Tudor navy

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 for a conscious change of policy, Henry soon embarked on a program of building merchant ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth,[2] with Sweepstake the first ship built there.

Biographer Jack Scarisbrick says that Henry VIII (reigned 1509–1547) deserved his traditional title of "Father of the English navy".[3] 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. 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.[4] 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.[5] He drained his treasury on military and naval affairs, diverting the revenues from new taxes and the sales of monastery lands.[6][7][8]

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 initiated the casting of cannon 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 were 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", a 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 in chasing pirates.

Historian G.R. Elton argues that Henry indeed build 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 for defense against invasion, and for enhancing England's international prestige.[9]

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. 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.

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. Elizabeth made naval strength a high priority.[10] 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. These famous battles were early actions in the long and costly Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–1604.

Important though this period was, it represents a soon-lost high point. After 1601 the efficiency of the Navy declined gradually, while corruption grew until brought under control in an inquiry of 1618.

• Admiralty in the 16th century
• History of the Royal Navy#1500-1601
• Navy Board
• William Winter (admiral)

• 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
• Konstam, Angus, Sovereigns of the Sea: The Quest to Build the Perfect Renaissance Battleship Wiley. 2008. ISBN 0-470-11667-6
• Loades, David, The Tudor Navy: An administrative, political and military history. Scolar Press, Aldershot. 1992. 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.
• Rodger, Nicholas A. M., The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain 660–1649. W.W. Norton & Company, New York. 1997. ISBN 0-393-04579-X
• Rodger, Nicholas A. M., "The Development of Broadside Gunnery, 1450–1650." Mariner's Mirror 82 (1996), pp. 301–24.