By the end of the Tudor rule, England was one of the leading maritime powers.Its ability to challenge and oppose the largest colonial empire rested on powerful naval forces, which were a significant factor in international relations at the end of the 16th century.The naval history of the Tudor period traditionally Molder Top Weight attracts interest of researchers.
Privateering is also an object of interest, but previously it was primarily explored as an independent phenomenon, in isolation from the history of the Royal Navy.Thus, the issue of the role of private naval forces in the Anglo-Spanish war, their cooperation with the Navy remains relevant.Henry VIII Tudor, in short time, created a powerful navy, turning it from an "event" of the feudal epoch into a permanent state institution that showed its viability even under conditions of partial disorganization of state power in the middle of the century.
This English navy was very advanced by the standards of the early Modern times.During the reign of Edward VI and Maria Tudor, the navy allowed the Crown to be militarily independent of the forces of its subjects, which now represented only an auxiliary contingent.However, the price paid by the crown for this independent position was very high, since the maintenance of the "beloved child of the Tudors" was excessively expensive and always ranked second in the state budget.
In the reign of Elizabeth Tudor, since the beginning of the Anglo-Spanish war, the cost of the navy turned HEATHER into an unbearable burden for the almost empty royal treasury.This inevitably led to a change in the position of the naval forces and to a change in the perception of royal navy by government.While in the time of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Maria Tudor, the strategy and tactics of maritime actions in any conditions remained the prerogative of the crown, then since the 1580s onwards, private forces are gradually intercepting the initiative.
Under the new conditions, the queen was forced to play the role of a privileged, but partner.The royal power, with the loss of control over private naval forces, is also losing its monopoly on the development of a strategy and tactics of the naval war.Henceforth those were the private owners who became the engine of war, the crown turned into one of the main suppliers of naval resources, primarily royal ships.
Elizabeth had financial and strategic benefits from the current situation.However, such "cooperation" between the state and private forces completely solved the problems facing England.This article deals with the private naval initiative as the engine of the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585-1603.