0:00:06 > 0:00:12On a blustery November day four centuries ago, the English were preparing
0:00:12 > 0:00:16themselves for one of the greatest national celebrations ever seen.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26Beneath the dome of St Paul's they gathered to celebrate
0:00:26 > 0:00:32their tiny nation's victory over the world's greatest superpower, Spain.
0:00:36 > 0:00:41On the walls hung the captured ensigns of the Spanish fleet, that was even then being dashed
0:00:41 > 0:00:44on the rocky shores of Scotland and Ireland.
0:00:48 > 0:00:50The year was 1588...
0:00:52 > 0:00:55..and the battle was the Armada.
0:00:58 > 0:01:04Today's celebrations mark the centenary of the Fleet Air Arm, and it still seems
0:01:04 > 0:01:10like the most natural thing in the world to devote a great cathedral to the Royal Navy,
0:01:10 > 0:01:15a tradition that began on that autumn day 400 years ago.
0:01:17 > 0:01:221588 marked a turning point in our national story.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25Victory over the Armada transformed us
0:01:25 > 0:01:28into a seafaring nation and it sparked a myth
0:01:28 > 0:01:32that would one day become a reality, that the nation's new destiny,
0:01:32 > 0:01:38the source of her future wealth and power, lay out there on the oceans.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44This series tells the story of how the Navy expanded from a tiny force
0:01:44 > 0:01:49to become the most complex industrial enterprise on Earth.
0:01:51 > 0:01:56Of how the need to organise it laid the foundations of our civil service and our economy.
0:01:56 > 0:02:03Of how it transformed our culture, our sense of national identity
0:02:03 > 0:02:04and our democracy.
0:02:04 > 0:02:09It's a story of heroism and innovation,
0:02:09 > 0:02:13but also of disasters and dark chapters in our history.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20It's the remarkable story of a 400-year struggle, fought at sea
0:02:20 > 0:02:27and on land, of how the Navy drove Britain into the modern age and changed the world.
0:03:01 > 0:03:06- Clear the hatch! - England's extraordinary journey
0:03:06 > 0:03:09from a third rate nation to global superpower
0:03:09 > 0:03:14began on a clear October day 20 years before the Armada.
0:03:17 > 0:03:19OK, bring on the beer.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22Not that anything so grand was on the minds of the sailors
0:03:22 > 0:03:25who scurried to and fro in the old harbour in Plymouth,
0:03:25 > 0:03:30making a small fleet of six ships ready for sea.
0:03:30 > 0:03:35The gangplank groaned as last minute supplies were brought on board.
0:03:35 > 0:03:41Large barrels of fresh water and beer and even whinnying goats, and chickens as well.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44When anything was brought on board they were lashed down
0:03:44 > 0:03:48to the bulkheads in expectation of a bumpy passage.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50The two men in command were cousins.
0:03:50 > 0:03:56On that fine autumn day, they were thinking not about making war but about making money.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05The older of the two was John Hawkins who, at the age of just 35,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08was already Plymouth's leading merchant venturer.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12The younger was his cousin,
0:04:12 > 0:04:17a poor relation who'd grown up with Hawkins, 27-year-old Francis Drake.
0:04:27 > 0:04:32They were leaving behind a poor, insignificant town on the edge of a poor, insignificant country
0:04:32 > 0:04:35which itself clung to the fringes of Europe.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39But this place had one thing going for it - this,
0:04:39 > 0:04:47one of the finest natural harbours on Earth, gateway to the Atlantic and, beyond that, the New World.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59First discovered only 60 years before,
0:04:59 > 0:05:05the New World of the Americas offered wealth beyond imagining -
0:05:05 > 0:05:07if they could get there and bring it back, that is.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11A round trip of 12,000 miles.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14No mean feat in the 1560s.
0:05:14 > 0:05:16Stand by. Two, six!
0:05:16 > 0:05:19Two, six! Two, six!
0:05:22 > 0:05:24Take a break.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30- Is that halfway?- Yeah. - You're kidding me!- No!
0:05:35 > 0:05:38This wonderful replica of the Tudor ship, The Matthew,
0:05:38 > 0:05:43gives me a strong sense of what life might have been like on board.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46Sailing one of these you're just so struck by the ingenuity, aren't you?
0:05:46 > 0:05:50The sort of combination of wood, rope, bit of metal,
0:05:50 > 0:05:52and you can sail round the other side of the world.
0:05:54 > 0:06:01Among the profit-hungry investors in the venture was the Queen herself.
0:06:03 > 0:06:08She'd lent two ships, the Jesus of Lubeck and the Minion.
0:06:08 > 0:06:15Both were old, spent and rotten, as were most of the vessels in her tiny navy.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21The crew, too, would get their share of the booty.
0:06:23 > 0:06:28All were young. Some were just boys, among them Hawkins' nephew Paul
0:06:28 > 0:06:31and the 13-year-old Miles Philips,
0:06:31 > 0:06:36whose journal relates the terrors of frequent storms and leaking hulls.
0:06:39 > 0:06:44There were no creature comforts for those on board either.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47The single-minded Hawkins made his men sleep on deck.
0:06:49 > 0:06:54Because every inch of hold space was reserved for the cargo that would make the cash.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05On that expedition, the cargo was a human one.
0:07:05 > 0:07:10Drake and Hawkins have the terrible distinction of being the first Englishmen
0:07:10 > 0:07:14to bind African men, women and children in chains
0:07:14 > 0:07:17and transport them in the holds of ships like this.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19They were slave traders.
0:07:32 > 0:07:38Six weeks out of Plymouth, they picked up 500 slaves in Guinea then headed west.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43Few Englishmen had ever made this journey.
0:07:43 > 0:07:50England had been slow to spot the opportunities of the New World and the Spanish had got their first.
0:07:50 > 0:07:55Now Spain jealously guarded a lucrative American empire stretching from South America
0:07:55 > 0:07:59through the Caribbean to Mexico and further north.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05Drake and Hawkins just wanted a little slice of the action.
0:08:05 > 0:08:10Nip in, sell a few slaves and return home with a hold full of silver.
0:08:10 > 0:08:15The problem was that the Spanish had banned foreigners from trading within their lucrative empire.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19Hawkins had managed it once or twice before and got away with it.
0:08:19 > 0:08:23He hoped to do so again. But this time would be different.
0:08:28 > 0:08:35In the Caribbean they traded their human cargo for silver, gold and pearls, then turned for home.
