LITMIR.BIZ

      Published by Good Press, 2019

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      EAN 4064066249281

Table of Contents

       INTRODUCTION THE MEDIÆVAL NAVY

       CHAPTER I THE NAVY OF THE TUDORS TILL THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH

       CHAPTER II REIGN OF ELIZABETH TO THE DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA

       CHAPTER III FROM THE ARMADA TO THE DEATH OF THE QUEEN

       CHAPTER IV JAMES I. AND CHARLES I.

       CHAPTER V THE NAVY IN THE CIVIL WAR

       CHAPTER VI THE FIRST YEARS OF THE COMMONWEALTH

       CHAPTER VII THE FIRST DUTCH WAR

       CHAPTER VIII THE LATTER HALF OF THE WAR

       CHAPTER IX THE PROTECTORATE

       CHAPTER X THE NAVY UNDER CHARLES II

       CHAPTER XI THE SECOND DUTCH WAR TO THE FOUR DAYS' BATTLE

       CHAPTER XII FROM THE FOUR DAYS' BATTLE TILL THE END OF THE WAR

       CHAPTER XIII THE ALGERINE PIRATES AND THE THIRD DUTCH WAR

       CHAPTER XIV THE LAST YEARS OF THE STUART DYNASTY

       INDEX

       A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS OF METHUEN AND COMPANY PUBLISHERS: LONDON 36 ESSEX STREET W.C.

       ANNOUNCEMENTS

       Poetry

       English Classics

       Illustrated Books

       History

       Biography

       General Literature

       Science

       Philosophy

       Theology

       Leaders of Religion

       Fiction

       Books for Boys and Girls

       The Peacock Library

       University Extension Series

       Social Questions of To-day

       Classical Translations

       Educational Books

INTRODUCTION

       THE MEDIÆVAL NAVY

       Table of Contents

      Authorities.—Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas has made an exhaustive collection of all the evidence as to the history of the Royal Navy in the Middle Ages, in the only two volumes published of his History of the Royal Navy from the Earliest Times to the Wars of the French Revolution. It is the basis of this Introduction. Captain Burrows' Cinque Ports, in the Historical Towns Series, supplements Sir H. Nicolas.

      A glance at a globe turned so as to bring the British Isles directly under the eye will at once reveal the most effective of all the material causes which have made them the seat of the great naval power among nations. It is the unrivalled advantage of their position. They lie between the Old World and the New, with free access to the great ocean, surrounded by seas, which, though stormy, are not unmanageable. Their coasts are never blocked by ice. No long intervals of calm varied by mere puffs of wind reduce sailing ships to immobility, and limit their size by imposing on them the necessity of relying on the oar. Steam has freed maritime war and commerce from dependence on the wind, but the naval power of England was created during the ages of the sailing ship. Steam, too, has only made the benefit of free access to the ocean if possible more valuable. It is commonly said that an island is peculiarly fitted to be the seat of a naval power, and no doubt freedom from the perpetual risk of invasion by land is a material advantage. Immunity from that danger has saved us from the necessity for expending our resources on armies, which crippled Holland, exhausted Spain, and has hampered France. But it must be remembered that the great maritime powers of antiquity and the Middle Ages were on the mainland round the Mediterranean, not on the islands. Again, it is clear that if, in the place of Ireland, there lay to the immediate west of us any great bulk of territory too strong to be conquered, too alien to be absorbed, our insular position would not have saved us from being much confined, if not wholly shut in. But to the west of us lies the Atlantic Ocean, the beginning of the road which leads to wealth and empire all over the world. No power can block our way thither while we exercise even equal strength on water.

      Before full advantage could be taken of our position, three conditions had to be fulfilled. These islands had to become the seat of an organised

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