The Tudor Society

2 September – Sir Richard Grenville and the loss of The Revenge

On this day in Tudor history, 2nd September 1591, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, naval commander and explorer Sir Richard Grenville died at sea from injuries sustained while commanding his ship, The Revenge, in the Battle of Flores in the Azores.

Unfortunately, Grenville's death was a result of him disobeying orders and doing his own thing.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, wrote about the battle and the loss of The Revenge in his “The Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet", and in today's talk, Claire Ridgway, founder of the Tudor Society, shares excerpts from Tennyson's poem and explains what exactly happened at the battle.

You can read the poem at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Revenge:_A_Ballad_of_the_Fleet

Only 1 comment so far Go To Comment

  1. R

    What was it 90 Spanish versus 16 English? Yeah, I would have withdrawn as well.

    They didn’t do well with bad weather, did they. RIP
    Richard Grenville

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2 September – Sir Richard Grenville and the loss of The Revenge