145 
SHIPPING. 
From a letter of this sovereign to his Lord Chancellor, dated 
12th of August, 1417, discovered by the late Mr. Lysons 
among the records in the Tower, and of which the following 
is a copy, it would appear that there was something like an 
established Royal Navy in his reign, independently of the 
shipping furnished by the Cinque Ports and the merchants, 
for the king’s own use, on occasion of any particular expe¬ 
dition. The letter appears to have been written nine days 
after the surrender of the castle of Touque, in Normandy, 
from whence it is dated. 
“ Au revend pere en Dieu L'evesque de Duresme hre 
Chanceller B'Engletcrre. 
« Worshipful fader yn God We sende you closed within 
this letter a cedule conteyning the names of certein Maistres 
for owr owne grete Shippes Carrakes Barges and Balyngers to 
the whiche Maistres We have granted annuitees such as is ap¬ 
pointed upon eche of hem in the same Cedule to take yerely 
of owre grante while that us lust at owr Exchequer of 
Westm r * at the termes of Michelmasse and Ester by even 
porcions. Wherefore We wol and charge yow that unto 
eche of the said Maistres ye do make under owr grete seel 
beyng in yowre own letters patentes severales in due forme 
after th’effect and pourport of owr said grante. Yeven 
under owr signet atte owr Castle of Touque the xij day of 
August.” 
Extract from the Schedule contained in the preceding 
Letter. 
vj. li. xiijs. iiijd. La Grande Nief ap-Y vj. Mariners poda 
pelle the dont John William est J-sauf garde deink 
Maistre 
li. xiij. iiijd. La Trinate Royale\ 
dont Steph’ Thomas est Maistre J 
. li. xiijs. iiijd. La Holy gost dont Jor-\ 
dan Brownyng est Maistre J •>" 
vj. li. xiijs. iiijd. La Carrake appellee lei • Mariners 
Petre dont John Gerard est Maistre J 
vj. 
v j- 
J Hamult. 
vi. Mariners. 
Mariners. 
}vj. 
Mariners 
Mariners 
li. xiijs. iiijd. La Carrak appelle le' 
Andre we dont John Thorny ng est 
Maistr’ 
vj. li. xiijs. iiijd. La Carrak appellee leY . . 
Xpofre dont Tendrell est Maistr’ J 
vj. li. xiijs. iiijd. La Carrak appelle le' 
Marie dont William Richeman est 
Maistr’ 
vj. li. xiijs. iiijd. La Carrak appellee leY 
Marie dont William Hethe est Vvj. Mariners. 
Maistre 
vj. li. xiijs. La Carrak appellee le' 
George dont John Mersh est 
Maistr’ 
fj* 
*)' 
:}* 
Mariners. 
Mariners. 
The remainder, to whose masters pensions were thus 
granted, consist of seventeen “ niefs, barges, and baliyn- 
■ gers,” some with three, and others two mariners only. But 
history informs us, that about this time Henry embarked an 
army of 25,000 men at Dover on board of 1500 sail of ships, 
two of which carried purple sails, embroidered with the arms 
of England and France; one styled the King’s Chamber, 
the other his Saloon, as typical of his keeping his court at 
sea, which he considered as a part of his dohrinions. Still we 
are left in the dark as to the real dimensions of his ships, and 
the nature of their armament; they were probably used only 
as transports for his army. It would appear, however, from 
a very curious poem, written in the early part of the reign of 
King Henry the Sixth, that the navy of his predecessor was con¬ 
siderable, but that, by neglect, it was then reduced to the same 
state in which it had been during the preceding reigns. The 
poem here alluded to is entitled, “The English policie, ex- 
horting all England to keep the sea, and namely the Narrow 
Sea; showing what profit cometh thereof, and also what wor¬ 
ship and salvation to England and to all Englishmen,’’ and is 
Von. XXIII. No. 1560. 
printed in the first volume of Hackluyt’s “ Collection of 
Voyages.” It was evidently written before the year 1438, 
when the Emperor Sigismond died, as appears by the follow¬ 
ing passage in the prologue:— 
“ For Sigismond, the great Emperour, 
Which pet reigneth, when he was in this land, 
With King Henry the Fifth, Prince of Honour, 
Here much glory, as him thought, he found 
A mightie land, which had take in hand 
To werre with France, and make mortalitie, 
And ever well kept round about the sea." 
The part of the poem which alludes to the navy of King 
Henry the Fifth, is entitled, “ Another incident of keeping 
the Sea, in the time of the marveilous werriour and victorious 
Prince, King Henrie the Fifth, and of his great Shippes.” 
The following are the most remarkable passages:— 
“ And if I should conclude all by the King 
Henrie the Fift, what was his purposing, 
Whan at Hampton he made the great dromons 
Which passed other great ships of the Commons; 
The Trinitie, the Grace de Dieu, the Holy Ghost, 
And other moe, which as nowe be lost. 
What hope ye was the Kings great intent 
Of thoo shippes, and what in mind he meant: 
It was not ellis, but that he cast to bee 
Lorde round about environ of the sea. 
And if he had to this time lived here, 
He had been Prince named withouten pere: 
His great ships should have been put in preefe, 
Unto the ende that he ment of in chiefe. 
For doubt it not but that he would have bee 
Lord and master about the round see: 
And kept it sure, tostoppe our ennemies hence. 
And wonne us good, and wisely brought it thence. 
That no passage should be without danger. 
And his licence on see to move and sterre.” 
Shortly after the time when this poem must have been 
written, it appears from the Parliament Roll (20th Hen. VI. 
1442), that an armed naval force, consisting only of eight 
large ships, with smaller vessels to attend them, was to be 
collected from the ports of London, Bristol, Dartmouth, 
Hull, and Newcastle, Winchelsea, Plymouth, Falmouth, &c.; 
and, of course, the Royal ships of 1417, the names of which 
are contained in the foregoing schedule, were then either 
gone to decay or dispersed. We are not to judge of the 
size of these ships from the few mariners appointed to each. 
These were merely the ship-keepers, or harbour-duty men, 
placed on permanent pay, to keep the ships in a condition 
fit for the sea when wanted. 
It is very probable that, until our merchants engaged in 
the Mediterranean trade, and that the attention of the go¬ 
vernment was turned in the reign of Henry VII. (about 
1496), to imitate Portugal in making foreign discovery, under 
the skilful seaman Sebastian Cabot, very little was added to 
the capacity or the power of the British ships of war. It is 
said, however, that on the accession of Henry VII. to the 
throne in 1485, he caused his marine, which had been neg¬ 
lected in the preceding reign, to be put into a condition to 
protect the coasts against all foreign invasions ; and that, in 
the midst of profound peace, he always kept up a fleet 
ready to act. In his reign was built a ship called the Great 
Harry, the first on record that deserved the name of a ship of 
war, if it was not the first exclusively appropriated to the 
service of the state. This is the same ship that Camden has 
miscalled the Henry Grace de Dieu, and which was not 
built till twenty years afterwards, under the reign of Henry 
VIII. The Great Harry is stated to have cost 14,000/., and 
was burnt by accident at Woolwich in 1553. 
We now come to that period of our naval history in which 
England might be truly said to possess a military marine, 
and of which some curious details have been left us by that 
extraordinary man of business Mr. Pepys, a commissioner of 
the navy, and afterwards secretary to Charles II., at a time 
2 P * w hen 
