It was in 1514 that the famous _Henri Grace à Dieu_, commonly known as the “Great Harry,” was built. The custom having recently grown up of passing on the name of an obsolete ship to her successor, and of reserving special names for the largest class and still further of embodying in it the name also of the ruling sovereign, it was but natural that this great “Harry” should be so named. Of the available illustrations of this ship that shown here in Fig. 47 and reproduced from Holbein’s painting in Hampton Court Palace, is perhaps the most reliable. The incident depicted is the embarkation of Henry VIII. from Dover, on May 31, 1520, to meet Francis I. at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Besides this picture there exists another which hung for many years in Canterbury Cathedral, and is supposed to represent this vessel. It was afterwards presented by the Dean to Sir John Norris, Admiral of the Fleet, who died in 1749. In 1750 an engraving was made by Allen, and a copy is to be found in the Print Room of the British Museum. The original of Allen’s engraving has been ascribed to Holbein, but it seems pretty certain that this print depicts, not the “Great Harry” of the reign of Henry VIII., but a ship of later date. Nor, as we have mentioned above, does it seem probable that the _Henri Grace à Dieu_ in the Pepysian Library represents this vessel. [Illustration: FIG. 47. THE EMBARKATION OF HENRY VIII. FROM DOVER IN 1520, SHOWING THE “HENRI GRÂCE À DIEU.” _Photo. W. M. Spooner & Co._] The _Henri Grace à Dieu_ of the time of Henry VIII. had four masts with two decks and topgallant sails on fore, main and main-mizzen masts. On the bonaventure mizzen she carried a topsail above the lateen but no topgallant. The fore and main masts had topsails as well. Happily her inventory is still extant and will be found in Mr. Oppenheim’s volume on the administration of the Navy of the reign of Henry VIII.[69] Her tonnage was 1500, and she represents still another advance in the construction of big ships. Her launching one day in the middle of June had been a memorable ceremony, in the presence of the Court, the ambassadors of both the Emperor and the Pope, as well as a distinguished crowd of bishops and nobles. Her armament, according to her existing inventory of 1514, included 184 pieces of ordnance, of which 126 were brass and iron serpentines.