Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/119

Grenville ,’ he wrote, ‘to venture a life in as good a cause and with as good company as ever Englishman did ; and I do take God to witness, if I were to choose a death it should be no other but this’ (Thurloe State Papers, i. 2 ; cf., Life of Hampden, ii. 193). In the Long parliament Grenville again represented the county of Cornwall, but took no part in its debates. Heath represents him as a determined opponent of the attainder of the Earl of Strafford, but his name does not appear in the list of those who voted against the bill (, Chronicle, ed. 1663, p. 33;, Trial of Strafford, p. 59). From the beginning of the war he devoted himself to the king's service, and as he was, according to Clarendon, ‘the most generally loved man’ in Cornwall, his influence was of the greatest value. On 5 Aug. 1642 Grenville and others published the king's commission of array and his declaration against the militia at Launceston (Journals of the House of Lords, v. 275). The parliament thrice sent for him as a delinquent and ordered his arrest (ib. pp. 271, 294, 315). The representatives of the two parties signed, on 18 Aug. at Bodmin. an agreement for a truce, but the arrival of Hopton in September revived the conflict (ib. v. 315;, vi. 239). The royalists established their headquarters at Truro, and succeeded in inducing the grand jury of Cornwall to find an indictment against their opponents for riot and unlawful assembly (, vi. 241). Grenville was determined ‘to fetch those traitors out of their nest at Launceston, or fire them in it’ (, Life of Cromwell, i. 97). The posse comitatus was raised, Launceston was triumphantly occupied, and the parliamentary forces were driven out of the county. On 19 Jan. 1643 Colonel Ruthven and the parliamentarians were defeated at Bradock Down, near Liskeard, with the loss of twelve hundred prisoners and all their guns. ‘I had the van,’ writes Grenville, ‘and so, after solemn prayers at the head of every division, I led my part away, who followed me with so great a courage, both down the one hill and up the other, that it struck a terror into them’ (, Hampden, ii. 368;, vi. 248). Against Grenville's judgment Hopton then besieged Plymouth, but before the end of February he was forced to raise the siege, and on 5 March a cessation of arms was concluded between the counties of Devon and Cornwall (, vi. 254 ;, Life of Cromwell, i. 106). In May Henry Grey [q. v.], earl of Stamford, marched into Cornwall with an army of 5,400 foot and 1,400 horse. Hopton and Grenville, though their forces hardly amounted to half that number, attacked Stamford's camp at Stratton on 16 May, and completely routed him. As at Bradock Down, Grenville was again conspicuous for his personal courage (, vii. 89). In June the Cornish army joined that under Prince Maurice, and the Marquis of Hertford advanced into Somersetshire and attacked Sir William Waller at Lansdowne, near Bath (5 July 1643). Grenville was killed as he led his Cornish pikemen up the hill against Waller's entrenchments. ‘In the face of their cannon and small shot from their breastworks, he gained the brow of the hill, having sustained two full charges from the enemy's horse ; but in their third charge, his horse failing and giving ground, he received, after other wounds, a blow on the head with a poleaxe, with which he fell’ (ib. vii. 106). In his pocket was found the treasured letter of thanks which Charles had sent him in the preceding March (Biographia Britannica, 1757, p. 2295). He was buried at Kilkhampton on 26 July (, p. 192). Lord Nugent prints an admirable and touching letter of condolence addressed to Lady Grenville by John Trelawney (Life of Hampden, ii. 381), but the letter of Anthony Payne on the same subject quoted by Mr. Hawker does not appear to be genuine (, Footprints of Former Men, 1870, p. 39). Grenville was a very great loss to the king's cause. ‘His activity, interest, and reputation was the foundation of all that had been done in Cornwall ; his temper and affection so public that no accident which happened could make any impression on him, and his example kept others from taking anything ill, or at least seeming to do so.’ Grenville's influence over his Cornish followers ‘restrained much of the license and suppressed the murmurs and mutiny to which that people were too much inclined’ (, vii. 108, 82n.) In the following year a collection of poems was published at Oxford, entitled ‘Verses on the Death of the right Valiant Sir Bevill Grenvill, knight,’ containing elegies by William Cartwright, Jasper Mayne, and others. Memorial verses are also to be found in Heath's ‘Clarastella,’ 1650, p. 6, and Sir Francis Wortley's ‘Characters and Elegies,’ 1646, p. 44. Best known are the oft-quoted lines of Martin Lluellin : Where shall th' next famous Grenville's ashes stand? Thy grandsire fills the seas and thou the land! Grenville married Grace, daughter of Sir George Smith of Exeter, by whom he had seven sons and five daughters. Lady Grenville was buried at Kilkhampton on 8 June 1647. Of his sons the most notable were