Admiralty in the 16th century

Tudor Ensign 1485–1603

Although a small permanent navy was first established during the ninth century,[4] it quickly disappeared and pre-16th century monarchs largely relied upon requisitioned merchant ships for their needs. Maritime affairs were managed directly by the Crown until the appointment of a Lord High Admiral in 1385, [5] with administration and operations divided into three regions, the North Sea, English Channel and Irish Sea, each commanded by an admiral.[6] These regional commands were abolished in 1414 and their functions and jurisdiction centralised under a single Admiralty Office,[7] although they did not disappear entirely disappear; the Admiral of the Narrow Seas, first established in 1412, continued to exist as a separate command subordinate to the Lord High Admiral.[8]

As the Royal Navy expanded under Henry VIII of England, increasing costs and complexity required the appointment of specialist departments, including Clerk of the Acts, Comptroller of the Navy (Navy Board), Treasurer of the Navy and Surveyor of the Navy. In 1546, these offices and functions were brought together in the Council of the Marine, a group directed by the Lieutenant of the Admiralty until 1557.[9] Later known as the Navy Board, this was the first permanent attempt to establish an effective naval administration, with responsibility for ship building, maintenance and administration of the Royal Navy Dockyard, although operational matters remained under the Lord High Admiral.[10]

A fifth officer, the Surveyor of Marine Victuals, was added in 1550 with responsibility for food and drink, along with a Board of Ordnance under a Master of the Ordnance, an independent body which supervised the storage and issuing of weapons and gunpowder at the main naval Bases. For the next six decades, this system of administration did not change, except in 1557 the Treasurer of the Navy took over supervision of the Navy Board, which remained independent until 1628 when it became a subsidiary body of the Board of Admiralty. The Treasurer also reported independently to the Lord High Treasurer in order to provide funds for the navy, although spending and administration remained the responsibility of the Navy Board.

During the 16th century, the Admiralty consisted of the Lord Admiral of England, supported by the Vice-Admiral of England and the Lieutenant of the Admiralty, responsible for the control and direction of naval operations, civil affairs, logistical support and judicial administration of the admiralty courts.

By 1560 there were three main operational areas; the English Channel, Irish Sea and North Sea, each with its own squadron commanded by an admiral or vice admiral.[21] The number of ships varied depending on circumstances while some were purely temporary formations but during this period they included the following;

Narrow Seas Squadron; also called the "Eastern" and commanded by the Admiral of the Narrow Seas, responsible for protecting English shipping in the Channel, particularly the Straits of Dover, and the area of the southern North Sea between England and the Spanish Netherlands, later the Dutch Republic.[22]

Irish Squadron; a temporary formation in service from 1539 to 1545 and 1569 to 1583, based in Milford Haven under the Admiral of the Irish Squadron.[23][24][25]

North Sea Squadron; based first in Great Yarmouth, then Newcastle upon Tyne under the Admiral of the North, responsible for the northern North Sea; established in 1543, it was disbanded in 1563.[24] Included[26]

Channel Squadron; responsible for guarding the western approaches to the Channel and renamed the "Western Squadron" in 1650, this was formed in 1512 and based in Plymouth under the Vice-Admiral in the Channel.[27]

Before the formation of the Council of the Marine in 1545, court officials of various monarchs of England responsible for administering the king's ships were called 'Clerks of the Kings Marine'. In 1545 a memorandum was issued by Henry VIII outlining a new organization to be called the 'Council of the Marine, formalized by Letters Patent in April 1546, and consisting of the Chief Officers of the Admiralty as they were then called. In 1578 The council of Marine is renamed the Navy Office and administered by the Navy Board. The chief officers become later known as principal officers and commissioners.[30]

In the 19th and 20th centuries referred to as the Justice Department of the Royal Navy.

