Admiral of the Narrow Seas

The Admiral of the Narrow Seas also known as the Admiral for the guard of the Narrow Seas [1] was a senior Royal Navy appointment. The post holder was chiefly responsible for the command of the English navy's Narrow Seas Squadron [2] also known as the Eastern Squadron [3] that operated in the two seas which lay between England and Kingdom of France (the English Channel particularly the Straits of Dover) and England and the Spanish Netherlands later the Dutch Republic (the southern North Sea) from 1412 to 1688.[4] His subordinate units, establishments, and staff were sometimes informally known as the Command of the Narrow Seas.[5]

Office of the Admiral of the Narrow Seas
Flag of the Kingdom of England
Reports toLord High Admiral, Board of Admiralty
NominatorMonarch of England, First Lord of the Admiralty
AppointerMonarch of England
Subject to formal approval by the King-in-Council
Term lengthNot fixed , (usually for life)
Inaugural holderVice-Admiral Sir John Pendagrast
Formation1412-1688
"A chart of ye narrow seas," 1675

History

The first royal commission as Admiral to a naval officer was granted in 1303. By 1344 it was only used as a rank at sea for a captain in charge of a fleet or fleets.[6]

In the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Kingdom of England claimed sovereignty over certain bodies of water close to the British Isles: those between the Kingdom of France and England (the English Channel particularly the Straits of Dover) and the Spanish Netherlands later the Dutch Republic and England (the southern North Sea). As a result of England's claim of these territorial waters there was an enforceable requirement placed on any foreign ships passing through the area to acknowledge all English warships. England also exercised control over all fishing rights within the same waters.

Among the most important naval postings during these times was the Admiral of the Narrow Seas, sometimes called the Vice-Admiral of the Narrow Seas to denote that he was junior to the Lord Admiral of England. These flag officers were formally appointed by the crown.[7] His responsibilities were to guard the narrow seas from foreign threats, protect English fishing vessels and enforce English sovereignty over said waters.

Claims to the narrow seas lasted until the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, along with other European countries, agreed to set a new three-mile limit in 1822.[8]

Office holders
Admiral/General at Sea/Vice-Admiral/Rear-Admiral Narrow Seas
No.ranknamedate/snotesref
1.Vice-AdmiralSir John Pendagrast1412Commanding the Narrow Seas[9]
office is presumed vacant (1413 – 1522)
2.Vice-AdmiralWilliam FitzWilliam1523 – 1524also vice-admiral channel squadron/fleet[10]
3.Vice-AdmiralSir Rees MansellJune 1543[11]
4.Vice-AdmiralSir John Woodhouse1544 – 1545[12]
5.Vice-AdmiralSir Thomas CottonMay. 1549[13]
6.Vice-AdmiralSir Henry Dudley26 March, 1552[14]
7.AdmiralWilliam DriverDecember, 1552 – January, 1553[15]
8.Vice-AdmiralSir John Malen1557 – 1558[16]
9.Vice-AdmiralSir Ralph ChamberlainSeptember, – October, 1558[17]
10.Vice-AdmiralSir John MalynNovember, 1558 – January, 1559[18]
11.AdmiralSir John MalenFebruary, 1563 – April, 1563lost with his ship off Rye[19]
12.Vice-AdmiralSir John HawkinsMay – July, 1563[20]
13.Vice-AdmiralSir William HolstockeAugust, 1562 – October, 1563[21]
14.Vice-AdmiralSir Thomas CottonAugust, – September, 1563[22]
15.Rear-AdmiralHenry Palmer1587[23]
16.Vice-AdmiralLord Henry Seymour1588[24]
17.Vice-AdmiralSir Martin FrobisherSeptember, 1589 – 1590[25]
18.AdmiralLuke Warde1590 – 1591[26]
19.AdmiralSir Richard Leveson1598 – 1601[27]
20.Rear-AdmiralSir Robert Mansellc. 1599[28]
21.Vice-AdmiralSir Robert Mansell1603 – 1604[29][30]
22.Vice-AdmiralSir William MonsonAugust, 1604 – 1613[31]
23.Vice-AdmiralSir Francis Howard1613 – 13 January, 1616[32]
24.AdmiralSir Francis Howard14 January, 1616 – 1618[33]
25.AdmiralSir Henry Mervyn1619 – 1623
26.Rear-AdmiralSir John Penington1623 – 1626as Rear-Admiral for the Guard of the Narrow Seas[34]
27.Rear-AdmiralSir John Penington1631 – 1634as Rear-Admiral for the Guard of the Narrow Seas[35]
28.Vice-AdmiralRobert Bertie, 3rd Earl of Lindsey1635 – 1639[36]
29.Vice-AdmiralSir John Penington1639 – 1640[37]
30.AdmiralRobert Rich, 3rd Earl of Warwick1643[38]
31.Vice-AdmiralSir Thomas Rainsborough1643 – 1644also vice-admiral in the channel[39]
32.General-at-SeaSir Robert Blake1652 – 1657Commanding in the channel, and at the Downs[40]
33.Vice-AdmiralSir John Lawson1665[41]
34.Vice-AdmiralSir Edward Montagu, 1st Earl SandwichJuly 1657 – 1658[42]
35.AdmiralSir Edward Montagu 1st Earl SandwichJune 1661 – 1665[43]
36.Vice-AdmiralSir William Poole1679
37.Vice-AdmiralHenry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton1685 – 1687[44]
38.AdmiralSir Roger Strickland1687 – 1688rank as Admiral of the Blue[45]

