View source for Richard Grenville

{{short description|English politician, soldier and explorer (1542–1591)}}
{{Other people|Richard Grenville}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=January 2010}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix  = {{pre-nominal styles|KB}}
 |name         = 
| honorific_suffix  =
| image         = Sir Richard Grenville from NPG.jpg
| alt           = Portrait painting
| caption       = Contemporary portrait of Sir Richard Grenville, inscribed: ''An(no) D(omi)ni 1571 aetatis suae 29'' ("In the year of Our Lord 1571, of his age 29"). [[National Portrait Gallery (London)|National Portrait Gallery]], London.
 |birth_date   = {{birth date|1542|6|15|df=y}}
 |birth_place  = [[Bideford]], [[Devon]], England
 |death_date   = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1591|09|10|1542|06|15}}
 |death_place = [[Flores Island (Azores)|Flores]], [[Azores|Azores Islands]]
 | placeofburial_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} -->
 | spouse        = Mary St Leger
 | relations     = Son [[Bernard Grenville]]
| other_names = Greynvile, Greeneville, and Greenfield
 |module       =  {{Infobox military person
  |embed        = yes
  |allegiance   = {{flag|Kingdom of England}}
  |branch       = {{navy|Kingdom of England}}
  |serviceyears = 
  |rank         =  [[Admiral]]
  | commands      = {{ship|English ship|Revenge|1577|2}}
  | battles       = [[Second Desmond Rebellion]]<br />[[Anglo–Spanish War (1585)]]<br />[[Naval battle of Gravelines|Battle of Gravelines]]<br />[[Battle of Flores (1591)]] {{KIA}}
  }}
}}
[[File:WP Richard Grenville.jpg|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 (mythology)|Neptune]], nourished by [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]],... stained the waters with his blood"]]
[[File:GrenvilleArms.svg|thumb|Arms of Grenville: ''"Gules, three [[Clarion (heraldry)|clarions]] or"'']]

'''Sir Richard Grenville''' ({{born in|1542}} – {{died in|1591}}), also spelt  '''Greynvile''', '''Greeneville''', and '''Greenfield''', was an English privateer and explorer. Grenville was [[lord of the manor]]s of [[Stowe, Kilkhampton|Stowe, Cornwall]] and [[Bideford|Bideford, Devon]]. He subsequently participated in the [[plantations of Ireland]] specifically the Munster plantations, the [[British colonization of the Americas|English colonisation of the Americas]] and the repulse of the [[Spanish Armada]].

Grenville also served as [[Member of Parliament]] for [[Cornwall (UK Parliament constituency)|Cornwall]], [[High Sheriff of County Cork|High Sheriff]] for [[County Cork]] and [[Sheriff of Cornwall|Sheriff]] of [[Cornwall]]. In 1591, Grenville died at the [[Battle of Flores (1591)|battle of Flores]] fighting against an overwhelmingly larger Spanish fleet near the [[Azores]]. He and his crew on board the galleon {{ship|English ship|Revenge|1577|2}} fought against the 53-strong Spanish fleet to allow the other English ships to escape. Grenville was the grandfather of [[Bevil Grenville|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 {{ship||Mary Rose}} when she sank in [[Portsmouth]] Harbour in 1545, by his wife Thomasine Cole, daughter of Thomas Cole of Slade.<ref name="ReferenceB">Vivian, Heralds' Visitations of Cornwall</ref> Thomasine remarried to Thomas Arundell.<ref name="ReferenceB"/> The ancient Grenville family were [[Lord of the manor|lords of the manors]] of [[Bideford]] in Devon and of [[Stowe, Kilkhampton]] in Cornwall. He was a cousin of Sir [[Walter Raleigh]] and the [[privateer]] and explorer Sir [[Humphrey Gilbert]].

Grenville's birthplace is believed to have been at Bideford. His father (who had pre-deceased his own father Sir [[Richard Grenville (died 1550)|Richard Grenville]] (c. 1495–1550), the Member of Parliament (MP) for [[Cornwall (UK Parliament constituency)|Cornwall]] in 1529<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/grenville-richard-i-1495-1550|title=GRENVILLE, Richard I (by 1495–1550), of Stowe in Kilkhampton, Cornw.}}</ref>) 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]].{{sfn |Loades |2004}}

==Early career==
On 19 November 1562, aged 20, he was in an affray in the [[Strand, London|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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/euntonsr.html |title=Sir Edward Unton (1534–1582) |author=Ford, David Nash |year=2010 |work=Royal Berkshire History |publisher=Nash Ford Publishing |access-date=15 November 2010}}</ref>

