Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/172

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Greville
164
Greville

notice before attempting to remove it. Parliament having directed him to advance, Greville, after giving the stipulated notice, defeated the earl at Keinton or Kineton, near Banbury, on 3 Aug. The earl then laid siege to Warwick Castle, but Sir Edward Peyton, who was in command, held out until relieved by Greville on 23 Aug. (Some Speciall Passages from Warwickshire concerning the proceedings of the Right Honourable Lord Brooke, 4 Aug. 1642; Petition and Resolution of the Citizens of the City of Chester, &c., 20 Aug. 1642; Good Newes from West Chester, &c., 18 Aug. 1642; A Famous Victory … on 3 Aug. 1642 near Keintith [sic] in Warwickshire, London, 1642; Proceedings at Banbury, &c., London, 1642).

Shortly after this he returned to London, and on 16 Sept. was appointed speaker of the House of Lords for that day. Towards the end of the month he was joined by the Earl of Essex with his army at Warwick, with whom he marched towards Worcester. He returned to Warwick to procure ammunition, which he forwarded in time for the battle at Edgehill, though he himself arrived too late. On 7 Jan. 1642-3 he was appointed under Essex general and commander-in-chief for the associated counties of Warwick, Stafford, Leicester, and Derby. He took Stratford-on-Avon by assault in February, and soon completely secured Warwickshire for the parliament. He then advanced into Staffordshire, forced his way into Lichfield, and compelled the governor to retire into the Minster Close. While directing the attack on the Close he was struck by a bullet in the eye, and killed on the spot (2 March), the day of St. Chad, to whom, as was remarked, the cathedral is dedicated. Clarendon's opinion that he was one of the most obstinate of his party is far more probable than Dugdale's conjecture that he would soon have left them. Henry Harington eulogises him as a hero and martyr (An Elegie upon the Death of the Mirrour of Magnanimity, London, 1642-3). Milton extols him as 'a right noble and pious lord,' and a staunch friend of toleration (Works, ed. Mitford, iv. 442). Greville married soon after he came of age Lady Catharine Russell, eldest daughter of Francis, earl of Bedford, by whom he had five sons, the eldest of whom, Francis, succeeded to the title, but dying unmarried was succeeded by his brother Robert, who dying without male issue the title devolved upon his younger brother Fulke.

Greville wrote:

  1. 'The Nature of Truth: its Union and Unity with the Soule, which is One in its Essence, Faculties, Acts; One with Truth …' London, 1640. Greville had written a treatise upon the prophecies contained in Matt. xxiv. and Rev. xx., and his difficulty in discovering `the true sense of the spirit' in these chapters set him upon 'a more exact and abstract speculation of truth itselfe, naked truth, as in herselfe, without her gown, without her crown,' which is throughout mystical. The book shows some acquaintance with Aristotle and the school-men. The treatise was severely criticised by Greville's friend, John Wallis [q. v.] in 'Truth Tried; or animadversions on a Treatise,' &c., London, 1642, 4to. (For a discussion of Brooke's philosophical position see Rémusat, Philosophie Anglaise depuis Bacon jusqu'à Locke, 1875).
  2. 'A Discourse opening the Nature of that Episcopacie which is exercised in England …,' London, 1641-2, 4to.
  3. Two of the speeches in 'Three Speeches spoken in Guildhall concerning his Majesty's refusal of a treaty of peace … 8 Nov. 1642' the other being by Sir Harry Vane), London, 1642, 4to.
  4. 'A Worthy Speech … at the election of his captains and commanders at Warwick Castle, as also at the delivery of their last commissions,' London, 1643. 'An Answer [assigned to Greville] to the Speech of Philip, earl of Pembroke, concerning accommodation in the House of Lords, 19 Dec. 1642,' although printed as if by order of the House of Commons, was proved on the publication of Lord Clarendon's `Life' (1759) to have been written by Lord Clarendon himself. It was shown to the king, who was quite deceived, at Oxford by way of testing the power which he supposed himself to possess of recognising Clarendon's hand in the slightest of his compositions.

[Collins's Peerage (Brydges), iv. 351; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 432; Orford's Works, ed. Berry, i. 356; Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 442; Clarendon's Rebellion, iii. 453-5, 460; Clarendon's Life, i. 161-2; Rushworth's Hist. Coll. v. 37,147-8; Parl. Hist. iii. 46; Whitelocke's Mem. p. 36; Lords' Journ. i. 357a; Comm. Jonrn. ii 607; Certaine Informations from Severall Parts of the Kingdom, &c., 28 Feb. 1642-3; Speciall Passages, 28 Feb.-7 March 1642-3; A Continuation of Certaine Speciall and Remarkable Passages, &c., 2-9 March 1642-3.]

J. M. R.

GREVILLE, ROBERT KAYE, LL.D. (1794–1866), botanist, was born at Bishop Auckland, Durham, on 13 Dec. 1794, his father, Robert Greville (1760-1830?), being rector of Edlaston and Wyaston, Derbyshire. The elder Robert Greville was B.C.L. of Pembroke College, Oxford, and the composer of some short musical pieces (see Warren, Collection of Catches, Nos. 26, 27, and Baptie, Handbook, p. 87). He married in 1792 Miss Chaloner of Bishop Auckland (Gent. Mag. 1792,pt. i. 478). Robert Kaye as a boy studied