GRENVILLE (or GREYNVILE),

See also:

• SIR

SIR

See also:

• RICHARD
• RICHARD (d. 1184)
• RICHARD, FRANCOIS MARIE BENJAMIN (18,9-1908)
• RICHARD, HENRY (1812-1888)
• RICHARD, ST

RICHARD (c. 1541-1591)  , British naval commander, was born of an old Cornish family about 1541 . His grandfather, Sir Richard, had been marshal of Calais in the time of Henry VIII., and his 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 Turks . In the years 1571 and 1584 he sat in parliament for Cornwall, and in 1583 and 1584 he was commissioner fot the 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 fleet of seven vessels by which the colonists sent out by his cousin, Sir Walter Raleigh, were carried to Roanoke Island in the present North Carolina . Grenville himself soon returned with the fleet to England, capturing a Spanish vessel on his way, but in 1586 he carried provisions to Roanoke, and finding the colony deserted, left a few men to maintain possession . He then held an important post in charge of the defences of the western counties of England . When a 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 ship of 500. tons which had been commanded by Drake against the Armada in 1588 . At the end of August Howard with 16 ships lay at anchor to the north of Flores in the Azores . On the last day of the month he received news from a pinnace, sent by the earl of Cumberland, who was then off the 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

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 middle of the Spanish 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 hundred and fifty men was captured . Grenville himself was carried on board the Spanish flag-ship " 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 Greenfield . The spelling usually accepted is Grenville, but his own signature, in a bold clear handwriting, among the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian library at Oxford, is Greynvile .