Sir Richard Grenville (June 6, 1542 – September 10, 1591) (sp. Events 1508 - Maximilian I Holy Roman Emperor, is defeated in Friulia by Venetian forces; he is forced to sign a three-year Events 506 - The Bishops of Visigothic Gaul meet in the Council of Agde. var: Greynvile, Greeneville, Greenfield, etc. ) was an Elizabethan sailor, explorer, and soldier. Romance and reality The Victorian era and the early twentieth century idealised the Elizabethan era This list of explorers is sorted by surname See also the links below. A soldier is a general English term that refers to a member of a land component of National Armed forces. He was the grandfather of Sir Richard Grenville, of English Civil War notoriety. Sir Richard Grenville 1st Baronet (or Granville) (1600 &ndash 1658 was a Cornish Royalist leader during the English Civil War. The English Civil War (1642-1651 was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists.
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Early life
Grenville was born at Clifton House and brought up at Buckland Abbey in Devon, England. Buckland Abbey is a 700-year-old house in Buckland Monachorum, near Yelverton, Devon, England, noted for its connection with Sir Francis Devon is a large county in the South West of England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, but that is an entirely unofficial name He was a cousin of both Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake, and was present when Theodore Palaeologus, last descendant of the Byzantine emperors, retired to Clifton. Sir Walter Raleigh or Ralegh (c 1552 – 29 October 1618 was a famed English writer Poet, Soldier, Courtier and Explorer Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral, (c 1540 &ndash 27 January 1595 was an English Privateer, navigator, Slaver, and politician This is a list of the Emperors of the Eastern Roman Empire, commonly known as the Byzantine Empire by modern historians He went on to attend at the Inner Temple, aged seventeen years. In 1562, he was in an affray in the Strand in which he ran Robert Bannister through with his sword and left him to die, a crime for which he was pardoned.
Career
In pursuit of his military career, Grenville fought against the Turks in Hungary in 1566. In 1569, he arrived in Ireland with Sir Warham St Leger to arrange for the settlement of lands in the barony of Kerricurrihy, which had been mortgaged to St Leger by the Earl of Desmond. Gerald FitzGerald 15th Earl of Desmond (c 1533 &ndash 11 November 1583) was an Irish nobleman and leader of the Desmond Rebellions of 1579 At about this time, Grenville also seized lands at Tracton, to the west of Cork harbour, for colonisation, after Sir Peter Carew had asserted his claim to lands in south Leinster. Sir Peter Carew (1514&ndash 27 November 1575) was a Devonshire adventurer who served during the reign of Queen Elizabeth of England and became St Leger settled nearby, and Humphrey Gilbert pushed westward from Idrone along the Blackwater. Sir Humphrey Gilbert (c 1539 &ndash 9 September 1583was an English murderer Adventurer, Explorer, Member of parliament, and soldier from Devon All of these efforts to take land in the south of Ireland led to bitter disputes, which escalated into the first of the Desmond rebelllions, led by James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald. The Desmond Rebellions occurred in between 1569-1573 and 1579-1583 in Munster in southern Ireland ('Desmond' is the English language name given to the Gaelic 'Deasmumhain' James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, a member of the 16th century ruling Geraldine dynasty in the province of Munster in Ireland, rebelled against the crown authority
Grenville had been made sheriff of Cork, and had to stand by as Fitzmaurice, along with the Earl of Clancar, James Fitzedmund Fitzgerald (the Seneschal of Imokilly), Edmund Fitzgibbon (the White Knight) and others, appeared at Tracton, overcame the English defence with pickaxes and killed the entire garrison, other than three English soldiers who were hanged the following day. John Fitzedmund Fitzgerald was the hereditary Seneschal of Imokilly, an Irish nobleman of the Anglo-Norman Fitzgerald dynasty in the province of Munster A seneschal was an officer in the houses of important nobles in the Middle Ages. Edmund Fitzgibbon (1552? - 1608 was an Irish nobleman of the Fitzgerald dynasty who inherited the Anglo-Norman title of the White Knight and struggled to maintain his loyalty Fitzmaurice was threatening that Spanish forces would arrive, swearing that this was imminent; having robbed the citizens of Cork, he boasted that he could also take the artillery of the city of Youghal.
