GRENVILE, Sir Bevill (1596-1643), of Stowe, Kilkhampton, Cornw.

The Grenviles of Stowe were among the oldest, and most prestigious, of Cornish gentry families. They had been seated in Kilkhampton parish since the thirteenth century, and one of their number had served as knight of the shire in 1388.30HP Commons 1386-1421. Bevill Grenvile’s grandfather, Sir Richard Grenvile†, was a famous Elizabethan naval captain, and his father, Sir Bernard Grenvile†, although a less flamboyant character, was well respected in Cornwall and well connected at court. Bevill Grenvile received an education that accorded with his status, moving from Oxford to the court, and then spending a short period abroad. He was elected as knight of the shire for Cornwall in 1621 and 1624, and went on the serve as MP for Launceston in 1625, 1626 and 1628. In the latter period he became a close ally of Sir John Eliot, opposing the Forced Loan and joining the attack on the government’s arbitrary policies in Parliament.31HP Commons 1604-1629. He shared Eliot’s disgrace, if not his imprisonment, and after Eliot’s death in 1632 resolved ‘not to intermeddle with the affairs of the commonwealth’.32Granville, Granville Family, 182-3.

Despite Grenvile’s disillusion with politics, the death of his father in June 1636 brought him back into local government. He was made deputy lieutenant in the same year, and commissioned as colonel of a militia regiment.33Granville, Granville Family, 192, 194. In the spring of 1637 the privy council ordered Grenvile and John Trefusis* to arbitrate a dispute over the election of the mayor of Bodmin; and in the summer of that year Grenvile was appointed as piracy commissioner in both Devon and Cornwall.34CSP Dom. 1637, pp. 9, 148; C181/5, ff. 83v-4v. During this period, his financial position came close to collapse. He had inherited nothing from his father, as he told Sir James Bagg†: ‘I expected no worldly goods from him and therein I am not deceived, for neither to myself nor any child he had hath he given the value of a penny’.35Stucley, Grenvile, 68. Instead, he had inherited large debts, and had also been bound with his father for the repayment of some of these, amounting to £22,000, from February 1625.36Royal Institution of Cornwall, BRA.B/328/3; Northants RO, MS Grafton (Fitzroy) G3034. In the later 1630s Grenvile continued the sale of estates that had been initiated by his father some years before, for example selling the borough of Bideford to the 1t Baron Poulett (John Poulett†) (on behalf of his daughter) for £3,000 in 1639, and Kilkhampton manor and Stowe Barton in Cornwall were also alienated to pay off a debt of £3,000 in 1640. In the spring of 1639 he had secured a further £20,000 of debts by mortgages, and in his will, drawn up in April, he appointed John Arundell I* and others in trust to pay off his creditors, and to scrape together reasonable dowries for his four daughters and annuities for his sons.37CCC 2214-5; Stucley, Grenvile, 79.

As deputy lieutenant, Grenvile was involved in the raising of troops for the first bishops’ war in the winter of 1638-9. Unlike many local officials, he greeted the prospect of war with an enthusiasm which he expressed in an oft-quoted letter to Sir John Trelawny.

Sir, for my journey – it is fixed. I cannot contain myself within my doors when the king of England’s standard waves in the field upon so just [an] occasion, the cause being such as must make all those that die in it little inferior to martyrs. And for mine own part I desire to acquire an honest name or an honourable grave.38Granville, Granville Family, 213.