• Allison, Ronald; Riddell, Sarah, eds. (1991). The Royal encyclopedia. Macmillan Academic and Professional. ISBN 978-0333538104.
• Baker, Sherston (2010). Office of Vice-Admiral of the Coast: being some account of that ancient office. Gale Ecco, Making Of Mode. ISBN 978-1240154067.
• Baugh, Daniel A. (2015). British Naval Administration in the Age of Walpole. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1400874637.
• Blomfield, R. Massie (1912). "Naval Executive Ranks". The Mariner's Mirror. 2 (4): 106–112. doi:10.1080/00253359.1912.10654589.
• Bothwell, J.S. (2004). Edward III and the English peerage : royal patronage, social mobility and political control in fourteenth-century England. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. ISBN 9781843830474.
• Brewer, J. S. (2015). Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII 18 April 1514. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
• Campbell, John (1812). Lives of the British Admirals: Containing Also a New and Accurate Naval History, from the Earliest Periods. C. J. Barrinton. p. 245.
• Childs, David (2009). Tudor Sea Power: The Foundation of Greatness. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1473819924.
• Childs, David (2014). Pirate Nation: Elizabeth I and her Royal Sea Rovers. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1848322943.
• Childs, David (2014). The Warship Mary Rose: The Life and Times of King Henry VII's Flagship. Barnsley, England: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 9781473853096
• Coad, J. G (1989). The royal dockyards, 1690-1850: architecture and engineering works of the sailing Navy. Scolar Press. ISBN 978-0859678032.
• Corbett, Julian Stafford (1917). Drake and the Tudor navy, with a history of the rise of England as a maritime power. Longmans, Green.
• Ehrman, John (2012). The Navy in the war of William III, 1689-1697: its state and direction. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107645110.
• Hall, Simon (1999). The Hutchinson Illustrated Encyclopedia of British History. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1579581077.
• Hamilton, Admiral Sir. R. Vesey, G.C.B. (1896). Naval Administration: The Constitution, Character, and Functions of the Board of Admiralty, and of the Civil Departments it Directs. London: George Bell and Sons.
• HMSO (1963). Guide to the contents of the Public Record Office. Vol. 2. State Papers and Department records. HMSO.
• Knighton, C. S.; Loades, David, eds. (2011). The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate for the Navy Records Society. ISBN 978-1-4094-1847-4.
• Knighton, C. S.; Loades, David (2016). Elizabethan Naval Administration. Routledge. ISBN 978-1317145035.
• Logan, Karen Dale (1976). The Admiralty: Reforms and Re-organization, 1868–1892. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of Oxford.
• Miller, Francis H. (1884). The Origin and Constitution of the Admiralty and Navy Boards, to which is added an Account of the various Buildings in which the Business of the Navy has been transacted from time to time. London: For Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Copy in Greene Papers. National Maritime Museum. GEE/19.
• Nelson, Arthur (2001). The Tudor navy : the ships, men and organisation 1485 - 1603. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0851777856.
• Perry, Marvin (2015). Western Civilization: A Brief History. Cengage Learning. ISBN 9781305537750.
• "Publications of the Navy Records Society". 11. George Allen & Unwin. 1898: 28.
• Rodger, N.A.M. (1979). The Admiralty (Offices of State). T. Dalton. ISBN 978-0900963940.
• Rodger, N.A.M. (1998). The safeguard of the sea : a naval history of Britain, 660-1649. W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0393319606.
• Rodger, N.A.M. (2004). "17: The Council of the Marine: (Administration 1509–1574)". The safeguard of the sea : a naval history of Britain. New York: W.W. Norton. pp. 221–238. ISBN 9780140297249.
• Rose, Susan (2013). England's Medieval Navy 1066-1509: Ships, Men & Warfare. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 9781473853546.
• Sainty, Sir John. "Office-Holders in Modern Britain | Institute of Historical Research". history.ac.uk. University of London, Historical Research Institute. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
• Sainty, J. C.; Thrush, R. D. (28 September 2006). "Office-Holders: Vice Admirals of the Coasts 1558–1660". web.archive.org. The Institute of Historical Research: University of London, England, 5 Apr 2005 – 8 Nov 2016. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
• The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 3 George IV. 1822. London: By His Majesty's Statute and Law Printer. 1822.
• Tittler, Robert; Jones, Norman L. (2008). A Companion to Tudor Britain. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1405137409.
• Wotton, Thomas (1741). The Baronetage: Containing a Genealogical and Historical Account of All the English Baronets, Now Existing: Their Descents, Marriages, and Issues ... T. Wotton.