of the sea, amir'l asker dureea, commander of the naval armament. The incorporation of the article with the noun appears, we believe, for the first time in the Annals of Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria, in the 10th century, who calls the Caliph Omar Amirol munumim, i.e., Imperator fidelium. Spelman says, "In regno Saracenorum quatuor prætores statuit, qui admiralli vocabantur." The d is evidently superfluous, and is omitted by the French, who say Amiral. The Spanish write Almirante; the Portuguese the same. Milton would seem to have been aware of the origin of the word when he speaks of "the mast of some great ammiral." It is obvious, then, that the supposed derivations of ἄλμνρος from the Greek, aumer from the French, and aen mereal from the Saxon, are fanciful and unauthorised etymologies.
Anciently there were three or four admirals appointed for the English seas, all of them holding the office durante beneplacito, and each of them having particular limits under his charge and government, as admiral of the fleet of ships from the mouth of the Thames, northward, southward, or westward. Besides these, there were admirals of the Cinque Ports. We sometimes find that one person had been admiral of all the fleets—Sir John de Beauchamp, 34 Edw. III., being the first who held the post; but the title of Admiralis Angliæ does not occur till the reign of Henry IV., when the king's half-brother, Sir Thomas Beaufort (created Earl of Dorset 5th July 1411), a natural son of John of Gaunt, was made admiral of the fleet for life, and admiral of England, Ireland, and Aquitaine for life. It may be observed that there was a title above that of admiral of England, which was locum tenens regis super mare, the king's lieutenant-general of the sea. This title is first mentioned in the reign of Richard II. Before the use of the word admiral was known, the title of custos maris was made use of.
Of the rank of admiral there are three degrees—admiral, vice-admiral, rear-admiral. Each of these degrees formerly comprised three grades, distinguished by red, white, and blue flags—the red being the highest degree in each rank of admiral, vice-admiral, and rear-admiral.
It may be remarked that for nearly a century there was no admiral of the red squadron. According to a vulgar error, that flag had been taken from us by the Dutch in one of those arduous struggles for naval superiority which that nation was once able to maintain against the naval power of England. But the fact is, the red flag was laid aside on the union of the two crowns of England and Scotland, when the union flag was adopted in its place, and was usually hoisted by the admiral commanding in chief. The red flag was revived on the occasion of the promotion of naval officers in November 1805, in consequence of the memorable victory off Trafalgar. The three degrees of red, white, and blue flag-officers were abolished by order in council on 5th August 1864, and the white ensign was thenceforward adopted as the sole flag for the ships of the royal navy proper. Captains are now promoted to be rear-admirals, rear-admirals to be vice-admirals, and vice-admirals to be admirals simpliciter—the numbers of each rank being " regulated by orders in council passed on and subsequently to 22d February 1870. (See Navy.) For biographical information, see Campbell's Lives of the British Admirals, 8 vols. 8vo, 1817; O'Byrne's Naval Biographical Dictionary, 8vo, 1849.
Admiral of the Fleet is a mere honorary distinction, which gives no command, but merely an increase of half-pay, his being £3, 7s. a day, and that of an admiral £2, 2s. The title has been sometimes conferred on the senior admiral on the list of naval officers, and was a short time held by tin; Duke of Clarence, afterwards zWilliam IV. In 1851 were appointed, for the first time, two admirals of the fleet, Sir Thomas Byam Martin, G.C.B., and Sir George Cockburn, G.C.B., the last having been appointed for his long and highly-distinguished services. The number of admirals of the fleet now (1874) authorised to be borne is three. If the admiral of the fleet should happen to serve afloat, he is authorised to carry the union flag at the main-top-gallant mast head, which was the case when the Duke of Clarence escorted Louis XVIII. across the Channel to take possession of the throne of France.
The comparative rank of flag-officers and officers in the army has been settled as follows by his Majesty's order in council, in the reign of George IV:—
The admiral and commander-in-chief of the fleet has the rank of a field-marshal in the army; admirals with flags at the main take rank with generals of horse and foot; vice-admirals with lieutenant-generals; rear-admirals with major-generals; commodores of the first and second class with broad pendants with brigadier-generals.
On the active list of admirals there were in 1873 three admirals of the fleet, thirteen admirals, fifteen vice-admirals, and twenty-five rear-admirals.
In addition to these, there were on the reserved list forty admirals and thirty-four vice-admirals; on the retired list forty-three admirals, fifty-five vice-admirals, and sixty-two rear-admirals. As to the numbers to be borne permanently on these lists, and the regulations according to which admirals are retired and reserved, under Mr Childers' retirement scheme, see Navy.
Admiral (the Lord High) of England, an ancient officer of high rank in the state, who not only is vested with the government of the navy, but who, long before any regular navy existed in England, presided over a sovereign court, with authority to hear and determine all causes relating to the sea, and to take cognizance of all offences committed thereon
The period about which this officer first makes his appearance in the governments of European nations corroborates the supposition of the office having been adopted in imitation of the Mediterranean powers at the return of the Christian heroes from the Holy Wars. According to Moreri, Florent de Varenne, in the year 1270, was the first admiral known in France; but by the most approved writers of that nation the title was unknown till, in 1284, Enguerand de Coussy was constituted admiral. The first admiral by name that we know of in England was W. de Leybourne, who was appointed to that office by Edward I. in the year 1286, under the title of Admiral de la mer du Roy d'Angleterre. Mariana, in his History of Spain, says that Don Sancho, having resolved to make war on the barbarians (Moors), prepared a great fleet; and as the Genoese were at that time very powerful by sea, and experienced and dexterous sailors, he sent to Genoa to invite, with great offers, Benito Zacharias into his service; that he accepted those offers, and brought with him twelve ships; that the king named him his admiral (almirante), and conferred on him the office for a limited time. This happened in the year 1284. Several Portuguese authors ob serve that their office of almirante was derived from the Genoese, who had it from the Sicilians, and these from the Saracens; and it appears from Souza's Historia, Genealogica da Caza Real, that in 1322 Micer Manuel Piçagow was invited from Genoa into Portugal, and appointed to the office of almirante, with a salary of 3000 pounds (livras) a year, and certain lands, &c., on condition that he should furnish on his part twenty men of Genoa, all experienced in sea affairs, and qualified to be alcaidis (captains) and arraises (masters) of ships: all of which terms, almirante, alcaidi, and arrais, are obviously of Arabic derivation.
Edward I., who began his reign in 1272, went to the Holy Land, and visited Sicily on his return. He must therefore have had an opportunity of informing himself concerning the military and naval science of the various countries bordering on the Mediterranean an opportunity which so able and warlike a prince would not neglect, but whether the title and office of admiral existed in England before his time, as some are inclined to think, or whether W. de Leybourne was first created to that office in 1286, as before mentioned, we believe there is no authentic record to enable us to decide. Supposing him, however, to be the first, Edward may either have adopted the office and title from the Genoese, or the Sicilians, or the Spaniards, or the French; or even had it directly from the Saracens, against whom he had fought, and with whom he had afterwards much amicable intercourse. It would seem, however,