Grenvile went first to Oxford and then to York, where, on 22 April 1639, he was sworn gentleman of the king’s privy chamber extraordinary.39LC5/134, p. 329. When the king’s army marched north, he told William Morice, melodramatically, that: ‘I go with joy and comfort to venture a life in as good a cause, and with as good company, as ever Englishman did’, and he condemned the Scots as ‘impious’ for opposing their king.40Stucley, Grenvile, 81. The humiliating nature of the truce forced on Charles by the Scots did nothing to reduce Grenvile’s enthusiasm, and his zeal reached a new height on 23 June, when he was knighted by the king.41CSP Dom. 1639, p. 384; Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 206. Two days’ later, as he journeyed south, Grenvile told his wife, with false modesty, that ‘the king hath been gracious to me both in words and actions, yet one thing I wish had been forborne, but it cannot now be helped’. He then described how Thomas Howard, 21st earl of Arundel, had brought him to the king, who, ‘after gracious words, upon a sudden drew my lord general’s sword and gave me a dubbing’.42Stucley, Grenvile, 86. Grenvile chose to ignore the realities of his financial situation. Despite his favour in the king’s eyes, Grenvile’s creditors were becoming increasingly frustrated; the military adventure had cost him yet more money; and, worse still, he had been prevailed upon to lend money to the earl of Arundel, perhaps as a douceur for his knighthood.43Stucley, Grenvile, 87-8.

Grenvile’s election for Launceston in March 1640 was on his own interest as a local landowner and free burgess of the borough, and he may have had the support of John Harris I*, with whom he stayed during the election; but he played no known part in the Short Parliament that followed.44Cornw. RO, B/LAUS/345, 347; Stucley, Grenvile, 90. Grenvile did not serve with the royal army during the second bishops’ war, and although he was elected as knight of the shire for Cornwall in October 1640, this reflected his local standing rather than his new relationship with the royal court. Indeed, the disputed election for Bossiney set Grenvile on a collision course with the courtiers who sought to manage the Cornish elections, especially William Coryton*. Coryton, as mayor of the borough, expected a clear run for his nominee for the second seat, but he was challenged by John, 2nd Baron Robartes, who supported Sir John Clotworthy*, and Grenvile, who backed his friend and creditor, Sir Ralph Sydenham*. As Grenvile told Sydenham later, the Bossiney election had been rigged by Coryton, and

in that place I found the inhabitants aggrieved at a course that was held, wherein nine or ten did take upon them to be the only choosers of the borough; whereas they conceived that the rest had as much right to do it as they … Mr Coryton’s power is great there … I gave him to understand that I was willing to join with him if he pleased, whereby my lord chamberlain [Philip Herbert*, 4th earl of Pembroke] would be sure of one [seat], if he would let me have the other, but he was absolute, and would have all or none.45Stucley, Grenvile, 95.

Grenvile had opposed Coryton on principle, but soon discovered the risks involved in taking a stand – not least that he would offend Pembroke, who was also warden of the Stannaries. Grenvile asked Sydenham ‘to prevent my lord chamberlain having a misconceit of me… I believe he will be informed that I oppose him, which truly is not so, for I offered to join with Mr Coryton – which he refused’. Undiplomatically, he also wrote to Coryton, telling him exactly why he was in the wrong.46Stucley, Grenvile, 96. After a Commons’ ruling, Sydenham was confirmed as MP, but Grenvile had gained little from the dispute.

Grenvile’s activity in the Long Parliament was undistinguished. He did not attend the House at first, but he was present on 21 November, when he made the generous (but in his financial position, extremely unwise) commitment to stand security for £1,000 of the loan levied by Parliament to pay the armies in the north.47D’Ewes (N), 52; Stucley, Grenvile, 96. He was named to a committee to consider complaints about the levying of Ship Money in Hertfordshire on 5 December 1640, but does not figure again in the Journal until 21 April 1641, when he was given leave to go into the country ‘for some convenient time’.48CJ ii. 45b, 125a. Grenvile’s absence may have been caused by his desire to disassociate himself from the trial of his old colleague from the 1620s Parliaments, the 1st earl of Strafford (Sir Thomas Wentworth†), and he had earlier tried to persuade his fellow knight of the shire, Sir Alexander Carew*, not to ‘have a hand in this fatal business, and therefore pray give your vote against the bill’.49Stucley, Grenvile, 98. There was, however, a more personal reason for Grenvile’s return to Cornwall at this time, as his eldest son, Richard, was seriously ill, and died towards the end of April. This was a bitter blow, and Grenvile told Sir Nicholas Slanning* that it was ‘the greatest [loss] that could have befallen me’. His wife was inconsolable.50Stucley, Grenvile, 99-100, 104. Richard had been dead several weeks before Grenvile returned to the Commons. On 10 June 1641 Grenvile was named to the committee to consider the best way to disband the two armies that still occupied the north of England.51CJ ii. 172b. He was in Westminster at the end of July, when he was named to a committee to settle the estates of Sir Francis Popham*, and on 31 July he belatedly took the Protestation.52CJ ii. 228a, 231b.