See also

References

Citations

  1. Keeler, Mary Frear; Cole, Maija Jansson; Bidwell, William B. (1997). Commons Debates 1628. Boydell & Brewer. p. 210. ISBN 9781580460095.
  2. Winfield, Rif (2010). "Appendices: Appendix 1: English Naval vessels engaged in the action against the Armada 1588". British Warships in the Age of Sail 1603-1714: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Barnsley, England: Seaforth Publishing. p. 285. ISBN 9781783469246.
  3. Childs, David (2014). Pirate Nation: Elizabeth I and her Royal Sea Rovers. Barnsley, England: Seaforth Publishing. p. 141. ISBN 9781848322943.
  4. Blanchard, W. O. (September 1951). "The Narrow Seas". Journal of Geography. 50 (6): 221–230. doi:10.1080/00221345108982679. ISSN 0022-1341.
  5. Humble, Richard (1986). "Four Centuries of Sea Power 1509 to 1919". The rise and fall of the British Navy (1. publ. ed.). London: Macdonald Queen Anne Press. p. 35. ISBN 9780356122274.
  6. "History of Naval Ranks and Rates". www.navymuseum.co.nz. National Museum of the Royal New Zealand Navy. 10 November 2015. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  7. Rodger, N.A.M. (1997). "Social History of Officers 1509-1603". The safeguard of the sea : a naval history of Britain. Vol 1., 660-1649. London, England: Penguin. p. 298. ISBN 9780140297249.
  8. "Narrow Seas - Oxford Reference - in The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea". oxfordreference.com. University of Oxford. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  9. Campbell, John (1812). Lives of the British Admirals: Containing Also a New and Accurate Naval History, from the Earliest Periods. London, England: C. J. Barrinton. p. 245.
  10. Harding, Edward (1805). Naval Biography, Or, The History and Lives of Distinguished Characters in the British Navy, from the Earliest Period of History to the Present Time. London, England: John Scott. p. 185.
  11. Knighton, Dr C. S.; Loades, Professor David (2013). The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 538. ISBN 9781409482406.
  12. Glasgow, Tom (January 1977). "Vice Admiral Woodhouse and Shipkeeping in the Tudor Navy". The Mariner's Mirror. 63 (3): 253–263. doi:10.1080/00253359.1977.10659032. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  13. Knighton, Dr C. S.; Loades, Professor David (2013). The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I. Farnham, England: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 538. ISBN 9781409482406.
  14. Loades, D. M.; Loades, Professor of History David (1996). John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, 1504-1553. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press. p. 58. ISBN 9780198201939.
  15. Knighton, edited by C.S.; Loades, David (2011). The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate for the Navy Records Society. p. 539. ISBN 9781409418474.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  16. Glasgow, Tom (January 1970). "Maturing of Naval Administration 1556–1564". The Mariner's Mirror. 56 (1): 11. doi:10.1080/00253359.1970.10658511.
  17. "CHAMBERLAIN, Sir Ralph (by 1523-70 or later), of Shirburn, Oxon. History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. The History of Parliament Trust 1964-2017.
  18. Knighton, Dr C. S.; Loades, Professor David (2013). The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 558. ISBN 9781409482406.
  19. Knighton, Dr C. S.; Loades, Professor David (2013). The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 558. ISBN 9781409482406.
  20. Knighton, Dr C. S.; Loades, Professor David (2013). The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 552. ISBN 9781409482406.
  21. Knighton, Dr C. S.; Loades, Professor David (2013). The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 552. ISBN 9781409482406.
  22. Knighton, Dr C. S.; Loades, Professor David (2013). The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 538. ISBN 9781409482406.
  23. Childs, David (2014). Pirate Nation: Elizabeth I and her Royal Sea Rovers. Barnsley, England: Seaforth Publishing. p. 141. ISBN 9781848322943.
  24. Nichols, John (2013). John Nichols's The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth: Volume III: 1579 to 1595. Oxford, England: OUP Oxford. p. 419. ISBN 9780199551408.
