As the authors explain, ‘Had Charles I possessed the naval strength to blockade London, the war could have ended considerably sooner, as Parliament’s war machine would probably have ground to a halt.’ Significantly, while the strength of its navy was an important factor in Parliament’s ultimate victory, the lack of a Royalist equivalent was decisive. In response, the King attempted to create a ‘substitute navy’ despite occasional successes, it was never able to match the Parliamentarian navy. The British Civil Wars at Sea Richard J Blakemore and Elaine Murphy Boydell Press, £65 (hbk) ISBN 978-1783272297Įdward Hyde, first Earl of Clarendon, described the desertion of the Royal Navy to Parliament in 1642 as an ‘unspeakable ill consequence to the King’s affairs’.įor a monarch who was not unmindful of the importance of the Navy, this would have been particularly painful to Charles I.
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