In Defens: The Royal Scots Navy (c. 1274–1707), and its Legacy

In studying the origins of today’s Royal Navy, it’s often the trap that many fall into to view the account of the Naval Service as beginning in the days of Alfred and the Vikings – or more substantially under Henry VIII’s Navy Royal,1 David Childs, Tudor Sea Power: The Foundation of Greatness. Havertown: Seaforth Publishing, 2009., p. 298. or the short-lived, Commonwealth’s greatly-expanded Parliamentary Navy – leading all the way up to today, in an unbroken, single lineage. While from an English perspective this is no doubt ostensibly true, the Acts of Union marked a true turning point in tra…