0:08:40 > 0:08:42But it was hurricane season.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46Storms drove them to San Juan on the coast of Mexico,
0:08:46 > 0:08:50where a powerful Spanish fleet first promised them safe passage
0:08:50 > 0:08:55then decided to teach them a violent lesson.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09In the fight that followed, Hawkins lost three of his ships,
0:09:09 > 0:09:14including the Jesus of Lubeck and 200 men killed or captured.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16He managed to escape on the Minion,
0:09:16 > 0:09:18and with him was the 13-year-old Miles Philips,
0:09:18 > 0:09:21who watched what happened to the prisoners.
0:09:21 > 0:09:23"They took our men ashore," he wrote,
0:09:23 > 0:09:28"and hung them up by their arms until blood burst out from their fingers' ends."
0:09:28 > 0:09:31And the moment of personal tragedy for Hawkins -
0:09:31 > 0:09:34he realised that his nephew Paul was among them.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46Disease and famine followed and by the time they limped home
0:09:46 > 0:09:51fewer than 20 men were left alive aboard the Minion.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56But, for the survivors, this disaster acted
0:09:56 > 0:09:59not as a deterrent but as a spur to action.
0:10:07 > 0:10:12The experience marked Drake and Hawkins for the rest of their lives.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15Neither would ever forgive the Spanish for their treachery,
0:10:15 > 0:10:20and they threw themselves into a bitter, personal crusade against Spain.
0:10:20 > 0:10:25It was fuelled by the heady mix of a lust for cash, religious zealotry
0:10:25 > 0:10:28and a desire for personal revenge.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32In time, this crusade would become a national enterprise
0:10:32 > 0:10:35and in doing so it would forge a new idea of Englishness.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43But if England's seafarers were to have any chance of catching up with Spain,
0:10:43 > 0:10:46they would need better ships to do it.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56Hawkins' answer was the race-built galleon,
0:10:56 > 0:11:00his radical breakthrough in warship design,
0:11:00 > 0:11:03preserved in these original drawings.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09By using maths and geometry instead of rule of thumb,
0:11:09 > 0:11:13by cutting down high decks and by streamlining hulls,
0:11:13 > 0:11:18Hawkins produced the fastest ships of their kind anywhere in the world.
0:11:21 > 0:11:27The first was built in 1570 at the Queen's dockyard in Deptford.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29More were to follow.
0:11:29 > 0:11:35With greater space for guns, they were perfectly designed for war.
0:11:43 > 0:11:48But 20 race-built galleons, the most the Tudor state could afford,
0:11:48 > 0:11:50would not be enough on their own.
0:11:53 > 0:11:59Hawkins landed a job on the Navy Board, the committee that ran the Queen's modest fleet.
0:11:59 > 0:12:04And, in 1582, the board commissioned a series of extraordinary surveys
0:12:04 > 0:12:07preserved here at the National Archives.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19I've read about this but never seen it before.
0:12:19 > 0:12:25This is a list of every ship in England compiled under Hawkins' leadership.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28And as you can see, it's broken up by county.
0:12:28 > 0:12:34Here Norfolk, Suffolk, absolutely meticulously written down. It's beautiful.
0:12:34 > 0:12:41Every single ship, with the tonnage here, so these ones are St Mary, the Solomon, 200 tonnes.
0:12:41 > 0:12:42Absolutely incredible.
0:12:42 > 0:12:47As we go further on, here, they didn't just list the ships,
0:12:47 > 0:12:52they list the masters and then the number of mariners
0:12:52 > 0:12:55and seamen there are as well for each port.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58So here we go. In Cornwall, there are 108 masters,
0:12:58 > 0:13:03626 mariners and 1,184 seamen.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05So precise. Incredible.
0:13:05 > 0:13:11This information is being gathered centrally in London at the beck and call of the Tudor state.
0:13:14 > 0:13:20It's actually very moving seeing the names of people that lived all those centuries ago.
0:13:20 > 0:13:25Once you have a list like this, when war comes, when there's a national emergency,
0:13:25 > 0:13:28you can knock on the door of men like John Cooper and Peter Dolomore
0:13:28 > 0:13:32and say, "Right, mate, you're coming in the Navy to protect the country."
0:13:32 > 0:13:37It does make you wonder whether men like William Bennett, William Mort
0:13:37 > 0:13:41from Littleham, whether they end up fighting against the Spanish Armada.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46And this is just fantastic. You get right to the end.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50The total number of mariners available to the Tudor state,
0:13:50 > 0:13:5216,259.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55Men that could be mobilised to protect little England
0:13:55 > 0:13:58against the greatest superpower in the world.
0:14:07 > 0:14:13Drake, meanwhile, was taking his revenge on Spain in a much more direct fashion.
0:14:16 > 0:14:23On an April day in 1587, the residents of Cadiz woke to the sound of gunfire.
0:14:42 > 0:14:47By the end of the day, over 30 Spanish ships lay at the bottom of the harbour
0:14:47 > 0:14:51and Drake's fleet had sailed away with holds full of treasure.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57It was the culmination of a ten-year pillaging spree
0:14:57 > 0:15:00that had seen Drake circumnavigate the globe,
0:15:00 > 0:15:04attack Spanish colonies and steal their loot.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07Belligerent, venal, a peerless seafarer,
0:15:07 > 0:15:10he was Protestant England's new hero.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14In Catholic Spain, he was anything but.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20Standing here, looking at it from the Spanish point of view,
0:15:20 > 0:15:23the English appear little different from Vikings.
0:15:23 > 0:15:29Men who came from the north in ships bent on plunder and destruction, to whom nothing was sacred.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32The most infamous of all was Drake,
0:15:32 > 0:15:36still hated, still known as El Draque, The Dragon.
0:15:36 > 0:15:40And now The Dragon had pushed the King of Spain
0:15:40 > 0:15:44to take his own terrible revenge on Drake and England.
0:15:50 > 0:15:55That revenge came in July 1588.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04When the Armada appeared off England's coast,
0:16:04 > 0:16:08one eye witness wrote that the ocean groaned under their weight.
0:16:11 > 0:16:17It had taken Spain three years and a titanic amount of silver to assemble it,
0:16:17 > 0:16:22while the English fleet had been mobilised in just three months.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27The battle raged for several days.
0:16:32 > 0:16:37But the leadership of men like Drake and Hawkins had given the English a decisive edge.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58People have tended to attribute victory over the Spanish Armada
0:16:58 > 0:17:00to the courage of the English sailors
0:17:00 > 0:17:02or the intervention of divine wind.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05But the Spanish fought equally bravely,
0:17:05 > 0:17:08and at different stages of the campaign the wind favoured both sides.
0:17:08 > 0:17:14The real reason is a lot less glamorous, it's the inspired organisation of Hawkins.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18He ensured that England had a fleet of fast, manoeuvrable ships,
0:17:18 > 0:17:24each of which carried something like three times the weight in armament of its Spanish equivalent.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28He laid the foundations for modern naval warfare,
0:17:28 > 0:17:31bringing ships, men and cannon together
0:17:31 > 0:17:33in a decisive combination.
