Royal Navy

The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the "senior service" of the British armed services, being the oldest of its three branches. From approximately 1692 until World War II, the Royal Navy was the largest and most powerful navy in the world. The navy helped establish the United Kingdom as the dominant military and economic power of the 18th and 19th century, and was essential for maintaining the British Empire. Although the Royal Navy is now much smaller, it remains the largest Western European navy, the second largest navy in the world in terms of gross tonnage, and one of the world's most technologically advanced. It formed the basis for most other navies with few exceptions, and masses of sailors from Commonwealth and Friendly Navies attend Royal Naval Training Programmes in Britain. The end of the Cold War with the collapse of the Soviet Union has precipitated a restructuring of the Royal Navy's role as a major naval player in the Twenty-first century, from that of a deterrence force to a navy capable of extending British foreign policy worldwide.

History

:Main article: History of the Royal Navy

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The Royal Navy has historically played a central role in the defence and warfare of England, and later Great Britain, the United Kingdom, and the British Empire. Because Great Britain and Ireland are islands, any enemy power (at least, before aircraft) would have had to cross by sea in order to attack. Attainment of naval superiority by any hostile power would have placed the nation in great peril. Moreover, a strong navy was vital in maintaining the security of supply and communication links with distant locations in the Empire.

Related Topics:
Defence - England - Great Britain - United Kingdom - British Empire - Islands - Enemy - Naval superiority - Communication

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England (c800 to c1700)

England's first navy was established in the 9th century by Alfred the Great, but soon fell into disrepair. The Norman kings started an equivalent in 1155 with the creation of the Cinque Ports alliance and the establishment of the post of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. This was effective during the Plantagenet years, but like most institutions of the type fell into disarray and disuse.

Related Topics:
England - 9th century - Alfred the Great - Norman - 1155 - Cinque Ports - Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports - Plantagenet - Institution

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The first reformation and major expansion of the Navy Royal, as it was then known, occurred in the 16th Century during the reign of Henry VIII whose ships, Henri Grâce a Dieu ("Great Harry") and Mary Rose, engaged the French navy in the battle of the Solent in 1545. By the time of Henry's death in 1547 his fleet had grown to 58 vessels.

Related Topics:
16th Century - Henry VIII - ''Henri Grâce a Dieu'' ("''Great Harry''") - Mary Rose - French navy - Battle of the Solent - 1545 - 1547

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In 1588 the Spanish Empire, at the time the world's great superpower, threatened England with invasion and the Spanish Armada set sail to enforce Spain's dominance over the English Channel and transport troops from the Spanish Netherlands to England. However, the armada failed, due to a combination of repeated successful attacks by the Royal Navy of England, bad weather and a revolt by the Dutch in Spain's territories across the Channel. The defeat of the armada is the first major victory by the English at sea. However the Drake-Norris Expedition of 1589 saw the tide of war turn against the Royal Navy. England continued to raid Spain's ports and ships travelling across the Atlantic Ocean under the reign of Elizabeth I but was to suffer a series of damaging defeats against a reformed Spanish navy.

Related Topics:
1588 - Spanish Empire - Spanish Armada - English Channel - Spanish Netherlands - Drake-Norris Expedition of 1589 - Atlantic Ocean - Elizabeth I - Spanish navy

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1692–1914

A permanent Naval Service didn't really exist until the mid-17th century when the Fleet Royal was taken under Parliamentary control following the defeat of Charles I in the English Civil War. This second reformation of the navy was carried out under Admiral Robert Blake during Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth. The incorporation of the Royal Navy was in contrast to the land forces, which are descended from variety of different sources including both royal and anti-royal Parliamentary forces.

Related Topics:
17th century - Parliamentary - Charles I - English Civil War - Robert Blake - Oliver Cromwell - Commonwealth

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After having suffered defeats in the second and third Anglo-Dutch wars the Royal Navy was the strongest navy in the world from 1692 to 1940, with almost uncontested power over the world's oceans from 1805 to 1914, when it came to be said that Britain ruled the waves. In that time, the Royal Navy suffered only one major defeat—the battle of the Chesapeake against France in 1781—and was able to defeat all challengers, as at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 where a combined French and Spanish fleet was decisively beaten by a smaller but more experienced British fleet under a brilliant commander. The victory at Trafalgar consolidated Britain's advantage over other European maritime powers. By concentrating its military resources in the navy it could both defend itself and project its power across the oceans as well as threaten or disrupt rivals' ocean trading routes. Britain therefore only needed to maintain a relatively small, highly mobile, professional army that could be dispatched to where it was needed by sea, as well as be given support by the navy both with bombardment, movement, supplies and reinforcement. Meanwhile rivals could have their sea-borne supplies cut off, as occured with Napoleon's army in Egypt. Other major European powers were forced to split their resources between maintaining both a large navy and enormous armies and fortifications to defend their land frontiers. The domination of the sea therefore allowed Britain to rapidly build its empire, especially from the Seven Years War (1756-1763) and throughout the nineteenth century, giving Britain enormous military, political and commercial advantages.

