Tudor navy
The Tudor navy was the navy of the
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
In 1512 Sir
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
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
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
By the 1580s, tensions with Spain had reached the breaking point, exacerbated by Elizabeth's support for the
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]
Key officials from 1485 to 1546
Officers from 1485 to 1546 included:[22]
- John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, 1485-1512[22]
- Sir Edward Howard, 1512-1513[22]
- Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, 1513-1525[22]
- Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset, 1525-1536[22]
- William Fitzwilliam, 1st Earl of Southampton, 1536-1540[22]
- John Russell, 1st Lord Russell, 1540-1542[22]
- John Dudley, 1st Viscount Lisle, 1542-1546[22]
- Clerk of Marine Causes
- Thomas Rogers, 12 December 1480 d.1488[22]
- William Commersall, 1488-18 May 1495[22]
- Robert Brygandine, 19 May 1495 – 1523[22]
- Thomas Jermyn, and William Gonson, 1523–1533, (jointly)[22]
- Leonard Thoreton 1533-1538[22]
- Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Spert, 1538-1543[22]
- Edmund Wynter, 1544-1545[22]
- John Wynter 1545- d. 1546[22]
- Clerk Comptroller of the Navy
- John Hopton, 1512-1524[22]
- Vice-Admiral, Sir Thomas Spert, 1524-1540[22]
- John Osborne, 1540-1545[22]
- William Broke, 1545-1561[22]
- Keeper of the Storehouses
- Vice-Admiral, Sir William Gonson, 1524-1545[22]
- Richard Howlett, 1545-1546[22]
Key officials from 1546 to 1603
- Officers from 1546 to 1603
- Lord High Admirals of England[22]
- Thomas Seymour, 1st Lord Seymour of Sudeley, 1546-1549[22]
- John Dudley, 1st Earl of Warwick, 1549-1550[22]
- Edward Clinton, 9th Lord Clinton, 1550-1554[22]
- William Howard, 1st Lord Howard of Effingham, 1554-1558[22]
- Edward Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln, 1558-1585[22]
- Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, 1585-1603[22]
In 1546
- Lieutenants of the Admiralty
- Sir Thomas Clere 1545-1552[22]
- Sir William Woodhouse 1552-1565[22]
Note:(post is vacant till 1604)
- Treasurers of Marine Causes
- Sir Robert Legge, 1546-1549[22]
- Benjamin Gonson, 1549-1547[22]
- Benjamin Gonson and Sir John Hawkins, 1549-1577[22]
- Sir John Hawkins, 1577-1595[22]
- Sir Roger Longford, 1595-1598[22]
- Sir Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke, 1595-1603[22]
- Surveyors and Riggers of the Navy
- Benjamin Gonson 24 April 1546[22]
- Vice-Admiral, Sir Thomas Spert, 1524-1540[22]
- Vice Admiral Sir William Wynter 8 July 1549 (also Master of Naval Ordnance)[22]
- Sir Henry Palmer 11 July 1589.[22]
- Sir John Trevor 20 December 1598 -1603.[22]
- Vice-Admiral Sir William Woodhouse, 1546-1552[22]
- Vice Admiral Sir Thomas Wyndham, 1552-1553[22]
- Vice Admiral Sir William Wynter 1557-1589 (also Surveyor)[22]
Note:Office is discontinued after 1589.
- William Broke, 1545-1561[22]
- Vice-Admiral, William Holstocke, 1561–1580[22]
- William Borough, 1580–1598[22]
- Sir Henry Palmer 1598–1603[22]
Note: (office is merged with Treasurer of the Navy)
- Edward Baeshe, 1550-1587[22]
- James Quarles, 1587-1595[22]
- Sir Marmaduke Darrell, 1595-1603[22]
- Clerk of the Navy (also known as Clerk of the Ships)
- Richard Howlett, 24 April 1546- 10 October 1560.
