History
Henry VII
Henry VII fostered sea power. He supported the old 1381 act that stated "that, to increase the navy of England, no goods or merchandises shall be either exported or imported, but only in ships belonging to the King's subjects."[1] Although there is no evidence of a conscious change of policy, Henry soon embarked on a program of building merchant ships larger than previously. He also invested in dockyards and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth,[2] with the Sweepstake and the Mary Fortune being the first ships built there.[3]
With the crown he acquired the Grace à Dieu, the Governor, the Martin Garcia, the Mary of the Tower, the Trinity, the Falcon, and possibly the Bonaventure. He purchased the Carvel of Ewe (Caravel of Eu, in Normandy), and perhaps also a small craft called the King's Bark; he captured the Margaret in 1490; and he built the Regent, the Sovereign, the Sweepstake (Constructed, partly out of the remains of the broken-up Grace à Dieu, under the superintendence of Sir Reginald Bray, and, in all likelihood, was launched in 1488.), and the Mary Fortune (Later rebuilt as the Sparrow).[4]
Henry VIII
Biographer Jack Scarisbrick says that Henry VIII (reigned 1509–1547) deserved his traditional title of "Father of the English navy".[5] He inherited seven small warships from his father and added two dozen more by 1514. In addition to those built in England, he bought up Italian and Hanseatic warships. By March 1513, he proudly watched his fleet sail down the Thames under command of Sir Edmund Howard.[dubious – discuss] It was the most powerful naval force to date in English history: 24 ships led by the 1600-ton "Henry Imperial"; the fleet carried 5000 combat marines and 3000 sailors. It forced the outnumbered French fleet back to its ports, took control of the English Channel, and blockaded Brest. Henry was the first king to organize the navy as a permanent force, with a permanent administrative and logistical structure, funded by tax revenue and supervised by the new Navy Board.[6][7] His personal attention was concentrated on land, where he founded the royal dockyards, planted trees for shipbuilding, enacted laws for inland navigation, guarded the coastline with fortifications, set up a school for navigation and designated the roles of officers and sailors. He closely supervised the construction of all his warships and their guns, knowing their designs, speed, tonnage, armaments, and battle tactics. He encouraged his naval architects, who perfected the Italian technique of mounting guns in the waist of the ship, thus lowering the center of gravity and making it a better platform. He supervised the smallest details and enjoyed nothing more than presiding over the launching of a new ship.[8] He drained his treasury on military and naval affairs, diverting the revenues from new taxes and the sales of monastery lands as well as taking out foreign loans and debasing the English currency.[9][10][11][6]
In 1512 Sir Edward Howard took over as Lord Admiral, and attacked on 10 August at Pointe Saint-Mathieu, with inconclusive results despite a memorable slugging match between the English Regent and the French Cordelière resulting in the destruction of both. Additional combat in 1513 resulted in the death of Sir Edward, and his brother Thomas Howard took his place. In 1514 the 1,500-ton carrack Henry Grace à Dieu was launched, the first English two-decker and one of the earliest warships equipped with gunports and heavy bronze cannons. Henry also commissioned the Anthony Roll (now in the Pepys Library), a survey of his navy as it was around 1546, from which comes much of the pictorial evidence for his ships.
Henry VIII was threatened by the Pope's ex-communication proceedings in 1538 and the peace between France and the Holy Roman Empire, which would allow them to unite against a heretical England. The projected force of the navy, which had been reinforced by 40 men-at-war at this point in his reign, would be needed to protect England from invasion until the threat of invasion passed in 1541 when France and the Holy Roman Empire renewed hostilities.[6]
Henry VIII initiated the casting of cannons in England. By the late Elizabethan age (see the Aldernay wreck survey) English iron workers using blast furnaces developed the technique of producing cast iron cannons which, while not as durable as the prevailing bronze cannons, they were much cheaper and enabled England to arm its navy more easily.
In the end, the chief result of the war with France was a decision to keep the 30 ships active during peacetime. This entailed the establishment of a number of shore facilities, and the hiring of additional administrators; a royal shipwright appears in 1538. By 1540 the navy consisted of 45 ships, a fleet of 20 ships was sent to Scotland in 1544 to land troops to burn Edinburgh, and in 1545 Lord Lisle had a force of 80 ships fighting a French force of 130 attempting to invade England in conjunction with the Battle of the Solent (where the Mary Rose sank). In the same year a memorandum established a "king's majesty's council of his marine", the first formal organization comprising seven officers, each in charge of a specific area, presided over by "Lieutenant of the Admiralty" or Vice-Admiral Thomas Clere. When war was not at hand the Navy was mostly occupied with chasing pirates.