At age 21, he inherited his grandfather's estates at [[Stowe, Kilkhampton|Stowe]] in Cornwall, and at [[Bideford]] and [[Buckland Abbey]] in [[Devon, England|Devon]]. About  1565, he married Mary St Leger, daughter of Sir [[John St. Leger (died 1596)|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 [[Ottoman Empire|Turks]] in [[Hungary]] for the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian [[Siege of Szigetvár|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 [[List of townlands of the barony of Kerrycurrihy in County Cork|Barony of Kerricurrihy]]. These had been mortgaged {{Clarify|date=November 2011}} 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 (city)|Cork]] harbour.

Sir [[Peter Carew (adventurer)|Peter Carew]] had asserted his claim to lands in south [[Leinster]].  St Leger settled nearby, and [[Humphrey Gilbert]] pushed westward from Idrone along the [[Munster Blackwater|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|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 [[pickaxe]]s 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.<ref name = HOP>{{cite web |url = http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/grenville-richard-ii-1542-91| title= GRENVILLE, Richard II (c.1542-91), of Stowe in Kilkhampton, Cornw. and Buckland Abbey, Devon.|publisher= History of Parliament Online|access-date = 31 May 2013}}</ref>  "Undeviatingly Protestant", he arrested the Catholic priest [[Cuthbert Mayne]] at the home of the [[Francis Tregian the Elder|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.<ref>{{cite book |title=Richard Grenville and the Lost Colony of Roanoke |first=Andy |last=Gabriel-Powell |pages=12 |publisher=McFarland |date=2016}}</ref>

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).<ref name = HOP/>

==Development of Irish estate==
Following a period of supporting Sir Walter Raleigh's venture in North America (see below) he returned to [[Munster]] to arrange the estate granted him under the [[Plantation of Munster|plantation of the province]]. Following the suppression of the [[Second Desmond Rebellion]] in 1583, he had purchased some {{convert|24000|acre|km2}} in [[Kinalmeaky]] and brought settlers over. His renewed efforts beginning in 1588 yielded little success, and Grenville returned to England late in 1590.

==Privateering plan and sailing around the world==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2023}}
In 1574, Grenville submitted a proposal to the [[Privy Council]] to take a single ship to attack Spanish treasure ships and establish English colonies in South America and from there to sail across the "South Sea" (i.e. [[Pacific Ocean]]) in hope of finding a short cut to the [[Maluku Islands|Spice Islands]] and ''terra australis incognita''.
{{blockquote|Supplication for a new navigation, permission to seek rich and unknown lands, to discover and annex all or any lands, islands, and countries beyond the Equinoxial, or where the Pole Antarctic hath any elevation above the horizon, such lands not being already possessed by any other Christian Prince. The planting of people and habitations in strange and unknown lands.  Need not offend foreign powers or provoke war, provided no attempts were made to take from other civilised nations anything they already possess. Such expeditions should be composed of voluntary adventurers; but under patronage and benediction of the Crown; the leaders having authority from the Queen to require that obedience, quiet, unity, and order be maintained. Gilbert an m'self having pointed out to her Majesty that such undertakings would provide work and livelihood for many of her subjects; and also bring honour and strength to Your Majesty with immortal fame, ... besides great enrichment of Your Highness and your country, with increase and maintenance of the Navy.}}

The patent was initially granted, but was rescinded a year later on the grounds that England was still using diplomacy with Spain and had been at great pains to rebuild her relations with [[Philip II of Spain|Philip II]] after the tensions of 1568–1571. It was these plans that were usurped and were eventually executed by [[Francis Drake]] when he circumnavigated the globe in 1577. This caused some bad blood and is the reason why Grenville refused to ever serve with Francis Drake in any capacity.

That same year Grenville received thanks of the [[Privy Council]] and the [[Earl of Bedford]], then Lieutenant of Cornwall, in Ireland for raising troops against Sir [[Thomas Stukely]], styling himself the [[Duke of Ireland]].

