Anthony Roll
Encyclopedia
Vellum
Vellum is mammal skin prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, codices or books. It is generally smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation, the quality of the skin and the type of animal used...
, depicting 58 naval vessels along with information on their size, crew, armament, and basic equipment. The rolls were presented to King Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
in 1546, and were kept in the royal library. In 1680 Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
gave two of the rolls to Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
, who had them cut up and made into a single volume, which is now in the Pepys Library
Pepys Library
The Pepys Library of Magdalene College, Cambridge, is the personal library collected by Samuel Pepys which he bequeathed to the college following his death in 1703....
at Magdalene College, Cambridge
Magdalene College, Cambridge
Magdalene College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene...
. The third roll remained in the royal collection until it was given by William IV to his daughter, Mary Fox, who sold it to the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
in 1858; it is now owned by the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
.
The Anthony Roll is the only known fully illustrated inventory of ships of the English navy in the Tudor period
Tudor period
The Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...
. As the work of a successful state official in 16th century England, the artistic value of the Anthony Roll has been described as being characterised by "naive draughtsmanship and conformity to a pattern" though its artistic aspects display "a decent amateur grasp of form and colour". While the inventories listed in its text have proven to be highly accurate, most of the ship illustrations are rudimentary and made according to a set formula. The level of detail of the ship design, armament and especially rigging has therefore proven to be only approximate. Nevertheless, through their depiction of the ceremonial ornamentation the illustrations in the Roll have provided relevant secondary information to the study of Tudor period heraldry
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
, flag
Flag
A flag is a piece of fabric with a distinctive design that is usually rectangular and used as a symbol, as a signaling device, or decoration. The term flag is also used to refer to the graphic design employed by a flag, or to its depiction in another medium.The first flags were used to assist...
s and ship ornamentation.
The only known contemporary depictions of prominent Tudor era vessels like the Henry Grace à Dieu and the Mary Rose
Mary Rose
The Mary Rose was a carrack-type warship of the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. After serving for 33 years in several wars against France, Scotland, and Brittany and after being substantially rebuilt in 1536, she saw her last action on 1545. While leading the attack on the galleys of a...
are contained in the Anthony Roll. As the Mary Rose sank by accident in 1545 and was successfully salvaged in 1982, comparison between the information in the Roll and the physical evidence of the Mary Rose has provided new insights into the study of the naval history of the period.
Author and artist
Anthony Anthony has been identified as the compiler of the information and the artist behind the illustrations through his signature, which has been compared with holographHolograph
A holograph is a document written entirely in the handwriting of the person whose signature it bears. Some countries or local jurisdictions within certain countries give legal standing to specific types of holographic documents, generally waiving requirements that they be witnessed...
letters among the State Papers. Anthony's father was William Anthony (died 1535) a Fleming
Flemish people
The Flemings or Flemish are the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Belgium, where they are mostly found in the northern region of Flanders. They are one of two principal cultural-linguistic groups in Belgium, the other being the French-speaking Walloons...
from Middelburg
Middelburg
Middelburg is a municipality and a city in the south-western Netherlands and the capital of the province of Zeeland. It is situated in the Midden-Zeeland region. It has a population of about 48,000.- History of Middelburg :...
in Zeeland
Zeeland
Zeeland , also called Zealand in English, is the westernmost province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the south-west of the country, consists of a number of islands and a strip bordering Belgium. Its capital is Middelburg. With a population of about 380,000, its area is about...
who migrated to England in 1503. William was a supplier of beer to the army, and Anthony followed in his father's footsteps. He went into beer exporting no later than 1530 and became a supplier of beer to the navy. In 1533 Anthony was appointed gunner at the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
, a position he retained nominally until his death. He rose to the rank of overseer of the Ordnance Office, the government body responsible for supplying the armed forces with artillery, and it was in this position that he compiled his Roll. In 1549 he was promoted to master surveyor of the ordnance in the Tower, Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
, Boulogne, and elsewhere for life. He continued the work of supplying arms to English forces, and was active in the last month of his life supplying guns for an expedition against Le Havre
Le Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
.
