CHARLES THE FIRST TO TERMINATION OF COMMONWEALTH--A.D. 1625 TO A.D.
1660.
The unhappy Charles ascended the throne under disadvantageous
circumstances. His father had left him a heavy debt; the Duke of
Buckingham, his chief minister, was universally hated, and England had
greatly sunk in the estimation of foreign nations. James had agreed to
furnish the King of France with some ships of war to assist him against
the King of Spain or his allies in Italy. In pursuance of this
agreement, Captain John Pennington was despatched in the _Vanguard_,
having under him six hired merchant-vessels. The King of France,
however, being hotly engaged in a war with his Protestant subjects,
intended to make use of the ships for the reduction of Rochelle.
Pennington, on discovering this, immediately wrote to the Duke of
Buckingham declining so odious a service, and requesting leave to return
to England. Buckingham, in reply, having obtained an order from
Charles, commanded him to employ his ships in such service as the King
of France should direct. The latter, at the same time, sent a letter to
the English captain, requiring him to take on board a number of French
soldiers, with his admiral, the Duke of Montmorency, and repair before
Rochelle. This Captain Pennington, with true English spirit, refused to
do; on which the French officer who had brought the letter returned on
board the _Vanguard_ to protest against him as a rebel to his king and
country. Not content with having once done this, he returned again and
enforced his request by threats and menaces, at which the seamen were so
enraged, that they weighed anchor and set sail, crying out they would
rather be hanged at home than be slaves to the French, and fight against
their own religion. The _Vanguard_ accordingly returned to the Downs.
On his arrival, the captain sending an express to court with advice of
his proceedings, immediately received a positive order, under the king's
sign-manual, to return and deliver up the ships into the hands of a
French officer at Dieppe. Having complied with this order, he quitted
the command, and he and all the officers and seamen, both of the
_Vanguard_ and merchant-vessels, left their ships and returned to
England.
The whole nation burned with indignation when they heard that Captain
Pennington's ships had been delivered up to the French and employed
against Rochelle, and demanded their immediate restitution. The French
king excused himself on the pretence that his subjects, by whom they
were manned, would not now quit them; on which, to appease the people,
the Duke of Buckingham issued commissions of reprisal. The _Saint
Peter_, of Havre-de-Grace, and other French vessels were on this
captured. Hearing of this proceeding, the French king not only
absolutely refused to restore the seven ships, but seized on all the
English merchants' property throughout his dominions. To carry on the
war with Spain a powerful fleet of eighty English and Dutch ships was
fitted out under the command of Cecil, afterwards created Viscount
Wimbleton. Ten regiments were embarked on board the fleet, under the
Earls of Essex and Denbigh. They proceeded to Cadiz, when the troops,
having broken into the wine-stores, became so excessively intoxicated,
that had the enemy set on them they must have been put to the sword.
The officers hastened, therefore, their re-embarkation, and the
expedition returned without having effected anything.
In 1627 three expeditions were undertaken, professedly to assist the
people of Rochelle, but, being badly managed, possibly through
treachery, they all failed. It was while fitting out one of these
fleets that the Duke of Buckingham, then Lord High Admiral, was murdered
by Felton.
A severe action was fought near Ormuz, in the Gulf of Persia, between
four English ships, under the command of Captain John Weddell, and four
Dutch ships, with eight Portuguese galleons and thirty-two frigates. On
hearing of the approach of the enemy, the English captain told his Dutch
allies that he had resolved, for the glory of God, the honour of his
nation, the profit of the worthy employers, and the safeguard of their
lives, ships, and goods, to fight it out as long as a man was living in
his ship to bear a sword. To whom the Dutchmen answered that they were
of a like resolution, and would stick as close to the English as the
shirts to their backs; and so in friendly manner each took leave for
that night. The Dutch the next morning were the first to get into
action. Friends and foes were now within musket-shot of each other,
when it fell a calm, and the ships of the allies could not work but as
the tide set them. When the Portuguese were aboard and aboard, they had
a great advantage with their frigates, which often towed them clear one
of another. Thus they lay four or five hours pelting and beating one
another with their ordnance, while the Portuguese frigates plied the
English and Dutch with their small shot as fast as they could, the
_Royal James_ being forced to keep the barge ahead to pull the ship's
head to and fro. Thus they fought on till night, several men being
killed, the Dutch having also lost their chief commander. For several
days the fight lasted. On one occasion the _James_ singled out a
Portuguese lying by her side with foresail and fore-topsail aback, so
near that a man might quoit a biscuit into her, and fired not less than
five hundred shots before she got clear. Thus the small squadron kept
the enemy at bay, till scarcely enough powder and shot remained on board
the _Royal James_ for another day's fight. The English lost 29 officers
and men, and the Dutch about the same number. The Portuguese, whose
fleet carried 232 guns and 2100 men, had 481 killed.