Grenvile was away from Parliament throughout the autumn of 1641, apparently raising money to fend off his creditors, as in November he granted a 1,000 year lease of the barton of North Leigh in Devon for £1,000.53CCC 2214. He returned to London at the end of the month, and was greeted on his arrival by a letter from his wife, who was again been confronted by angry creditors. With some justification, she held him responsible for the mess the family was in, and for refusing to address the situation.

This sore is not to be cured with silence or patience either, and while you are loathe to discourse or think of that you can take little comfort to see how bad it is, and I as unwilling to strike on that string which sounds harsh in your ear (and the matter still grows worse) though I can never put it out of my thoughts…54Stucley, Grenvile, 103-4.

Shortly after his return to London, Grenvile fell ill, and on 1 March 1642 he was again granted leave of absence, on the motion of the Devon MP, Sir Samuel Rolle*, ‘for the recovery of his health’.55PJ i. 491. In fact by this time his strength was returning, and a week later he told his wife he had ‘attained my health pretty well’, but still ‘I resolve to come away this week’.56Stucley, Grenvile, 107.

Grenvile’s reluctance to stay in London in March 1642 probably reflected his political concerns, rather than his medical worries. By the early summer he became increasingly involved in raising support for the king in the west. He was recorded as absent without leave from the Commons at the call of the House on 16 June.57CJ ii. 626n; PJ iii. 481. On 29 June he was appointed as one of the king’s commissioners of array to raise forces in Cornwall, and he responded to the instruction of Warwick, 2nd Baron Mohun, to meet at Lostwithiel in the last week of July, ‘where we shall confer about some business concerning settling of this county’.58Northants RO, FH133, unfol.; Cornw. RO, B/35/57. A further sign of Grenvile’s commitment to the cause is his inclusion in the new commission of the peace on 15 July.59C231/5, p. 529. Such appointments caused alarm at Westminster, and on 22 July the Commons ordered that Grenvile ‘be forthwith summoned’ to explain himself.60CJ ii. 685b; PJ iii. 252. When the commission of array was publicly proclaimed in Cornwall in early August, Parliament at last moved against Grenvile. The Houses had received letters from Cornwall with details of how Grenvile, Sir Nicholas Slanning* and John Arundell I had ‘joined together in putting the commission of array in execution in Cornwall’, and on 8 August directed that the three must be arrested and sent to London as ‘delinquents’.61CJ ii. 710b, 711a-b; LJ v. 271b-272a, 275a-b. On 16 August this was passed as a formal resolution in both Houses, and on 19 September, with the receipt of a letter from Grenvile and Arundell protesting that ‘they were commanded by his majesty’s special command to continue in their country to preserve the peace thereof’, they were both disabled from sitting as MPs.62CJ ii. 722b, 728b, 772a; LJ v. 293b, 315b; Add. 18777, f. 3.

