A Brief History
On August 29, 1350, the English naval fleet under King Edward III defeated the Castilian fleet at the Battle of Winchelsea in the English Channel after the Castilian fleet had previously attacked and captured English trade ships. Although not establishing naval dominance over the Spanish for good, this battle showed that the English took naval threats seriously and would meet the enemy head on to protect its ships and coastlines. The Battle of Winchelsea precursed what would become a massive English victory against the Spanish Armada in 1588.
Digging Deeper
As mentioned in the introduction, the Battle of Winchelsea did not yet establish English naval dominance; however, after the defeat of the great Spanish Armada, the exploits of legendary English sailors such as Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh made the English a naval force to be reckoned with, both in terms of exploration and colonization as well as in their offensive and aggressive handling of Spanish ships encountered on the high seas.
During the Napoleonic Wars, around the time that England formally joined with Ireland and Scotland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, what kept the British in the war at all was their mastery of the seas. Try as they may, the French just could not dominate the Royal Navy and were unable to isolate the British Isles. Lord Admiral Nelson’s victories at the cost of his arm and then his life make him arguably the greatest fighting sailor of all time.
In the 19th century, ships went from being built from wood to being built from steel, and they went from being powered by wind to being powered by steam. In 1906, the Royal Navy unveiled the HMS Dreadnought, a warship whose design became the new state of the art for all nations. In fact, battleships during this time were then called dreadnoughts.
At the Battle of Jutland in World War I, the Royal Navy failed to destroy the German Imperial Fleet; however, they succeeded in sending the German ships home where they sat out the remainder of war, unable to challenge for naval supremacy. The U-Boat war waged against Britain also failed because of the intrepid British seamanship (and some help from the U.S. Navy…).
When Germany again tried to dominate the seas during World War II, the Royal Navy was once again up to the task, destroying the mighty Bismarck and other heavily armed and armored German ships, and once again the Royal Naval would not let itself be defeated by U-Boats (and once again with help from the U.S. Navy).
Although still masters at seafaring, the early part of the war in the Pacific finally saw the end of British naval dominance. The Japanese had worked diligently to build a mighty fleet of their own which included submarines and aircraft carriers, and British ships suffered embarrassing defeats. Once the U.S. Navy built up its own strength, the Allies were again in charge, but to this day it has been the U.S. Navy and not the Royal Navy that rules the oceans since World War II.
The Royal Navy is still a potent fighting force but no longer strives for domination of the seas. The disbanding of the British Empire makes such a task irrelevant today, but one can be reasonably certain that the Royal Navy is ready for any conflict that might develop. Just ask the Argentinians!
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Herman, Arthur. To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World. Harper, 2004.
Salariya, David, David Stewart, et al. You Wouldn’t Want to Explore With Sir Francis Drake!: A Pirate You’d Rather Not Know. Franklin Watts, 2005.
Willis, Sam. In the Hour of Victory: The Royal Navy at War in the Age of Nelson. W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. (http://www.cngcoins.com) of a gold noble coin of 1354, the obverse showing Edward III seated in a cog, figuratively “ruling the seas,” is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
You can also watch a video version of this article on YouTube:
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="4317 http://www.crackedhistory.com/?p=4317">18 Comments
Slightly offensive asides about the US Navy’s involvement with the RN. The Royal Navy fought and defeated the Kriegsmarine (Narvik) the Italians (Matapan) the Vichy French (Mars-el-Kabir). The Atlantic,South Atlantic, Arctic and Mediterranean were entirely dominated by the RN and the U Boat menace was eventually crushed primarily by the RN and the British invention of ASDIC (sonar) and microwave radar (able to detect periscopes above the water) The US Navy was a valiant and formidable force, you do not need to denigrate the Royal Navy to improve its standing.
The intent is to glorify and acknowledge the importance and historical success of the RN, and to not insult the USN by failing to acknowledge their contribution to the anti -U-boat war in both world wars. Although the USN is the preeminent naval force today, and has been since 1943 or 1944, over the course of world history the RN is #1.
This article is a joke. The Spanish inflicted innumerable defeats on the English/British, and vice-versa. This is very simplistic with a strong pro UK bias. As an example, the year after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, was the defeat of the English Armada who lost 10,000 men. The Spanish controlled the oceans for the next 50 years…. History is long an there are many ups and downs.
It just goes to show that the British navy has mostly always been the strongest naval force of all.
It is interesting to see how strong the RN is because you do not hear about it too often!
It just proves that the birtish always had a great and powerful naval fleet
It’s amazing how victories such as this can snowball into the dominance that Great Britain achieved at sea for centuries.
I feel as though Great Britain has always been dominant, especially when it comes to their navy. However I feel we almost forget about them as whole in today’s world.
Great Britain has always been a forced to be reckoned with when it comes to their navy in history. I do not believe they are considered to be a top competitor for a dominant military power today, (or at least not that I have heard of late) but they definitely have a place in history.
The British have always been the ones who show the dominance
Great Britain will always be known for its strong naval fleet just like Sparta will be known for its powerful warriors and land battles.
People just didn’t really respect Britains naval capabilities and reputation, and ended up getting destroyed because they thought they were better.
Shows how good great Britain naval fleet was and still is.
The Royal Navy will forever be known as a dominant Naval force. They defended off Nazi Germany in World War II and were the rulers of the seas for quite some time. Even though the U.S controls the seas today, The Royal Navy will never be forgotten for such tough battles won throughout history.
I do not know for sure, but I tend to believe it will be hard for any country to compete with our military due to the great pride we take in it in our country and our culture, which drives it to be the best.
Wow, the British Naval Fleet is impressive.
any form of the army frightens me. I am scared for what is to come for future wars, but i have faith in our country and its success with wars in the past
this is the start of the british showing how they are getting stronger. the spanish should’ve seen this as a warning.