safe on land must be supreme at sea." And all show the same kind of
first-rate sea-sense that is shown by the "Articles of War" which are
still read out to every crew in the Navy. The Preamble or preface to
these Articles really comes to this: "It is upon the Navy that, under
the providence of God, the wealth, prosperity, and peace of the British
Empire chiefly depend."

Between the death of Henry V in 1422 and the accession of Henry VII in
1485 there was a dreary time on land and sea. The King of England lost
the last of his possessions in the land of France. Only the Channel
Islands remained British, as they do still. At home the Normans had
settled down with the descendants of the other Norsemen to form one
people, the Anglo-Norman people of today, the leading race within the
British Empire and, to a less extent, within the United States. But
England was torn in two by the Wars of the Roses, in which the great
lords and their followers fought about the succession to the throne,
each party wanting to have a king of its own choice. For the most
part, however, the towns and seaports kept out of these selfish party
wars and attended to their growing business instead. And when Henry
VII united both the warring parties, and these with the rest of
England, he helped to lay the sure foundations of the future British
Empire.

CHAPTER VII

KING OF THE ENGLISH SEA

(1545)

England needed good pilots to take the ship of state safely through the
troubled waters of the wonderful sixteenth century, and she found them
in the three great Royal Tudors: Henry VII (1485-1509), Henry VIII
(1509-1547), and Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603). All three fostered
English sea-power, both for trade and war, and helped to start the
modern Royal Navy on a career of world-wide victory such as no other
fighting service has ever equalled, not even the Roman Army in the
palmy days of Rome. It was a happy thought that gave the name of Queen
Elizabeth to the flagship on board of which the British
Commander-in-chief received the surrender of the German Fleet. Ten
generations had passed away between this surrender in 1918 and the
defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. But the British Royal Navy was
still the same: in sea-sense, spirit, training, and surpassing skill.

Henry VII was himself an oversea trader, and a very good one too. He
built ships and let them out to traders at a handsome profit for
himself besides trading with them