Size and splendour of the royal ships. of little or no consideration. Observing that the vessels brought to the assistance of the French by the Castilians and Genoese were larger and better than any he possessed, he ordered to be built at Southampton[1] the "Trinity," "Holy Ghost," and the "Grâce de Dieu," vessels said, from their size, rig, and power, to have been "such as were never seen in the world before."[2] But his two flag-ships, styled the king's chamber and his hall, in one of which he embarked, were, from the descriptions preserved of them, the most magnificent of his fleet. Adorned with purple sails, whereon the arms of England and France were embroidered, they represented this proud monarch's court and palace upon the sea.
Although Henry doubtless achieved his object by restoring Normandy to the dominion of England, the success of his expedition, however barren in its ultimate results, was mainly due to his command of the Channel.
A document in metrical verse, illustrative of the war, and written about this period, gives so graphic an account of the then existing state of maritime commerce, and so well points out the wisdom of England in maintaining her supremacy at sea, that a few extracts from it cannot fail to be interesting and instructive to our readers. It pro-*
- ↑ The same names of ships, and the place of their construction (then called Hampton), are given in the "Dominion of the Sea," as preserved in Hakluyt, vol. i. See also the Chronicle of the Church of the Holy Trinity at Winchester, in which, too, is a notice of the action off Harfleur A.D. 1416. Sir H. Nicolas, quoting from the "Issue Roll" of Henry V., states that 496l. was paid at Southampton for the "Holy Ghost," and 500l. for the "Grâce Dieu;" but this could have been only a portion of the real cost of these ships. (Hist. Roy. Navy, ii. 406.)
- ↑ Hakluyt, vol. i. pp. 187-203.
