Richard Grenville
Sir Richard Grenville ( born June 6 1542 in Clifton House in Devonshire; † September 10, 1591 at sea near the Azores ) was an English seaman, explorer and soldier of the Elizabethan period, known for his daredevil " last stand " against the Spaniards with the Revenge.
Life
Grenville grew up in Devon Shire in Buckland Abbey. Sir Walter Raleigh and Francis Drake were his cousins. He also learned more Theodor Palaiologos, the last descendents of the Byzantine emperor, know, who spent his life in Grenville's hometown Clifton. At age 17, he studied law at the Inner Temple in London. In 1562 he killed a Robert Bannister with the sword in a fight in the beach, but was pardoned.
He pursued a military career and fought against the Turks in 1566 in Hungary. 1569 he went to Ireland, where he militarily supported various English noblemen as St. Leger has taken possession and colonization of land in the south of Ireland. This led to uprisings of the Irish under James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald ( First Desmond Rebellions ), the low made the English garrison at Tracton, Cork city and Waterford robbed besieged in which were the wives of Grenville and St. Leger. Grenville, at that time sheriff of Cork, meanwhile, remained in England, where he against the Secretary of the Queen, Sir William Cecil, made a pact with the Earl of Arundel and the Duke of Norfolk. In Devonshire, he built the fishing town of Bideford from a commercial port and planned voyages to distant countries. The plan to circumnavigate the globe via the Strait of Magellan, comes from him - but Queen Elizabeth allowed him to run in 1577 by Francis Drake. 1585 Grenville was admiral of the fleet, the English settlers brought in a colony on Roanoke Iceland before North Carolina. He made down an entire Indian village, just because a Native stole a small silver cup. This approach has been heavily criticized by the then governor of the colony, Ralph Lane, because you had to rely on peaceful coexistence with the natives. As Grenville in 1586 returned to the colony, it was abandoned and the colonists sailed back with Drake. On the way back to England Grenville raided several places from the Azores. Drake refused to give him a command to his successful raid on Cadiz 1587th Instead Grenville was with defense preparations in Cornwall and Devonshire employed in the face of an expected Spanish invasion. After the defeat of the Spanish Armada, at the Grenville patrols at sea off Ireland was involved ( together with Walter Raleigh ), Grenville went back to Ireland, where he was in 1583 involved in the suppression of the second Desmond Rebellion, where he large to land ( about 97 square kilometers) grew at Kinalmeaky. His Kolonialisierungsversuche ( ie settlement of English peasants ) but were not very successful and he went back to England in 1590. He again took a Seekommando as Vice Admiral under Thomas Howard on to ambush with the mission of the Spanish silver fleet in the Azores.
His flagship was the Revenge. However, they were surprised at Flores of an overbearing Spanish fleet of 53 ships that Philip II had sent. While Howard retired to Grenville presented the Spaniards, although his crew was already reduced by disease on 95 man. In the twelve hours long struggle he added 15 Spanish galleons to serious damage. In the end he wanted to sink his ship by an explosion itself, but the crew did not follow him and surrendered. The wounded Grenville died a few days later. Together with 16 Spanish ships sank the Revenge shortly thereafter in a storm.
Soon poems were written in this " heroic " in England. There is a known poem " Revenge" by Alfred Tennyson. " Lord Grenville " on the album " Year of the Cat " by Al Stewart also refers to it.