HMS Sovereign of the Seas
was ordered as a 90-gun first rank ship of the lineA ship-of-the-line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th century through the mid-19th century, to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...
of the EnglishThe Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state and island country to the northwest of continental Europe. At its zenith, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands—what is today the legal unit of...
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
, but at launch was armed with 102 bronze guns, at the insistence of the king. She was later renamed Sovereign
, and then Royal Sovereign.
The ship was launched on 13 October 1637 and served from 1638 until 1697, when a fire burned the ship to the waterline at Chatham.
History
HMS Sovereign of the Seas
was ordered in August 1634 on personal initiative of Charles I of EnglandCharles I, , the second son of James VI of Scotland and I of England, was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. Charles famously engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England...
, who desired a giant Great Ship to be built. The decision provoked much opposition from the Brethren of
Trinity HouseThe Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond is the official General Lighthouse Authority for England, Wales and other British territorial waters . It is responsible for the provision and maintenance of navigational aids such as lighthouses, lightvessels, buoys and maritime radio/satellite...
, who pointed out that "There is no port in the Kingdome that can harbour this shipp. The wild sea must bee her port, her anchors and cables her safety; if either fayle, the shipp must perish, the King lose his jewel, four or five hundred man must die, and perhaps some great and noble peer". But the King overcame the objections with the help of John Pennington and from May 1635 she was built by
Peter PettPeter Pett, was an English Master Shipwright, and 2nd Resident Commissioner Pett of Chatham Dockyard, the son of the King's Master Shipwright Captain Phineas Pett...
(later a Commissioner of the Navy), under the guidance of his father Phineas, the king's master shipwright, and was launched at
Woolwich DockyardWoolwich Dockyard was an English naval dockyard founded by King Henry VIII in 1512 to build his flagship Henri Grâce à Dieu , the largest ship of its day....
on 13 October 1637. As the second three-decked
first-rateFirst Rate was the designation used by the Royal Navy for its largest ships of the line. While the size and establishment of guns and men altered over the 250 years that the Rating system held sway, from the early Georgian period the First Rate comprised those ships mounting 100 guns or more on...
(the first three-decker being
Prince RoyalHMS Prince Royal was a 55-gun Royal Ship of the English Royal Navy, built by Phineas Pett I at Woolwich and launched in 1610. She was the first ship of the line with three complete gun decks....
of 1610), she was the predecessor of Nelson's
VictoryHMS Victory is a first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, started in 1759 and launched in 1765, most famous as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar...
, although
RevengeRevenge was an English race-built galleon of 46 guns, built in 1577 and captured by the Spanish in 1591, sinking soon afterwards. She was the first of thirteen English and Royal Navy ships to bear the name...
, built in 1577 by
Mathew BakerMathew Baker was one of the most renowned Tudor shipwrights, and the first to put the practice of shipbuilding down on paper.The first list of 'Master Shipwrights' appointed 'by Patent' by Henry VIII of England included 'John Smyth, Robert Holborn, Richard Bull and James Baker,' in 1537...
, was the inspiration providing the innovation of a single deck devoted entirely to broadside guns.
She was the most extravagantly decorated warship in the Royal Navy, completely adorned from stern to bow with gilded carvings against a black background, made by John Christmas and Mathias Christmas after a design by
Anthony van DyckSir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of King Charles I of England and Scotland and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English...
. The money spent making her, £65,586, helped to create the financial crisis for Charles I that contributed to the
English Civil WarThe English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. The first and second civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war saw fighting between supporters of...
. Charles had imposed a special tax, the '
Ship MoneyShip money refers to a tax that Charles I of England tried to levy without the consent of Parliament. In medieval times, this tax, which was only applied to coastal towns during a time of war, was intended to offset the cost of defending that part of the coast, and could be paid in actual ships or...
', to make possible such large naval expenditure. The
gildingGilding is the technique of applying a thin layer of gold to a surface. Gilding is performed through mechanical processes, such as leafing, or using one of many chemical processes.-Ancient techniques:...
alone cost £6,691, which in those days was the price of an average warship. She carried 102 bronze cannon (King Charles explicitly ordered such a high number) and was thereby at the time the most powerfully armed ship in the world. The cannon were made by
John BrowneJohn Browne was the first holder of the post of King's Gunfounder, which was created in 1615. He was heavily involved in the Wealden iron industry, having control of six furnaces in Surrey and Sussex, two in the Forest of Dean as well as his own furnace between Brenchley and Horsmonden.-Life...
. By 1642 her armament had been reduced to 90 guns. Until 1655, she was also exceptionally large for an English vessel; no other ships of Charles were heavier than the Prince Royal
.
The Sovereign of the Seas was not so much built because of tactical considerations, but as a deliberate attempt to bolster the reputation of the English crown. Her name was in itself a political statement as Charles tried to revive the perceived ancient right of the English kings to be recognised as the 'lords of the seas.' English ships demanded that other ships strike their flags in salute, even in foreign ports. The Dutch legal thinker
Hugo GrotiusHugo Grotius worked as a jurist in the Dutch Republic. With Francisco de Vitoria and Alberico Gentili he laid the foundations for international law, based on natural law...
had argued for a mare liberum
, a sea free to be used by all. As such a concept was mainly favourable to Dutch trade, in reaction John SeldenJohn Selden was an English jurist, scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish law...
and William Monson in 1635 with special permission of Charles published Mare Clausum
("the Closed Sea"), a book, earlier repressed by James IJames VI & I was King of Scots as James VI from 1567 to 1625, and King of England and Ireland as James I from 1603 to 1625....