By this time, Grenvile and his friends had long been mustering their forces. On 17 August the posse comitatus assembled outside Bodmin, and although the turn-out was small, it was noted that most of those present were tenants or servants of Grenvile.63Stucley, Grenvile, 111. Grenvile’s attitude to his parliamentarian counterparts was certainly uncompromising. In September a newly-released prisoner related how he had been well treated by Grenvile, but added that he had declared that ‘Mr [John] Carew* and Sir Richard Buller* are two wise men but they make the whole county fools. They pretend that they fight for the king, but they would cut his throat if they could’.64Antony House, Carew-Pole BC/24/2/118. The arrival of Sir Ralph Hopton* with a small force of cavalry in late September strengthened the position of the Cornish royalists, and when they advanced on Launceston, Buller and his friends hastily withdrew to Devon. Grenvile, who was spoiling for a fight, complained to his wife that ‘for my part I was impatient (as all my honest friends also were) that we did not march promptly to fetch those traitors out of their nest at Launceston, or fire them in it’.65Stucley, Grenvile, 112-5. In October Grenvile was commissioned to raise a regiment of foot, and he led his men into Devon to threaten Plymouth and Exeter, before retreating back to Cornwall during the winter. A parliamentarian advance across the Tamar was defeated at Braddock Down in January 1643, and Grenvile, who had charge of the advance guard, proved himself a brave, if impetuous, commander.

I had the van, and so [after] solemn prayers in the head of each division, I led my part away, who followed me with so good courage, both down the one hill and up the other, that it struck a terror into them … they stood not our first charge of foot, but fled in great disorder and we chased them divers miles.66Stucley, Grenvile, 116, 121-3.

After a further incursion into Devon, a local truce was agreed. Grenvile’s aggressive attitude, and personal bravery, had clearly enhanced his reputation in Cornwall. During the winter of 1642 and spring of 1643 he was feted by the Cornish towns, with Bodmin and Launceston sending him regular gifts of wine, and the mayor of Launceston laid on a dinner party for Grenvile and other senior royalists on 17 April, the day before the local truce expired.67Cornw. RO, B/LAUS/179/2/3; B/BOD/285.

When a parliamentarian force under Henry Grey*, 1st earl of Stamford, invaded northern Cornwall, Hopton’s army marched to cut him off at Stratton, and on 16 May the royalist forces attacked the parliamentarians, entrenched on a hilltop, in four columns. Grenvile led his column in person, and was ‘in the shock … borne to the ground’; but his men ‘so reinforced the charge that, having killed most of the assailants and dispersed the rest’, they gained the hill and joined their friends in routing the enemy.68Clarendon, Hist. iii. 70-1. Recovering in Okehampton, Grenvile told his wife that he had mostly suffered ‘bruises’, but added ‘I am something sore, and did spit blood two days and bled at nose much’.69Stucley, Grenvile, 140. The victory at Stratton allowed Hopton to advance eastwards through Devon and into Somerset, where he met Sir William Waller’s* army at Lansdown, outside Bath, on 5 July. Again the royalists were required to attack a defended hillside, and again Grenvile was in the thick of the action, as the 1st earl of Clarendon (Edward Hyde*) recorded: ‘Sir Bevill Grenvile, in the head of his pikes, bore the shock of Waller’s horse and broke them and forced them to retire’. In the hand-to-hand fighting that followed, Grenvile was wounded and then hacked down by a pole-axe, ‘to the universal grief of the army, and, indeed, of all who knew him … all men exceedingly lamented his loss at the time he fell, and had cause to renew the lamentation very often afterwards’, as the king’s cause faltered.70Clarendon, Hist. iii. 82; Stucley, Grenvile, 146-7.

As Clarendon hints, Grenvile’s reputation as the archetypical cavalier was built on his heroic death, rather than his virtuous life. His irresponsible attitude towards money and the future security of his family clearly upset his wife, and it is doubtful that his numerous unsatisfied creditors shared Clarendon’s view that Grenvile was ‘the generally most loved man of that county’.71Clarendon, Hist. ii. 452. Grenvile’s eldest surviving son, John, was made 1st earl of Bath at the Restoration, and a younger son, Bernard†, was MP for Launceston and other boroughs between 1661 and 1698.72CP; HP Commons 1660-1690; HP Commons 1690-1715.