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Preface
The origins of the British Navy can be traced back to the "Royal Fleet" in the Middle Ages.
During the Hundred Years' War, the "Royal Fleet" grew with the support of the British Crown, and made outstanding contributions to ensuring the safety of strait transportation and coastal defense, and guarding the interests of the kingdom.
During the reign of Henry V, the British royal fleet reached its peak, followed by the privatization of the "royal fleet" during the reign of Henry VI.
This further led to political and diplomatic chaos within the kingdom, and the popular demand for coastal defense made the naval undertaking under the leadership of the central authority more in line with the trend of historical development.
Concepts and the "Debate Between Facts and Names"
The word "navy" often corresponds to what Western scholars call "navy".
According to Western scholars, the word "navy" is derived from the French language, and it is a general term, and the organization of ship formations sailing on the surface can be called "navy", and in some specific contexts, it can also refer to the merchant fleet of the entire kingdom or the collective fleet of ships involved in a certain trade.
The British navy in the Middle Ages was mainly composed of three parts: the royal fleet, the merchant ships requisitioned through seizure, and the foreign ships employed, of which the royal fleet was the core of the navy.
The term "royal fleet" is similar to "navy" and is not a rigorous concept, but is a generic term for a collection of ships whose ownership is vested in the king, sometimes referred to as "royal ships".
The reason why the royal fleet was able to become the core of the navy was not only closely related to the king's emphasis on naval affairs, but also influenced by the recognition of common interests by the kingdom's political community.
Therefore, understanding the development of the Royal Fleet in the Middle Ages is of great benefit to our understanding and knowledge of the medieval British navy.
Western scholars have different understandings of the royal fleet.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the naval historian M. Oppenheimer mentioned it in his summary of naval history before 1509.
When there was a need for larger and sturdy ships, the king had the need to bring his own ships, and no longer relied on the ships of the Five Ports Alliance.
Obviously, Oppenheimer's reference to the king's "own ships" is the "royal fleet" that this article is concerned with.
By the middle of the 20th century, Western historiography began to take note of the important role played by the royal fleet, and some scholars questioned the significance of the existence of the royal fleet.
The different views of scholars on the status of the royal fleet still seem to stem from the "distinction between name and fact" of the royal fleet, and what is highlighted behind it is the difference in understanding brought about by the difference in the focus of the two sides.
In the author's opinion, the reason why Rus recognized the status of the royal fleet was that the scope of the study was framed in the Middle Ages.
Rodgill is known for his research on the history of the British navy in the 18th century, and his "History of the British Navy" pays more attention to summarizing the successful experience of the modern navy, which undoubtedly magnifies the shortcomings of the medieval navy in terms of "regularization", and thus devalues the value of the royal fleet.
On the 100th anniversary of the publication of Crowe's General History of the Navy, the teleological "Whig view of history" is still in vogue, and one cannot but ponder the reasons for this.
The development and growth of the royal fleet
The rise and fall of the royal fleet is clearly closely related to the needs of national defense.
However, in the 12th and 13th centuries, before the concept of political community and state was formed, this demand manifested itself in the conflict between the English monarch who ruled across the sea to maintain his legitimate inheritance in France, and the French king's insistence on forcing the English crown to obey as a feudal lord.
King John's defeat placed a large part of the European territory left by the kings, the coastal strip along the French mainland along the English Channel, into the hands of the French king, and became a treasure trove for the French and their allies to harass the English coastal towns and British merchant ships.
As the conflict between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait deepened, the value of the royal fleet became more and more important to the far-sighted monarch.
Research by Western scholars shows that before the advent of the king's fleet, it was the norm to requisition and seize merchant ships for defense and transportation needs.
Interestingly, King John, who left many "pain points" for coastal defense in later generations, has made great achievements in the development of the royal fleet.
The idea that the rudiments of the royal fleet first appeared under King John have been recognized by many scholars.
For the first time, there is a record of the king's purchase of at least 50 galleys and their scattered deployment along the coastline in the classified official documents of 1204-1205.
Historian Nicholas thus called King John "the true founder of the British royal navy."
There is also evidence that King John established a permanent naval base in Portsmouth to maintain the ships and other matters.
However, maintaining the royal fleet under King John was far beyond the capacity of the feudal vassals, and the royal fleet did not play a practical role in coastal defense and overseas wars.
As a result, this expensive batch of ships was eventually sold out with the collapse of his reign to pay off the king's huge debts.
As mentioned earlier, the large landowner aristocracy that followed William the Conqueror to England during the Norman era tended to hold large amounts of land in both England and Normandy.
As a result, this group of people was actively supportive of "rule across the sea" – holding on to the Norman dukedoms across the Channel – while most of England's native landed aristocracy had no interest in it.
Thus, by the end of the 12th century, the majority of the local aristocracy, including many indigenous Norman nobles, were dissatisfied with the king's constant collection of military service and taxes for the defense of the Norman dukedoms.
