(Cover image – © The Mary Rose)
Tragedies were a common occurrence during the Tudor era, from failed marriages and executed wives to bloody wars and traitorous subjects but not all of these tragedies occurred on land.
On this day, the 19th July 1545, one of the greatest tragedies of Henry VIII’s reign occurred; his flagship, the Mary Rose, sank right in front of him during the Battle of the Solent, placed directly between the English and French fleets.
The Mary Rose was one of many ships Henry VIII had in his Royal Navy but it is remembered as his favourite—and many theorize this is due to the ship being named after his sister Mary, although she was not known as Mary Rose and this ‘nickname’ might have been associated with her many years after her death. Ironically enough, both the life of Henry VIII and the Mary Rose are almost identical to one another as only two years following the ships sinking, King Henry VIII passed away at the age of 55 years old.
However, the cause of the Mary Rose’s tragic sinking is still a mystery that baffles historians to this day, with there being several theories of how the Mary Rose found her way to the bottom of the sea, taking almost all of her crew with her.
But before we explore these theories and what happened on this dreadful day 478 years ago, let us explore the history of the Mary Rose from her construction to the days that led up to her fateful end.
The Birth of the Mary Rose
Whilst the precise date for when Henry VIII decided to create a ship as what we would later know as the Mary Rose, the earliest reference for the Mary Rose is dated on the 29th January 1510. This reference comes in the form of a letter from the King’s court, ordering the immediate construction of two new ships, the Mary Rose and her ‘sister’ ship (meaning a ship created at the same time since ships are known by female pronouns) which was the Peter Pomegranate.
Henry VIII, who had only been King for under a year at this point, was determined to make England better under his rule and to use the finances his father before him had kept under lock and key to good use—and this use was to improve England’s military and navy defences. Henry VIII would go onto become an enthusiastic shipbuilder , ordering many to be built during his reign and found the most pride in his ‘Army by the Sea’ as he liked the idea of being the most powerful of all other Kings.
And if you know anything about Henry VIII, it was that he absolutely had to be the best at everything and he did everything in his power to ensure this.
You see, England was always at risk of war with other kingdoms, most especially with Scotland and France, it’s longtime enemies/allies as they were either battling for domination or peacefully trading with one another or offering up royal children for future political marriages. Therefore it was imperative that England have a full functioning navy (as well as army) at the ready in case the peace treaties failed—which often than not, they did.
Now, these two new ships that Henry VIII ordered were to be built in Portsmouth (ironically where the ship now rests in the Mary Rose Museum) and work on the two ships was immediately funded as the King wanted these ships ready in no later than a year.
The symbolism of the names behind the Mary Rose and the Peter Pomegranate can actually be linked to a certain figure as well as the royal family. Earlier, we stated that it is believed that the Mary Rose was named after Henry VIII’s sister and whilst this might be true, there is no evidence to support this or the reason behind the ‘rose’ part. However, the names Peter and Mary are actually religiously based (a.k.a. the name of many saints and the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ who was known as the Mystic Rose) and it was common for Kings to name their ships after religion to show their devotion. However, the rose and pomegranates are not randomly placed as one might believe; roses were often used by the King as a royal badge and pomegranates were the badge of Henry’s first wife and Queen; Catherine of Aragon. Therefore, it is easy to deduce that the ships were made in the honour of the royal couple and meant to show that God supported them in their reign. And at this time, Henry had no reason to doubt this was true as he had gone from the ‘spare to the heir’ to becoming King of England and soon his wife would produce a healthy, living son to further support his rule.
Only, we all know this would not happen.
What information do we know about what the Mary Rose looked like?
From what we know, whilst Henry VIII invested quite a lump sum of money into both of these ships, the Mary Rose was significantly larger than the Peter Pomegranate with her being 600 tons in comparison to her sister’s 450 tons. However, there were more differences between these sister ships; the Peter Pomegranate, although she and the Mary Rose were carracks designed for war, was not designed nor built to carry heavy suns and this might have been a design choice or because of the fact that Henry himself insisted on the designs, showing his favouritism of the Mary Rose who had carried between six or eight guns at least at the beginning of her career and sparked a new design feature for naval ships; gun ports. She was truly a state of the art asset and therefore Henry VIII expected her to win him some outstanding victories against his enemies.
Before we shortly explore what happened to the Mary Rose leading up to her tragic demise, we would just like to note what happened to her sister ship, the Peter Pomegranate. Whilst we do not have much record of the ship considering how much importance was placed on the Mary Rose, what we do know of her is very little. First, we learn that she was rebuilt and enlarged in 1536 as well as her name shortened to Peter, following the nasty divorce of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, whom the ‘Pomegranate’ of the ship’s title represented. At this point, she was now a much larger ship and equal to that of the Mary Rose, weighing in at 600 tons. The Peter Pomegranate was present during the battle that would cost her sister, the Mary Rose, her life on the 19th July 1545 but luckily survived the battle. The only other reference we have of the Peter Pomegranate is being part of an invasion fleet against Scotland in August 1547 where we are given a detailed description of what was aboard her:
“the rebuilt Peter had 185 sailors, 185 soldiers, and 30 gunners. Her armaments included; 2 brass demi-cannons; 2 brass culverins; 4 brass demi-culverins; 4 brass sakers; an iron culverin; 3 iron sakers; 9 iron port pieces; 37 iron bases; and 11 hagbuts. There were also 259 yew bows, 160 bills; and 160 Moorish pikes.”
