins, Godolphins, Carews, Killigrews, Champernownes, Basets, etc., Grenville fought against the Turks in Hungary for the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian in 1566. After petitioning Elizabeth I in 1565 to leave England for service abroad to a foreign prince, Grenville and his West Country cousins paid for and recruited a troop of West Countrymen to accompany them.

Colonisation in Ireland

In 1569, he arrived in Ireland with Sir Warham St Leger (c. 1525–1597) to arrange for settlement of lands in the Barony of Kerricurrihy. These had been mortgaged to St Leger by Gerald Fitzgerald, 15th Earl of Desmond. At about this time Grenville also seized lands for colonisation at Tracton, to the west of Cork harbour.

Sir Peter Carew had asserted his claim to lands in south Leinster. St Leger settled nearby, and Humphrey Gilbert pushed westward from Idrone along the Blackwater River. The plantations in the south of Ireland led to bitter disputes with local Irish nobility. They escalated into the first of the Desmond rebellions, led by James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald.

As Sheriff of Cork, Grenville witnessed the rebellion in which Fitzmaurice, along with the Earl of Clancar, James Fitzedmund Fitzgerald (the Seneschal of Imokilly); Edmund Fitzgibbon (the White Knight); and others, attacked Tracton. They overcame the English defence with pickaxes and killed nearly the entire garrison. The three surviving English soldiers were hanged the next day by the Irish. Fitzmaurice threatened the imminent arrival of Spanish forces. Having plundered the citizenry of Cork, he boasted that he could also take the artillery of the city of Youghal.

In June 1569, soon after Grenville's sailing for England, Fitzmaurice camped outside the walls of Waterford and demanded that Grenville's wife and Lady St Leger be given over to him, along with all the English and all prisoners; the citizens refused. Fitzmaurice's troops massacred local English farmers in response. As Cork ran low on provisions, the people of Youghal expected an attack at any minute. The rebellion continued, but Grenville remained in England.

Return to England

Grenville sided with the Earl of Arundel and the Duke of Norfolk in 1569 against the Queen's secretary. He was elected MP for Cornwall in 1571 and appointed High Sheriff of Cornwall for 1576. "Undeviatingly Protestant", he arrested the Catholic priest Cuthbert Mayne at the home of the Tregians in 1577. Mayne was martyred as a result.

Buckland Greynvile Abbey

In 1575–76, Sir Richard was back home at Bideford expanding his holdings, businesses and properties after his expedition plans were scuppered. He finished remodeling the rest of the interior of Buckland Greynvile Abbey into a suitable home for his growing family. He decorated it with navigational themes in the plaster on the ceilings, the Greynvile coat of arms on the mantle pieces, as well as a knight in repose against a tree.

Development of Bideford

Grenville played a major role in the transformation of the small fishing port of Bideford in north Devon into what became a significant trading port with the new American colonies, later specialising in tobacco importation. A charter had been granted to his ancestor Richard Grenville in 1272, creating the town's first council. Three centuries later, Grenville would seek a new charter for the town, hoping to develop it into a port that would trade with his estates in Munster. The charter was officially granted of 16 December 1572. Grenville would also revitalise the market and restore the town's fair.

In 1575, he created the port of Bideford. Grenville was never elected as Mayor of Bideford, preferring instead to support John Salterne in that role, but he was Lord of the Manor, a title held by the Grenvilles since 1126 and finally ceded by his descendants in 1711 to the town council he established. He was again elected as MP for Cornwall in 1584 (sitting until 1586). Grenville and his men proceeded to sack and burn Aquascogoc.

Grenville was heavily criticised by Ralph Lane, general of the expedition, who referred to Grenville's "intolerable pride and insatiable ambition". Lane's remark was prompted by a bitter legal feud he then had with Grenville. On his return, Grenville captured a Spanish ship, Santa Maria de Vincente, which he later brought to Bideford to be converted into Galleon Dudley. The cannon from that Spanish ship are thought to be those erroneously labelled "Armada cannons" in Bideford's Victoria Park.

In 1586 Grenville returned to Roanoke to find that the surviving colonists had departed with Drake. Grenville left 15 of his own men to defend Raleigh's New World territory. During his return voyage to England, Grenville raided various towns in the Azores Islands. At about this time, a description was given of his behaviour while dining with Spanish captains:

Grenville brought with him a Native American from Roanoke Island to Bideford after returning from the 1586 resupply trip. He named the Native American tribesman Raleigh after his cousin Sir Walter Raleigh. Raleigh converted to Christianity and had his baptism at Saint Mary the Virgin's Church in Bideford on 27 March 1588, but died from influenza while residing in Grenville's house on 2 April 1589. His interment was at the same church five days later along with Grenville's daughter, Rebecca.

