The Maritime World of Early Modern Britain

Richard Blakemore, James Davey

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040784105
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

Britain's emergence as one of Europe's major maritime powers has all too frequently been subsumed by nationalistic narratives that focus on operations and technology. This volume, by contrast, offers a daring new take on Britain's maritime past. It brings together scholars from a range of disciplines to explore the manifold ways in which the sea shaped British history, demonstrating the number of approaches that now have a stake in defining the discipline of maritime history. The chapters analyse the economic, social, and cultural contexts in which English maritime endeavour existed, as well as discussing representations of the sea. The contributors show how people from across the British Isles increasingly engaged with the maritime world, whether through their own lived experiences or through material culture. The volume also includes essays that investigate encounters between English voyagers and indigenous peoples in Africa, and the intellectual foundations of imperial ambition.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Note on Conventions and Terminology
• Introduction
• 1 The Minion and Its Travels: Sailing to Guinea in the Sixteenth Century
• 2 Commanding the World Itself : Sir Walter Ralegh, La Popelinière, and the Huguenot Influence on Early English Sea Power
• 3 An Investigation of the Size and Geographical Distribution of the English, Welsh, and Channel Islands Merchant Fleet: A Case Study of 1571–72
• 4 An Evaluation of Scottish Trade with Iberia during the Anglo-Spanish War, 1585-1604
• 5 Performing ‘Water' Ralegh : The Cultural Politics of Sea Captains in Late Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama
• 6 ‘Wicked Actions Merit Fearful Judgments' : Capital Trials aboard the Early East India Company Voyages
• 7 ‘A water bawdy house': Women and the Navy in the British Civil Wars *
• 8 ‘Thy sceptre to a trident change / And straight , unruly seas thou canst command': Contemporary Representations of King Charles I and the Ship Money Fleets within the Cultural Imagination of Caroline England
• 9 ‘Proud Symbols of the Prospering Rural Seamen' : Scottish Church Ship Models and the Shipmaster's Societies of North East Scotland in the Late 17th Century
• 10 Systematizing the Sea : Knowledge, Power and Maritime Sovereignty in Late Seventeenth-Century Science
• Select Bibliography
• About the Contributors
• Index