In 1939 Dutch historian Nicholas Beets proposed that the Flemish artist and cartographer Cornelis Antoniszoon (or Antonisz., c. 1507–1553) could have been Anthony Anthony's brother. Although Beets' suggestion of kinship was conjectural and without any direct evidence, it was picked up by Geoffrey Callender
Geoffrey Callender
Sir Geoffrey Arthur Romaine Callender was an English naval historian and the first director of the National Maritime Museum from its opening in 1937 until his death in 1946....
in the Mariner's Mirror
Mariner's Mirror
The Mariner's Mirror is the quarterly academic journal of the Society for Nautical Research in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1911 and is abstracted and indexed by Scopus.- Editors :Previous editors-in-chief have been:...
in 1963 and has been relayed by several other authors. The will of William Anthony did not mention any other sons and Anthonisz. is believed to have been the son of Antonis Egbertson, the daughter of Jacob Corneliszoon van Oostzanen. That Cornelis and Anthony were related is, in the words of Ann Payne, "not, presumably, impossible, but there is little evidence that they were connected at all".
History of the manuscript
The "ship portrait" had a long history in maritime art, from medieval seals and coins to early engravingEngraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
s in the 15th century, and the plain side-on view of a ship under sail, often with no crew shown, was well established as the most effective way of recording the build of vessels. The Anthony Roll belongs to a genre of works that was intended to serve a dual role for the king and the military leadership: as reasonably informative overviews listing details of ships or strategic areas of coastlines they could be studied to determine strengths and weaknesses, and as boastful and lively depictions of Tudor military might they could be used to flatter the king, impress courtiers and impose martial authority on foreign ambassadors. Contemporary maps, or "plats", were routinely decorated with detailed pictures of ships, to mark bodies of water as much as to liven up the scenes. Such maps were common at the time, and were even embellished by artists if deemed too simple or drab. The navy was expanded during King Henry's reign, and he was known to take an interest in warships, as can be seen by the epic painting Embarkation of Henry VIII at Dover which portrayed, if rather unrealistically, the ships that took the 29-year-old king to the summit meeting with Francis I
Francis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...
at the Field of the Cloth of Gold
Field of the Cloth of Gold
The Field of Cloth of Gold is the name given to a place in Balinghem, between Guînes and Ardres, in France, near Calais. It was the site of a meeting that took place from 7 June to 24 June 1520, between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France. The meeting was arranged to increase...
in 1520. This painting, recently dated to around 1545, has also been suggested as a likely source of inspiration to Anthony for his illustrations.
There are three such plats depicting naval actions and expeditions that are attributed to Anthony: the route of Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves was a German noblewoman and the fourth wife of Henry VIII of England and as such she was Queen of England from 6 January 1540 to 9 July 1540. The marriage was never consummated, and she was not crowned queen consort...
from the Low Countries to England (1539), a French attack on a coastal fort (date unknown) and a French raid on Brighton (July 1545). The design of the ships in these paintings, especially that of the Brighton raid, closely match those in the rolls. It is not known exactly when work on the rolls began nor when it was finished. It is only certain that it was presented to the king the year it was dated, 1546. The inclusion of the Mary Rose
Mary Rose
The Mary Rose was a carrack-type warship of the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. After serving for 33 years in several wars against France, Scotland, and Brittany and after being substantially rebuilt in 1536, she saw her last action on 1545. While leading the attack on the galleys of a...
that sank at the Battle of the Solent
Battle of the Solent
The naval Battle of the Solent took place on 18 and 19 July 1545 during the Italian Wars, fought between the fleets of Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England, in the Solent channel off the south coast of England between Hampshire and the Isle of Wight...
19 July 1545 does not mean it was necessarily started before this date, since it was still considered possible that she could be raised even as late as 1549. The galleass
Galleass
The galleass developed from large merchant galleys.Converted for military use they were higher and larger than regular galleys. They had up to 32 oars, each worked by up to 5 men. They usually had three masts and a forecastle and aftcastle. Much effort was made in Venice to make these galleasses...
es, the Antelope
HMS Antelope (1546)
The Antelope was originally built as a galleass of the English Tudor navy, launched in 1546. She was rebuilt three times, in 1558 , 1581 and 1618. She thus served in various forms from the time of King Henry VIII to the English Civil War...
