In 1295, the combined French and Norwegian fleets, intended to act against the English (Figs. 79 and 80) in the wars of Philippe le Bel and Edward I., amounted to upwards of five hundred vessels, two hundred and sixty of which were galleys, and three hundred and thirty ships of different sizes. Three centuries later fleets were not a whit more numerous or more powerful, though better equipped and organized. In 1570, Sultan Selim sent from Constantinople, against the island of Rhodes, a fleet of a hundred and sixteen galleys, thirty galliots, thirteen _fustes_, six large ships, one galleon, eight _mahones_, forty _passe-chevaux_ (horse transports), and a great number of _caramoussats_, laden with provisions, with artillery, and with stores of all kinds. The Christians, under Marco-Antonio Colonna, could only oppose to this formidable flotilla one hundred and four galleys, twelve _galéasses_, one large galleon, and fourteen large ships. [Illustration: Fig. 78.--French Caravel.--From “Premières Œuvres de J. Devaux, Pilot du Havre,” Manuscript of the Sixteenth Century, in the National Library of Paris.] But in point of fact, and it was one of the consequences of feudalism, large fleets were never constructed and kept up by the governments under whose authority they put to sea. Kings and republics possessed, it is true, a small number of vessels of their own that carried their flag, but, generally speaking, too few to allow them to attack a formidable enemy, or to enable them to defend themselves against one. Here, again, a complete analogy existed between feudal rights at sea and those on land. Feudalism possessed its ships as well as its castles. The barons who possessed estates near the sea-coast were bound to keep up at their own cost one or more vessels, fitted either for war or commerce. The rich merchants of Venice, of Genoa, of Marseilles, and, in later times, of Havre, of Dieppe, and of Antwerp (Fig. 81), by means of their vast wealth, either individually or by combining together, maintained flotillas of galleys and ships. When war was imminent, and it became necessary to prepare a fleet to carry the Crusaders, the sovereign, directed the nobles who held fiefs and were ship-owners to prepare their vessels for sea, and to equip and arm them--an order which did not require any long time or especial pains to carry into effect, for at that period every sea being infested with pirates, merchant vessels were always forced to keep themselves armed in self-defence. Each sailor of the crew could, at a pinch, be turned into a soldier; and, besides these, there were always cross-bowmen and regular soldiers, whose duty it was to be the first to board an enemy’s ship, or to beat back his boarders with handspikes and cross-bow shafts. To embark, therefore, a few catapults and a few extra soldiers was all that was ordinarily required to transform a peaceable merchant vessel into a ship or galley of war.