0:17:42 > 0:17:48So when the great and the good arrived in their finery at St Paul's on that day in November 1588,
0:17:48 > 0:17:51they were celebrating not just a victory,
0:17:51 > 0:17:53but the beginning of a new future.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59The Queen, as one author wrote, was carried in a golden chariot
0:17:59 > 0:18:03through her city of London in robes of triumph...
0:18:03 > 0:18:07while the still bloody heads of Catholic traitors,
0:18:07 > 0:18:12executed for praying for the Armada's success,
0:18:12 > 0:18:14stared down from spikes nearby.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22The Tudor PR machine went into overdrive.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26A new portrait showed the Queen triumphant, her hand on a globe,
0:18:26 > 0:18:30the Spanish ships crushed on the rocks behind her.
0:18:41 > 0:18:47The scale of the victory expanded the horizons of a small, impoverished nation.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50One commentator wrote,
0:18:50 > 0:18:52"The sea had become a means to seek new worlds,
0:18:52 > 0:18:56"for gold, for praise, for glory."
0:18:57 > 0:19:02# God save our gracious Queen... #
0:19:02 > 0:19:07The English had been given a bright vision of a glittering future,
0:19:07 > 0:19:09of riches beyond imagination,
0:19:09 > 0:19:14of new frontiers that stretched way beyond the shores of tiny England.
0:19:14 > 0:19:19Above all, it was a future that would be played out on the seas,
0:19:19 > 0:19:23by the ships of the Navy and by a new breed of heroic seafarer.
0:19:23 > 0:19:28England's view of its place in the world would never be the same again.
0:19:28 > 0:19:32Guard of Honour, slope arms!
0:19:33 > 0:19:36Right turn!
0:19:37 > 0:19:41The Queen's navy had become a source of national pride as never before
0:19:41 > 0:19:47and there was an insatiable demand for stories of seafaring adventure and discovery.
0:19:49 > 0:19:55A new national identity - aggressive, ambitious and Protestant - was in the making.
0:19:57 > 0:20:02If Hawkins was the architect of that new identity and Drake its firebrand,
0:20:02 > 0:20:06then Richard Hakluyt was its biographer.
0:20:06 > 0:20:11In 1589, the year after the Spanish Armada, he wrote this.
0:20:11 > 0:20:18"The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffics and Discoveries of the English Nation."
0:20:18 > 0:20:21An account of 1,600 years of history
0:20:21 > 0:20:26containing over 250 seafaring adventures by Englishmen.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29A mix of storytelling and myth making.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32Here at the back of this one, for example, we have
0:20:32 > 0:20:38Hawkins's ill-fated trip to the Caribbean, with Miles Philips' gruesome account
0:20:38 > 0:20:43of the barbarous treatment they received at the hands of the Spaniards.
0:20:43 > 0:20:49Here in the next volume we have the accounts of the defeat of the Spanish Armada itself, which ends
0:20:49 > 0:20:56with this incredible paragraph that says, "Thus the magnificent, huge and mighty fleet of the Spaniards
0:20:56 > 0:21:01"in the year 1588 vanished into smoke."
0:21:04 > 0:21:06This was history with a purpose,
0:21:06 > 0:21:12a call to arms to a nation on the verge of a new destiny.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15That destiny could not have been made more obvious
0:21:15 > 0:21:18than it was in a subsequent edition of Hakluyt's work,
0:21:18 > 0:21:22which contained this stunning map.
0:21:22 > 0:21:24This piece of paper is 400 years old.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27It's incredibly beautiful.
0:21:27 > 0:21:28Just look at the detail
0:21:28 > 0:21:32of the world's coastlines and ports and rivers.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37What's so remarkable about this map is that medieval maps show England
0:21:37 > 0:21:40as an insignificant island clinging to the edge of Europe,
0:21:40 > 0:21:43but now England's not at the edge. It's been picked up
0:21:43 > 0:21:45and moved right to the heart of the world.
0:21:49 > 0:21:55It's an image of the world we all recognise, but this map showed it for the first time.
0:21:57 > 0:22:02It was a potent symbol of a nation that now had global ambitions.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06Ships poured out of England,
0:22:06 > 0:22:10bound for the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Baltic.
0:22:10 > 0:22:16Numerous and aggressive, these English pioneers steadily eroded Spanish power
0:22:16 > 0:22:21and founded the colonies that formed the beginnings of Britain's future empire.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32Abroad and at home, business was booming.
0:22:32 > 0:22:37Ports like East Looe in Cornwall now had scores of fishing boats
0:22:37 > 0:22:40trading as far away as North America.
0:22:41 > 0:22:46In these new, confident times they called themselves the western adventurers.
0:22:50 > 0:22:55But economic success brought a new threat that no-one had foreseen.
0:23:08 > 0:23:14Suddenly, whole fleets - 10 or 12 ships - would head out to sea and simply vanish.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20There are reports of ships found floating out there in the Atlantic
0:23:20 > 0:23:22without their crews, who were never seen again.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24On one night in the summer of 1631,
0:23:24 > 0:23:28in the village of Baltimore in southern Ireland,
0:23:28 > 0:23:30over 100 people were removed from their beds,
0:23:30 > 0:23:32leaving the place a ghost town.
0:23:39 > 0:23:47A remarkable letter, written in August 1625, reveals the scale and horror of the problem.
0:23:48 > 0:23:53It's from the mayor of Plymouth, Thomas Seeley, to the king's council.
0:23:55 > 0:24:00"One poor maritime town in Cornwall called Looe hath within ten days
0:24:00 > 0:24:04"lost 80 mariners, bound in fishing voyages to the deeps
0:24:04 > 0:24:08"and there have been taken by the Turks."
0:24:12 > 0:24:18Back then, Turks meant Muslims, and these were in fact pirates from North Africa.
0:24:18 > 0:24:19Barbary pirates.
0:24:19 > 0:24:24They came to these shores and took people as slaves back to North Africa.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27It was a barbarous practice but it was, of course,
0:24:27 > 0:24:30what these West Countrymen had been doing to Africans for decades now.
0:24:30 > 0:24:37Even so, it turned the sea here from a source of wealth and prestige for England
0:24:37 > 0:24:39into a place of terror and slavery.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44The ports and fishing villages, it's said, were filled with
0:24:44 > 0:24:48the pitiful lamentations of the victims' families.
0:24:50 > 0:24:55In the next few years, Devon and Cornwall would lose a fifth of their shipping and crews.
0:24:59 > 0:25:05This extraordinary and little-known episode in English history was to have far-reaching consequences.
