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HMS Sovereign Of The Seas
''Sovereign of the Seas'' was a 17th-century warship of the English Navy. She was ordered as a 90-gun first-rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy,Royal Navy, ''Sovereign of the Seas''. but at launch was armed with 102 bronze guns at the insistence of the king. It was later renamed ''HMS Sovereign'', and then ''HMS Royal Sovereign'' at the Restoration of Charles II. The elaborately gilded stern ordered by Charles I of England meant enemy ships knew it as the "Golden Devil".Famous Fighters of the Fleet, Edward Fraser, 1904, p.200 She was launched on 13 October 1637, and served from 1638 until 1697, when a fire burnt the ship to the waterline at Chatham. History ''Sovereign of the Seas'' was ordered in August 1634 on the personal initiative of Charles I of England, as a prestige project. The decision provoked much opposition from the Brethren of Trinity House, who pointed out that "There is no port in the Kingdome that can harbour this ship. The wild sea must be her ...
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Kingdom Of England
The Kingdom of England (, ) was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. On 12 July 927, the various Anglo-Saxon kings swore their allegiance to Æthelstan of Wessex (), unifying most of modern England under a single king. In 1016, the kingdom became part of the North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great, a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway. The Norman conquest of England in 1066 led to the transfer of the English capital city and chief royal residence from the Anglo-Saxon one at Winchester to Westminster, and the City of London quickly established itself as England's largest and principal commercial centre. Histories of the kingdom of England from the Norman conquest of 1066 conventionally distinguish periods named after successive ruling dynasties: Norman (1066–1154), Plantagenet (1154–1485), Tudor ...
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Sir John Pennington
Sir John Penington (1584?–1646) was an English admiral who served under Charles I of England. Biography John Penington was the second cousin of Sir Isaac Penington or Pennington, and the son of Robert Penington of Henham in Essex, described as a tanner. He is said to have been baptised at Henham on 30 January 1568; but the circumstances of his later career, and the fact that he is unmentioned during the war with Spain or for twelve years after its close, suggest that he was born at a later date. It is possible that he and his half-brother, also John, born in 1584, have been confused together. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography speculates that on balance his date of birth was 1584. Captaincy His name first appears as captain of his own ship, the ''Star'', and vice-admiral under Sir Walter Raleigh in the voyage to the Orinoco in 1617. He remained with Raleigh at the mouth of the river; but putting into Kinsale, on the way home, the ship was seized by order of the Lo ...
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Demi-cannon
The demi-cannon was a medium-sized cannon, similar to but slightly larger than a culverin and smaller than a regular cannon, developed in the early 17th century. A full cannon fired a 42-pound shot, but these were discontinued in the 18th century as they were seen as too unwieldy. The lower tiers of 18th century English warships were usually equipped with demi-cannons. Ships featuring demi-cannons included HMS ''Sovereign of the Seas'', HMS ''Resolution'' and HMS ''James'', which fought in the Anglo-Dutch naval wars. Demi-cannons were also used on HMS ''Stirling Castle'', the wreck of which was discovered in the Goodwin Sands. Several examples of this weapon were recovered from the site. The barrels of demi-cannon were typically long, had a calibre of and could weigh up to . It required of black powder to fire a round shot. The demi-cannon had an effective range of . These 32-pounders were used during the 18th century on first-rate ships of the line which carried up to ...
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John Browne (King's Gunfounder)
John Browne was an English merchant, the first holder of the post of King's Gunfounder, which was created in 1615. He was heavily involved in the Wealden iron industry, having control of six furnaces in Surrey and Sussex, two in the Forest of Dean as well as his own furnace between Brenchley and Horsmonden. Biography During the reign of Charles I, he sold a great number of guns to the former United Provinces, the King being a partner in this traffic. Browne also held a patent which gave him a monopoly on the casting of pots, pans and firebacks.Kentish Fire, Chapter 6 John Browne developed a type of cannon known as "The Drake" in the 1620s. This cannon was much lighter than previous cannons firing a similar weight of shot, thus enabling ships to be more heavily armed. One such cannon made by Browne was recovered from the wreck of , a Cromwellian warship lost in a storm off the Isle of Mull in 1653 whilst attacking Duart Castle. This cannon weighed 3cwt, 2qtrs, 23 lbs () and ...
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Gilding
Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was traditionally silver in the West, to make silver-gilt (or ''vermeil'') objects, but gilt-bronze is commonly used in China, and also called ormolu if it is Western. Methods of gilding include hand application and gluing, typically of gold leaf, chemical gilding, and electroplating, the last also called gold plating. Parcel-gilt (partial gilt) objects are only gilded over part of their surfaces. This may mean that all of the inside, and none of the outside, of a chalice or similar vessel is gilded, or that patterns or images are made up by using a combination of gilt and ungilted areas. Gilding gives an object a gold appearance at a fraction of the cost of creating a solid gold object. In addition, a solid gold piece would often be too soft or ...
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Ship Money
Ship money was a tax of medieval origin levied intermittently in the Kingdom of England until the middle of the 17th century. Assessed typically on the inhabitants of coastal areas of England, it was one of several taxes that English monarchs could levy by prerogative without the approval of Parliament. The attempt of King Charles I from 1634 onwards to levy ship money during peacetime and extend it to the inland counties of England without parliamentary approval provoked fierce resistance, and was one of the grievances of the English propertied class in the lead-up to the English Civil War. Traditional practice The Plantagenet kings of England had exercised the right of requiring the maritime towns and counties to furnish ships in time of war, and this duty was sometimes commuted for a money payment. Although several statutes of Edward I and Edward III, notably their confirmations of Magna Carta, had made it illegal for the Crown to exact any taxes without the consent of Parli ...