This was the political root cause of the failure of King John and his royal fleet.
The Hundred Years' War, which broke out in the late Middle Ages, gave the royal fleet a military value, especially during the reigns of Edward III and Henry V, which were the culmination of the two wars, respectively.
Ostensibly, Edward III went to war with the French king because his demand for the French throne was not met, but he did not seem to have the most important goal of obtaining the throne.
War with France was supported by the main political forces in the country, and it was the political basis for Edward III to successfully rebuild the royal fleet.
At the beginning of Edward III's succession, although a small royal fleet of his father Edward II was retained intact, the new king was clearly not satisfied, and first focused on increasing the size of the fleet in terms of numbers.
According to statistics, between 1327 and 1377, at least 100 ships were owned by the royal fleet, but it is difficult to count how many ships belonged to the royal fleet during the reign of Edward III;
Referring to the size of the royal fleet during the reigns of Edward II, Richard II and Henry V, some scholars believe that "20~30 ships may be subject to tradition, but after the test in practice, it is a more suitable scale".
The sources of ships in the royal fleet were diverse, and the king increased or decreased the size of the fleet according to actual needs.
At the same time, the king could confiscate the ships of the lawbreakers or take the captured enemy ships for himself.
Such opportunities are plentiful in times of war and are easily realized.
The former consisted of ships that traded with the enemy in disobedience to the king's orders, while the latter relied on the increase in military operations at sea. But most of these ships are of poor quality and generally do not serve as the main force of the fleet.
Eventually, the king was willing to spend money on new-build ships from Flanders, such as his flagship Kirk Edward, which was a much better shipbuilder, or to order the British dockyards to build new ships for him.
The main types of ships in the royal fleet under Edward III were still not much different from those of civilian merchant ships, and cost control was a key factor, in addition to the limitations of shipbuilding skills.
During the reign of Edward III, the royal fleet consisted mainly of Kirk ships, supplemented by a small number of barges.
For example, the King's flagship Kirk Edward, a Kirk ship, estimated to have a capacity of 240 barrels, was high at the head and stern and had a building, but had only one mast and one square sail, and was not easily angled.
Edward III apparently learned the lesson of King John's defeat and did not massively use expensive galleys to fill the fleet.
Scholars estimate that the cost of maintaining a galley under Edward III was around £760 per year, and that building and maintaining a small fleet of 20 galleys for three years would cost the king nearly half of his total expenditure.
In contrast, another "naval battle" that took place at the end of the summer of 1350 is perhaps more conducive to observing the tactical features of this period.
A fleet of the Castiers, who were allied with France at the time, was deliberately blocked by Edward III on its way back to Spain from Flanders.
The impact crumbled the firing pads on the masts of the enemy ships, and the king's ship was also cracked, and it was in danger of sinking.
The king and his crew then used ropes and iron hooks to hook another enemy ship and occupy it before they got out of the predicament.
This ceremonial function also showed signs of decay under Henry IV, and "the royal fleet had been reduced to only one ceremonial barge anchored on the Thames, and the Holy Trinity I had decayed".
15th-century English "Royal Fleet"
The pinnacle of the development of the British royal fleet undoubtedly occurred during the reign of Henry V, but after his untimely death, all the fleet's ships were sold to pay off debts.
Subsequently, during the reign of Henry VI, there was a phenomenon of replacing the royal fleet with a "private navy", which eventually led to continuous private wars within the kingdom.
Visionaries also realized the value and significance of the royal fleet in maintaining the political stability of the kingdom.
Henry V was one of the most talented military skies of England in the late Middle Ages.
Within a few years of his rule, the British occupied the French coastal military town of Havreux and defeated several times the size of the French hoplites at Agincourt.
The Treaty of Troyes included large territories under British rule and the provision that their sons would succeed to both the British and French thrones at the same time.
The realization of Henry V's grand strategy was inseparable from the vigorous development of the navy, and more importantly, the navy under his rule (including the royal fleet) was "not only a transport team, but also a war team."
Forced by financial pressure, the royal government lacked a navy with the royal fleet as the core, so it had to rely on private forces to fulfill its duty of "guarding the sea."
The royal fleet, which had been assembled through contract military service, was transformed into a transfer of coastal defense obligations by the government to merchants and shipowners by issuing permits to merchants.
As a result, from February 1436 onwards, a large number of permits were granted to the merchant shipowners of London, requiring them to prepare their men and ships to defend themselves against foreign enemies within four months, and to bring their own food and forage, but to possess and dispose of enemy ships and cargo captured in battle in accordance with the law.
epilogue
The British navy was created during the Tudor period and developed considerably under Henry VIII, which in turn "laid the foundation for its long-term invincibility."
In fact, the British navy under Elizabeth I still maintained many medieval Xi habits, such as disobeying the king's orders and using a large number of requisitioned merchant ships to enrich the temporary fleet.
These are far from the disciplined and strict management of the modern navy, and show that the history of the British navy did not begin during the Tudor period.