0:25:05 > 0:25:10Englishmen were bred on the myth of maritime invincibility.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13But now they had to face hard truths.
0:25:13 > 0:25:19Once the predators, they were now the prey, and people did what they usually did in a crisis.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22They blamed the government. And they weren't entirely wrong.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Fishing vessel Trevose, fishing vessel Trevose.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33This is protection vessel Tyne calling you channel one-six, over.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35Tyne, Trevose.
0:25:36 > 0:25:41I'm on one of the modern Navy's fishery protection vessels about 30 miles from Cornwall.
0:25:41 > 0:25:43Just the territory where Barbary pirates
0:25:43 > 0:25:46were seizing English shipping.
0:25:51 > 0:25:56Trevose, this is Tyne. It's my intention to send a routine boarding team over to you.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00My team will be with you in two-zero minutes, over.
0:26:00 > 0:26:07In Elizabeth's time, the Queen's ships and the private vessels of freebooters like Drake
0:26:07 > 0:26:09had kept these waters safe.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12But the Queen was now dead.
0:26:14 > 0:26:21The new Stuart regime had made peace with Spain and the Navy had been cut back.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26With a predilection for self-aggrandisement,
0:26:26 > 0:26:28the regime had spent its cash,
0:26:28 > 0:26:32some of it raised illegally by notorious ship money,
0:26:32 > 0:26:34on a few grand, vanity ships,
0:26:34 > 0:26:37designed to impress the kings of Europe.
0:26:41 > 0:26:48The trouble was, fishery protection wasn't the kind of job that these showy vessels were designed to do.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52Just as the job that these guys do couldn't be done by an aircraft carrier.
0:26:56 > 0:27:01In the absence of this kind of protection, the king's subjects,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04particularly down here in the West Country, were completely vulnerable.
0:27:04 > 0:27:10They and their cargoes made irresistible targets for North African pirates.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17Shocked by the magnitude of the crisis,
0:27:17 > 0:27:23West Country MP Sir John Elliot wrote to the king's council begging for action.
0:27:23 > 0:27:25But the government did nothing.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28Elliot was furious.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32And he wasn't the only one.
0:27:34 > 0:27:36Anger also oozes from the pages of this,
0:27:36 > 0:27:40a best seller written around the time of the disappearances from East Looe.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43It's called Sir Francis Drake Revived.
0:27:43 > 0:27:45It's written by Drake's nephew,
0:27:45 > 0:27:50and he recounts the glories and successes of what now seemed like a vanished age.
0:27:50 > 0:27:56It's an indictment on the present with its all-pervasive sense of fear and its insecurity.
0:27:56 > 0:28:00But it's also a call to arms, as the author makes very clear on the title page.
0:28:00 > 0:28:05He writes, "Calling upon this dull or effeminate age,
0:28:05 > 0:28:09"to follow his noble steps for gold and silver."
0:28:13 > 0:28:15Sir John Elliot caught the mood,
0:28:15 > 0:28:19calling for a return to the aggressive policies of the past.
0:28:19 > 0:28:24England's new King, it seemed, was listening.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29Charles I had been on the throne for just a few months
0:28:29 > 0:28:34and, like a modern leader seeking crowd-pleasing policies in troubled times,
0:28:34 > 0:28:36he funded an expedition to attack Spain.
0:28:42 > 0:28:49It set sail from Plymouth in October 1625, waved off by a delighted John Elliot.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57Their target was none other than Cadiz.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03Their mission, a Drake-style smash and grab, returning home
0:29:03 > 0:29:05with holds full of treasure to public acclaim.
0:29:10 > 0:29:12But it didn't work out that way at all.
0:29:14 > 0:29:20The expedition was commanded by Viscount Wimbledon, a man who'd never served at sea before
0:29:20 > 0:29:25and was so indecisive his men quickly gave him the nickname "Viscount Sit Still".
0:29:25 > 0:29:27Confusion reigned.
0:29:27 > 0:29:31Ships collided and masts and rigging tumbled overboard.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36When Sit Still ordered his captains to attack, many of them simply ignored him.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39The lack of an experienced, charismatic commander, like Drake,
0:29:39 > 0:29:42exposed terrible weaknesses in the English fleet.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46Even with Drake in charge it would have been hard enough to impose order.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49Now, many captains simply did as they wished.
0:29:49 > 0:29:51They were a rabble.
0:29:58 > 0:30:02The chaos continued when they landed 2,000 troops on the beach
0:30:02 > 0:30:04but failed to give them any water.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09The weather was scorching.
0:30:09 > 0:30:16When they finally got into the town, these thirsty Englishmen stumbled on a warehouse.
0:30:18 > 0:30:20It was full of wine.
0:30:23 > 0:30:25All hell broke loose.
0:30:25 > 0:30:29The men started drinking, and although the officers tried to stop them, it was no use.
0:30:29 > 0:30:31"The whole army was drunken,"
0:30:31 > 0:30:38wrote one eye witness, "and in one common confusion, some shooting at one another amongst themselves."
0:30:38 > 0:30:43This wouldn't, of course, be the last time drunken English behaved disgracefully abroad.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47But on this occasion, with the expedition descending into total farce,
0:30:47 > 0:30:50the commanders had no choice but to call it off.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03On the way home, farce turned to tragedy as disease took hold.
0:31:06 > 0:31:12By the time they reached Plymouth, hundreds were dead and hundreds more were dying.
0:31:16 > 0:31:18And who was standing up here waiting for them?
0:31:18 > 0:31:21None other than Sir John Elliot.
0:31:21 > 0:31:25The man who in October had waved them off with such high hopes
0:31:25 > 0:31:30now stood on a miserable day just before Christmas 1625, as the fleet limped in.
0:31:31 > 0:31:34"The miseries before us are great,"
0:31:34 > 0:31:39he wrote, as he watched corpses being tossed into the harbour from the ships.
0:31:39 > 0:31:44And later he saw sailors drop down dead in the streets of Plymouth.
0:31:44 > 0:31:49But soon his compassion for the sailors turned into another emotion - rage.
0:31:57 > 0:31:59News of the fiasco soon reached London,
0:31:59 > 0:32:04and when Parliament convened, John Elliot was on his feet,
0:32:04 > 0:32:07his anger echoing around St Stephen's Hall.
0:32:09 > 0:32:11"Our honour is ruined. Our ships are sunk.
0:32:11 > 0:32:17"Our men are killed, not by the sword, nor by the hand of an enemy,
0:32:17 > 0:32:20"but by those we trust."
0:32:20 > 0:32:25Those words, spoken by Elliot in this chamber, where the House of Commons used to meet,
0:32:25 > 0:32:30were the sharpest denunciation of royal government ever heard in Parliament.
