''Grace Dieu'' was the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the ...

of King

Henry V of England Henry V (16 September 1386 – 31 August 1422), also called Henry of Monmouth, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1413 until his death in 1422. Despite his relatively short reign, Henry's outstanding military successes in the ...

and one of the largest ships of her time. Launched in 1418, she sailed on only one voyage and was subsequently laid up at anchor in the

River Hamble The River Hamble is located in south Hampshire, England. It rises near Bishop's Waltham and flows for through Botley, Bursledon, and Lower Swanwick before entering Southampton Water between Hamble Common and Warsash. The Hamble is tida ...

. She burned in 1439 after being struck by lightning. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

Design and construction

''Grace Dieu'' was built to a design proposed by William Soper, a burgess of

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

and Clerk of the King's Ships. She was

clinker-built Clinker built (also known as lapstrake) is a method of boat building where the edges of hull planks overlap each other. Where necessary in larger craft, shorter planks can be joined end to end, creating a longer strake or hull plank. The techni ...

with three planks nailed together along each part of her hull and waterproofed with tar and moss sandwiched between the timbers. As constructed she was long with a beam, comparable in size with HMS ''Victory'' and twice as large as ''

Mary Rose The ''Mary Rose'' (launched 1511) is a carrack-type warship of the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. She served for 33 years in several wars against France, Scotland, and Brittany. After being substantially rebuilt in 1536, she saw her ...

''.Wilson 2013 Estimates of her weight range between 1,400 tons and 2,750 tons. Two smaller ships, ''Valentine'' and ''Falcon'', were built to escort her. A dock was specially built for her construction near Town Quay in

. The remains of ''Grace Dieu'' suggest that she was built in a hurry, with some of the planks and ribs left only roughly finished. She was a vast ship requiring 2,735 oak, 1,145 beech, and 14 ash trees for her timbers. When completed in 1418, she was one of the

largest wooden ships This is a list of the world's longest wooden ships. The vessels are sorted by ship length including bowsprit, if known. Finding the world's longest wooden ship is not straightforward since there are several contenders, depending on which definiti ...

of her time.

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester Humphrey of Lancaster, Duke of Gloucester (3 October 139023 February 1447) was an English prince, soldier, and literary patron. He was (as he styled himself) "son, brother and uncle of kings", being the fourth and youngest son of Henry IV of E ...

, regarded her as "the fairest

essel Essel may refer to: People * André Essel (1918–2005), French businessman * Christian Essel (born 1989), Liberian football player * Christine Essel, American politician * Eileen Essell (1922–2015), English actress * Frank Abor Essel-Cobba ...

that ever man saw," while the Florentine Captain of the Galleys, Luca di Masa degli Albizzi, remarked that despite his lifetime at sea he had never seen "so large and beautiful a construction". ''Grace Dieu'' was designed for use in battle against

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

s formidable fleet of

carrack A carrack (; ; ; ) is a three- or four- masted ocean-going sailing ship that was developed in the 14th to 15th centuries in Europe, most notably in Portugal. Evolved from the single-masted cog, the carrack was first used for European trade ...

s, that city being at the time the ally of France and enemy of England. To this end she was built with high sides and a

prow The bow () is the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is usually most forward when the vessel is underway. The aft end of the boat is the stern. Prow may be used as a synonym for bow or it may mean the forward-most part ...

that rose more than , so that her archers could fire from above into the much lower carracks that she would run alongside. However, by the time she was completed England had firm control over the Channel and was at peace with France following the

Treaty of Troyes The Treaty of Troyes was an agreement that King Henry V of England and his heirs would inherit the French throne upon the death of King Charles VI of France. It was formally signed in the French city of Troyes on 21 May 1420 in the aftermath of ...

1420 voyage

''Grace Dieu'' and her escorts appear to have only set sail once, in 1420, under the command of the

Earl of Devon Earl of Devon was created several times in the English peerage, and was possessed first (after the Norman Conquest of 1066) by the de Redvers (''alias'' de Reviers, Revieres, etc.) family, and later by the Courtenay family. It is not to be co ...

and with orders to make a cruise down the English Channel. The expedition suffered a

mutiny Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military, of a crew or of a crew of pirates) to oppose, change, or overthrow an organization to which they were previously loyal. The term is commonly used for a rebellion among memb ...

even before leaving port, when the crew objected to the presence of a contingent of soldiers and archers brought aboard to guard the vessel. ''Grace Dieu''s sailors attempted to prevent the soldiers from boarding by abusing the clerk who was registering their names and threatening to throw the register itself into the sea. When the ship finally left port, nine of the crew incited a further mutiny against the captain by refusing to take their stations and insisting that the cruise be abandoned. ''Grace Dieu'' was brought into the nearest port, St. Helen's on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Is ...

, and the crew departed. A clerk who questioned their loyalty as they departed was assaulted and had his clothing torn.

Service after Henry V's death and loss

When

Henry V Henry V may refer to: People * Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026) * Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125) * Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161) * Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227) * Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (121 ...

died in 1422 his ships were treated as his private property rather than as part of the kingdom's navy. Many were sold off to pay his debts. In 1430

William Soper William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

, by now in charge of the administration of the entire navy, dined with the commander of the Florentine merchant fleet on board ''Grace Dieu''. Subsequently, ''Grace Dieu'' was laid-up in the

. Already dismasted and stripped of equipment, she was burnt to the waterline after being set ablaze by a bolt of lightning in 1439.

Rediscovery

The remains of ''Grace Dieu'' are still in the River Hamble at

Bursledon Bursledon is a village on the River Hamble in Hampshire, England. It is located within the borough of Eastleigh. Close to the city of Southampton, Bursledon has a railway station, a marina, dockyards and the Bursledon Windmill. Nearby village ...

, near

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. Until 1933 the wreck was believed to be that of a Danish galley or a nineteenth-century merchant ship, but in that year a proper survey established both the true identity of the wreck, and the great size of the ship. The site was designated under the

Protection of Wrecks Act The Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 (c. 33) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which provides protection for designated shipwrecks. Section 1 of the act provides for wrecks to be designated because of historical, archaeological or ...

on 5 February 1974 and was excavated by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

programme ''

Time Team ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...

'' in 2004 for the 2005 series. 50 metres from the remains lie those of another vessel, believed to be ''Grace Dieus contemporary '' Holigost''.

References

External links

Team'' excavation site
Archived 15 February 2005, retrieved 26 January 2021.
Aerial view of excavation site

"''Grace Dieu'' and the possible site of the ''Holigost''" National Heritage List for England

Bibliography

* * *R C Anderson, ''The Bursledon Ship'', Mariner's Mirror, Vol 20, No.2, 1934. *M W Prynne, ''Henry V's Grace Dieu'', Mariner's Mirror, Vol 54, No.2, 1968. *N A M Rodger, ''The Safeguard of the Sea, A Naval History of Britain 660-1649'' (London 1997). *S Rose, ''Henry V's Grace Dieu and Mutiny at Sea: Some new evidence'', Mariner's Mirror, Vol 63, No.1, 1977. *B Wilson, Empire of the Deep; The Rise and Fall of the British Navy, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Grace Dieu (Ship) Ships of the English navy Individual sailing vessels Protected Wrecks of England Shipwrecks in rivers Ships built in Southampton 15th-century ships History of Hampshire 1418 in England 1439 in England