Richard Grenville Sir Richard Grenville ( 15 June 1542 – 10 September 1591 ) ( alias " Greynvile " , " Greeneville " , " Greenfield " etc . ) was an English Member of Parliament for Cornwall , Soldier , Sheriff of Cork ' 69 - ' 70 , Armed Merchant Fleet Owner , Privateer , Sheriff of Cornwall in 1576 – 77 , 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 . He died in 1591 at the Battle of Flores , characteristically fighting against overwhelming odds , and refusing to surrender his ship to the far more numerous Spanish . He was the grandfather of Sir Richard Grenville , of English Civil War fame . Origins . Richard Grenville was the eldest son and heir of Sir Roger Grenville ( d . 1545 ) , who was Captain of the Mary Rose when it sank in Portsmouth Harbour in 1545 , by his wife Thomasine Cole , daughter of Thomas Cole of Slade . Thomasine survived her husband and remarried to Thomas Arundell . The ancient Grenville family were 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 Sir Francis Drake . Youth . Grenville ' s birthplace is believed to have been at Bideford . His father ( who had pre - deceased his own father Sir Richard Grenville ( c . 1495 - 1550 ) , MP for Cornwall in 1529 ) 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 . Early career . At age 18 he inherited his grandfather ' s estates at Stowe in Cornwall , and Bideford and Buckland Abbey in Devon , England . On 19 November 1562 , aged 20 , he was in an affray in the Strand , London , in which he ran through with his sword Robert Bannister and left him to die . He was pardoned for this crime . In 1565 Grenville married Mary St Leger ( c . 1543 - 1623 ) , daughter of Sir John St Ledger and heir to her brother . He was appointed Sheriff of Cork c . 1568 . Military career . Hungarian campaign . In pursuit of his military career , Grenville fought against the Turks in Hungary in 1566 . Activity in Ireland . In 1569 , he arrived in Ireland with Sir Warham St . Leger ( c . 1525 - 1597 ) to arrange for the settlement of lands in the Barony of Kerricurrihy . These had been mortgaged 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 harbour . Sir Peter Carew had asserted his claim to lands in south Leinster . St Leger settled nearby , and Humphrey Gilbert pushed westward from Idrone along the Blackwater River . All of these English efforts to take over land in the south of Ireland led to bitter disputes . They escalated into the first of the 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 pickaxes 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 robbed the citizens 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 . His forces put local English farmers to the sword . 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 . " Undeviatingly Protestant " , he arrested the Catholic priest Cuthbert Mayne at the home of the Tregians in 1577 . Mayne was martyred as a result . Development of Bideford . During this period 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 . 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 ) . Development of Irish estate . Following a period of supporting Sir Walter Raleigh ' s venture in America ( see below ) he returned to Munster to arrange the estate granted him under the plantation of the province . Following the suppression of the Second Desmond Rebellion in 1583 , he had purchased some 24 , 000 acres ( 97 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 . In 1574 Grenville submitted a proposal to the Privy Council to take a single ship to plunder Spanish treasure ships 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 Spice Islands . He was refused on the grounds that England was still in diplomatic relations with Spain . Grenville ' s plan was eventually executed by Sir Francis Drake when he circumnavigate d the world in 1577 . New World & Roanoke Colony . In 1585 , Grenville was admiral of the seven - strong fleet that brought English settlers to establish a military colony on Roanoke Island , off the coast of modern North Carolina in North America . He was heavily criticised by Ralph Lane , general of the expedition , who referred to Grenville ' s " intolerable pride and unsatiable ambition " . Lane ' s remark was prompted by a bitter legal feud he then had with Grenville . On his return , Grenville captured a Spanish ship , the ' Santa Maria de Vincenze ' , which he later brought to Bideford to be converted into the ' Galleon Dudley ' . The cannons from that Spanish ship are thought to be those erroneously labelled ' 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 : " 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 " . Spanish Armada . In 1587 he was asked 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 . In 1588 , 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 the " Revenge " and death . Grenville was appointed Vice - Admiral of the Fleet under Thomas Howard . He was charged with maintaining a squadron at the Azores to waylay the return to Spain of the South American Spanish treasure fleets . He took command of " Revenge " , a galleon considered to be a masterpiece of naval construction . At 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 " . His crew was reduced by nearly 100 men due to sickness on shore , but he chose nonetheless to confront the far superior Spanish force . 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 : The fight was later romanticized by the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson in his work : " " Out - gunned , out - fought , and out - numbered fifty - three to one " " , Grenville was said to have wished to blow up his ship rather than give up the fight , as Tennyson wrote : " " 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 " , 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 . " Revenge " sank with her mixed prize - crew of seventy Spaniards and English prisoners near the island of Terceira , at the approximate position . Marriage & progeny . In 1565 Grenville married Mary St Leger ( c . 1543 - 1623 ) , daughter of Sir John St Ledger and heir to her brother . She outlived her husband and died aged about 80 on 9 November 1623 and was buried at St Mary ' s Church , Bideford . The family initially lived at Buckland Abbey before moving to a newly built house at Bideford . They had 4 sons , including Bernard Grenville .