, Hart, Bull and Tiger, all present in the second roll, were still being built around March 1546, and the Hart was not at sea until October that year. At the same time the Galley Blanchard, captured from the French 18 May 1546 is not included.
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
gave two of the rolls to Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
, a navy administrator and avid book collector. Pepys did not disclose the details of how the rolls were given to him, but it is believed that the gift came out of a meeting with King Charles where Pepys took down the king's account of how he escaped from the Battle of Worcester
Battle of Worcester
The Battle of Worcester took place on 3 September 1651 at Worcester, England and was the final battle of the English Civil War. Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarians defeated the Royalist, predominantly Scottish, forces of King Charles II...
(1651). The plan was that Pepys would edit and publish the already famous story, but he never did so. It is also known that Pepys was planning to write a history of the navy and that he was gathering material for this task, but this project also was never finished. It is considered likely that King Charles was aware of Pepys' plans and presented him with two of the rolls either as a gift or as payment for the intended publication of the escape story. The second roll could not be located at that time, and it was not until 1690 that it was discovered by Henry Thynne, keeper of the royal library 1677–89 and a close friend of Pepys. Thynne arranged for Pepys to make copies of some of the illustrations, but by 1690 Charles was dead and James II was in exile. Pepys had resigned from his position as Secretary of the Admiralty that same year and refused to recognize the reign of William and Mary
William and Mary
The phrase William and Mary usually refers to the coregency over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, of King William III & II and Queen Mary II...
, which meant that acquisition of the final roll for his collection was out of the question. The creation of the codex from the first and third rolls is therefore assumed to have been completed shortly after that time. After Pepys' death in 1703 his library passed on to his nephew John Jackson. After the death of Jackson in 1724 the library, along with the codex, was then passed on to Pepys' old college at Magdalene
Magdalene College, Cambridge
Magdalene College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene...
, Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, where it remains to this day.
The second roll was presumed lost by the 1780s, but actually remained in the hands of the royal family. William IV gave it to his daughter Mary FitzClarance, one of his illegitimate children by the courtesan Dorothea Jordan, sometime in the early 19th century. In 1824, Mary married Charles Robert Fox, a major-general and from 1832–35 an officer of the surveyor of the ordnance, the same position Anthony Anthony had three centuries before him. Fox was a bibliophile, and historian Charles Knighton has suggested he knew the value of the roll, but its location nevertheless remained unknown to scholars. In 1857 Frederic Madden
Frederic Madden
Sir Frederic Madden , was an English palaeographer.-Biography:Madden was the son of an officer of Irish extraction, he was born at Portsmouth. From his childhood he displayed a flair for linguistic and antiquarian studies...
, keeper of manuscripts at the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
, was shown the second roll and learned that Mary wished to sell it. After negotiations it was sold for £15 to the British Museum and was numbered Additional MS 22047. It was kept in its original format as a roll and has been stored in the British Library's manuscript collection at St Pancras, London
St Pancras, London
St Pancras is an area of London. For many centuries the name has been used for various officially-designated areas, but now is used informally and rarely having been largely superseded by several other names for overlapping districts.-Ancient parish:...
since 1999.
The Anthony Roll has been used frequently as a primary source for histories of the English navy of the 16th century but the full text and all illustrations were not collected in one volume until 2000.
Description
The Anthony Roll was originally a set of three separate vellumVellum
Vellum is mammal skin prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, codices or books. It is generally smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation, the quality of the skin and the type of animal used...
