7 - Establishments and Orders
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2024
Summary
The armament of Queen Mary's ships is fully described in a previously unpublished Ordnance Office survey of 1555, now at Longleat [II.78]. This must be the work of Anthony Anthony, and is the only such establishment to survive between his great illuminated inventory of 1546, and a list of 1585. For some of the smaller vessels it is the only source of ordnance data. However, it pre-dates the building of Philip and Mary and the second Mary Rose so does not reveal the full firepower the Marian navy eventually acquired. Two brief lists from Pepys's collections, one of ships [II.79] and the other of designated captains [II.80] are placed here because they cannot be fitted precisely into the chronological sequence of Chapter 6. That also applies to a version of the general orders for the navy [II.81]. This comes from James Humphrey's compendium of 1569, but its occasional use of the plural royal style assigns it to the years of Philip and Mary. There has been some doubt as to whether its more bizarre provisions were ever enforced.
II.78 Extract from Ordnance Office Establishment
[Longleat House, Misc. MS V, ff. 1, 53–73v]
20 August 1555
The Office of the Ordnance. A declaration containing the quantity and number of all such ordnance of brass and iron, with all other sorts and kinds of artillery, munitions and other habiliments of [word repeated] war remaining in sundry places within the realm of England and the dominions of the same, that is to say, as well within the Tower of London, the North parts, the forts standing upon the sea coasts, Calais and the Marches, and Ireland, as also within the King and Queen's Majesties’ ships; together with the yearly wages, stipends, fees and allowances due to the sundry officers and ministers serving within the said office, as well in the 10th year of the reign of our late sovereign lord King Henry the eight of famous memory [1518–19], as also at this present day, being the 20th day of August anno Domini 1555 and the second and third years of Philip and Mary, by the grace of God, King and Queen of England, France, Naples, Jerusalem and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, Princes of Spain and Sicily, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Milan, Burgundy and Brabant,
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- Information
- The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I , pp. 393 - 406Publisher: Boydell & BrewerFirst published in: 2024