0:32:30 > 0:32:35Cadiz, Elliot said, proved that the King was unfit to run the Navy.
0:32:35 > 0:32:40In a series of extraordinary speeches in here, Elliot demanded
0:32:40 > 0:32:45that Parliament take a greater role in overseeing the affairs of state.
0:32:45 > 0:32:48When the Speaker, who sat in his chair on this spot,
0:32:48 > 0:32:53tried to shut him up, Elliot hired three thugs to hold him down.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56If it seemed like revolution was in the air, it was.
0:32:56 > 0:33:03The King's failure to run a modern, efficient navy had sparked a constitutional crisis.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10John Elliot was thrown into the Tower.
0:33:10 > 0:33:12But a new generation of MPs,
0:33:12 > 0:33:18immortalised here in St Stephen's Hall, took up his call for liberty.
0:33:19 > 0:33:23Relations between King and Parliament collapsed.
0:33:23 > 0:33:28In 1642, Charles fled London and the Civil War began.
0:33:36 > 0:33:41By fleeing the capital, Charles lost control both of the Navy
0:33:41 > 0:33:45and of the new, burgeoning maritime economy that it supported.
0:33:45 > 0:33:49It made his defeat inevitable, and in 1649,
0:33:49 > 0:33:54on the orders of England's new republic, he was executed.
0:33:59 > 0:34:06Parliament acted quickly to secure control over the Navy, putting men of proven loyalty in charge.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09They were known as the "generals at sea".
0:34:13 > 0:34:18One of them was Robert Blake, West Country MP, hero of the Civil War,
0:34:18 > 0:34:20and a radical protestant to boot.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38Blake had never fought at sea.
0:34:38 > 0:34:45Not a brilliant start for a man charged with protecting England's coasts against a multitude of foes.
0:34:45 > 0:34:47But Blake understood warfare and men,
0:34:47 > 0:34:52and he knew that chaos and indiscipline were as dangerous at sea as they were on land.
0:34:52 > 0:34:57Command problems that had dogged the English expedition to Cadiz still remained.
0:34:57 > 0:35:03In one of his first battles, he was appalled to see his captain disobey his orders and flee.
0:35:03 > 0:35:08He knew he had to find a way to assert his control.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14His solution was to produce the Navy's first ever
0:35:14 > 0:35:18set of rules and regulations,
0:35:18 > 0:35:23the Laws of War and Ordinances of the Sea, in 1652.
0:35:24 > 0:35:30For the first time, it gave English commanders a fighting chance of issuing orders that would be obeyed.
0:35:30 > 0:35:32Port 15.
0:35:32 > 0:35:35It was a list of 39 offences,
0:35:35 > 0:35:40from stealing to spying, from cowardice to sleeping on duty.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43Most were punishable by death.
0:35:46 > 0:35:50Blake even sacked his own brother for discipline offences.
0:35:51 > 0:35:56The Laws of War offered a blueprint for structure and discipline at sea...
0:35:58 > 0:36:02..that would later be applied through all areas of government.
0:36:06 > 0:36:10Blake was just what the Navy needed, a tough outsider.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14He could see that over the previous 50 years the Navy had vacillated wildly
0:36:14 > 0:36:20between great successes like the Armada and total failures like Cadiz, but there was no reliability.
0:36:20 > 0:36:25Under charismatic leadership of men like Drake, the English could be great successes.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29But otherwise, denied that leadership, failure was often the result.
0:36:29 > 0:36:32Blake imposed order and discipline.
0:36:32 > 0:36:38He ensured that no matter who was in charge, the Navy would be effective.
0:36:42 > 0:36:48Blake left behind a navy that was larger and more disciplined than the country had ever known before.
0:36:51 > 0:36:57The powerful fleet had protected the young republic from its foreign enemies.
0:36:57 > 0:37:04But it could not fill the vacuum created when Cromwell, the English dictator, died.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06A new era was coming.
0:37:14 > 0:37:18On May 26th 1660, one of the Navy's grandest ships,
0:37:18 > 0:37:22the Royal Charles, came within sight of England.
0:37:25 > 0:37:31On board was a man making his triumphant return home after years in exile.
0:37:32 > 0:37:37It was Charles, son of the murdered king, soon to be crowned King Charles II.
0:37:42 > 0:37:47The journey was the result of weeks of plotting between senior naval officers and exiled royalists
0:37:47 > 0:37:49to bring back the monarchy.
0:37:51 > 0:37:55The new king was eager to lay claim to England's potent navy.
0:37:55 > 0:37:59He gave gold to the sailors and rebranded the fleet.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01It was now the Royal Navy.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11Disembarking with the royal party was the younger cousin
0:38:11 > 0:38:15and newly appointed secretary to the ship's commander.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25The young man was honoured to be given the job
0:38:25 > 0:38:28of taking the King's spaniel off the ship.
0:38:28 > 0:38:30He wrote in his diary, "It shit the boat,
0:38:30 > 0:38:33"which made us laugh and methink that the King
0:38:33 > 0:38:37"and all that belong to him are but just as others are."
0:38:40 > 0:38:43As they came ashore, the young man saw huge crowds
0:38:43 > 0:38:48of nobles and citizens alike who'd turned out to welcome their king.
0:38:48 > 0:38:50"The shouting and joy expressed by all,"
0:38:50 > 0:38:53he wrote, "was past imagination."
0:38:53 > 0:38:58The 27-year-old from London had just completed his second sea voyage.
0:38:58 > 0:39:03He didn't know it then, but this was just the start of an extraordinary naval career.
0:39:03 > 0:39:05His name was Samuel Pepys.
0:39:09 > 0:39:11Pepys was from humble origins,
0:39:11 > 0:39:13the son of a poor tailor and a washerwoman,
0:39:13 > 0:39:17but he left behind two extraordinary legacies.
0:39:17 > 0:39:22He would transform the administration of the Navy like no-one before him,
0:39:22 > 0:39:26and leave behind one of the most vivid
0:39:26 > 0:39:29and colourful diaries of all time.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34And here it is, volume one of Samuel Pepys' diary,
0:39:34 > 0:39:37started on January 1st 1660,
0:39:37 > 0:39:39possibly in response to a New Year's resolution.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42It's in shorthand, so takes a bit of deciphering,
0:39:42 > 0:39:45but it's an incredibly honest account of a colourful life.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48There are descriptions of his trips to the theatre,
0:39:48 > 0:39:53drinking, his affairs, music, money and even arguments with his wife.
0:39:53 > 0:39:58That's all interspersed with descriptions of a job he loved.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01Or at least, he came to love it.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05When he first landed the job of Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board,
0:40:05 > 0:40:08he hadn't the foggiest idea what it entailed.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12But he was delighted with the pay - £350 a year,
0:40:12 > 0:40:15more than he'd ever earned in his life.