rolls. It exists today in the form of a bound volume containing the first and third rolls while the second roll is preserved in its original form. The three original rolls were made up out of a total of 17 individual membranes glued to the back of the next membrane. The membranes were of a width of 70 cm (27 ½ inches) and a height varying from 79 to 96 cm (31 to 37 ¾ inches). After receiving the first and third rolls Pepys had his clerks cut the rolls up and bound in a single volume as a book, now known as Pepys 2991. The transformation of the two rolls created a horizontal page structure, and some of the ornamentation that was cut in process was copied into the volume by hand. Pepys also inserted abstracts between the two rolls and a summarizing table that was not Anthony's, but pre-dated Pepys' binding of the rolls. This radical treatment of the original document has damaged some of the illustrations and is today deprecated. The first three illustrations of the Henry Grace à Dieu, Mary Rose
Mary Rose
The Mary Rose was a carrack-type warship of the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. After serving for 33 years in several wars against France, Scotland, and Brittany and after being substantially rebuilt in 1536, she saw her last action on 1545. While leading the attack on the galleys of a...
and Peter Pomegranate
Peter Pomegranate
The Peter Pomegranate was a 16th-century warship completed for service in 1510. Its name most likely was in honour of Saint Peter, founder of the Christian church, and after the badge of Queen Catharine of Aragon, a pomegranate...
were all too large to fit on one page and were therefore converted to two-page spreads. The resulting bend down the centre of the illustrations led to noticeable loss of detail. Despite this, there are no plans to attempt a recreation of the original structure of the first and third rolls. The second roll, British Library Additional MS 22047, is still in its original condition with the exception of a written endorsement by Mary Fox from 1857 and some damage caused by an application of chemicals to reveal faded writing.
The three rolls list 58 ships divided into classes based roughly on size and construction. Each ship is presented along with its name, tonnage, crew size and, in Anthony's own words, "the ordenaunce, artillery, munitions and habillimentes for warre". The first roll lists the carrack
Carrack
A carrack or nau was a three- or four-masted sailing ship developed in 15th century Western Europe for use in the Atlantic Ocean. It had a high rounded stern with large aftcastle, forecastle and bowsprit at the stem. It was first used by the Portuguese , and later by the Spanish, to explore and...
s and one pinnace, beginning with the largest ship Henry Grace à Dieu. The second roll lists galleass
Galleass
The galleass developed from large merchant galleys.Converted for military use they were higher and larger than regular galleys. They had up to 32 oars, each worked by up to 5 men. They usually had three masts and a forecastle and aftcastle. Much effort was made in Venice to make these galleasses...
es, a hybrid of oar-powered and sailing vessels, and one galley. Finally, the third roll is reserved for pinnaces and "rowbarges", both basically smaller versions of galleasses.
Artistic analysis
Anthony Anthony was not a trained, professional artist. The illustrations are described as "striking and boldly executed, but [...] have few claims to be fine works of art". The vessels are for the most part painted according to a standard formula, with distinct repetitions even in the more elaborate depictions. Anthony's style is signified by a "naive draughtsmanship and conformity to a pattern [...] consistent with the abilities of a government official with a decent amateur grasp of form and colour".The rolls were all of roughly the same length, about 5.5 m (15 ft), and would most likely have been presented side by side for display on a table or hung on a wall. The focal point of the whole composition is in the second, middle roll where the exceptionally well-executed painting of the Galley Subtle is placed. That this ship was intended to be the centrepiece illustration is made clear by the presence of the pinnace Mary James in the first roll, which is otherwise reserved for (sailing) ships. This appears to have originally been placed at the beginning of the third roll, among the other pinnaces and rowbarges, but was moved to achieve more equal lengths. In his pursuit of living up to the image of a Renaissance prince Henry is known to have been particularly fond of galleys, something which would have been known to Anthony.
The lettering, framing lines and floral pattern decorations are painted in red or black with the exception of the first three ships of the first roll, which also feature gold. Most of the illustrations were first sketched with plummet outlines and were then painted over in washes. Ship timbers are a light brown that are shaded in the bow and stern to achieve depth, decorations and anchors are highlighted with red, and green is used for guns. Contours are in black and the sea is in shades varying from "greyish green" to "a richer blue".
