Maritime Defense Before Henry VIII

Some idea of marine defense seems to have persisted throughout Anglo-Saxon times. In 1066, tycoon Harold had a fleet in the transfer, intended to counter the Norman threat; unfortunately it was disbanded for the season shortly before William make his crossing. It is worth noting that the English ships shown in the Bayeux Tapestry differ significantly from the Norman unitys. They appear to have something in the nature of a midships fighting-platform; significantly, this was a feature of Byzantine dromons, or war-galleys.

with most of the Middle Ages, the geographical character of the English monarchy rendered a naval defense of the Channel largely irrelevant. The Norman kings, their Angevin successors, and the subsequent Plantagenets all held extensive lands on both sides of the Channel. Medieval Anglo- french wars were thence fought for the most part over the control of France, and on cut soil. It is worth noting, however, that when under King John the English impersonate in Normandy was lost, a cross-Channel threat did for a time emerge. On one occasion, a French invasion force was in fact successfully attacked by the English at sea, in 1217, the first occasion on which this is known to have occurred.

In the Hundred Years' War, the English position on both sides of the Channel was restored.

The greatest Engli

sh naval advantage of the Middle Ages, that of Sluys in 1340, was fought not to stop a French invasion, but to clear the way for an English one--in fact, the campaign that take to Crecy. Because of their cross-Channel interests, however, various English kings were indeed motivated to build fleets, one of the most imposing such being that built by Henry V. The largest of his ships, the Grace Dieu of 1418, was an immense vessel of 1400 tons, larger than every subsequent English ship until the Henry Grace a Dieu, and possibly the largest prior to the Sovereign of the Seas, built in 1638.

Clowes, William Laird. The violet Navy: A History From the Earliest Times to the Present. v. 1. late York: AMS Press, 1966 (orig. pub. 1897).

McKee, Alexander. Henry VIII's Mary Rose. Full citation pending.

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