Medieval England was a great military power with a sophisticated machinery of government, but her naval administration, at best improvised and for lo…

- Nicholas Rodger

The impossibility of keeping Englishmen sober ashore was a constant source of complaint, It was the great weakness of 16th century English infantryme…

- Nicholas Rodger

The arrival of the Barbary pirates radically changed English attitudes. Instead of patriotic pirates plundering foreign cargoes and bringing them hom…

- Nicholas Rodger

It is well known that we fight in God's cause... but unless God helps us by a miracle the English, who have faster and handier ships than ours, and m…

- Nicholas Rodger

In every age states of varying size and constitution and at every level of development have found naval warfare to be one of their most formidable an…

- Nicholas Rodger

'A Naval History of Britain' which begins in the 7th century has to explain what it means by Britain. My meaning is simply the British Isles as a who…

- Nicholas Rodger

Whether in peaceful trade or warlike attack, the sea unites more than it divides. Even if it were possible to treat England, or the British Isles, as…

- Nicholas Rodger

It is not surprising that only one medieval state, Venice, long possessed anything clearly identifiavble as a navy in this sense. We shall see that n…

- Nicholas Rodger

The common sense of the word (navy) as we use it today refers to a permanent fighting service made up of ships designed for war, manned by profession…

- Nicholas Rodger