Command of Revenge and death

thumb|Grenville's defence of the Revenge at the [[Battle of Flores (1591)|Battle of Flores in 1591]]

Grenville was appointed Vice-Admiral of the Fleet under Thomas Howard. He was charged with maintaining a squadron at the Azores to await the return to Spain of the South American treasure fleets. He took command of , a galleon of new design that was faster and more maneuverable than older naval ships.

At Flores Island the English fleet was surprised by a much larger squadron sent by King Philip II of Spain. Howard retreated to safety, but Grenville faced the 53 enemy ships alone, leading his single ship in what amounted to a suicide mission, stating that he "utterly refused to turn from the enimie...he would rather chose to die than to dishonour himselfe". His crew was reduced by nearly 100 men due to sickness on shore, but he chose nonetheless to confront the far superior Spanish force. Grenville was said to have wished to blow up his ship rather than give up the fight, as Tennyson wrote: but the Spanish were not to enjoy their success, nor would Grenville's men survive their deliverance. The Spanish fleet was caught by a cyclone soon after and during a week-long storm Revenge and fifteen Spanish warships and merchant vessels were lost. Revenge sank with her mixed prize-crew of seventy Spaniards and English prisoners near the island of Terceira, at the approximate position .

Marriage and children

thumb|200px|Arms of Richard Grenville (1542–1591) (Gules, three clarions or) impaling St Ledger (Azure fretty argent, a chief or), arms of his wife Mary St Ledger. Kilkhampton Church

In 1565 Grenville married Mary St Leger (c. 1543–1623), daughter of Sir John St Ledger of Annery, Monkleigh, near Bideford, and heir to her brother. She outlived her husband and died aged about 80 on 9 November 1623 and was buried at St Mary's Church, Bideford. The family initially lived at Buckland Abbey before moving to a newly built house at Bideford. They had four sons, including Bernard Grenville.

Legacy and honours

  • Grenville's final battle on Revenge is commemorated in a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson ("The Revenge"). It was set for choir and orchestra by composer Charles Villiers Stanford ("The Revenge").
  • A verse with reference to Richard Grenville by Martin Lluelyn (1616–1682) published in 1643 is inscribed on the 1714 mural monument in Kilkhampton Church in Cornwall of his grandson, the Civil War Royalist commander Sir Bevil Grenville (d. 1643), who was slain at the Battle of Lansdown:
  • One of the five houses of British public school Churcher's College in Hampshire is named after Grenville. There are also houses named after him at Dulwich College, Windlesham House School, Queen Elizabeth's High School, Devonport High School for Boys, Spratton Hall School Preparatory, Northamptonshire; Barnard Castle Preparatory School, County Durham, [https://web.archive.org/web/20090925172338/http://www.barnardcastleschool.org.uk/prep-school.asp] Sidmouth College and after his family at West Buckland School.
  • Grenville College, the private school in Bideford, was named after Grenville. The school has since been combined with Edgehill College and renamed the Kingsley School.
  • A British Sea Cadet Corps training ship, on land unit, T.S Grenville. One of the leading SCC units in the country at unarmed drill and holders of the longest unbroken national unarmed drill record.
  • A Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corp, 93 R.C.S.C.C. Grenville, is located in Kelowna, B.C., Canada.

thumb|Grenville commanding his men to 'fight on!', illustration by [[Henry Justice Ford|H. J. Ford, 1899]]

In literature and the arts

  • Grenville's final action at Flores inspired the popular poem The Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet by Lord Tennyson, which dramatically narrates the course of the engagement.
  • Grenville's final battle on Revenge is mentioned in a poem by Robert E. Howard; ("Solomon Kane's Homecoming") from Fanciful Tales (1936). Howard mentions Grenville in several other Solomon Kane stories and poems, most prominently in "The Return of Sir Richard Grenville".
  • Grenville is the subject of a 20th-century song by Al Stewart, "Lord Grenville," on Stewart's Year of the Cat album.
  • Grenville appears as the godfather of the main character in Charles Kingsley's novel Westward Ho! (1855).

Notes

References

  • Bagwell, Richard, Ireland under the Tudors 3 vols. (London, 1885–1890).
  • Canny, Nicholas P., The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland: a Pattern Established, 1565–76 (London, 1976). .
  • Earle, Peter, The Last Fight of the Revenge (London, 2004)
  • Falls, Cyril, Elizabeth's Irish Wars (1950; reprint London, 1996). .
  • Milton, Giles, Big Chief Elizabeth – How England's Adventurers Gambled and Won the New World, Hodder & Stoughton, London (2000)
  • Powell, Andrew Thomas, Grenville and the Lost Colony of Roanoke (London 2011). .
  • Rowse, A. L. Sir Richard Grenville of the Revenge (London, 1937).

Sources

  • Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L. & Drake, Henry H., (Eds.), The Visitation of the County of Cornwall in the Year 1620, London, 1874: pedigree of Grenville pp. 84–87