ABSTRACT
The last years of Queen Mary and the first years of Queen Elizabeth 1 served to revitalize the infant English Royal Navy, placing it on a vastly more orderly and secure footing than ever before. There can be little doubt that the last two years under Edward VI and the first two under Mary were the worst seen in the maintenance of the Royal Navy between the start of the rebuilding programme under Henry VIII in the mid-1530s and the end of the century. Elizabeth I, it seems, shaped her naval policies around the recommendations of these same officials; and though less generous with her money, stood squarely behind her Admiralty, in spite of the repeated criticisms levelled at them from both within and without. In about nine years, 1556-64, the almost forgotten men built both a good Royal Navy and underpinned it with an administrative system to enable the Royal Navy to survive over the succeeding centuries.
