Гуманитарные и юридические исследования (Sep 2021)
THE PROBLEMS OF WORK OF THE MILITARY SEA COUNCIL IN THE YEARS OF THE BOARD OF KARL I STUART
Abstract
The Naval Council, which was created in the years of Henry VIII, became the body that effectively provided the permanent work of the English navy. The Navy that turned into the state institute in the Tudor epoch successfully solved the tasks of defense of the country and implementation of its offensive strategy, thereby laying the foundation for the transformation of England into a great sea power. However, with the accession to the throne of King-peacemaker James Stewart, the fleet, the "favorite child of the Tudors", became the object of neglect. Under those conditions, corrupt senior officers of the Navy began to consider the collapsing naval system as a source of their own income. The logical outcome of the process of disintegration of the English Navy and its management structures was the dissolution of the Naval Council in 1618 and its replacement by the Naval Commission, designed to eradicate corruption and restore effective management of the whole naval sphere. However, the Commission itself also did not justify the hopes placed on it. The results of its activities were very doubtful. The accession of Charles I to the English throne, the ambitious king, who dreamed of restoring the former power of the country as a leading maritime power, led to changes in foreign policy. The English Navy was becoming one of the main tools in solving new foreign policy tasks. Obvious failures in the activity of the Naval Commission, its inability to provide support for the Navy in military conditions caused its liquidation and the restoration of the Naval Council in 1628. So far the activities of the naval Council during the reign of Charles I have been studied very poorly. There are two main explanations for the lack of interest of researchers in the naval history of the early Stuart period. First, the naval history of the first half of the XVII century in comparison with the heroic time of the Tudors, looks pretty pale and Navy of the early Stuarts very often, even among professional historians is perceived as a pitiful semblance of the mighty "sea walls of Tudor England". And, secondly, a significant part of the historical documents of this period was lost during the events of the late 1640s-1950s, and a very small number of fragmentary preserved documents deters researchers. The article is devoted to the study of the problems of the recreated naval Council during the reign of Charles I Stewart.
