------------------------------------------------------------------------ Transcriber’s Note: This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_. Superscripted characters are prefixed with ‘^’. Footnotes have been moved to follow the chapter in which they are referenced. Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation. MARITIME ENTERPRISE 1485–1558 [Illustration: WARSHIP, PERIOD 1514–45. From Cott. MS. Aug. 1. i. 18. _Frontispiece_ ] MARITIME ENTERPRISE 1485–1558 BY JAMES A. WILLIAMSON OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1913 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY HUMPHREY MILFORD M.A. PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY PREFACE The subject of English maritime enterprise during the period 1485–1558 falls naturally into two divisions—discovery and trade. The former has engaged the attention of numerous historians in the last thirty years, their works centring mainly on the voyages of the Cabots with subsequent exploring adventures more or less summarily treated. Commerce, on the other hand, has been somewhat neglected as a factor in that great development of the powers of the English nation which made itself evident in the sixteenth century. The only exhaustive book on the _maritime_ trade of our country in the period in question is that of G. Schanz,[1] published in German in 1881, and never translated into English. This work stops at the year 1547. The object of the present work is to present a comprehensive picture of English maritime affairs from the accession of Henry VII to that of Elizabeth; to trace out such lines of policy as are visible in the existing records; and to elucidate certain incidents concerning which disputable ideas, or no ideas at all, are current. With regard to the Cabot voyages, no new evidence is adduced, but a scientific criticism and analysis of that already known has been attempted; leading, in the author’s opinion, to the partial rehabilitation of the character of Sebastian Cabot. The evidence in favour of his independent exploration in the North-West seems, when properly discriminated from other matters with which it has been unjustly confused, too strong to be neglected.