After this, we have no more mention of the Peter Pomegranate, so it might be possible that she was no longer used by the royal family or had been sunk without the events being documented.
Now, back to the Mary Rose—a brief description of her life before 19th July 1545
Six months following the launch of the Mary Rose (as well as the Peter Pomegranate), the young, battle-thirsty nineteen-year old King Henry VIII wanted to show his worth as a King as well as a warrior and so decided to wage war against England’s oldest enemy—France.
England was prepared for war; Henry had the money to afford it (and could tax the people to pay for it), his army and navy were built up to his standards and he knew that the war would not only make France look weak in comparison to England but mark him out in history as a great King.
So, in the year 1512, Henry VIII declared war with France, against the advice of his father’s closest advisors, all of whom he would eventually rid himself of.
The Mary Rose was not the largest of Henry’s ships, coming second to the Regent which weighed at 1000 tons, but it was chosen by the Admiral of the Fleet, Edward Howard, to be his flagship. With the help of the Mary Rose, Edward Howard aided in the success of the Battle of St Mathieu on 10th August 1512. In the weeks leading up to the battle, he successfully raided ports along the coast of Brittany before returning to Portsmouth in late July to resupply. Only he would be honoured with a visit from the King himself who praised him for his efforts and sent him on his way for Brittany once again—this was to be a clever decision on Henry’s part as Edward Howard arrived earlier than the French expected, allowing him the element of surprised which meant that the Mary Rose was able to launch brutal attacks upon the French navy’s flagship; the Grand Louise as well as the Cordelière of which the Regent engaged in battle with.
Despite this, it was not the Mary Rose but the Regent that secured the victory for England as the Cordelière had civilians on board and even with the risk to their lives, they chose to fight which meant that the English could do more damage than they originally believed. As the English advanced on the French, suddenly an explosion aboard the Cordelière which spread to the Regent, sadly, both ships were critically damaged and would later sink to the bottom of the ocean on this day. As a result, over 1500 people lost their lives, this included the women and children civilians that were on the Cordelière.
The Mary Rose returned to England in September 1512 but it wasn’t long until she was made use of once again as in March 1513, Admiral Howard arranged a race to determine which of the ships in the Royal fleet were the fastest. Naturally, the Mary Rose would be declared the fastest after finishing half a mile before the Sovereign, which came in second. Howard declared the Mary Rose ‘is the noblest ship of sail of any great ship, at this hour, that I know in Christendom’.
Unfortunately, Edward Howard would not remain captain of the Mary Rose for long as on the 22nd April 1513, during an English attack against the French along the French coast of Brest, the French managed to sink one ship and attacked the Mary Rose. Although Howard’s crew managed to survive, he himself was struck down whilst trying to retaliate against the French. Following his death, his older brother Lord Thomas Howard was appointed Admiral of the Fleet and in his brother’s honour, took the Mary Rose as his flagship. Lord Thomas Howard would play an important part to Tudor history as he would become the 3rd Duke of Norfolk as well as the fact that he was uncle to two of Henry’s Queens; Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, both of which were executed for treason and adultery.
The Mary Rose also played a part in the Battle of Flodden in Catherine of Aragon’s war with King James IV of Scotland as well as another war with France in 1522 following a six year decommission after the Mary Rose was restored following signs of use from the battles it had seen. The Mary Rose would once again be at the front of battle, ready to do damage as she once had; however, although Henry VIII was proud to show off the Mary Rose and the fact that many of Henry’s high ranking nobles preferred her over the other ships, the English navy actually did very little with the war and with the Battle of Pavia (of which the English had no part), the Mary Rose was sent to Deptford to be refit and would be largely inactive during the years of 1530 to around 1535.
And even with all the re-fittings and large sum of money spent on ensuring the Mary Rose would shine above the rest; the Mary Rose’s alterations did not sit well with the high ranking nobles nor with the King that adored her so. There were numerous comments made about how she was ‘unweatherly’ and that the ship was not what it used to be but still; Henry used her to defend the Thames in the summer of 1539, even when others questioned her worth.
And it would be his fear of a Franco-Spanish invasion that would cause the end of the Mary Rose’s story as in September 1544, Henry would capture the French town of Boulogne but unfortunately for Henry, his alliance with Spain fell apart which left England isolated and without an ally in France as Spain was in peace talks with France against the English—and it would be the French’s retaliation for the capture of Boulogne which would cause the fatal end of the Mary Rose.
What happened on that fateful day, 19th July 1545?
During the Battle of the Solent, which took place in the Solent between the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth and featured clashes between French and English troops on the Isle of Wight, the Mary Rose sank.
