Grenville, Sir Richard (1542-1591), an English naval commander, led Sir Walter Raleigh’s first colonizing expedition to America. He helped establish the first English colony there, on Roanoke Island, in 1585. Grenville sailed back to England later that year. In 1586, he returned to the colony with supplies, but it had been abandoned shortly before he arrived (see Lost Colony).
Grenville commanded a squadron against the Spanish Armada in 1588 (see Spanish Armada). In 1591, he took part in an expedition under Lord Thomas Howard to intercept a Spanish treasure fleet near the Azores Islands. A large Spanish fleet surprised the expedition off the island of Flores. Howard withdrew with the majority of the English ships. But Grenville, then vice admiral, was wounded when his ship, the Revenge, could not break through the Spanish fleet. He died of his wounds soon afterward.
Grenville was born on or about June 15, 1542, near Bideford, Devonshire. He was knighted in 1577. He died in September 1591.
