Queen Elizabeth I & her Big Guns

[Kazzer]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7899831.stm

[Albion]

An excuse to ramble with some trivia about the beginnings of the Royal Navy. Prior to the Armada the English, as it was at that time, had a limited amount of ships and realised they were outnumbered by the Spanish et all. The Armada caused a decision to be taken that the Royal Navy would have 1.5x as many ships of the line as the next two largest navies combined. At this time it should be remembered the world, in their eyes, was basically Europe. In order to amass such a navy and keep that volume required large amounts of timber, and the face of the UK was transformed over the next 200 years from being largely forested to being rolling hillsides (and we moan about what is happening in the Brazilian rain forests). The consequence of having a huge home grown navy, is that you are not so concerned about capturing more vessels. At this time the Continentals would fire their cannons as their ship rolled up, this would mean hitting the masts of the opposition, and once they were de-masted you were free to out manouevre and ultimately board the vessel. Those nasty Brits however would fire on the down roll, with the shots striking the hull, meaning they would go for a clean sinking rather than boarding with a melee.

[Kazzer]

I used to live in the town of Melksham (Milk Town) in a suburb called Forest. (About a mile from the building Harry Potter was filmed in). Of course, there were few trees all paved streets and gardens. My Caswell genealogy happened me on this article in the Wiltshire records. I think Robert Cresswell was related - but ---

The History of Wiltshire, Edited by R.B. Pugh; (some volumes are published by Oxford University Press Amen House, London 1957- other volumes are published by the University of London Institute of Historical Research)

RE: CRESSWELL, PAGE 400 -The decline and disposal of the forests From the reign of Edward III onward the forest laws and institutions languished. Savernake was granted away to Humphrey Duke of Gloucester : he held it from 1415 until his death in 1447, when it reverted to the Crown.
In 1477 Edward IV complained to the Warden of Savernake that 'the game in the said forest by many riotous and evil disposed persons of late hunting therein is greatly diminished', and threatened the offenders with 'grievous and sharp punishment'. Henry VII made similar complaints at the beginning of his reign' the forest officers replied that local landowners and the armed followers openly defied their authority and threatened 'daily.to murder and slay' them. The last forest eyres held in Wiltshire 1487- 91 showed that the gentry had hunted the deer at the pleasure.

After the death of Henry VIII the forests were again neglected. During the minority of Edward VI the Lord Protector Somerset secured for himself grants in fee simple of the forests of Savernake, Barydon, and Chute, of which Savernake only was restored to the Seymour family (of Jane Seymour, wife of Henry VIII fame) after his execution for treason in 1552. His successor , John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, obtained a grant of Braydon Forest in fee tail, which he in turn forfeited in the next year.

After a long period of neglect, James I attempted to revive the forest system and enforce the forest laws. In 1607 the Attorney-General took proceedings in the star Chamber against the foresters,underkeepers, regarders and agister of 'Pewsham and Blackmore' Forests for waste of game and timber, and for assault on Sir Henry Baynton, 'deputy justice in eyre in the Forest of Pewsham'. In the previous year Sir Henry himself and his servants had appeared in the Star Chamber accused of taking deer and timber, removing boundaries and illegally enclosing a park in the same forest.
Others were prosecuted in the Star Chamber for taking deer and rabbits in the forests of Braydon and Chute.

In 1607 and again in 1612 royal commissions were issued to Otho Nicholson and others [here there is a footnote reference to Rob.Cresswell -"The commissioners in 1607 were Sir Edw. Greville, Otho Nicholson, and John Warner: E178/4577/30; and in 1612 Otho Nicholson, John Hall, Hen. Long, and Rob. Cresswell: ibid., m.19]-'to measure, perambulate and describe all our forests, parks and chases in Wiltshire, so that they may be delimit d by the ancient metes and bounds. by the sworn evidence of respectable men of the county'. Inquiry was to be made as to all assets, wastes, and preprestures 'and other lands and tenements of our soil within the aforesaid forests';
who were the tenants and occupiers, what title they had,the value of the land, whether it was arable pasture, or wood, and what rent was paid.
Tenants of such lands claimed for the Crown as forest wastes found their titles challenged after a long period of undisturbed enjoyment. They were compelled, in some cases on pain of sequestration, to compound by paying large fines and annual rents thereafter.

From 1618 onwards, however, the Stuarts began to sell outright their rights in the Wiltshire forests, which had become through neglect' very chargeable and without profit or pleasure'. They were disafforested,the woods sold, and the forest wastes leased, in many cases to disgruntled occupiers who had hitherto regarded the land as their own. By 1624 the disafforestment of Chippenham and Melksham had been completed. In 1627 arrangement were made for the sale of Selwood Forest, and the disafforestment of Braydon was begun about the same time. In 1639 Charles I disafforested 'all that part of the Forest of Chute in Wiltshire, and Wakeswood in Hampshire',and granted the wastes and coppices to three gentlemen in fee farm. By the Restoration Clarendon Park was all that remained of the Forest of Clarendon; the park wall had been broken down and the enclosed woods had dwindled to 60 acres.
When Charles II in 1664 disparked it and granted it to the Duke of Albermarle, he alienated the last remnant of the royal forests of Wiltshire.


VOLUME 4; page 413
"By 1618 the king had decided to sell his forest rights outright; in September the Archbishop of Canterbury and others were authorized to 'deforest' the Forests of 'Chippenham and Blackmore'. In March of the following year Sir John Ernley, John Pym, 'Receiver General...in Wiltshire', William Storkman and Robert Cresswell, Surveyor-General of the king' s woods south of Trent, were instructed to lease the lands on the former forest wastes and to sell the woods...."]