The Mary Rose had fired all of her guns on one side and was turning when her sails were caught in a strong gust of wind, driving the still-open gunports below the surface of the ocean, according to the single eyewitness who was able to flee the sinking ship, a Flemish sailor.
We are told of this eyewitness account in a letter correspondence between Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, and the German Emperor’s Ambassador, Van der Delft on the 24th July 1545:
“Next day, Sunday [19 July], while the King was at dinner on the flagship, the French fleet appeared. The King hurriedly left the flagship and the English sailed to encounter the French, shooting at the galleys, of which five had entered the harbour while the English could not get out for want of wind. Towards the evening the ship [the Mary Rose] of Viceadmiral George Carew foundered, all the 500 men on board being drowned save about 25 or 30 servants, sailors and the like. Was told by a Fleming amongst the survivors that when she heeled over with the wind the water entered by the lowest row of gun ports which had been left open after firing. They expect to recover the ship and guns...”{2}
Other accounts agree that she was turning, but there could be a number of reasons why she sank during this manoeuver. Only a handful of the men aboard the ship survived the sinking, it is estimated that out of the nearly 500 men aboard, only around 35 men are thought to have lived to tell the tale. It was a truly tragic day in Tudor history.
Theories—why did the Mary Rose sink?
Was the sinking of the Mary Rose a result of her poor design?
Contrary to what you may have heard, the Mary Rose did not sink upon leaving the harbour. During her career, she had journeyed hundreds of miles from Scotland in the north to the Atlantic coast of France in the south. She was thirty-four years old when she drowned.
There is no proof for the frequently asserted assertion that the gunports were cut too low. They must have been above the waterline because of the scuppers presence along the main gun deck.
The ship did undergo a refit in 1536, and this restoration did occur on the Medway, close to the Thames. If the Mary Rose had been poorly built, she would have sunk there rather than in the relatively calm waters between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight because she would have had to travel through much more choppy waters than those found in the Solent.
Did an incompetent crew cause the Mary Rose to sink?
This was Sir George Carew's first naval command, so perhaps he wasn't familiar with the capabilities of his new ship and issued a command that put the ship in danger? Or possibly the crew simply disobeyed his commands or failed to comprehend them, which resulted in a catastrophe?
A report that the admiral shouted that he had "the sort of men" that he "could not rule" came from his cousin, maybe an attempt to uphold the family name.
The crew may have had communication issues because some of them were foreigners, according to another theory. The eyewitness mentioned earlier was a Flemish survivor of the sinking, and others found on the seabed appear to be from as far away as Spain, Italy, and even North Africa. Nevertheless, it wasn't unusual for foreign sailors to work on English ships. In the Mary Rose's first year at sea, she hosted the trial of a Flemish sailor on one of the other ships in the fleet. Why was this standard across the fleet if the language barrier was such a huge problem?
Was the sinking of the Mary Rose from a lucky hit by the French?
A French cavalry officer who was present during the action claimed that French gunfire had sunk the Mary Rose. The ship would become unstable and sink if a cannonball was low in the hull, allowing water to flow in.
Maybe that explains why the ship made such a sharp turn. She was only a few hundred metres away from Spitbank's shallows, so was that her goal?
In the Mary Rose's hold, a granite cannonball that resembled one that had been found in France was discovered. The stone is also found in several parts of the English west country, however it was discovered in a shot locker. By claiming to have sunk one of Henry VIII's flagships, were the French attempting to defend their unsuccessful invasion attempt, which had resulted in the destruction of two flagships and the potential loss of a galley?
Did an unexpected case of bad weather cause the sinking of the Mary Rose?
Was the ship unsteady because a wind gust impacted the sails at a critical moment? According to eyewitness accounts, the Mary Rose capsized due to an unexpected breeze as she turned.
The ship may have flooded and quickly sank with the gunports open for fight. Why then had she never previously floundered? She may have just grown too hefty as a result of a recent refurbishment that increased her armament by adding more weapons.
This is also another theory—that the ship was overloaded with too many soldiers and weapons. Whilst she was built to carry a lot of weight, it is possible that her limits were stretched, leaving her unperforming at such a critical time. She managed to cross the English Channel without incident thanks to the guns being installed in London, so why did she capsize in the Solent? Studies of the Mary Rose's size, shape, and weight of the listed guns aboard at the time of her sinking indicate that even though the ship was carrying a lot of guns for a ship of her size, it was still within the safe limit.
Why would 500 men, or even 700 as one account states, render her more unstable when she had previously carried vast numbers of soldiers; in fact, in 1513 she had been able to convey nearly 1,000 warriors to Flodden Field in Northumberland.
Whatever caused the Mary Rose to sink, it surely had a lasting impact on the King that favoured her so much as he considered it one of the greatest sorrows he had ever endured throughout his lifetime. I mean, I can understand losing a ship you’ve loved for so many years but what about the other tragedies in your life like when your wife died in childbirth?
Might that be more important?
What do you think caused the Mary Rose to sink out of these theories?
Until next time!
- Have a ‘Tudor-fic’ week!
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