/THE EIGHTH DUKE OF BEAUFORT 



founder of the English Navy, but I think he can 

 only be said to have carried out and enlarged an 

 idea conceived in his father's brain. To the first of 

 the Tudor kings belongs the credit of the idea 

 that England's continental influence depended not 

 on her army, but on her fleet. 



When in 1488 Henry desired to hold the balance 

 between the King of France and the latter's power- 

 ful and rebellious vassal, the Duke of Brittany, he 

 fitted out a fleet. Parliament granted the necessary 

 funds, and the admiral chosen was Somerset. 

 Henry's plans were however, upset by the action of 

 Lord Woodville, who, sailing from Southampton on 

 a filibustering expedition, had his little band of 

 Englishmen slain in the overwhelming defeat of the 

 Duke of Brittany at St. Aubin du Cornier on July 

 28th, 1488. Later, when Henry, after the death of 

 the Duke, Francis II., meditated interfering on be- 

 half of Anne of Brittany, Somerset was once more 

 sent to sea, this time in the Sovereign^ a ship of 

 the then enormous size of 800 tons. Only the 

 Great Harry was larger. From this period, when 

 he was about thirty years of age, dates Charles 

 Somerset's rise in rank. He was created a Knight 

 of the Garter in 1496, and is said to have been a 

 Commissioner of Array in Wales, and in 1501 he 

 was made Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, an 

 appointment that placed him about the person of 

 the king. 



There can be, I think, little doubt that the 



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