0:40:19 > 0:40:23Eager to learn, Pepys threw himself into the complex new world
0:40:23 > 0:40:27of the Navy's dockyards at Chatham, Woolwich and Deptford.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30All are now long gone.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33But this yard on the Dutch coast
0:40:33 > 0:40:36is building a replica ship of the same era.
0:40:39 > 0:40:42The project manager is Aryan Klein.
0:40:42 > 0:40:44It's great to see the ship at this stage,
0:40:44 > 0:40:46cos you see what gives it its strength.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49Usually you just see it floating around.
0:40:49 > 0:40:51Yeah, it's all heavy timber construction.
0:40:51 > 0:40:55- So how many oak trees go into the building of this then? - Several hundred.
0:40:55 > 0:40:59- Really?- The estimates vary from 400-600 fully grown trees.
0:40:59 > 0:41:04And some of these trees will be maybe 100 years old, maybe older.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07How long would it have taken to build this back in the 17th century?
0:41:07 > 0:41:09- About nine months. - Wow, that's quick.
0:41:09 > 0:41:13Very hard labour. Hundreds of men working day and night almost.
0:41:13 > 0:41:15And as soon as the ships were watertight,
0:41:15 > 0:41:17they would be put into the water
0:41:17 > 0:41:20to make room for the next ship on the slipway.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23It just shows the value of the goods these ships were bringing back.
0:41:23 > 0:41:27They were being built to bring back the riches of the world.
0:41:27 > 0:41:30Well, yeah, the big East Indiamen were built for trade,
0:41:30 > 0:41:33but this particular ship we're standing in now was a Man of War.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36Who was it built to fight against, then?
0:41:36 > 0:41:38The English, I'm afraid!
0:41:38 > 0:41:39THEY CHUCKLE
0:41:39 > 0:41:42The Dutch had a really large stake in world trade at that time
0:41:42 > 0:41:47and England, of course, thought, "Well, we'll have some of that trade."
0:41:47 > 0:41:52And it erupted into trade wars between Holland and England.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56This ship is basically the result of an arms race between the two countries.
0:41:59 > 0:42:01The Dutch had overtaken Spain
0:42:01 > 0:42:04to become England's new maritime rivals.
0:42:04 > 0:42:10They were aggressive, protestant and organised, just like the English.
0:42:13 > 0:42:19To combat the Dutch threat, England was now spending a mighty 25%
0:42:19 > 0:42:21of the national budget on her navy,
0:42:21 > 0:42:25making it by far the country's largest industrial enterprise.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31The dockyards consumed materials in vast quantities.
0:42:31 > 0:42:34150 tonnes of iron a year,
0:42:34 > 0:42:35100 miles of rope,
0:42:35 > 0:42:38and had a vast workforce to match.
0:42:39 > 0:42:45And, as Pepys soon discovered, corruption was rife.
0:42:45 > 0:42:49Pepys reported corrupt officials to the Navy Board, but he soon realised
0:42:49 > 0:42:53that the worst corruption was actually on the Navy Board itself.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56He refers to his colleagues as "old fools and rogues"
0:42:56 > 0:42:59and realised that one of them was even stealing
0:42:59 > 0:43:02from the sailors' pension fund, known as the Chatham Chest.
0:43:02 > 0:43:07The problem was that the Navy had become a vast receptacle of public funds.
0:43:07 > 0:43:10There were no systems in place to spend that money,
0:43:10 > 0:43:13and if a few thousand went missing, who would care?
0:43:17 > 0:43:21Pepys cared, and realised that every aspect of the Navy had ballooned,
0:43:21 > 0:43:24except for the central administration.
0:43:25 > 0:43:31The fleet had grown far beyond the ability of the medieval Navy Board to manage it.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35Back in the office, Pepys hired a team of clerks.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38He gave them desks, with regular hours,
0:43:38 > 0:43:41and together they set out imposing some order.
0:43:41 > 0:43:44They spent a lot of time making lists.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47This one here is an alphabetical list
0:43:47 > 0:43:50of all naval officers that served in the Navy
0:43:50 > 0:43:53during Pepys' time in office,
0:43:53 > 0:43:55starting up here with A,
0:43:55 > 0:43:58coming all the way down to Z down here.
0:43:58 > 0:44:00The amazing thing is it contains information
0:44:00 > 0:44:04about their service records, dates on which they were in different ships -
0:44:04 > 0:44:06in some cases, it even has their fate.
0:44:06 > 0:44:08So, for example,
0:44:08 > 0:44:10this man died,
0:44:10 > 0:44:13George Colt drowned,
0:44:13 > 0:44:16and Humphrey Connisby was discharged by his Royal Highness.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20Lists like these imposed a manageable symmetry
0:44:20 > 0:44:23on the anarchic world that Pepys found himself in,
0:44:23 > 0:44:27and he became an expert in the complex gathering
0:44:27 > 0:44:29and storage of information.
0:44:30 > 0:44:35He was determined to professionalise every aspect of the Navy's operations.
0:44:35 > 0:44:40He designed a call book to keep records of dockyard hours worked,
0:44:40 > 0:44:42compiled an alphabetical list of all contracts,
0:44:42 > 0:44:46and kept detailed notes of everything he did.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51Pepys wasn't the first naval administrator to make lists,
0:44:51 > 0:44:55but he was the most systematic, the most brilliant, the most obsessive.
0:44:55 > 0:44:59He adored the Navy, not because he loved storming aboard enemy ships
0:44:59 > 0:45:01with the smell of gunsmoke in his nostrils,
0:45:01 > 0:45:04but because he loved the bureaucracy.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08He delighted, he wrote, "in the neatness of everything".
0:45:22 > 0:45:25But the Samuel Pepys of the diary emerges as a man
0:45:25 > 0:45:30who was far from being a dull paper-pusher and list-maker.
0:45:33 > 0:45:35Here's a not untypical entry.
0:45:35 > 0:45:40He has an orgy with the wife of one of his colleagues on the Navy Board
0:45:40 > 0:45:41and her daughter.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44He wrote, "There are a great many women in the chamber,
0:45:44 > 0:45:48"My Lady Penn and her daughter among them, whereupon My Lady Penn
0:45:48 > 0:45:52"flung me down upon the bed and herself and others,
0:45:52 > 0:45:56"one after another upon me and very merry we were."
0:45:56 > 0:45:58Well, I'm not surprised!
0:45:58 > 0:46:02Every man has his vice they say, and for Pepys it was definitely the ladies...
0:46:02 > 0:46:08Well, and bouts of heavy drinking, and fine dining, and nice clothes,
0:46:08 > 0:46:13and music, and he loved the theatre, of course, and, well, you get the idea.
