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c. 1541-1591
Immortalised by Tennyson for his last battle ('At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay ...'), Grenville was born into a famous naval family in Cornwall. An aggressive young man who killed an opponent in a street fight, he fought against the Turks in Hungary and then joined in Gilbert's English plantation in the Irish county of Munster. After helping put down the Fitzmaurice rebellion, he became an MP for Cornwall in 1571.
However, he had caught Gilbert's enthusiasm for navigation and soon joined an expedition to the South Seas to look for Terra Australis. In 1574, he proposed sailing through the Strait of Magellan – a route then jealously guarded by the Spanish. At the time, Elizabeth was trying to restore relations with Spain and forbade the trip. Three years later, Drake was to use Grenville's plans for his own circumnavigation.
Next, Grenville – who had been knighted by Elizabeth in about 1577 – was fired by Sir Walter Ralegh's plans for a colony in North America, and in 1585, he sailed to Virginia with 300 settlers on board. He successfully disembarked them on Roanoke Island (off the coast of what is now North Carolina), and ransacked a Spanish ship on the way home, bringing in a spectacular haul. The following year, he sailed back to Roanoke with supplies, but the colonists – under attack, hungry and in disarray – had already been picked up by Drake. Grenville sailed on to the Azores and rampaged through several towns, pillaging and taking Spanish prisoners. Legends of his ferocity grew up in his wake.
In 1588, Grenville had to abandon further colonisation plans to take charge of West Country defences during the Armada attack, while his ships served under Drake. After the Armada, he and Ralegh guarded sea approaches to Ireland.
Grenville's most famous adventure came in 1591, when he sailed back to the Azores with Lord Thomas Howard and a squadron of the queen's ships, to try and capture home-bound Spanish treasure ships. Philip II of Spain sent a huge squadron of war ships to challenge them, and the English, outnumbered and with many men lying sick on shore, were forced to retreat. Either through ill-luck or defiance, Grenville's ship, the Revenge, was late leaving harbour and was surrounded. He held out for 15 hours, damaging 15 Spanish ships, before ordering his crew to blow up the Revenge. They surrendered instead.
Grenville died of his wounds a few days later. Soon afterwards a cyclone sank the Revenge and many Spanish ships, so giving a boost to the legends that were already growing up around Grenville's name.
The pirates
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