Grenville had just sailed for England, when in June 1569 - around the same time as the detention of the Spanish treasure ships in England - Fitzmaurice camped outside the walls of Waterford and demanded that Grenville's wife and Lady St Leger be handed to him, along with all the English and all prisoners; the citizens refused. Local English farmers were put to the sword, and while Cork was running low on provisions Youghal expected an attack at any minute. The rebellion continued, but Grenville remained in England.
Grenville sided with the Earl of Arundel and the Duke of Norfolk, against the queen's secretary, Sir William Cecil in 1569, but was "undeviatingly Protestant" and went on to arrest the priest, Cuthbert Mayne, at the home of the Tregians in 1577, in consequence of which Mayne was martyred. Lord Burghley redirects here For other holders of the title see Baron Burghley William Cecil 1st Baron Burghley (13 September 1520 &ndash Saint Cuthbert Mayne ( 1544 – 1577) was a Roman Catholic priest and martyr Francis Tregian the Elder (1548-1608 was the son of Thomas Tregian of Wolvenden Cornwall and Catherine Arundell During this period he played a major role in the transformation of the small fishing port of Bideford in north Devon into a significant trading centre.
New World
Grenville had once planned to enter the Pacific by the Magellan Straits, rather than by Labrador, a plan that was eventually executed by Sir Francis Drake when he circumnavigated the world in 1577. The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth 's Oceanic divisions The Straits of Magellan (rarely referred to as the Magellanic Straits) comprise a navigable sea route immediately south of mainland Chile and north of Isla Grande In 1585, Grenville was admiral of the seven-strong fleet that brought English settlers to establish a colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of modern North Carolina in North America. Roanoke Island is an island in Dare County near the coast of North Carolina, United States. North Carolina ( is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States He was heavily criticised by Ralph Lane, the governor of the colony, who referred to Grenville's "intolerable pride and unsatiable ambition". Ralph Lane (1530 - 1603 was an English Explorer of the Elizabethan era.
In 1586 Grenville returned to Roanoke to find that the surviving colonists had shipped out with Drake, and on the return voyage he raided various towns in the Azores Islands. At about this time, a description was given of his behaviour while dining with Spanish captains:
He would carouse three or four glasses of wine, and in a bravery take the glasses between his teeth and crash them in pieces and swallow them down, so that often the blood ran out of his mouth without any harm at all unto him. [1]
Grenville was denied a command under Drake in the successful raid on Cadiz in 1587, and contented himself with organising the defences of Devon and Cornwall in preparation for the arrival of the Spanish Armada the following year. The Spanish Armada ( Spanish: Grande y Felicísima Armada, "Great and Most Fortunate Navy" or Armada Invencible, "Invincible He was commissioned, with Sir Walter Raleigh to keep watch at sea on the approaches to Ireland, and after the repulse of the invasion attempt he returned to Munster to arrange the estate granted to him under the plantation of the province. Sir Walter Raleigh or Ralegh (c 1552 – 29 October 1618 was a famed English writer Poet, Soldier, Courtier and Explorer Plantations in 16th and 17th century Ireland were established throughout the country by the confiscation of lands occupied by Gaelic clans and Hiberno-Norman dynasties After the suppression of the Second Desmond Rebellion in 1583, he had purchased land there - some 24,000 acres (97 km²) in Kinalmeaky - and brought settlers over, but his renewed efforts yielded little success and he returned to England late in 1590. The Second Desmond rebellion (1579-1583 was the more widespread and bloody of the two Desmond Rebellions launched by the Fitzgerald dynasty of Desmond
Final command
Grenville was appointed vice-admiral of the fleet under Thomas Howard, and was charged with maintaining a squadron at the Azores to waylay the treasure fleets of the Spanish. Admiral Thomas Howard 1st Earl of Suffolk, KG, PC (24 August 1561 – 28 May 1626 was a son of Thomas Howard 4th Duke of Norfolk by his second wife He took command of HMS Revenge, a galleon considered to be a masterpiece of naval construction. HMS Revenge, built at a cost of £4000 at the Royal Dockyard of Deptford in 1577 by Mathew Baker, Master Shipwright was to usher in a new style
At Flores the English fleet was surprised by a larger squadron, sent by Philip II of Spain. Philip II (Felipe II de España Filipe I ( May 21, 1527 &ndash September 13 1598) was King of Spain from 1556 until 1598 Howard retreated, but Grenville faced the fifty three ships with a crew depleted in number by 95, owing to sickness on shore; he may have had an opportunity of escape, but chose to confront the far superior force. For 12 hours his crew fought off the Spanish, causing heavy damage to fifteen galleons; ultimately, Grenville wished to blow up the ship, but the crew surrendered, and he died several days later of his wounds. Revenge along with 16 Spanish ships sank during a cyclone soon after.