  25. Knighton, edited by C.S.; Loades, David (2011). The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate for the Navy Records Society. p. 544. ISBN 9781409418474.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  26. Laughton, John Knox. "Warde Luke". Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900. Wikisource. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  27. "LEVESON, Sir Richard (1570-1605), of Lilleshall Lodge, Salop; Trentham and Parton, Staffs. and Bethnal Green, Mdx. | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. The History of Parliament Trust 1964-2017. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  28. "MANSELL, Sir Robert (c.1569-1656), of Pentney and Norwich, Norf. and Penrice, Glam. History of Parliament Online". historyofparliamentonline.org. Institute of Historical Research, University of London: The History of Parliament Trust 1964-2017. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  29. Keeler, Mary Frear; Cole, Maija Jansson; Bidwell, William B. (1997). Commons Debates 1628. Boydell & Brewer. p. 210. ISBN 9781580460095.
  30. Stewart, William (2009). Admirals of the World: A Biographical Dictionary, 1500 to the Present. McFarland. p. 210. ISBN 9780786438099.
  31. "3: from the accession of James 1 to the death of Queen Anne". British Naval Biography: Comprising the Lives of the Most Distinguished Admirals, from Howard to Codrington, with an Outline of the Naval History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. London, England: Scott, Webster, and Geary. 1840. p. 64.
  32. "HOWARD, Sir Francis (1585-1651), of Sayes Court, Chertsey and Eastwick House, Great Bookham, Surr. | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. The History of Parliament Trust 1964-2017. Retrieved 9 June 2018.
  33. "HOWARD, Sir Francis (1585-1651), of Sayes Court, Chertsey and Eastwick House, Great Bookham, Surr. | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. The History of Parliament Trust 1964-2017. Retrieved 9 June 2018.
  34. Keeler, Mary Frear; Cole, Maija Jansson; Bidwell, William B. (1997). Commons Debates 1628. Boydell & Brewer. p. 210. ISBN 9781580460095.
  35. Fulton, Thomas Wemyss (2002). The Sovereignty of the Sea: An Historical Account of the Claims of England to the Dominion of the British Seas, and of the Evolution of the Territorial Waters, with Special Reference to the Rights of Fishing and the Naval Salute. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. p. 231. ISBN 9781584772323.
  36. Bruce, John; Hamilton, William Douglas; Lomas, Mrs Sophia Crawford (1865). Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of Charles I ...: 1635. Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts. pp. 54–55.
  37. Stephen, Leslie (1894). Dictionary of National Biography (37 ed.). London, England: Smith, Elder, & Company. p. 254.
  38. Bowle, John (1975). Charles I: a biography. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 223.
  39. Jones, Whitney Richard David (2005). Thomas Rainborowe (c. 1610-1648): Civil War Seaman, Siegemaster and Radical. Woodbridge, England: Boydell Press. p. 17. ISBN 9781843831211.
  40. Rogers, Hugh Cuthbert Basset (1992). Generals-at-sea: Naval Operations During the English Civil War and the Three Anglo-Dutch Wars. Alberton, South Africa: Galago. p. 2. ISBN 9780946995844.
  41. Baumber, Michael (1989). General-at-sea : Robert Blake and the seventeenth-century revolution in naval warfare (1. publ. ed.). London: J. Murray. p. 155. ISBN 9780719547065.
  42. Charnock, John (1794). Biographia navalis; or, Impartial memoirs of the lives ... of officers of the navy of Great Britain from ... 1660. London, England: R. Faulder. p. 31. Biographia navalis Volume 1.
  43. Charnock, John (1794). Biographia navalis; or, Impartial memoirs of the lives ... of officers of the navy of Great Britain from ... 1660. London, England: R. Faulder. p. 33. Biographia navalis Volume 1.
  44. Bays, John (2015). "Royal Bastards and Mistresses: The Shadow Courts of Restoration England". Charleston, Illinois, United States: Eastern Illinois University. p. 17. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  45. Luke, John (1958). Tangier at High Tide: The Journal of John Luke, 1670-1673. Librairie Droz. p. 239. ISBN 9782600034678.

