A Short History of the Royal Navy, 1217 to 1688Hannay, David
History
A Short History of the Royal Navy, 1217 to 1688
Hannay, David
Great Britain. Royal Navy -- History
lieutenant for the fleet, exercising immense delegated powers in
complete subjection to the Crown. But during the anarchy of the Wars of
the Roses, such a man as Warwick, who garrisoned Calais with his own
followers, and had the command of the ships, of which many were his own
property, was practically master of the Channel, and rendered as much
obedience to the king--or as little--as he pleased.
While the King of England possessed dominions on the Continent, he
drew part of his naval forces from them. There is occasional mention
of the king's ships and galleys of Aquitaine. The great reputation
of the Italian seamen of the Middle Ages led to their employment now
and then, and one, Nicholas Ususmaris of Genoa, was for a time in the
service of Edward III., though only to command the ships belonging to
Aquitaine. The Mediterranean seamen were employed very largely by the
King of France, who was driven to use them by the want of skilful men
among his own subjects. In the Middle Ages the English king appears
only to have had recourse to them when he wished to make use of that
typical Mediterranean craft, the galley. Under Henry VIII. Italians
were brought in largely to serve both as seamen and shipbuilders,
but by that time a larger class of vessel and a more extensive art
of seamanship had begun to prevail. The galley, as has been already
said, has never been found to answer in the Channel, and its brief
appearances there have been of little note. For the classes of vessels
he mainly used, that is, ships which might take to the oar as a
subsidiary resource, but relied chiefly on the sail, the king could
find men in abundance among his own subjects.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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