0:46:13 > 0:46:16The point is Pepys was a man who lived life to the full.
0:46:16 > 0:46:21But what really shines out in these diaries is his love of his work.
0:46:21 > 0:46:24"My business," he wrote "is all my delight."
0:46:32 > 0:46:35The Navy's officer training college, here at Dartmouth,
0:46:35 > 0:46:38was built long after Pepys' time, but the idea
0:46:38 > 0:46:43of professionally trained and qualified officers was his.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51Anyone with the right connections, Pepys realised,
0:46:51 > 0:46:53could become an officer,
0:46:53 > 0:46:57leaving the Navy's valuable ships in often unreliable hands.
0:46:57 > 0:46:59There was no quality control.
0:47:00 > 0:47:02- Midshipman Briers!- Sir.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05Pepys' solution - exams.
0:47:06 > 0:47:11The verbal test that he introduced for all would-be lieutenants still exists.
0:47:12 > 0:47:14Midshipman Briers, take a seat, please.
0:47:14 > 0:47:17These days, they call it Fleet Board.
0:47:18 > 0:47:19The first question is,
0:47:19 > 0:47:24what are the responsibilities of the CBM at State One?
0:47:24 > 0:47:27He's on upper deck roaming, sir,
0:47:27 > 0:47:30- looking mostly for fire fighting events.- OK.
0:47:30 > 0:47:36The whole idea of assessment and interview seems deeply familiar to us.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39What items of seamanship rigging must always be fully rigged?
0:47:39 > 0:47:41The safety net underneath, sir.
0:47:41 > 0:47:43But that's because of Pepys.
0:47:43 > 0:47:47When he introduced his exam for lieutenants, it was the first time
0:47:47 > 0:47:51any employee of the English state had ever been tested in this way.
0:47:51 > 0:47:53And where is it located?
0:47:53 > 0:47:54Quick release marker buoy, sir.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57- It's usually found on the quarter deck.- OK.
0:47:57 > 0:48:01Thank you very much, Midshipman Briers. Please carry on.
0:48:03 > 0:48:06Using pen, paper and a tidy mind,
0:48:06 > 0:48:08Pepys had done for the Navy as an institution
0:48:08 > 0:48:11what Hawkins had done for its ships,
0:48:11 > 0:48:14and Blake for the discipline of its crews.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18But could it survive the ultimate test -
0:48:18 > 0:48:20war?
0:48:23 > 0:48:28In 1665 came the inevitable clash with the Dutch.
0:48:31 > 0:48:35A series of English victories early on seemed to augur well.
0:48:36 > 0:48:38But Pepys was worried.
0:48:38 > 0:48:42He'd said from the start that Parliament hadn't voted enough money
0:48:42 > 0:48:47to fund the war and, just as he predicted, the money was soon gone.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50The Navy lunged from triumph
0:48:50 > 0:48:52to crisis.
0:48:55 > 0:48:57Things soon reached boiling point.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00The Navy was terribly in debt and sailors went unpaid.
0:49:00 > 0:49:05In the dockyards, Pepys saw workers walking around like ghosts
0:49:05 > 0:49:07and he heard the lamentable moans
0:49:07 > 0:49:10of sailors that lay destitute in the street,
0:49:10 > 0:49:13a sight which he said "troubled him to his heart".
0:49:13 > 0:49:16To add to the sense of crisis, plague broke out in London
0:49:16 > 0:49:19and Pepys and his clerks came here to Greenwich,
0:49:19 > 0:49:24where they took up residence in this, one of Charles II's unfinished palaces.
0:49:24 > 0:49:26But that put them in the heart of the fleet
0:49:26 > 0:49:29with all the disgruntled sailors around them.
0:49:29 > 0:49:31One day, their windows were broken
0:49:31 > 0:49:34and Pepys and his staff were threatened with physical violence.
0:49:39 > 0:49:44Pepys spent 24 hours composing a desperate letter to the King.
0:49:45 > 0:49:50It's unambiguous and it would have made very disturbing reading for his royal master.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53Pepys begins by apologising for being troublesome, he says
0:49:53 > 0:49:57"troubling His Majesty on the subject which we often have done,
0:49:57 > 0:50:00"the want of money, the effects of that want,
0:50:00 > 0:50:04"under which His Majesty's service under our care
0:50:04 > 0:50:06"hath long been sinking."
0:50:06 > 0:50:08So Pepys is in no doubt that his Navy
0:50:08 > 0:50:12is facing utter ruin and he comes up with a typically Pepysian solution.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14He gives a list, carefully costed,
0:50:14 > 0:50:17of everything that he thinks is necessary to prevent that.
0:50:17 > 0:50:22He starts up here by saying 55 anchors of various weights,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25800 bales of sailcloth, 4,000 loads of plank,
0:50:25 > 0:50:29400 dozen oars, 12 tons of brimstone,
0:50:29 > 0:50:3110,000 spars of all sorts,
0:50:31 > 0:50:34and comes up with the incredibly precise figure,
0:50:34 > 0:50:37as only Pepys could do, of the money required
0:50:37 > 0:50:40to stave off disaster for the Navy and for England.
0:50:40 > 0:50:46And that sum is 179,793 pounds
0:50:46 > 0:50:49and ten shillings.
0:50:49 > 0:50:54But the King had nothing to give and would not humiliate himself
0:50:54 > 0:50:57by going cap in hand to Parliament to ask for more.
0:50:57 > 0:51:03Just a few months later came the naval disaster Pepys had predicted.
0:51:07 > 0:51:09It was the summer of 1667.
0:51:09 > 0:51:14The fleet had been laid up because there was no money to pay crews to man it.
0:51:16 > 0:51:20Upnor Castle, 30 miles up the Thames from London,
0:51:20 > 0:51:24had been built in Elizabeth's time to protect the fleet
0:51:24 > 0:51:26across the River Medway at Chatham.
0:51:26 > 0:51:30The exhausted and unpaid garrison were not at their best.
0:51:32 > 0:51:36On that June day, the horrified defenders of this fort watched
0:51:36 > 0:51:40as 62 Dutch ships made their way up the river on the rising tide.
0:51:42 > 0:51:44Anchored here was much of Charles' fleet,
0:51:44 > 0:51:47including four of his finest battleships.
0:51:47 > 0:51:51In a desperate measure, the English sank some of their own ships here
0:51:51 > 0:51:53to try and block the river, but that didn't work
0:51:53 > 0:51:57and their cannon on shore opened up to try and turn the Dutch back.
0:51:57 > 0:51:59But someone had delivered the wrong ammunition
0:51:59 > 0:52:02and many of the cannonballs didn't even fit the barrels.
