Richard Grenville

Richard Grenville

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Sir Richard Grenville (15 June 1542 – 10 September 1591) (alias Greynvile, Greeneville, Greenfield, etc.) lord of the manors of Stowe, Kilkhampton in Cornwall and of Bideford in Devon, was an English sailor who, as captain of the Revenge, died at the Battle of Flores (1591), fighting against overwhelming odds, and refusing to surrender his ship to the far more numerous Spanish. His ship, the Revenge, met 53 Spanish war ships near Flores in the Azores. He and his crew fought the fifty three in a three-day running battle. Many Spanish ships were sunk or so badly damaged that they had to retire from the battle. The Revenge was boarded three times and each time the boarders were seen off.

Grenville was also a soldier, an armed merchant fleet owner, privateer, colonizer, and explorer. He took part in the early English attempts to settle the New World, and also participated in the fight against the Spanish Armada. His non-military offices included Member of Parliament for Cornwall, High Sheriff of County Cork in 1569–70 and Sheriff of Cornwall in 1576–77. He was the grandfather of Sir Bevil Grenville (1596–1643) of English Civil War fame, whose son was John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath(1628–1701)."