Lecture 13: For Reeds to Steam: A Too-Brief History of Naval Warfare

In this lecture, we’re going to back up just a little, from the time of the ENGLISH CIVIL WAR, in which King CHARLES I (1600-1649)

• so antagonized many of his people, represented in part by the House of Commons, that he brought on a civil war

this civil war lasted from

1642 to 1651: continuing even after the king had been tried by Parliament for treason and executed in January, 1649, an act which shocked people all over Europe—especially other monarchs.

1517, when a German priest, Father MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546),

sent a list of points to the local archbishop which argued that the Church was misbehaving by selling a kind of pardon, called an INDULGENCE.  He may also have nailed a copy of that list onto a local church door, thus publishing them.

Needless to say, this was not well received by the archbishop and by his superiors and was, instead, the beginning of a great struggle, which ended with Luther forced out of the Church.

• In turn, along with others who shared his beliefs, he set in motion a movement of protest which ended in a new form of Christianity, called PROTESTANTISM, as well as the foundation of a new church, named LUTHERAN, after him. 

• The beliefs of this new church included the idea that people were so responsible for their own souls that they should read the Christian Bible for themselves.  The Church had resisted this for a long time, maintaining the Bible in Latin, which could only be read by a few educated people, mostly churchmen.  Luther responded by translating the Bible into German.

Mechanical printing was still relatively new at this time, having been invented in the 1450s (right at the time the Hundred Years War was ending),

but luther used it to publish one part of the bible, the new testament, in 1552, and both that and the old testament in 1534

this spirit of criticism and resistance was in the Europeans air at this time and a French lawyer, named jean calvin (1509-1564)

became so involved that he was forced to flee france for switlerland, where he was instrumental in the foundation of another named of Protestantism, named after him Calvinism

these two branches spread rapidly, but unevenly,

across northern and parts of western europe

england would join this movement, not for religious reasons, but for dynastic ones

henry VIII (1491-1547), whose father, henry VII (1457-1509), had seized the throne of england after the battle of Bosworth in 1485, was worried about family succession

his wife, catherine of aragon (daughter of isabella and ferdinand of spain, had produced a daughter, but no sons

and henry wanted boys to succeed him

He was having an affair with one of his wife’s ladies-in-waiting, Anne Boleyn, who was pregnant, so he must have been feeling hopeful, as well as pressured. 

He applied to the Pope, Clement VII, for a divorce (extremely rare in those days), but Catherine was the aunt of the most powerful man in central Europe, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, so the Pope put him off. 

He applied to the Pope, Clement VII, for a divorce (extremely rare in those days), but Catherine was the aunt of the most powerful man in central Europe, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, so the Pope put him off. 

He also divorced Catherine, but had a daughter by Anne, and went on to marry four more times, gaining one sickly son in the process.

There was relatively little public resistance to this change of church in England and Henry, always hungry for money, went on to abolish a huge number of religious establishments and sell off their assets in the period called the “Dissolution of the Monasteries” (1536-1541—the official period, but Henry continued to sell things off after 1541).

The majority of England, then, turned towards Protestantism with little struggle and never looked back.

In contrast, in France, the 16^th century was one of religious wars—Protestant against Catholic in pitched battles and even massacres

like the St. Bartholomew’s of 1572, in which Catholics attempted to remove the major leaders of the Protestant movement with one blow.

This violence didn’t stop until the main candidate for the throne of France, Henri of Navarre (1553-1610), a Protestant, did two things after he became king HENRI IV in 1589:

a. he converted to Catholicism (supposedly saying that “Paris is worth a mass”) in 1593

b. he issued the EDICT OF NANTES in 1598 which guaranteed (limited) tolerance for the 10% or so of France who were Protestants (called HUGUENOTS—say it “OOG-noe”).

He then tried to reorganize France into a more modern country, with the aid of his able minister, Maximilien de Bethune, the Duke de Sully (1560-1641).

The nobles of France had been a powerful element in the 16^th-century religious wars and major element in the king’s policy was to take power from those nobles while giving more power to the state.  Unfortunately for France, the king was assassinated in 1610.

His successor, Louis XIII, was 9 at the time, so the government was run by the Queen, Maria de’ Medici,

with CARDINAL RICHELIEU (1585-1642) as the equivalent of the prime minister.