Sources

  • Baumber, Michael (1989). General-at-sea : Robert Blake and the seventeenth-century revolution in naval warfare (1. publ. ed.). London: J. Murray. ISBN 9780719547065.
  • Bruce, John; Hamilton, William Douglas; Lomas, Mrs Sophia Crawford (1865). Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of Charles I ...: 1635. Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts.
  • Campbell, John (1812). Lives of the British Admirals: Containing Also a New and Accurate Naval History, from the Earliest Periods. London, England: C. J. Barrinton.
  • Charnock, John (1794). Biographia navalis; or, Impartial memoirs of the lives ... of officers of the navy of Great Britain from ... 1660. London, England: R. Faulder.
  • Childs, David (2014). Pirate Nation: Elizabeth I and her Royal Sea Rovers. Barnsley, England: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 9781848322943
  • Clowes, Sir William Laird; Clowes, William Laird; Markham, Sir Clements Robert (1996). The Royal Navy: A History from the Earliest Times to the Present. Newbury: Chatham Pub. ISBN 9781861760104.
  • Fulton, Thomas Wemyss (2002). The Sovereignty of the Sea: An Historical Account of the Claims of England to the Dominion of the British Seas, and of the Evolution of the Territorial Waters, with Special Reference to the Rights of Fishing and the Naval Salute. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 9781584772323
  • Keeler, Mary Frear; Cole, Maija Jansson; Bidwell, William B. (1997). Commons Debates 1628. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9781580460095
  • Humble, Richard (1986). "Four Centuries of Sea Power 1509 to 1919". The rise and fall of the British Navy (1. publ. ed.). London: Macdonald Queen Anne Press. ISBN 9780356122274
  • Knighton, Dr C. S.; Loades, Professor David (2013). The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 9781409482406.
  • Laughton, John Knox. "Warde Luke". Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900. Wikisource. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  • Luke, John (1958). Tangier at High Tide: The Journal of John Luke, 1670–1673. Librairie Droz. ISBN 9782600034678.
  • "Narrow Seas - Oxford Reference - in The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea". oxfordreference.com. University of Oxford.
  • Nichols, John (2013). John Nichols's The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth: Volume III: 1579 to 1595. Oxford, England: OUP Oxford. ISBN 9780199551408
  • Stewart, William (2009). Admirals of the World: A Biographical Dictionary, 1500 to the Present. McFarland. ISBN 9780786438099.
  • Winfield, Rif (2010). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1603-1714: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Barnsley, England: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 9781783469246
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