:Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument

{{main|Battle of Lansdowne}}

The Battle of Lansdowne took place on 5 July 1643 during the Civil War. The Royalists under Lord Hopton attacked the Parliamentarians led by Sir William Waller who occupied a commanding position on Lansdowne Hill. Under the leadership of Sir Bevil Grenville, Hopton's Cornish pikemen stormed Waller's breastworks, while Royalist musketeers outflanked Waller by passing through the woods on each side of his position. Grenville was mortally wounded in hand-to-hand combat as Parliamentarian horse counter-attacked and were driven off.{{cite web | url=http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/civil-war/battleview.asp?BattleFieldId=21 | publisher=The Battlefields Trust |title= The Battle of Lansdown Hill | access-date=9 January 2011| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101212171037/http://battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/civil-war/battleview.asp?BattleFieldId=21| archive-date= 12 December 2010| url-status= live}} {{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=580}} He received a mortal blow to the head with a pollaxe and was taken to the rectory at nearby Cold Ashton where he died.{{sfn|Barratt|2005|pp=53–56 }}

The monument was erected in 1720 by George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne (1666–1735), grandson of Sir Bevil and heir male to William Granville, 3rd Earl of Bath (d.1711), great-grandson of Sir Bevil and the last male in the senior line of the family.Corrected from "Henry", {{cite web|title=History and Research: Sir Beville Grenville's Monument|url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/sir-bevil-grenvilles-monument/history-and-research/|publisher=English Heritage|access-date=20 January 2015}}{{sfn|Round|1930|p=141}} In 1714 Baron Lansdowne had erected a mural monument to Sir Bevil in the Grenville Chapel in the Church of St James the Great, Kilkhampton, Cornwall, in which parish was situated the Grenville seat of Stowe.{{sfn|Round|1930|p=142}}

The monument has been repaired several times, in 1777, 1828 and 1879, each time funded by Granville's descendants. Note that the original spelling was Bevil Granville but today Grenville or Greville are commonly used.{{cite news|title=Repair Needed. Westcountry interest in an old monument|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000329/19251006/030/0004|work=Western Morning News|date=6 October 1925|page=4| via = British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription }}

File:Lansdown monument.jpg, British Library, Add. MS 15547, f.64]]

The monument is of ashlar stone masonry, 25 feet (7.6 m) high, in the English Baroque style. On the south side is a slate tablet inscribed with a quotation from the account by Lord Clarendon (1609–1674) in his History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England of the Battle of Lansdowne (1643).{{National Heritage List for England |num=1214434 |desc=Monument to Sir Bevil Grenville at NGR ST 7219 7034|access-date=5 April 2015}}{{PastScape | mnumber=1072442|mname=Sir Bevil Grenvilles Monument|access-date=21 April 2014}} On the north side are two poems. On top is a griffin (the crest and supporters of the Grenvilles) holding an escutcheon displaying the Grenville coat of arms: Gules, three clarions or.As seen on the mural monument to Sir Bevil Grenville in Kilkhampton Church, (crest: a griffin passant or) On another side are shown the Royal Arms of King Charles II (1660–1685) supported by the arms of Sir Bevil's eldest son and heir John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath (1628–1701) and by the arms of the latter's half first cousin General George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, KG (1608–1670).{{sfn|Round|1930|p=142}} Monck was the principal figure behind the Restoration of the Monarchy to King Charles II in 1660, in effecting which he was much assisted by Sir John Grenville, for which services both were elevated to the peerage.{{sfn|Round|1930|p=163}}

The Elegy on Sir Bevil Grenville by William Cartwright, a fellow Royalist, who died shortly after Sir Bevil on 29 November 1643, is inscribed on the monument:{{cite web|title=History and Research: Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument|url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/sir-bevil-grenvilles-monument/history-and-research/|publisher=English Heritage|access-date=21 April 2014}}

This was not Nature’s courage nor that thing,

We valour call which Time and Reason bring,

But a diviner fury fierce and high,

Valour transported into Ecstasy.

{{Reflist |colwidth=30em}}

• {{Cite book|last=Barratt |first=John |year=2005 |title=The civil war in the south west |publisher=Pen & Sword Military|location=Bernsley |isbn=1-84415-146-8 }}
• {{cite EB1911|wstitle= Grenville, Sir Bevil | volume= 12 | page = 580; last sentence |quote= A monument to him has been erected on the field of Lansdown|last1= Chisholm |first1= Hugh }}
• {{cite book|last1=Round|first1=J. Horace|authorlink=J. Horace Round|editor1-last=Page |editor1-first=William|title=Family Origins And Other Studies|chapter=The Granvilles and the Monks|date=1930|publisher=Constable & Co}}

{{Commons category-inline|Sir Bevil Grenville's monument}}

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Category:1720 establishments in England

Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1720

Category:18th-century inscriptions

Category:Buildings and structures in Bath, Somerset

Category:History of Bath, Somerset

Category:English Heritage sites in Somerset

Category:Monuments and memorials in Somerset

Category:Grade II* listed buildings in Bath and North East Somerset

Category:Scheduled monuments in Bath and North East Somerset

Category:Grade II* listed monuments and memorials

Category:English Civil War