The first two rolls were done with roughly the same amount of detail while the lesser rowbarges (essentially small galleys) were done more hastily. The first two ships of the first roll, the Henry Grace à Dieu and the Mary Rose, have traces of a grid pattern, indicating that they were transferred from a different drawing while the rest are done in freehand. Overall, the ships follow a formula depending on the type of ship. The exceptions are stern galleries
Quarter gallery
A quarter gallery is an architectural feature of the stern of a sailing ship from around the 16th to the 19th century. Quarter galleries are a kind of balconies, typically placed on the sides of the sterncastle, the high, tower-like structure at the back of a ship that housed the officer's quarters...
of some of the galleasses and the figureheads of the Mary Rose, Salamander and the Unicorn, the latter both captured from the Scots in 1544. The prominent exception is the Galley Subtle placed in the middle of the second roll. It is more consistent in type with Mediterranean-type galleys than the galleasses and small rowbarges, and features a considerable amount of detail not present in the other ships. It is the only ship where any crew is visible, in this case rowers behind pavisades as protection from enemy arrows and an overseer wearing "a bonnet
Tudor bonnet
A Tudor bonnet is a traditional soft round cap, with a tassel hanging from a cord encircling the puggaree of the hat...
, full skirted armorial doublet
Doublet (clothing)
A doublet is a man's snug-fitting buttoned jacket that is fitted and shaped to the man's body which was worn in Western Europe from the Middle Ages through to the mid-17th century. The doublet was hip length or waist length and worn over the shirt or drawers. Until the end of the 15th century the...
and baggy breeches" holding a stick or baton, as if beating the time of the strokes of the rowers.
Use as an historical source
As an historical record, the Anthony Roll is in many ways unique. It is the only known fully illustrated list of a Tudor period royal navy, though the pictures should not be seen as exact depictions drawn from real life. For example, the lists of guns of the individual ships, which are considered to be an accurate record produced by a senior state official, are only approximately matched to the paintings. The rigging is only roughly accurate, and has been described by Margaret RuleMargaret Rule
Margaret Rule, CBE led the project that excavated and raised the Tudor warship Mary Rose in 1982. Educated at Cambridge University in land archaeology, she was the curator of the Fishbourne Roman Palace, when she began her work in maritime archaeology when she was consulted on the initial search...
, archaeological project leader of the Mary Rose excavations, as "a confusing assemblage of shroud
Shroud (sailing)
On a sailboat, the shrouds are pieces of standing rigging which hold the mast up from side to side. There is frequently more than one shroud on each side of the boat....
s, ratlines
Ratlines
Ratlines, pronounced "rattlin's", are lengths of thin line tied between the shrouds of a sailing ship to form a ladder. Found on all square rigged ships, whose crews must go aloft to stow the square sails, they also appear on larger fore-and-aft rigged vessels to aid in repairs aloft or conduct a...
and stay
Stays (nautical)
Stays are the heavy ropes, wires, or rods on sailing vessels that run from the masts to the hull, usually fore-and-aft along the centerline of the vessel...
s". Many details are present, but others are missing, such as the chain-wales (the horizontal platforms extending from the sides) to which the shrouds (the parallel ropes that stabilized the masts) were attached to keep them clear of the hull.
Comparisons with the Mary Rose
Comparisons with the finds from the salvaged Mary RoseMary Rose
The Mary Rose was a carrack-type warship of the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. After serving for 33 years in several wars against France, Scotland, and Brittany and after being substantially rebuilt in 1536, she saw her last action on 1545. While leading the attack on the galleys of a...
itself have provided an opportunity to compare the accuracy of the records provided in the Roll. The picture of the ship has provided clues about basic structural features, such as the number of masts and sails. When compared with an inventory of the ship from 1514, there is a close match, proving the illustration to be largely accurate. Examination of details in the construction, however, reveals that Anthony allowed himself some artistic licence. The armament in the painted ship appears clearly exaggerated. The heavy stern chasers (cannon placed in the stern aimed backwards) mounted through gun ports on the orlop deck
Orlop deck
The orlop is the lowest deck in a ship . It is the deck or part of a deck where the cables are stowed, usually below the water line...
, just about the waterline, would not have been feasible because of the lack of an orlop deck and the steep angle (sheer) of the ship in this area. The number of gunports in the broadside is inaccurate since it implies two slightly staggered rows of nine ports while the surviving starboard side of the Mary Rose has only one row of gunports on the main deck with seven ports. The accuracy of the forecastle
Forecastle
Forecastle refers to the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters...
has been more difficult to ascertain since none of it remains; conflicting interpretations of what it looked like have been suggested.