Another fight in the same locality, in the year 1625, between three
English East India ships, the _Lion_, _Dolphin_, and _Palsgrave_, and
eighteen or twenty Portuguese frigates, under the command of Don Rufero,
ended more disastrously. The _Lion_, being boarded by both the admiral
and vice-admiral, was dreadfully shattered, and torn in pieces in the
stem, in consequence of the poop blowing up with fifty or sixty of the
enemy on it. The Portuguese then left her, expecting that she would
sink or burn down to the water's edge, and pursued the _Palsgrave_ and
_Dolphin_, which, however, effected their escape. The brave crew of the
_Lion_, having put out the fire, succeeded in patching her up
sufficiently to reach Ormuz, where they received every assistance they
required from the Sultan. They were in hopes of being relieved by other
English ships, when Rufero with his frigates came rowing towards them.
The _Lion_ lay in such a position that she could only bring her
chase-pieces to bear upon the enemy. So well were they served that they
sank two of the Portuguese frigates before they could board her, and two
more after they were by her side. So closely were the English then
pressed by Rufero that, unable to open a port in the ship, they were
forced to shoot away ports and all. In addition to this, the Portuguese
so completely surrounded her by fire-works, that all her masts and sails
caught fire, as well as her upper-deck, which in half-an-hour fell down
on their heads, and drove them from their guns. On seeing death on
either side, some leaped overboard, and put themselves on the mercy of
the enemy, while the rest set fire to the powder-room, and blew up the
ship. Those who were received on board the frigates were carried into
Ormuz Island, and the next morning Rufero gave orders to cut off all
their heads, with the exception of one Thomas Winterbrune, whom he sent
with a letter to the merchants at Gambroon. The rest, twenty-six
persons, were immediately beheaded. This will give us some idea of the
mode of proceeding between belligerents in those days. The object of
the Portuguese was to prevent the English and Dutch from interfering
with their trade, and they hoped by such horrible cruelty to intimidate
others from coming out, or else were actuated by a spirit of barbarous
revenge. In 1626 the wages of seamen in the Royal Navy were increased
to twenty shillings a-month, and of ordinary seamen to fourteen
shillings, besides an allowance to a chaplain of fourpence, to a barber
twopence, and to the Chest at Chatham of sixpence per month. A clerk
and a keeper of all the king's stores and storehouses at Chatham,
Portsmouth, Deptford, etcetera, were also appointed.
An arbitrary tax having been imposed in the year 1634, by the name of
ship-money, which compelled all the seaport towns to furnish a fleet to
prevent the Dutch fishing on the coast of Britain; it was now extended
throughout the whole kingdom. The fleet was to consist of 44 ships,
carrying 8000 men, and to be armed and fitted for war; but, as will be
remembered, the unhappy king raised the money, but spent it on other
objects.
In 1637 was laid the keel of the _Royal Sovereign_, of 128 feet, the
first three-decked ship built for the Royal Navy. From the fore-end of
the beak-head to the after-end of the stern she measured 232 feet, and
she had a beam of 48 feet, while from the bottom of the keel to the top
of the stern-lantern she measured 76 feet. She carried 30 guns on her
lower-deck, 30 on the middle-deck, 26 on the main-deck, 14 on the
quarter-deck, 12 on the forecastle, and had 10 stern and bow-chasers.
She was of 1637 tons burden; she carried eleven anchors, the largest
weighing 4400 pounds; she had five stern-lanterns, the centre so large
as to contain ten persons upright. She was built by Peter Pett, under
the inspection of Phineas Pett.
The French, at the same time, began to establish a regular marine,
having fifty ships and twenty galleys in their navy. And now, for the
first time, was showed their superiority over the Spaniards, on which
Cardinal Richelieu ordered the following motto to be placed on the stern
of the largest: "Even on the main, our Gallic lilies triumph over
Spain."
A fund was now established by the king for the relief of maimed and
shipwrecked or otherwise distressed sailors in the merchant-service, and
for the widows and children of such as should be killed or lost at sea.
To form it, sixpence per month was deducted from the pay of
sea-officers, and fourpence from all sailors' wages from the port of
London. This fund was placed under the management of the Corporation of
the Trinity House.
In 1640 the first frigate, the _Constant Hardwick_, was built, under the
direction of Peter Pett. The king added ten more ships to the Royal
Navy, which, at the commencement of the Civil War, consisted of
eighty-two sail.