Richelieu was a firm believer in two ideas:

a. that kings were appointed to their role by God (you’ll remember that this was behind feudalism)—a concept called THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS

b. that the king should be at the center of everything, a concept called ABSOLUTISM.  This was an idea which had been around for a very long time--in ancient China this was called LEGALISM, and the first emperor, Ch’in Shi Huang Ti (c.259-210BC), was a firm believer in it.  The problem with this was that, unlike England, France had no tradition of representative government and so an absolutist king had nothing to stop him from doing anything he wanted.  Louis XIII’s son, Louis XIV, was even once quoted as saying, “L’Etat?  C’est moi!”—“The state?  That’s me!”  Here’s a handy chart (although the French kings, as we said, had no legislatures to stand in his way).

At Louis’ death in 1643, this idea was passed on to the next generation, although his son, who would be Louis XIV (1638-1715), was 5 at the time of his father’s death, and so his mother, Anne of Austria,

and another cardinal (nominated by Richelieu before his death), Mazarin (1602-1661), became the king’s advisor..

Unfortunately, Mazarin’s policies caused revolt among cities and nobles—

the period called the Wars of La Fronde (1648-1653).

Louis XIV had been 10 at the beginning of the period and had been bounced around during the struggle.  Afterwards, not surprisingly, he grew up to believe firmly in Absolutism.  He also had an intense dislike for Paris, which had been involved in the revolt. 

In 1661, after the death of Cardinal Mazarin, Louis became king in more than name.  In his first years in power, he was assisted by the extremely able Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683).

who attempted to put France on a sounder financial basis—even as his monarch spent the cash on his favorite palace, VERSAILLES (miles away from Paris and absolutely mammoth),

1. on his mistresses,

2. on the navy,

3. and on his splendid—and ever-bigger army (eventually 450,000 men—gigantic, at that time),

all to become THE Monarch of Europe, Le Roi Soleil, “the Sun King” as he modestly

called himself.  

lousis armor

(The armor is only for show, by the way.  Although Louis liked to observe sieges, from a safe distance, the age when kings like Henry V actually led their men into battle was fading fast.)

And, to unify the country under the slogan, “One King, One Law, One Religion”, he revoked his ancestor,

Henri IV’s Edict of Nantes, in 1685, driving away thousands of Huguenots, many of whom were among France’s best-educated and most-talented.

Once he became king, Louis’ taste for power was expressed not only at home, but abroad and France was at war with its neighbors almost continuously from 1667 to 1713, just two years before Louis’ death.

His enemies included Austria, the Netherlands, and England, but this list could expand, depending upon the war.

Having provided background, let’s finish up this lecture with some discussion of the changes in military technology during this period, particularly within Louis’s lifetime, from

1638 to 1715

When Louis was a child and young man, the principle firearm was the

MATCHLOCK

but, by the last quarter of the century (1675-1700), these were being replaced by the much more reliable

FLINTLOCK muskets

Like the matchlock before it, the flintlock had a very limited (about 100 yards, tops) range. 

This meant that, to get the maximum out of the weapon, soldiers had to fire them in massed ranks.

When Louis was young, along with the matchlock went the PIKE,

which kept away enemy cavalry.

This was gradually replaced with a new invention, the BAYONET—originally,

the PLUG BAYONET.

The British army learned a bitter lesson at Killiecrankie, in 1689,

however, when they shifted from volley firing to plug bayonets as a highland charge came down upon them

A general dissatisfaction with the plug brought about the more successful bayonet with ring-locking mechanism.

This would allow a soldier to load and fire, even with the bayonet fixed in place.

We’ll add one more weapon to these.  Known all the way back to the Dutch Revolt (1568-1648), this was commonly something for sieges

the HAND GRENADE

In time, a specific type of soldier was given the job of throwing these,

the GRENADIER

Our first known (at the moment) depiction of one of these is in Mallet’s 1671

Les Travaux de Mars (“The Works of Mars”).

the problem with grenades and guns

To throw the grenade, you need to sling your musket first—and that big floppy hat is in the way—how about something more cut down?

in time, these caps will go in different directions—some all cloth, some fur-covered,

and some brass or tin-fronted.

By the mid-18^th century, soldiers seem rarely to have used grenades, but they would appear on naval vessels. 

Even without their grenades, however, grenadiers remained, being useful as elite troops for special missions.  And they survive—in symbolic form—distinctive fur caps and all, as part of the body guards of two monarchs, the kings of Denmark and England.