Free A Journey Through Tudor England by Suzannah Lipscomb Page A

Cowdray, a Clerk of the Ordnance in 1546. She is also portrayed in the Embarkation at Dover painting (at both L EEDS C ASTLE and H AMPTON C OURT P ALACE ) where Henry stands on his great warship, Henry Grace á Dieu . The Mary Rose is on the far right.
    The Cowdray Engravings show that she was indeed a flagship: she would have been decked with flags, banners and pennants, including the three gold lions of England, the three gold fleursde-lis of France (Henry’s paltry holdings in Calais meant he claimed to be the King of France too), the red cross of St George and impressive billowing pennants in the Tudor livery colours of green and white, up to fifty yards in length. Camouflage was not the overriding concern here.
    The Mary Rose first saw service in 1512, in the first of Henry VIII’s rather futile wars against France. The decision, unusual at the time, to keep her after the cessation of hostilities meant that she could be regularly recaulked and pumped out, ready to sail whenever Henry needed her, including to the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520. Or, as when Henry entertained the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, on board in May 1522.
    She was, however, a warship above all. According to an inventory of 1541, she was loaded with ninety-six guns in total, over three decks. These were the single-bored muzzle-loading guns preferred by the early Tudors; the largest recovered from the Mary Rose is a 4,7831b bronze cannon. Others are smaller and more ornate, decorated with the Tudor rose and inscriptions praising Henry VIII. Tudor warfare did not rely wholly on artillery: 172 longbows were also found in the ship, reminding us that by law, all English men were required to practise archery.
    Looking at some of these items of war, you can see the individuality of the men who wielded them. For example, the linstocks — carved poles along which a slow fuse was wrapped in order to ignite gunpowder from a safe distance — have been whittled into garish animal mouths by the gunners who owned them. There arepersonal items found on board, too, and now on view at the museum: more than eighty combs for brushing hair and removing lice, manicure sets, ear scoops for wax, wooden bowls, ballock knives (the suggestive shape of the hilt was intentional), tankards and sewing kits. Musical instruments, such as the shawm (an early type of oboe), dice for illegal gambling, Bibles and rosary beads attest to how the sailors on the ship spent their spare time. Although most of them slept uncomfortably on deck, their lot was better than that of most ordinary people in Tudor England, who faced the rising prices and rents, poor harvests and enclosure of common land that contributed to Kett’s Rebellion of 1549 [see K ETT ’ S O AK ].
    Having been ‘new made’ in 1536, the Mary Rose was brought out again in 1545 to face the French peril. The renewed threat from Catholic Europe after Henry VIII’s break with Rome and the subsequent publication of a papal decree authorising the invasion of England in 1538 was one reason why Henry VIII invaded France in 1544 and seized Boulogne. The other was his ongoing desire to achieve the legendary military glory won by former kings of England: Edward III and Henry V at Agincourt. The French responded by sailing into the Solent (the strait that separates the Isle of Wight from mainland England) in 1545 with a fleet of 324 vessels: more ships than the Spanish Armada. It was the single greatest foreign threat of Henry VIII’s reign, and it was during this battle that the Mary Rose sank.
    It has never been fully clear why. The French claimed it was a result of their cannon, but the recovered hulk shows this could not have been the case. One probable factor was the refitting of 1536 itself as she was made heavier, to nearly double her original tonnage, and over-laden with a large number of crew the morning of 19 July. The extra weight, high up in the ship, decreased her stability and manoeuvrability. She seems likely to