The guns in the back of the forecastle have defied explanation, but one theory is that they were included to compensate for the guns that were positioned in the aftcastle
Aftcastle
An aftcastle is the upper deck of a sailing ship positioned behind the mizzenmast. It was used in medieval shipping such as galleys or galleasses to provide a heightened platform from which to fire upon other ships; it was also a place of defense in the event of boarding. More common, but much...
, aiming forwards, but which would have been obscured due to the angle from which the ship was depicted. The list of ammunition, small firearms, longbow
Longbow
A longbow is a type of bow that is tall ; this will allow its user a fairly long draw, at least to the jaw....
s, arrows, pikes, and bills
Bill (weapon)
The bill is a polearm weapon used by infantry in medieval Europe.The bill is similar in size, function and appearance to the halberd, differing mainly in the hooked blade form...
closely matches the archaeological evidence. As the source that is closest in time to the sinking of the Mary Rose, it has been of central importance for the archaeological project, especially in estimating the size of the crew.
Flags and ornamentation
The Anthony Roll provides detailed information about the flags used on the ships. According to the vexillologistVexillology
Vexillology is the scholarly study of flags. The word is a synthesis of the Latin word vexillum, meaning 'flag', and the Greek suffix -logy, meaning 'study'. The vexillum was a particular type of flag used by Roman legions during the classical era; its name is a diminutive form of the word velum...
Timothy Wilson, the flags depicted flying from the ships are "the most elaborate source we have for the flags flown on the ships of King Henry VIII, being richer in visual detail than all other sources put together." Among the most striking flags in the illustrations are the elongated ceremonial streamers, shown flying from all ships in varying numbers. These feature a Saint George
St George's Cross
St George's Cross is a red cross on a white background used as a symbolic reference to Saint George. The red cross on white was associated with St George from medieval times....
red cross on white ground on the hoist
Flag terminology
Flag terminology is a jargon used in vexillology, the study of flags, to describe precisely the parts, patterns, and other attributes of flags and their display.-Description of standard flag parts and terms:...
, nearest the flagpole, and a very long tail striped in green and white. They all feature gold paint on the red and green, and silver paint (now oxidized to black) on the white. This artistic device was used either to simulate the fluttering of the flags or to actually display the metallic thread and paint that was sometimes used to decorate them.
Along the railing of all ships, most prominently on the large carracks and the Galley Subtle, there are rows of banners displaying various heraldic designs, including the English royal arms, one or three fleur-de-lis
Fleur-de-lis
The fleur-de-lis or fleur-de-lys is a stylized lily or iris that is used as a decorative design or symbol. It may be "at one and the same time, political, dynastic, artistic, emblematic, and symbolic", especially in heraldry...
of the French arms, Saint George's crosses and Henry VIII's monogram ("HR") in gold on blue, what appears to be the Tudor rose, and the green and white of the House of Tudor. The depictions of the flags and banners on the ships are in a heraldic and military sense considered to be roughly accurate but not entirely consistent. A kind of system of command among the various vessels is apparent in how flags are displayed on the masts, but it does not appear to have been carried through systematically. Some of the heraldic designs have been described as "unlikely" by the 20th century herald George Bellew
George Bellew
Sir George Rothe Bellew, KCB, KCVO, KStJ, FSA was a long-serving officer of arms at the College of Arms is London. An expert genealogist and armorist, Bellew was appointed to the office of Garter Principal King of Arms–the highest heraldic office in England and Wales.-Personal life:Bellew...
, but have deemed to at least be "plausible" by Wilson.
Further reading
- Anderson, Roger Charles, Oared Fighting Ships. Argus Books, 1962 and 1976. ISBN 0-85242-471-X.
- Childs, David, Tudor Sea Power. Seaforth Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978-1-84832-031-4.
- Nelson, Arthur, The Tudor Navy: The Ships, Men and Organisation. Conway Maritime, 2001. ISBN 0-85177-785-6.