| dc.description.abstract | The serious study of British naval history dates from the late nineteenth century, the era in which Alfred T. Mahan in the United States and Sir John Laughton in Great Britain produced their highly influential works on "sea power." Since then, naval development has become a topic of considerable interest to the historian, the professional officer and the educated layman. The result has been momentous. Book after book has flowed from the presses; scholarly journals devoted exclusively to naval affairs have been founded; and societies have been organized to collect, edit and publish important documents. Despite the accumulation of almost a century of work, however, certain periods have been neglected. Such has been the case in regard to the navy during the early Tudor era. Works primarily concerned with either maritime affairs or exploration have touched briefly on naval developments of the period. So also have writers who were mainly concerned with the Elizabethan navy. But, with the exception of a general naval history, no work has been devoted specifically to an assessment of the early Tudor navy as a whole. This study. is a response to that need. Materials available for such a work vary greatly in both extent and content. For the reign of Henry VII, sources are scarce. With few exceptions, naval history must be pieced together from documents relating to other affairs. By comparison, the reign of Henry VIII is like stepping into a new age. State papers and letters, not only for England but also for Spain and the important Italian states, have been calendared and thus provide a rich mine for the naval historian. A revival of chronicle writing in the early sixteenth century adds to the wealth of sources. An investigation of their construction policy, administrative reforms, and use of the navy in war, reveals that the early Tudors laid the basic foundations for the Royal Navy. Henry VII began the policy or building technologically specialized warships as well as permanent facilities for their maintenance. Henry VIII continued his father's policy, but on a larger scale, building the largest royal fleet to that date in English history and expanding the shore establishment. Henry VIII's military ambitions as well as his love for the navy, moreover, resulted in further innovations. His fleets fought long campaigns during three general European wars, winning prestige for the Tudors, allowing naval officers to gain experience, and establishing tradition for subsequent generations of English sailors. Finally, when the stress of war made obsolete the old administrative system, Henry VIII created a new organization which functioned until the early nineteenth century. All in all, Henry VII and Henry VIII created a navy uniquely different from that of any previous era. Indeed, the early Tudor navy had more in common with the Royal Navy under George III than with the one which served Henry V. | |
