Tudor navy
The Tudor navy was the navy of the Kingdom of England under the ruling Tudor dynasty. The period involved important and critical changes that led to the establishment of a permanent navy and laid the foundations for the future Royal Navy.
History
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." 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 Sir Reginald Bray to construct a dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, with Sweepstake and Mary Fortune being the first ships built there in 1497.With the crown he acquired Grace à Dieu, Governor, Martin Garcia, Mary of the Tower, Trinity, Falcon, and possibly Bonaventure. He purchased Caravel of Ewe, and perhaps also a small craft called King's Bark; he captured Le Prise in 1490 and re-named it Margaret. In 1487 under the superintendences of Sir Richard Guldeford and Bray, he built the 225-gun four-masted Regent. He ordered construction of the 141-gun four-masted Sovereign, built partly out of the re-shaped clinker timbers of Grace Dieu. This ship originally was privately-constructed around 1449, and is not be confused with the 1416 Grace Dieu of Henry V now believed to be lying in the River Hamble.
Henry VIII
Biographer Jack Scarisbrick says that Henry VIII deserved his traditional title of "Father of the English navy". 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. Henry's fleet 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. 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. 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.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, 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 excommunication 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.
Henry VIII initiated the casting of cannons in England. By the late Elizabethan age 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. 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 organisation 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 defence against invasion, and for enhancing England's international prestige.
Edward and Mary
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 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 defence of the realm of England and its potential to be deployed in the support of his father. 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 defence. Elizabeth made naval strength a high priority. 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. Elizabeth kept the navy at a constant expenditure for the next 20 years, and maintained a steady construction rate.
In 1578, gates were installed at Deptford Dockyard, marking the construction of the first true dry dock; previously, dry docks had been walled in with temporary earth dockheads, which had to be dug away to launch ships.
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 returned home. 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.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. 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. 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. 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.
The Tudor Navy increasingly depended on the development of a permanent system of its food, or victualling, and logistical support. Early in the Tudor period, naval supply was handled only when necessary, relying largely on local contractors and improvised procurement to meet the immediate needs of ships preparing for sea. As naval operations grew more complex under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, this decentralized model proved insufficient for sustaining extended campaigns or maintaining fleets for long periods. To address these challenges, the Crown gradually formalized the work of the Victualling Office, which became responsible for acquiring, storing, and distributing essential supplies such as salted meat, biscuit, fish, cheese, and beer. Increasing record-keeping and administrative oversight contributed to more predictable supply chains that supported the navy’s growing strategic ambitions. By the mid-Elizabethan period, victualling contracts helped standardize quantities, quality expectations, and delivery schedules for suppliers. Infrastructure also expanded significantly during this time. Key naval yards at Deptford, Portsmouth, and the Port of London developed large bakehouses, brewhouses, cooperages, warehouses, and transport facilities to provision fleets more efficiently. These installations enabled faster turnarounds when fleets had to be outfitted for campaigns in Scotland, France, Ireland, or the Low Countries. Administrative improvements allowed officials to monitor waste and corruption more effectively, although fraud, like diluted beer, remained a persistent concern. Victualling also played a crucial role in crew health. The quality and composition of food rations had measurable effects on disease, morale, and survival rates during long voyages. These concerns grew increasingly important as England undertook longer maritime expeditions, including voyages supporting privateering ventures, exploration, and conflict with Spain. Foodborne illness and scurvy undermined crews’ health and operational readiness, and supply shortfalls constrained campaigning seasons are a few of the many thongs poor victualling had its consequences on. The pressures of an expanding fleet and Elizabethan naval operations during wartime accelerated naval and supply chain reforms that eventually led to more formal victualling offices in the later Stuart period. As the scale of naval operations increased, victualling also required advances in the methods for preserving and transporting perishable goods. Ships began sailing with salted fish and meat packed in barrels, and generous quantities of hard biscuit allowed long periods at sea without fresh supplies. Water was stored in wooden casks, but its quality deteriorated on extended voyages because some certain relied on limited beer rationing to avoid disease and dehydration. Because wooden barrels were bulky, a network of small “victualling tenders” often accompanied warships to deliver fresh provisions when anchorages or friendly ports were reached.