GRENVILLE or GREYNVILE, SIR RICHARD (c. British naval commander, was born of an old Cornish family about 1541. His grandfather, Sir Richard, had been mar shal of Calais in the time of Henry VIII., and his father com manded and was lost in the "Mary Rose" in 1545. In 1585 he commanded for his cousin, Sir Walter Raleigh, the fleet of seven vessels carrying colonists to Roanoke island in the present North Carolina, and captured a Spanish vessel on his way back. In 1586 he carried provisions to Roanoke, and, finding the colony deserted, left a few men to maintain possession. During the two years before the Armada (1588) he was engaged in organizing the defence of western England. In 1591, Lord Thomas Howard was sent to intercept the homeward-bound treasure-fleet of Spain, with Grenville as second in command on board the "Revenge," a ship of Soo tons which had been commanded by Drake against the Armada in 1588. At the end of August, Howard with 16 ships lay at anchor to the north of Flores in the Azores. On the 31 st he received news from a pinnace, sent by the earl of Cum berland, who was then off the Portugal coast, that a Spanish fleet of 53 vessels was then bearing up to the Azores to meet the treasure-ships. Being hopelessly outmatched, Howard gave orders to weigh anchor and stand out to sea. But, by some misunder standing, the "Revenge" was delayed, and cut off from her consorts by the Spaniards. Grenville resolved to try to break through the middle of the Spanish line. His ship was becalmed under the lee of a huge galleon, and after a hand-to-hand fight lasting through fifteen hours against fifteen Spanish ships and a force of five thousand men, the "Revenge" with her hundred and fifty men was captured. Grenville himself was carried on board the Spanish flag-ship "San Pablo," and died a few days later. His exploit is commemorated in Tennyson's ballad of "The Revenge."