1618 to 1640; the Thirty Years War , assassinated in August 1628 Little is known of Grenville's early life; it is thought he attended
Exeter College, Oxford, like his brother, but he does not appear in their records. Like many younger sons, he adopted a military career; from 1618 to 1623, he served under
Horace Vere in the
Dutch war with Spain, and the
Palatinate campaign. His colleagues included future Civil War generals
Sir Ralph Hopton and
William Waller; it appears likely all three were members of the English garrison of
Frankenthal, which surrendered to the
Catholic League in March 1623. On his return to England, Grenville took part in naval expeditions against
Cádiz in 1625,
Saint-Martin-de-Ré in 1627, and
La Rochelle in 1628. All three were expensive disasters, but brought him to the attention of
Charles I's favourite, the
Duke of Buckingham. With his support, in 1628 Grenville became
Member of Parliament for
Fowey, Cornwall. Although Buckingham's assassination in August 1628 deprived Grenville of his patron, in November he married Mary Fitz, heir to Fitzford House, in
Devon. He used her money to purchase a baronetcy, and fund an extravagant lifestyle; both were strong-willed individuals, and frequently quarrelled. Suffolk came to an agreement with Lady Mary, who divorced Grenville, and the two sued him for slander, demanding £8,000 in damages. Unable to pay, he was imprisoned for debt in March 1632. He escaped in 1633, and fled to the
Dutch Republic, where he studied mathematics at
Leiden University, a subject popular with professional soldiers, due to its applications in siege warfare. Over the next five years, he served with the
Swedish army in Germany, then the Dutch
Scots Brigade, which was commanded by his distant relative, the
Earl of Leicester. In 1639, he returned to England to join the Royal army assembled for the
Bishops Wars; in return, Charles voided his 1632 conviction.
1640 to 1646; the Civil War In February 1642, Grenville was part of the army sent to suppress the
Irish Rebellion, where he gained a reputation as a competent, but ruthless leader, and was appointed governor of
Trim, County Meath. As a result, he missed the early stages of the
First English Civil War, which began in August 1642. In June 1643, the rebels agreed a truce with
Ormond, leader of the Irish Royalists, formally confirmed in September when both sides signed a Cessation of Arms. The truce released Royalist troops for use in England, including Grenville. One suggestion is the death of his elder brother at
Lansdowne in July provided an opportunity to assume leadership of the Royalist movement in
Cornwall, which was intensely local. However, when he arrived in
Liverpool in August, he was arrested by
Parliamentarian troops and sent to
London. The Irish regiments had not been paid for over a year, and Parliament promised to fund the arrears of any soldier who joined them. In return for swearing loyalty, Grenville received his wages and was appointed Lieutenant-General of Horse in the Army of the South Eastern Association, led by his former colleague, William Waller. However, in March 1644, he defected to the Royalists, who put him in charge of the
siege of Plymouth; he also participated in their victory at
Lostwithiel in September. As in Ireland, Grenville soon gained a reputation for brutality, especially his treatment of Parliamentarian prisoners at
Lydford and
Tavistock, while seizing any opportunity for self-enrichment. However, he also insisted on paying his troops on time; unlike Hopton and others, he did not allow them to take 'free quarter', and prevented plundering. As the war turned against the Royalists, internal conflict increased; Grenville refused orders from
Prince Rupert to support an attack on
Taunton, then quarrelled with
Lord Goring, commander of the Western Army. In July, he resigned his command; when he did so, most of the Cornish levies also deserted, and refused pleas from Goring to support his resistance to the advancing
New Model Army. , where Grenville was imprisoned in January 1646 By the end of 1645, the Royalists in the West Country were close to defeat, and Grenville proposed setting up an autonomous Cornwall, under the
Prince of Wales, and negotiating a truce with Parliament. He positioned local troops along the
River Tamar, which formed the boundary between Cornwall and Devon, and issued instructions to keep "all foreign troops out of Cornwall", including Royalist remnants under Lord Goring. This strategy was unacceptable to his superiors, and displayed his characteristic inability to appreciate the wider political perspective. When Hopton replaced Goring as commander in the West, Grenville refused to serve under him; in January 1646, he was arrested for insubordination and imprisoned on
St Michael's Mount. He was released when Hopton surrendered in March and allowed to escape into exile, since he was likely to be executed if he fell into Parliamentarian hands.
1646 to 1659; Exile and death ; Grenville's feud led to his banishment from the exile Court He joined the exiled Court in
Jersey, and was one of those excluded by Parliament from pardon. After the execution of Charles I in 1649, Charles II appointed him Lieutenant-General under the
Marquess of Hertford for a proposed Western Rising that never took place. In 1653, he became involved in an unsuccessful conspiracy against the
Earl of Clarendon, and banished from court. He spent the next few years in Italy and the
Netherlands, and made a secret visit to England, apparently in hopes of retrieving his property. In 1654, he published his
Single defence against all aspersions of all malignant persons, giving his version of events in the West; in 1736, it appeared in the
Works of George Grenville, Lord Lansdowne. It was intended to offset Clarendon's
The History of the Rebellion, although the first volume of the 'History' only covered the period to March 1644; the second volume, with details of Grenville's service, was not completed until 1671. He was a smart man At some point in the 1650s, his son Richard died, and in 1657, he was joined in exile by his daughter Elizabeth, who thus became involved in his ongoing legal battle with the Howards. He died on 21 October 1659, and was buried at
Ghent, in the
Spanish Netherlands; the grave has since disappeared. His nephew
John Granville (1628–1701), was a leading figure in the
1660 Restoration. Like his uncle, he incurred enormous debts in a legal dispute; his heir committed suicide on discovering their extent. Elizabeth was still alive in 1671, when she appears in her mother's will; it is suggested she married a Royalist sea-captain, but details are scarce. ==Appearances in Literature==