==New World and Roanoke Colony==
{{Main|Roanoke Colony}}
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-day [[North Carolina]] in North America. Grenville and his fleet arrived at the village of [[Aquascogoc]], inhabited by the [[Pamlico]] but, before leaving, Grenville furiously reacted to the disappearance of a silver drinking cup from the colony.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=A_T0GyxK9DYC&dq=Aquascogoc&pg=PA93 Miller, Lee, ''Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony''] Retrieved April 2011</ref> Grenville and his men proceeded to sack and burn Aquascogoc.<ref>[https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14277 Aquascogoc at www.h-net.org] Retrieved April 2011</ref>

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 [[Action off Bermuda (1585)|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 "[[Spanish Armada|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:

{{blockquote|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...<ref>{{cite web|url=https://tudorhistory.org/primary/revenge.html|title=The Last Flight of the Revenge}}</ref>}}Grenville brought with him a Native American from Roanoke Island to Bideford after returning from the 1586 resupply trip.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=Raleigh, a Wynganditoian |url=https://nativeheritageproject.com/2012/07/02/raleigh-a-wynganditoian/ |work=Native Heritage Project|date=2 July 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Milton |first=Giles |url=https://archive.org/details/bigchiefelizabet00milt_0/page/190/mode/2up?q=Grenville |title=Big Chief Elizabeth |publisher=Sceptre |year=2000 |pages=191|isbn=9780340748824 }}</ref> He named the Native American tribesman [[Raleigh (Native American)|Raleigh]] after his cousin Sir Walter Raleigh.<ref>{{cite book |title=An Essay Towards a History of Bideford, in the County of Devon – Google Play | date=1792 | publisher=E. Grigg |url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=iW9bAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&authuser=0&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA57 |access-date=26 June 2013}}</ref> Raleigh converted to [[Christianity]] and had his baptism at [[Church of St Mary, Bideford|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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lost Colony Research Group |url=http://rootsweb.ancestry.com/~molcgdrg/nl/nl-12/nl02-12f.htm |access-date=13 November 2014 |archive-date=25 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925231044/http://rootsweb.ancestry.com/~molcgdrg/nl/nl-12/nl02-12f.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> His interment was at the same church five days later along with Grenville's daughter, Rebecca.<ref name=":0" />

==Spanish Armada==
In 1587, Grenville was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of the West Country by the Privy Council, to organize the defences of [[Devon]] and [[Cornwall]] in preparation for the expected attack by the [[Spanish Armada]] the following year. Also was commissioned with overseeing the repair of the Fortifications of the [[Cinque Ports]] and [[Boscastle]] Harbour.

In 1588, he was made a member of the council that was created to devise means of defence against the Spanish armada. Grenville equipped seven ships at Bideford with supplies and more colonists for Raleigh's "Planters" Colony settled at Roanoke the previous year. However, a stay of shipping due to the impending arrival of the Spanish Armada meant that the fleet did not sail. Grenville led five of these ships to [[Plymouth]] to join the English defences and returned to Bideford where he provisioned the remaining two ships for Roanoke, a voyage that later turned back after being raided by the French. Later that year, Grenville was commissioned to keep watch at sea on the western approaches to the Bristol Channel in case of the return of the Spanish Armada.

==Command of ''Revenge'' and death==
{{Main|Battle of Flores (1591)}}
[[File:Charles Edward Dixon The Revenge 1591 Battle of Flores Azores (cropped).jpg|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, 1st Earl of Suffolk|Thomas Howard]].  He was charged with maintaining a [[Squadron (naval)|squadron]] at the Azores to await the return to Spain of the South American treasure fleets.  He took command of {{ship|English ship|Revenge|1577|2}}, a [[galleon]] of new design that was faster and more maneuverable than older naval ships.{{sfn |Paine |2000 |page=149}}

At [[Flores Island (Azores)|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".<ref name="Milton, p.271">Milton, p.271</ref> His crew was reduced by nearly 100 men due to sickness on shore, but he chose nonetheless to confront the far superior Spanish force.<ref name="Milton, p.271"/> For twelve hours he and his crew fought off the Spanish, causing heavy damage to fifteen galleons. According to Raleigh's account, Grenville and his soldiers fought for hour after hour, "...until all the powder of The ''Revenge'', to the last barrell, was now spent, all her pikes broken, fortie of her best men slain, and the most part of the rest hurt".<ref name="Milton, p.271"/> The ship itself was "marvellous unsaverie, filled with bloud and bodies of deade and wounded men like a slaughter house".<ref name="Milton, p.271"/>

The fight was later romanticized by the poet [[Alfred Lord Tennyson]] in his work "[[s:The Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet|The Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet]]:" "''Out-gunned, out-fought, and out-numbered fifty-three to one''",<ref name="ReferenceA">''[[s:The Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet|The Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet]]'' by [[Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson|Alfred, Lord Tennyson]]</ref> Grenville was said to have wished to blow up his ship rather than give up the fight, as Tennyson wrote:<ref name="ReferenceA"/> "Sink me the ship, Master Gunner! – sink her! split her in twain! ... Fall into the hands of God, not into the hands of Spain!" Grenville's crew however refused to obey these suicidal orders and his officers surrendered what was left of their vessel to the Spanish, on a promise of fair treatment.