- George Wynter, 10 October 1560 – 2 June 1567.
- John Hawkins, 2 June 1567, (appointed but did not succeed).
- George Wynter, 2 June 1567 – 24 March 1582.
- William B. B. Gonson, 24 March 1582 – 6 July 1596.
- Benjamin Gonson, 6 July 1596 – 17 April 1603.
Legacy
Important though this period was, it represents a soon-lost high point. After 1601 the efficiency of the Navy declined gradually, and corruption grew, until it was brought under control by an inquiry of 1618.
See also
- Admiralty in the 16th century
- History of the Royal Navy: 1500-1601
- Navy Board
- William Winter (admiral)
References
- ^ Chapter III - The Commercial Policy of England Toward the American Colonies: the Acts of Trade Archived 25 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine, in Emory R. Johnson, T. W. Van Metre, G. G. Huebner, D. S. Hanchett, History of Domestic and Foreign Commerce of the United States - Vol. 1, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1915.
- ^ Arthur Nelson, The Tudor navy: the ships, men and organization, 1485–1603 (2001) p. 36
- ^ "1497 - First Ships Launched". Archived from the original on 18 May 2022.
- ^ "Page:Royalnavyhistory01clow.djvu/444 - Wikisource, the free online library".
- ^ J.J. Scarisbrick, Henry VIII (1968) pp. 500–1.
- ^ ISBN 9781405162753.
- ^ C. S. L. Davies, "The Administration of the Royal Navy under Henry VIII: the origins of the Navy Board." English Historical Review 80.315 (1965): 268–288. in JSTOR
- ^ A.F. Pollard, Henry VIII (1902) pp 50, 100-2.
- ^ N.A.M. Rodger, The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain 660 – 1649 (1997) pp 184, 221 236-7
- ^ David Loades, The Tudor Navy: An administrative, political and military history (1992) is the standard history.
- ^ Elaine W. Fowler, English sea power in the early Tudor period, 1485–1558 (1965) is an older study.
- ^ G.R. Elton, Reform and Reformation: England, 1509–1558 (1977) pp. 309–10.
- ISBN 978-1-84615-743-1.
- ^ Julian S. Corbett, Drake and the Tudor Navy, With a History of the Rise of England as a Maritime Power (2 vol 1898) online
- ^ ISBN 978-1-84615-171-2.
- ^ Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker, The Spanish Armada (1999) p 140
- ^ "Meet the Soldiers and Gunners". The Mary Rose.
- ISBN 9780429467240.
- ^ "Warship - The age of gun and sail | Britannica". www.britannica.com.
- Mariner's Mirror, Aug 1996, Vol. 82 Issue 3, pp. 269–300
- ^ Geoffrey Parker, "Why the Armada Failed," History Today, May 1988, Vol. 38 Issue 5, pp. 26–33
- ^ ISBN 9781473819924.
Further reading
- Corbett, Julian S. Drake and the Tudor Navy, With a History of the Rise of England as a Maritime Power (2 vol 1898) online
- Glasgow, Tom. "Vice Admiral Woodhouse and ship keeping the Tudor navy," Mariner's Mirror, 63 (1977), pp 253–63
- ISBN 0-470-11667-6
- ISBN 0-85967-922-5
- Loades, David. The Making of the Elizabethan Navy, 1540-1590: From the Solent to the Armada (2009)
- Nelson, Arthur. The Tudor navy: the ships, men and organisation, 1485–1603 (2001)
- Parker, Geoffrey. "The dreadnought revolution of Tudor England." The Mariner's Mirror 82.3 (1996): 269–300.
- ISBN 0-393-04579-X
- Rodger, Nicholas A. M., "The Development of Broadside Gunnery, 1450–1650." Mariner's Mirror 82 (1996), pp. 301–24.
Primary sources
- Knighton, C. S. and David Loades, eds. The navy of Edward VI and Mary I (2011) 652pp of original documents