Sir Richard Grenville , 1st Baronet Sir Richard Grenville , 1st Baronet ( or Granville ) ( 1600 – 1658 ) was a Cornish Royalist leader during the English Civil War . He was the third son of Sir Bernard Grenville ( 1559 – 1636 ) , and a grandson of the famous seaman , Sir Richard Grenville . Having served in France , Germany and the Netherlands , Grenville gained the favour of George Villiers , 1st Duke of Buckingham , took part in the expeditions to Cádiz , to the island of Rhé and to La Rochelle , was knighted , and in 1628 became member of parliament for Fowey , Cornwall . In 1630 , he married Mary Fitz ( 1596 – 1671 ) , the wealthy widow of Sir Charles Howard ( died 1626 ) , and was made a baronet , of Kilkhampton in the County of Cornwall ; his violent temper destroyed the marriage , and he was imprisoned as the result of two lawsuits , one with his wife , and the other with her kinsman , the Earl of Suffolk . In 1633 he escaped from prison and went to Germany , returning to England six years later to join the army which Charles I was collecting to march against the Scots . Early in 1641 , just after the outbreak of the Irish rebellion , Sir Richard led some troops to Ireland , where he won some fame and became governor of Trim ; then returning to England in 1643 he was arrested at Liverpool by Parliament , but was soon released and sent to join the parliamentary army . Instead , having obtained men and money , he hurried to Charles I at Oxford and was despatched to take part in the siege of Plymouth , quickly becoming the leader of the forces engaged in this enterprise . Compelled to raise the siege he withdrew into Cornwall , where he helped to resist the advancing Parliamentarians . Vital supplies of Cornish tin helped finance the Royalist war - effort and Grenville marched his contingent to Launceston where he positioned Cornish troops along the River Tamar and issued instructions to keep " all foreign troops out of Cornwall " . Grenville tried to use " Cornish particularist sentiment " to gather support for the Royalist cause . The Cornish were fighting for their Royalist privileges , notably the Duchy and Stannaries and he put a plan to the Prince which would , if implemented , have created a semi - independent Cornwall . Grenville had sent several letters to the " gentlemen of Cornwall " to meet him at Launceston in December 1645 . About this time complaints were brought against Grenville , saying that he had behaved in a very arbitrary fashion , hanging some men and imprisoning others , extorting money and using war contributions for his own ends . Many of these charges were undoubtedly true , but upon his recovery the councillors of the Prince of Wales gave him a position under Lord Goring , whom he refused to obey . Equally recalcitrant was his attitude towards Goring ' s successor , Sir Ralph Hopton . Grenville refused to serve under Lord Hopton and resigned his commission . In January 1646 he was arrested at Launceston for insubordination and imprisoned on St Michael ' s Mount . On his release , he went to France and Italy , and after visiting England in disguise passed some time in the Netherlands . He was excepted by parliament from pardon in 1648 , and after the king ' s execution he was with Charles II in France and elsewhere until some unfounded accusation which he brought against Edward Hyde , led to his removal from court . He died in 1658 , and was buried at Ghent . In 1644 , when Grenville deserted the parliamentary party , a proclamation was put out against him ; in this there were attached to his name several offensive epithets , among them being skellum , a word probably derived from the German Scheim , a scoundrel . Hence he is often called " skellum Grenville . " Grenville wrote an account of affairs in the west of England , which was printed in T . Carte ' s " Original Letters " ( 1739 ) . To this partisan account Clarendon drew up an answer , the bulk of which he afterwards incorporated in his History . In 1654 Grenville wrote his " Single defence against all aspersions of all malignant persons " . This is printed in the " Works of George Granville , Lord Lansdowne " ( London , 1736 ) , where Lansdowne ' s vindication of his kinsman , Sir Richard , against Clarendon ' s charges is also found . Grenville was immortalised in Daphne Du Maurier ' s 1948 novel " The King ' s General " , which has subsequently been adapted into a play , which is to be performed at Restormel Castle , Cornwall in May 2009 .