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Mathias Christmas
Mathias, a given name and a surname which is a variant of Matthew (name), may refer to: Places * Mathias, West Virginia * Mathias Township, Michigan People with the given name or surname ''Mathias'' In music * Mathias Eick, Norwegian Jazz Musician * Mathias Färm, the guitarist of Millencolin * Mathias Lillmåns, Finnish lead singer of folk/black metal band Finntroll * William Mathias, Welsh composer * Mathias Nygård a.k.a. Warlord, Finnish folk metal singer In sports * Mathias Bourgue, French tennis player * Mathias Fischer, German basketball coach * Mathias Jørgensen, nicknamed ''Zanka'', Danish football player * Mathias Kiwanuka, American football player * Mathias Olsson (born 1973), Swedish former professional ice hockey defenceman * Mathias Pogba (born 1990), Guinean professional footballer * Mathias Svensson, Swedish professional footballer * Bob Mathias, American decathlete, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and United States Congressman * David Mathias, Indian cricketer ...
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John Christmas (carver)
John Christmas may refer to: * John Christmas (sea captain) (1757–1822), English-born Danish sea captain * John Christmas (1799–1873), Danish naval officer, son of the above, and governor general of the Danish West Indies in 1871 * John Christmas (banker) (born 1969), United States banker and head of the Latvian Parex Bank's International Relations in the early 2000s * John Christmas Beckwith (1759–1809), English organist and composer * John Christmas Møller (1894–1948), Danish politician, leader of The Conservative People's Party between 1928 and 1947 * Johnny Christmas (born 1982), American lacrosse player See also * ''Finding John Christmas ''Finding John Christmas'' is a 2003 American made-for-television fantasy drama film that first aired on CBS. The film is a sequel to the 2001 television movie '' A Town Without Christmas''. Plot When a photojournalist (David Cubitt) in the ficti ...
'', 2003 American film directed by Andy Wolk * {{hndis, name=Christmas, J ...
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Anthony Van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh child of Frans van Dyck, a wealthy Antwerp silk merchant, Anthony painted from an early age. He was successful as an independent painter in his late teens, and became a master in the Antwerp guild in 1618. By this time he was working in the studio of the leading northern painter of the day, Peter Paul Rubens, who became a major influence on his work. Van Dyck worked in London for some months in 1621, then returned to Flanders for a brief time, before travelling to Italy, where he stayed until 1627, mostly in Genoa. In the late 1620s he completed his greatly admired ''Iconography'' series of portrait etchings, mostly of other artists. He spent five years in Flanders after his return from Italy, and from 1630 was court painter for the arch ...
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Mathew Baker (shipwright)
Mathew Baker (1530–1613) was one of the most renowned Tudor shipwrights, and the first to put the practice of shipbuilding down on paper. The first list of 'Master Shipwrights' appointed 'by Patent' by Henry VIII of England included 'John Smyth, Robert Holborn, Richard Bull and James Baker,' in 1537. James Baker was responsible for many of the designs and the construction of King Henry's fleet. James designed the means of mounting cannon in a ship's lower levels, rather than on the top deck, an idea credited to King Henry. Having been apprenticed to his father James,Mathew Baker and the Art of the Shipwright
and having grown up in the surroundings of the dockyard, Mathew was appointed 'Master Shipwright' in 1572. As

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English Ship Revenge (1577)
''Revenge'' was an English race-built galleon of 46 guns, built in 1577 and captured by the Spanish in 1591, sinking soon afterwards. She was the first of 13 English and Royal Navy ships to bear the name.Since she was built and served prior to the English Restoration of 1660, she did not carry the 'HMS' prefix. Construction ''Revenge'' was built at a cost of £4,000 at the Deptford Dockyard, Royal Dockyard, Deptford in 1577 by master shipwright Mathew Baker (shipwright), Mathew Baker. His race-built design was to usher in a new style of ship building that would revolutionise naval warfare for the next three hundred years. A comparatively small vessel, weighing about 400 tons, being about half the size of ''Henry Grace à Dieu'', ''Revenge'' was rated as a galleon. Armament The armament of ships of this period was fluid; guns might be added, removed or changed for different types. ''Revenge'' was particularly heavily armed during her last cruise: she carried 20 heavy demi-canno ...
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HMS Victory
HMS ''Victory'' is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, ordered in 1758, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765. She is best known for her role as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. She additionally served as Keppel's flagship at Ushant, Howe's flagship at Cape Spartel and Jervis's flagship at Cape St Vincent. After 1824, she was relegated to the role of harbour ship. In 1922, she was moved to a dry dock at Portsmouth, England, and preserved as a museum ship. She has been the flagship of the First Sea Lord since October 2012 and is the world's oldest naval ship still in commission, with years' service as of . Construction In December 1758, William Pitt the Elder, in his role as head of the British government, placed an order for the building of 12 ships, including a first-rate ship that would become ''Victory''. During the 18th century, ''Victory'' was one of ten first-rate ships to be constructed. The outline ...
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