0:52:04 > 0:52:09The Dutch ships ploughed in amongst the English ships with impunity, capturing them,
0:52:09 > 0:52:13burning others, including three of the finest battleships in the land.
0:52:15 > 0:52:17The river was covered in wreckage
0:52:17 > 0:52:19and in the sky, there was a pall of smoke.
0:52:19 > 0:52:23One of Pepys' clerks who lived and worked down here wrote,
0:52:23 > 0:52:25"The destruction of those three glorious ships
0:52:25 > 0:52:30"was one of the most dismal sights my eyes have ever beheld."
0:52:30 > 0:52:34"It was enough," he said, "to make the heart of every true Englishman bleed."
0:52:47 > 0:52:49In a final humiliation,
0:52:49 > 0:52:53the Dutch towed back to Holland the Royal Charles itself,
0:52:53 > 0:52:55a moment immortalised on canvas,
0:52:55 > 0:53:00showing the pride of England's fleet flying the Dutch flag.
0:53:04 > 0:53:08The Dutch raid on the Medway was at the time, and remains to this day,
0:53:08 > 0:53:12the most embarrassing defeat in the history of the Royal Navy.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15Not even the brilliant Pepys could avert this catastrophe.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18The simple fact was that King Charles
0:53:18 > 0:53:20just couldn't afford a modern navy.
0:53:30 > 0:53:32The Medway disaster set the King and Parliament
0:53:32 > 0:53:34on another collision course
0:53:34 > 0:53:38over how the Navy was to be funded and controlled.
0:53:43 > 0:53:46When Charles died in 1685,
0:53:46 > 0:53:48relations between King and Parliament
0:53:48 > 0:53:51were at their lowest ebb since the Civil War.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00He was succeeded by his brother, James.
0:54:00 > 0:54:04Now he had had a rather successful career as an admiral in the Royal Navy.
0:54:04 > 0:54:08Could he be the man to work together with politicians and financiers
0:54:08 > 0:54:13and businessmen to build a new kind of constitutional monarchy?
0:54:13 > 0:54:15Well...
0:54:15 > 0:54:16no.
0:54:16 > 0:54:21And this extraordinary portrait tells us why.
0:54:22 > 0:54:26James has had himself painted in the garb of a roman emperor,
0:54:26 > 0:54:28with a haughty stare,
0:54:28 > 0:54:32his golden tunic, magnificent purple robe flowing off his shoulders
0:54:32 > 0:54:38and decked out in jewels at his throat, sword hilt and sandals.
0:54:38 > 0:54:41And out at sea his navy, his plaything,
0:54:41 > 0:54:44the royal banner flying from the main topmast.
0:54:44 > 0:54:50This was not how the English wanted their kings to see themselves.
0:54:50 > 0:54:55To make matters worse, James was openly, proudly Catholic.
0:54:55 > 0:54:59He appointed Catholics to key positions in the armed forces.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02He even put one of them in charge of the Royal Navy.
0:55:02 > 0:55:07This was clearly a man who wouldn't send his Royal Navy out to attack
0:55:07 > 0:55:09the great Catholic powers of Europe.
0:55:09 > 0:55:14This was not a man to protect the legacy of Drake and Hawkins.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17He would have to go.
0:55:25 > 0:55:30In July 1688, a figure dressed as a common sailor arrived in Holland.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36Beneath the disguise
0:55:36 > 0:55:40was England's premier naval officer, Admiral Arthur Herbert.
0:55:40 > 0:55:44Or, rather, ex-admiral.
0:55:44 > 0:55:48He'd resigned weeks before, refusing to serve under King James.
0:55:51 > 0:55:53Herbert was carrying an extraordinary letter.
0:55:53 > 0:55:57It was signed by seven Englishmen, all grandees in the armed forces,
0:55:57 > 0:56:01church and state, and it was addressed to the Dutch Prince,
0:56:01 > 0:56:03William of Orange, who was not only protestant
0:56:03 > 0:56:07but he was married to James II's daughter, Mary.
0:56:07 > 0:56:11It was an appeal for William's help against their tyrannical king.
0:56:11 > 0:56:16This was high treason, but Herbert and his fellow conspirators
0:56:16 > 0:56:19were the desperate men from an exasperated nation.
0:56:19 > 0:56:22And in William, they'd found their man.
0:56:29 > 0:56:34On November 1st 1688, a vast Dutch invasion fleet -
0:56:34 > 0:56:39463 vessels, 40,000 men -
0:56:39 > 0:56:42left Holland, bound for England.
0:56:48 > 0:56:52It was almost exactly 100 years since the Spanish Armada,
0:56:52 > 0:56:56but this time not a single shot was fired.
0:57:08 > 0:57:11On the top mast of William's flagship, he flew a banner
0:57:11 > 0:57:14with his family motto on - "I will maintain".
0:57:14 > 0:57:16But he added, in letters three-feet-high,
0:57:16 > 0:57:19"the liberties of the English and the protestant religion".
0:57:19 > 0:57:22The message was clear and when William landed here
0:57:22 > 0:57:25on the south coast of England, he was greeted with cheers.
0:57:25 > 0:57:27Over the next few weeks,
0:57:27 > 0:57:30it became obvious the English weren't going to fight for James II
0:57:30 > 0:57:34and he fled the country and was replaced as king by William.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45James, like his brother and his father before him,
0:57:45 > 0:57:49had proved himself incompatible with the new idea of Englishness
0:57:49 > 0:57:52that had crystallised since the days of the Armada.
0:57:52 > 0:57:56That idea was opposed to absolutism and Catholicism
0:57:56 > 0:57:58and proud of Parliament, liberty
0:57:58 > 0:58:02and of sending the English Navy out against England's traditional enemies.
0:58:04 > 0:58:11William's invasion of 1688 represented the final victory of those values.
0:58:11 > 0:58:14It was the myth of the Armada made real.
0:58:19 > 0:58:21In little over 100 years,
0:58:21 > 0:58:24a rabble of West Country seafarers and a few royal ships
0:58:24 > 0:58:28had become a recognisably modern institution,
0:58:28 > 0:58:33with staff and systems to manage a vast, efficient navy.
0:58:33 > 0:58:36This was England's heart of oak,
0:58:36 > 0:58:42a navy that now lay at the centre of the national project and its future.
0:58:45 > 0:58:50Next week - how the Navy triggered a series of revolutions
0:58:50 > 0:58:52in finance, industry and agriculture,
0:58:52 > 0:58:55generating unimaginable wealth
0:58:55 > 0:58:57and propelling Britain into the modern world.
0:59:19 > 0:59:22Subtitles by Red Bee Media
0:59:22 > 0:59:25Email subtitling@bbc.co.uk