Grenville or Greynvile, Sir Richard (1541? - 1591), naval commander, of an old Cornish family, whose name has been spelt in a countless number of different ways, was the son of Sir Roger Greynvile, who commanded and was lost in the Mary Rose in 1545, and grandson of Sir Richard Greynvile (d.1550), marshal of Calais under Henry VIII. In early youth Greynvile is said to have served in Hungary under Emperor Maximilian against the Turks, and to have won special distinction.
There were other Rogers and Richards, as well as Johns and Diggorys, all closely related, and often confused one with the other (eg Froude, Hist.of England, cab.edit., iv.436 n) In early youth Greynvile is said to have served in Hungary under Emperor Maximilian against the Turks, and to have won special distinction (Arber p 10). On 28 April 1570 he made a declaration of his submission to the Act of Uniformity of Common Prayer and Service (Col. State Papers, Dom). In 1571, and again in 1574, he sat in parliament as one of the members for Cornwall, of which county he was also sheriff in 1577. He is said to have been knighted while holding this office, but it appears from a petition, 22 March 1573-4 (ib), that he was already a knight at that date. He was then interesting himself, in company with Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in ['an enterprise for the discovery of sundry rich and unknown lands',]but it does not appear that he himself undertook any such voyage till in May 1585 he had command of a fleet of seven ships which sailed from England for the colonisation of Virginia, acting in this, it would seem, as the representative of his cousin, Sir Walter Raleigh. On his return in October he fell in with a Spanish ship, homeward bound from St Domingo, which attacked him, but was herself overpowered and captured; Greynvile and a part of his men, not having any boat, going on board her on a raft hastily made of some old chests, which fell to pieces just as they reached the Spaniard.
After a period in Parliament, during which he received his knighthood, perhaps around 1573-4, he was ‘interesting himself, in company with Sir Humphrey Gilbert, but it does not appear that he himself undertook any such voyage till in May 1585 he had command of a fleet of seven ships which sailed from England for the colonisation of Virginia, acting in this, it would seem, as the representative of his cousin, Sir Walter Raleigh'. Fishing proved to be a major influence on the consolidation of the colony. By 1579 the British Newfoundland fishing fleet had already grown from 30 to 50 ships, and by the 1630s it was estimated that 10,000 seamen were manning about 130 ships every year. Fishing was labour intensive; cod was caught by hook and line, and then dried out on-shore on a lattice-work of wood.
It was Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a half brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, who claimed Newfoundland for the queen as the first British colony in 1583. This opened up new opportunities for not only the English fishermen, but also a range of tradesmen and entrepreneurs keen to trade with the indigenous population. In 1578, Queen Elizabeth I issued a charter to Sir Humphrey Gilbert to establish a colony in North America. Unfortunately his first attempt failed, leaving him with major financial losses. In 1583 he set sail again this time bound for Newfoundland, where he took control of the harbour at St John later that year. Sir Humphrey Gilbert developed new fishing territories Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage However on returning to England Sir Humphrey went down with his ship in a storm, south of the Azores.
In 1586 Grenville returned to Virginia with stores for the colonists, who, however, had left before his arrival [Drake, Sir Francis; Lane, Ralph], and on his homeward voyage he landed at the Azores, where he pillaged the towns and carried of many of the Spaniards as prisoners. He had already, in 1583 and 1584, been employed as a commissioner for the works at Dover harbour, and from the time of his return from Virginia he was actively engaged in concerting measures for the defence of the western counties; an important post, which he still held through the eventful summer of 1588 (Col State Papers, Dom 8 March 1587, 14 Sept 1588).
The Expedition to the Azores, and the capture of the Revenge
In 1591, when a squadron of queen's ships and private men-of-war, with some victuallers, under the command of Lord Thomas Howard [qv], was sent to the Azores to look out for the homeward-bound treasure fleet of Spain, Greynvile, as vice-admiral, or second-in-command, was appointed to the Revenge, a ship of 500 tons and 250 men, which had carried Drake's flag against the Armada in the Channel three years before. As a defence against this or any other squadron the King of Spain fitted out a powerful fleet of ships of war, and despatched it to the Azores.
The Earl of Cumberland, however, then on the coast of Portugal, sent off a pinnace, to warn Howard of the impending danger. The pinnace, being a good sailer, kept company with the Spanish fleet for three days, learning the details of its force and gaining assurance of its route; then leaving the Spaniards, brought the intelligence to Howard on 31 August. Howard, then lying at anchor on the north side of Flores, had scarcely heard the news before the Spanish fleet was in sight. It is said to have numbered fifty-three sail all told. Of English ships there were in all sixteen, six of which were queen's ships, but they were very sickly; quite half the men were down with fever or scurvy, and the rest at the moment were busy watering. Howard determined at once that he was in no condition to fight a force so superior, and, hastily getting his men on board, weighed anchor and stood out to sea. It has been supposed that the Spanish fleet passed to the southward of Flores, and thus came in on the English from the west; that Greynvile, not knowing or not believing the news which the pinnace had just brought, was convinced that the ships coming round the western point were the long-awaited treasure ships, and therefore refused to follow Howard. Such seems to have been the opinion of Monson, a contemporary seaman, and of Linschoten, who was at the time actually at Tercera. On the other hand, Ralegh, writing, it must be remembered, as a cousin and dear friend, has stated that Greynvile was delayed in getting his sick men brought on board from the shore. But the other ships also had to get their sick men on board, and sickly as the Revenge was, she was no worse off than her consorts. It is quite certain, however, that by some cause the Revenge was delayed, and before she could weigh, the Spanish fleet had stretched to windward of her, cutting her off from the admiral and the rest of the squadron.
Greynvile might still have got clear by keeping away, and so, doubling on the enemy, have rejoined his friends. But he was not a seaman, nor had he any large experience of the requirements of actual war. Acting from what is difficult to describe otherwise than as a false notion of honour, he scornfully and passionately refused to bear up, and with angry voice and gesture expressed his determination to pass through the Spanish fleet. In attempting to do so, that happened which any seaman could have foretold. The Revenge coming under the lee of some of the huge high charged galleons was becalmed; they were enabled to close with her, and she lost the advantage of her superior seamanship and superior gunnery which in all other contests during that war told so heavily in favour of the English. She was beset by numbers, boarded, and overpowered after a long and desperate resistance, the circumstances of which, as related in the first instance by Ralegh, have been enshrined in immortal verse by Tennyson. The Revenge was captured, and Greynvile, mortally wounded, was taken on board the Spanish Admiral's ship San Pablo, where he died a few days afterwards.
The circumstances of Greynvile's death correspond very exactly with what we are told of his character; a man he was 'of intolerable pride and insatiable ambition' (Lane to Walsingham, 8 Sept 1585; Cal. State Papers, Col), a man 'very unquiet in his mind and greatly affected to war', 'of nature very severe, so that his own people hated him for his fierceness and spoke very hardly of him' (Linschoten, in Arber, p 91), but also a man 'of great and stout courage', who 'had performed many valiant acts, and was greatly feared in these islands' the Azores. Greynvile married Mary, daughter and coheiress of Sir John St Leger, and by her left issue four sons and three daughters..... The spelling of the name Greynvile is that of Sir Richard's own signature, in a bold and clear handwriting...... A portrait, supposed to be of Sir Richard Greynvile - half length, embossed armour, red trunk hose, dated 1571 - was exhibited at South Kensington in 1866, lent by Rev Lord John Thynne.