Trivia
- Grenville had planned to circumnavigate the globe in the late 1570s, but Queen Elizabeth gave the honour to Sir Francis Drake instead. Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral, (c 1540 &ndash 27 January 1595 was an English Privateer, navigator, Slaver, and politician
- Grenville's final battle on Revenge is commemorated in a poem by Alfred Tennyson ("The Revenge") and a song by Al Stewart ("Lord Grenville"). Alfred Tennyson 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892 was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom and remains one of the most popular English poets Al Stewart (born Alastair Ian Stewart, 5 September 1945 in Glasgow) is a British Singer-songwriter and folk rock Musician.
- One of the five houses of British public school Churcher's College is named for Grenville, as is one of the eight houses of Dulwich College, and also one of four of Queen Elizabeth's High School
- Grenville's final battle on "Revenge" is mentioned in a poem by Robert E. Howard; ("Solomon Kane's Homecoming") from 'Fanciful Tales', 1936. The house system is a traditional feature of British Schools and schools in ex- British colonies, similar to the collegiate system of a University The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located An independent school in the United Kingdom is a school relying upon private sources for all of its funding predominantly in the form of school fees Churcher's College is an English Co-educational public school - that is an independent, fee-paying school which is a member of the Dulwich College is an independent selective fee-paying public school for boys in Dulwich, a suburb of south-east London United Kingdom Queen Elizabeth's High School is an 11-18 co-educational Grammar school, based in Gainsborough in northern Lincolnshire. Robert Ervin Howard ( January 22 1906 &ndash June 11 1936) was an American pulp writer of Fantasy, Howard also mentions Grenville in several other Solomon Kane stories and poems, most prominently in "The Return of Sir Richard Grenviille". Stories Most of the Solomon Kane stories were first published in Weird Tales.
- Grenville was the subject of a track on singer/songwriter Al Stewart's 1976 album Year of the Cat. Al Stewart (born Alastair Ian Stewart, 5 September 1945 in Glasgow) is a British Singer-songwriter and folk rock Musician. For the cat in Vietnamese astrology see Rabbit (zodiac. For the song see Year of the Cat (song.
References
- Rowse, A. L.. Alfred Leslie Rowse, CH FBA ( December 4, 1903 &ndash October 3, 1997) known professionally as A Sir Richard Grenville of the Revenge (London, 1937).
- Peter Earle The Last Fight of the Revenge (London, 2004) ISBN 0-413-77484-8
- Richard Bagwell, Ireland under the Tudors 3 vols. (London, 1885–1890).
- Nicholas P. Canny The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland: a Pattern Established, 1565–76 (London, 1976). ISBN 0-85527-034-9.
- Cyril Falls Elizabeth's Irish Wars (1950; reprint London, 1996). ISBN 0-09-477220-7.
- Dictionary of National Biography 22 vols. (London, 1921–1922).
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