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GRENVILLE (or GREYNVILE), SIR RICHARD...

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 581 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GRENVILLE (or GREYNVILE),
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SIR RICHARD (c. 1541-1591)
  ,
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British
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naval
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commander, was born of an old Cornish
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family about 1541 . His grandfather,
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Sir Richard, had been marshal of
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Calais in the time of Henry VIII., and his
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father commanded and was lost in the " Mary Rose " in 1545 . At an early age Grenville is supposed to have served in Hungary under the emperor Maximilian against the
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Turks . In the years 1571 and 1584 he sat in parliament for
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Cornwall, and in 1583 and 1584 he was
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commissioner fot the
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works at Dover harbour . He appears to have been a man of much pride and ambition . Of his bravery there can be no doubt . In 1585 he commanded the
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fleet of seven vessels by which the colonists sent out by his cousin, Sir Walter Raleigh, were carried to
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Roanoke Island in the
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present North Carolina . Grenville himself soon returned with the fleet to England, capturing a
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Spanish vessel on his way, but in 1586 he carried provisions to Roanoke, and finding the colony deserted,
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left a few men to maintain possession . He then held an important
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post in charge of the defences of the western counties of England . When a
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squadron was despatched in 1591, under Lord Thomas Howard, to intercept the homeward-bound treasure-fleet of Spain, Grenville was appointed as second in command on board the " Revenge," a
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ship of 500. tons which had been commanded by Drake against the
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Armada in 1588 . At the end of August Howard with 16
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ships
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lay at anchor to the north of
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Flores in the Azores . On the last day of the month he received
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news from a
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pinnace, sent by the
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earl of Cumberland, who was then off the
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Portugal coast, that a Spanish fleet of 53 vessels was then bearing up to the Azores to meet the treasure-ships .

Not being in a position to fight a fleet more than three times the

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size of his own, Howard gave orders to weigh anchor and stand out to sea . But, either from some misunderstanding of the order, or from some idea of Grenville's that the Spanish vessels rapidly approaching were the ships for which they had been waiting, the " Revenge " was delayed and cut off from her consorts by the Spaniards . Grenville resolved to try to break through the
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middle of the Spanish
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line . His ship was becalmed under the lee of a huge galleon, and after a hand-to-hand fight lasting thrcugh fifteen hours against fifteen Spanish ships and a force of five thousand men, the " Revenge " with her
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hundred and fifty men was captured . Grenville himself was carried on board the Spanish flag-ship "
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San Pablo," and died a few days later . The incident is commemorated in Tennyson's ballad of " The Revenge." The spelling of Sir Richard's name has led to much controversy . Four different families. each of which claim to be descended from him, spell it Granville, Grenville, Grenfell and
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Greenfield . The spelling usually accepted is Grenville, but his own signature, in a bold clear
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handwriting, among the Tanner
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MSS. in the Bodleian library at Oxford, is Greynvile .

End of Article: GRENVILLE (or GREYNVILE), SIR RICHARD (c. 1541-1591)
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GRENVILLE (or GRANVILLE), SIR RICHARD (r600-1658)
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GEORGE GRENVILLE (1712-1770)

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