The Tudor navy: an administrative, political and military history (review)

150 Reviews to the superb Work of Angels edited by Susan Youngs (1989) and to the Commentary which accompanies the Faksimile-Verlag Book ofKells facsimile of 1990. They have also squeezed in a brief chapter on Celtic revivals in three sections, thefirstapparently original, the second leaning heavily on Stuart Piggott's Ancient Britons and the antiquarian imagination (1989), and the third practically a synopsis of Jeanne Sbeehey's The rediscovery of Ireland's past (1980). All in all, a disappointing book which has lovely pictures but contributes little to the field. AedeenCremin Centre for Celtic Studies University of Sydney Loades, David, The Tudor navy: an administrative, political and military history (Studies in naval history) Aldershot and Brookfield (Vermont), Scolar Press, 1992; cloth; pp. x, 317; 2 maps; R.R.P. £35.00. Over the past seventy years, the interest of historians in the history of the sea and seafaring in the sixteenth century has been focussed on trade, exploration, and settlement Interest in the institution of the Tudor navy has been peripheral. Loades's book is designed tofilla perceived gap in the availability of an up-todate general survey. Written, with one or two exceptions, from printed or secondary sources, it provides a chronological synthesis of naval activity in the century from a patriotic and Anglocentric perspective. The influence of continental naval development on Tudor royal needs and priorities is hardly mentioned. The meaning of 'navy' is never explored. It emerges that a navy consists primarily of ships directly controlled by the monarch. There is no consideration given to the possibility that a navy is more than, and perhaps does not necessarily consist of, ships and their administration. The idea of a service, of a profession, and of the development of a career path never emerges. The roles of admiral, vice-admiral, captain, master, pilot, boatswain, purser, and gunner are given little or no consideration. Loades's attitude towards pirate and privateerfitsstrangely with the long tradition of the 'guerre de course'. The substance of the book is a retelling of English government military activities at sea. While there is nothing particularly novel in this, it is set in a general context of international relations, politics, and exploration which makes these activities intelligible. The development of a continuing surveillance role for the navy is touched on; although, it takes second place to the crisis needs of the kingdom. The parallel discussion of the development of the administration is more uneven. This is partly because the author appears to have overlooked some of the surviving accounts and partly because of a failure to grasp the funding Reviews 151 process operating in the north and at Portsmouth in the first part of the century. He would have had a major clue to this, for example, had he found Sir William Fitzwilliam's letter as vice-admiral in 1523 to the Portsmouth authorities. He would, incidentally, have been obliged to revise his estimate of Fitzwilliam's experience as a commander. As it is, the account has littletoadd to what he has derived from Simon Adams and T o m Glasgow. The powers given to the officers and the ways in which they were exploited is not analysed, so that the use of purveyance is not fully appreciated. A satisfactory investigation of the effectiveness of the administration at (liferent periods would require an attempt to analyse the building costs per ton of a ship and the advantages and disadvantages of contracting out such construction, the annual costs and time of fitting out of each ship, the life-expectancy of a warship, the frequency with which such ships underwent routine repair, and the adequacy of the facilities for those repairs. There are incidental references to all of these problems but a systematic treatment would be valuable. Management of the ordinary maintenance costs and budgetting for setting ships to sea could be teased out of the surviving records for different periods. This is a useful starting point for a revived interest in the navy and one hopes that it may inspire further research. Sybil M . Jack Department of History University of Sydney Moyer, Ann E., Musica scientia: musical scholarship in the Italian Renaissance, Ithaca, Cornell University Press...