Historian G.R. Elton argues that Henry indeed built up the organization and infrastructure of the Navy, but it was not a useful weapon for his style of warfare. It lacked a useful strategy. It did serve as a defense against invasion, and for enhancing England's international prestige.[12]
Edward and Mary
Edward VI and Mary I added little new to their father's navy. Although the navy was involved in the maneuverings following the death of Henry VIII, it was ineffective. Mary maintained the building program, the navy performed satisfactorily if not outstandingly (it did not prevent the loss of Calais) in the war with France of 1557 to 1559. However, the marriage of Mary I and Philip II led to trade with Spain, allowing English shipwrights to examine and adapt modern Spanish galleon design to the needs of the English Navy as English ports were soon visited by both Spanish warships and merchantmen. Philip was undoubtedly interested in the English navy as the chief defense of the realm of England and its potential to be deployed in the support of his father.[13] This would later prove crucial to the growth and development of the race-built galleon and the Elizabethan Navy that would obtain some triumphs against the Spanish Armada during the war between Protestant England and Catholic Spain.
Elizabeth I
While Henry VIII had launched the Royal Navy, his successors King Edward VI and Queen Mary I had ignored it and it was little more than a system of coastal defense.[6] Elizabeth made naval strength a high priority.[14] She risked war with Spain by supporting the "Sea Dogs," such as John Hawkins and Francis Drake, who preyed on the Spanish merchant ships carrying gold and silver from the New World.
A fleet review on Elizabeth I's accession in 1559 showed the navy to consist of 39 ships, and there were plans to build another 30, to be grouped into five categories (a foreshadowing of the rating system). Elizabeth kept the navy at a constant expenditure for the next 20 years, and maintained a steady construction rate.
By the 1580s, tensions with Spain had reached the breaking point, exacerbated by Elizabeth's support for the privateering expeditions of Hawkins, Drake, and others, and capped by the Cadiz raid of 1587, in which Drake destroyed dozens of Spanish ships. In 1588, Philip II of Spain launched the Spanish Armada against England, but after a running battle lasting over a week, the Armada was scattered and limped home.[6] These famous battles were early actions in the long and costly Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–1604.
Characteristics
The Tudor Navy saw the introduction of some of the first permanent, standing navies. Before this, during times of war, merchant ships were often commandeered and refitted into warships. This saw the addition of temporary wooden castles placed at the bow and stern to provide firing platforms for the ship's crew. Other strategies included having chartered squadrons, warships owned by private entrepreneurs who chartered their squadrons to the crown, or feudal navies, where a vassal, by part of their feudal contract, would raise and maintain a navy for their liege lord.[15]
Naval warfare during this time was largely auxiliary to the operations of armies on land, transporting troops to the theater of war, or conducted as piracy.[15] Before the widespread use of naval guns, warships had tried to grapple with each other so that soldiers could board the enemy ship, now they stood off and fired broadsides that would sink the enemy vessel.[16] Weapons used by the crew included daggers, such as ballock knives, swords used by officers, pikes, bills, and a combination of archery and early handguns.[17] The growing use of gunpowder saw the transition from navies being decentralized, localized, or ad hoc formations during wartime into a near-permanent fixture of maritime states.
Aside from the tangible military benefits that larger, newly cannon-equipped warships provided, they also were personifications of royal power and prestige. Henry V had powerful showpieces, the “great ships,” such as the 1,400-ton Gracedieu, Henry VIII's 800-ton Mary Rose, or James IV's 1,000-ton Michael. These ships were better expressions of royal power than effective weapons of war, however, using these ships for political effect has been episodic and inconsistent.[18]
Technological Advancements
In the 1200s and 1300s, most naval guns were relatively small swivel pieces or breech-loading deck guns located at the ship's fore and aft. By the 1500s, developments saw the introduction of breechloaders and then muzzle-loaders. Henry VII saw the expanded employment of naval guns on ships during his reign. Henry VIII introduced gunports into the design of English warships; this saw naval guns being moved from the traditional high castles upon the deck to the lower waist of the ship, providing more stability and allowed for full broadsides.[19]
The Navy yards were leaders in technical innovation, and the captains devised new tactics. Parker (1996) argues that the full-rigged ship was one of the greatest technological advances of the century and permanently transformed naval warfare. In 1573 English shipwrights introduced designs, first demonstrated in the Dreadnought, that allowed the ships to sail faster and maneuver better and permitted heavier guns.[20] When Spain finally decided to invade and conquer England it was a fiasco; Hawkins and Drake's designs of English warships made them longer, faster, more maneuverable, and more heavily gunned than its Spanish counterpart. Superior English ships and seamanship foiled the invasion and led to the destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1588, marking the high point of Elizabeth's reign.[6] Technically, the Armada failed because Spain's over-complex strategy required coordination between the invasion fleet and the Spanish army on shore. But the poor design of the Spanish cannons meant they were much slower in reloading in a close-range battle, allowing the English to take control. Spain and France still had stronger fleets, but England was catching up.[21]