Related Topics:
Anglo-Dutch wars - 1692 - 1940 - Ocean - Battle of the Chesapeake - France - 1781 - Battle of Trafalgar - 1805 - Spanish - Empire - Seven Years War - Nineteenth century

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During the nineteenth century the Royal Navy was also busy in enforcing the ban on the slave trade and the suppression of piracy.

Related Topics:
Slave trade - Piracy

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Life in the early Royal Navy would be considered harsh by today's standards; discipline was severe and flogging was used to enforce obedience to the Articles of War. The law allowed the Navy to use the unpopular practice of impressment where seamen were forced to serve in the Navy during times of manpower shortage, usually in wartime. Impressment reached its peak in the 18th and early 19th century but was abandoned after the end of the Napoleonic Wars as the peacetime Navy was smaller.

Related Topics:
Discipline - Flogging - Articles of War - Impressment - Seamen - 18th - 19th century - Napoleonic Wars

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1914–1945

During the two World Wars, the Royal Navy played a vital role in keeping the UK supplied with food, arms, and raw materials, and in defeating the German campaigns of unrestricted submarine warfare in the first and second battles of the Atlantic. During the First World War It fought in several sea battles, The Battle of Heligoland Bight, Battle of Coronel, Battle of the Falkland Islands, Battle of Dogger Bank and Dardanelles Campaign, but the Battle of Jutland is the most well known.

Related Topics:
World War - Food - Arms - Raw materials - Unrestricted submarine warfare - First - Second battles of the Atlantic - The Battle of Heligoland Bight - Of Coronel - Battle of the Falkland Islands - Battle of Dogger Bank - Dardanelles Campaign

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The Royal Navy was also vital in guarding the sea lanes that enabled UK forces to fight in remote parts of the world such as North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Far East. Naval supremacy was vital to the amphibious operations carried out, such as the invasions of Northwest Africa, Sicily, Italy, and Normandy. See British military history of World War II.

Related Topics:
North Africa - Mediterranean - Far East - Northwest Africa - Normandy - British military history of World War II

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Cold War

After World War II, the growing power of the United States and the decline of the British Empire, reduced the role of the Royal Navy. However the threat of the Soviet Union and continuing British commitments throughout the world created a new and important role for the Navy. In the 1960s, the Royal Navy received its first nuclear weapons and was later to become the sole carrier of the UK's nuclear deterrent. In the latter stages of the Cold War, the Royal Navy was reconfigured with three anti-submarine warfare aircraft carriers and a force of small frigates and destroyers. Its purpose was to search for and, if necessary, destroy Soviet submarines in the North Atlantic.

Related Topics:
World War II - United States - UK's nuclear deterrent - Cold War - Anti-submarine warfare - Aircraft carrier - Frigate - Destroyer - Soviet - Submarine - North Atlantic

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Recent Operations

The most important post-war operation conducted solely by the Royal Navy was the defeat in 1982 of Argentina in the Falkland Islands War. Despite losing 4 ships in the war, the Royal Navy proved it was still able to fight a battle 8,000 miles (12,800 km) from the British mainland. The war also underlined the critical importance and power of aircraft carriers and submarines, and exposed the service's late Twentieth Century dependency on chartered merchant vessels.

Related Topics:
1982 - Argentina - Falkland Islands War

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The Royal Navy also participated in the Gulf War, the Kosovo conflict, the Afghanistan Campaign, and the 2003 Iraq War, the last of which saw RN warships bombard positions in support of the Al Faw Peninsula landings by Royal Marines. Also during that war, HM submarines Splendid and Turbulent launched a number of Tomahawk cruise missiles on a variety of targets in Iraq.

Related Topics:
Gulf War - Kosovo conflict - Afghanistan Campaign - 2003 Iraq War - Bombard - Al Faw Peninsula - ''Splendid'' - ''Turbulent'' - Tomahawk - Cruise missile - Iraq

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