

CHARLES I. : THE NAVY 287 



27th, it was decreed that twenty-four should be prepared 

 "for guarding the narrow seas," while ten other ships should 

 be got ready as a second fleet to reinforce the first, or to take 

 its place later. 1 



The second ship-money fleet was placed under the command 

 of the Earl of Northumberland, an able, accomplished, and 

 high-spirited young nobleman, much better fitted than Lindsey 

 was for the office of Admiral. This fleet is usually said to have 

 been the most powerful ever set out by England up to that 

 time. 2 According to Northumberland's Journal, it consisted of 

 twenty-seven vessels, all of which were king's ships, except 

 three which had been fitted out by London. Sir John Pen- 

 nington was appointed Vice-Admiral and Sir Henry Mervin, 

 Rear- Admiral. 3 



But what was to be done with the fleet ? That was a 

 question put by Windebank in the autumn of the previous 

 year. The king had remitted to the Foreign Committee two 

 inquiries : what answer he should make to the French am- 

 bassador concerning "a nearer conjunction" with France; and 

 whether he should declare his neutrality. Windebank argued 

 against either a French alliance or a declaration of neutrality. 

 Against the former proposition he urged four reasons, one 

 being that the French "had challenged a joint sovereignty 

 on the sea with his Majesty " ; and against the latter that the 

 French and Hollanders would besiege Dunkirk or some part 

 of Flanders, and the king would have to sit still and suffer 

 it to be lost, or break his neutrality. " Besides," said Winde- 



1 State Papers, Dom., ccciii. 74 ; cccv. 36, 38 ; cccxi. 1. The total number of 

 men in the first fleet, which included five of the " Whelps " and two pinnaces then 

 building, was to be 4580 ; in the second, in which were included two "Whelps," it 

 was to be 1890. 



2 Hume (Hist. Eiv/1., ch. lii. an. 1636), following earlier writers, places the 

 number at sixty. Thus Fraukland (Annals of King James and King Charles the 

 First, 477 (1681)) speaks of "sixty gallant ships." Baker (A Chronicle of the Kings 

 of England, 455 (1679)) and others, including most of the naval historians of the 

 eighteenth century, give the same number. 



3 Northumberland's Journal, State Papers, Dom., cccxliii. 72. Pennington, on 

 hearing of the appointment of the Earl of Northumberland, wrote in February 

 1636 to the Council expressing his satisfaction ; verily believed he would carry 

 himself like a general in all respects, unless led away, " as the last was, by such as 

 neither knew the honour of the place nor the way of managing the service for the 

 honour and safety of the kingdom." 