Grenville died of his wounds several days later, screaming that his men were "traitors and dogs",<ref>Milton, p.272</ref> 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.{{sfn |Paine |2000 |page=150}} ''Revenge'' sank with her mixed prize-crew of seventy Spaniards and English prisoners near the island of [[Terceira]], at the approximate position {{coord|38|46|9|N|27|22|42|W}}.<ref>Earle p. 159</ref>

==Marriage and children==
[[File:GrenvilleImpalingStLeger KilkhamptonChurch Cornwall.png|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 [[John St. Leger (died 1596)|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 [[Church of St Mary, Bideford|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]].<ref name = HOP/>
Capt. [[George Vancouver]] was related to him on his mother's side. Her name was Bridget Berners.{{fact|date=November 2024}}

==Legacy and honours==
* Grenville's final battle on ''Revenge'' is commemorated in a poem by [[Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson|Alfred, Lord Tennyson]] ([http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/q-and-a/q4-tenneson.cfm "The Revenge"]).  It was set for choir and orchestra by [[composer]] [[Charles Villiers Stanford]] ([http://www.chandos.net/CD_Notes.asp?CNumber=CHSA%205043 "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 [[English Civil War|Civil War]] [[Royalist]] commander Sir [[Bevil Grenville]] (d.&nbsp;1643), who was slain at the [[Battle of Lansdown]]:
{{poemquote|Thus slain thy valiant Ancestor did ly
When his one bark a navy did defy
When now encompas't round the victor stood
And bath'd his pinnace in his co'quering blood
Till all his purple current dry'd and spent
He fell and made the waves his monument
Where shall ye next fam'd Granvill's ashes stand
Thy grand syre fills the seas and thou ye land}}
* One of the five [[house system|houses]] of [[United Kingdom|British]] [[public school (England)|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.

==In literature and the arts==
[[File:The red animal story book - inset illustration at page 134.png|thumb|Grenville commanding his men to 'fight on!', illustration by [[Henry Justice Ford|H. J. Ford]], 1899]]
*Grenville's final action at Flores inspired the popular poem ''[[s:The Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet|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)|Year of the Cat]]'' album.
* Grenville appears as the godfather of the main character in [[Charles Kingsley]]'s novel ''[[Westward Ho! (novel)|Westward Ho!]]'' (1855).

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==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).  {{ISBN|0-85527-034-9}}.
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle = Grenville, Sir Richard (naval commander)|volume=12}}
* Earle, Peter, ''The Last Fight of the Revenge'' (London, 2004) {{ISBN|0-413-77484-8}}
* Falls, Cyril, ''Elizabeth's Irish Wars'' (1950; reprint London, 1996). {{ISBN|0-09-477220-7}}.
* {{Cite DNB|wstitle=Grenville, Richard (1541?-1591)|first=John Knox|last= Laughton}}
* {{cite ODNB|first=David|last=Loades|title=Grenville, Sir Richard (1542–1591)|year=2004|id=11493}}
* Milton, Giles, ''Big Chief Elizabeth – How England's Adventurers Gambled and Won the New World'', Hodder & Stoughton, London (2000)
*{{Cite book |last=Paine |first=Lincoln P. |title=Warships of the world to 1900 |date=2000 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |isbn=978-0-395-98414-7 |series=Mariner books |location=Boston |url=https://archive.org/details/warshipsofworldt0000pain}}
* Powell, Andrew Thomas, ''Grenville and the Lost Colony of Roanoke'' (London 2011). {{ISBN|978-1-84876-596-2}}.
* [[A. L. Rowse|Rowse, A. L.]] ''Sir Richard Grenville of the Revenge'' (London, 1937).

==Sources==
* [https://archive.org/stream/visitationofcoun00sain#page/84/mode/2up 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]

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{{succession box | title=[[Custos Rotulorum of Cornwall]] | before=[[John Chamond|Sir John Chamond]] | years=1544–1550 | after=[[John Arundell (of Trerice, died 1580)|Sir John Arundell]]}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Grenville, Richard}}
[[Category:16th-century English explorers]]
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[[Category:Grenville family|Richard]]
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[[Category:People of Elizabethan Ireland]]
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[[Category:High sheriffs of Cornwall]]
[[Category:English people of the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)]]
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