, trying to prove that King Edgar had already been recognised as Rex Marium, or "sovereign of the seas". The name of the ship explicitly referred to this dispute; King Edgar was the central theme of the transom carvings.
Rear-Admiral Sir
William SymondsSir William Symonds was "Surveyor of the Navy" in the Royal Navy from 9 June 1832 to October 1847, and took part in the naval reforms instituted by the Whig First Lord of the Admiralty Sir James Robert George Graham in 1832.-Early life:He was the second son...
noted that after the ship's launch she was "cut down" and made a safe and fast ship. In the time of the
Commonwealth of EnglandThe Commonwealth of England, from 1653-1659 the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, was the republican government which ruled first England and Wales, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Some would call this government a "crowned" republican government...
all ships named after royalty were renamed; it was first decided to change the name of the ship into Commonwealth
, but in 1650 it became a simple Sovereign
. In 1651 she was again made more manoeuvrable by reducing the number of cannon, served throughout the wars of the Commonwealth and became the flagship of General-at-sea Robert BlakeRobert Blake was one of the most important military commanders of the Commonwealth of England, and one of the most famous English admirals of the 17th century....
. She was involved in all of the great English naval conflicts fought against the United ProvincesThe Republic of the Seven United Netherlands was a European republic between 1581 and 1795, in about the same location as the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands,...
and FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
, referred to as 'The Golden Devil' (den Gulden Duvel
) by the Dutch.
When, during the First Anglo-Dutch WarThe First Anglo–Dutch War was the first of the four Anglo–Dutch Wars. It was fought entirely at sea between the navies of the Commonwealth of England and the United Provinces of the Netherlands...
, on 21 October 1652 the States-General of the NetherlandsThe States-General is the parliament of the Netherlands. It consists of two chambers, the more important of which is the directly elected House of Representatives...
in a secret session determined the reward money for the crews of fireships that succeeded in destroying an enemy vessel, the Sovereign
was singled out: an extra prize of 3000 guilders was promised 'in case they should ruin the ship named the Sovereign'. Although repeatedly occupied by the Dutch in the fiercest of engagements the Sovereign
was retaken every time and remained in service for nearly sixty years as the best ship in the English fleet. By 1660 her armament had been increased to 100 guns. After the English RestorationThe English Restoration, often shortened to the Restoration, began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Commonwealth of England that followed the English Civil War...
she was rebuilt at Chatham in 1660 as a first rate ship of the line of 100 guns, with flatter gundecks and renamed Royal Sovereign
.
She was smaller than Naseby
HMS Royal Charles was an 80-gun First Rate three-decker ship of the line of the English Navy. She was originally called the Naseby, built by Peter Pett, and launched at Woolwich dockyard in 1655, for the navy of the Commonwealth of England, and named in honour of Oliver Cromwell's decisive 1645...
(later renamed Royal Charles), but she was in regular service during the three
Anglo-Dutch WarsThe Anglo–Dutch Wars were fought in the 17th and 18th centuries between England and the United Provinces for control over the seas and trade routes...
, surviving the
Raid on the MedwayThe Raid on the Medway, sometimes called the Battle of Medway or the Battle of Chatham, was a successful Dutch attack on the largest English naval ships, laid up in the dockyards of their main naval base Chatham, that took place in June 1667 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War...
in 1667 by being elsewhere at the time. She underwent a second rebuild in 1685 at
Chatham DockyardChatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...
, relaunching as a first rate of 100 guns, before tooking part in the outset of the
War of the Grand AllianceThe Nine Years' War , also known as the War of the Grand Alliance, the War of the League of Augsburg, formerly the War of the Palatine Succession or the War of the English Succession, and also the Williamite War and King William's War – was fought in the late 17th century primarily on mainland...
against
Louis XIV of FranceLouis XIV , popularly known as the Sun King , was King of France and of Navarre His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days, and is the longest documented reign of any European monarch.Louis began personally governing France after the death...
, participating in the
Battle of Beachy HeadThe Battle of Beachy Head was a naval engagement fought on 10 July 1690 during the Nine Years' War. The battle was the greatest French tactical naval victory over their English and Dutch opponents during the war...
(1690) and the Battle of La Hougue, when she was more than 50 years old. In that period she was the first ship in history that flew
royalsA royal is a small sail flown immediately above the topgallant on square rigged sailing ships. It was originally called the "topgallant royal" and was used in light and favorable winds....
above her
topgallant sailOn a square rigged sailing vessel, a topgallant sail is the square-rigged sail or sails immediately above the topsail or topsails. It is also known as a gallant or garrant sail....
s.
Sovereign became leaky and defective with age during the reign of
William IIIWilliam III was a sovereign Prince of Orange by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland, and as William II over Scotland...
, and was laid up at Chatham, ignominiously ending her days, on 27 January 1697, by being burnt to the water line as a result of having been set on fire either by accident, negligence or design. Some part of the popular folklore attributes the fire to an overturned candle.
In her honour, Naval tradition has kept the name of this ship afloat, and several other subsequent ships have been named
HMS Royal SovereignSeven ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Royal Sovereign, while another was planned but renamed before being launched: was a 102-gun first rate ship of the line launched in 1637. She was rebuilt in 1660 and renamed Royal Sovereign, rebuilt again in 1685 and burnt by accident in 1697. was a...
.
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