Navy. An
Admiralty and Navy Office were established, and commissioners to
superintend naval affairs were appointed by him.

Regular salaries were settled for admirals, vice-admirals, captains, and
seamen, and the sea-service at this time became a distinct and regular
profession.

In 1512, Henry, having entered into a league with Spain against France,
fitted out a fleet under the command of Sir Edward Howard, Lord High
Admiral, and by an indenture, dated 8th of April of that year, granted
him the following allowance:--For his own maintenance, diet, wages, and
rewards, ten shillings a-day. For each of the captains, for their diet,
wages, and rewards, eighteenpence a-day. For every soldier, mariner,
and gunner, five shillings a-month for his wages, and five shillings for
his victuals, reckoning twenty-eight days in the month. But the
admiral, captains, officers, and men had also further allowances, under
the denomination of dead shares. I doubt whether the naval officers and
men of the present day would be satisfied with a similar amount of pay.
Certainly the mariners of those days had more dangers and hardships to
encounter than have those of the present time under ordinary
circumstances. That year Henry's fleet consisted of forty-five ships,
of which the largest was the _Regent_, of 1000 tons; the two next in
size being the _Sovereign_ and the _Mary Rose_, of about 500 tons each.

The Regent and Cordelier.

War was now declared against France, and the English fleet put to sea
under the command of Sir Edward Howard. It carried a considerable body
of land forces, under the command of the Earl of Dorset, which were
landed at the Port of Passages, in Spain. Afterwards, being reinforced
by a number of stout ships, the admiral sailed for Brest, in the hopes
of encountering the French. Sir William Knevet had command of the
_Regent_, and Sir Charles Brandon, who had sixty of the tallest yeomen
of the Guard under him, commanded the _Sovereign_. The fleet arrived
off Brest just as the French fleet, consisting of thirty-nine sail, was
coming out of the harbour. On seeing the enemy, Sir Edward made the
signal for an immediate engagement. Scarcely was the signal seen, than
the _Regent_ and the _Cordelier_, the latter being the largest ship in
the French navy, attacked each other as if by mutual consent. The
_Cordelier_, it is said, carried 1200 soldiers. Undoubtedly her
commander hoped to carry the English ship by