(formerly Naseby) 1st rate 80 (3m)
L/B/D:
162 × 42.5 × 11 (49.4m × 13m × 3.4m). Tons:
1,230 bm Hull:
wood Arm:
80 guns Des:
Peter Pett Built:
Woolwich Dockyard, Eng.; 1655.
Two years after he assumed the title of Lord Protector of England, Oliver Cromwell authorized the construction of three "great ships" for the Navy: the 80-gun Naseby (so named for his victory over the Royalists in 1645), and the 64-gun London and Dunbar (subsequently renamed Henry). Naseby's original adornments included a figurehead portraying, according to Samuel Pepys, "Oliver on horseback trampling 6 nations under foote, a Scott, Irishman, Dutch, French, Spaniard and English as was easily made out by their several habits: A Fame held a laurell over his insulting head, & the word God with us." When Charles II returned from exile in the Naseby, he ordered the ship named for himself as well as a new figurehead of Neptune, an act that irritated the parsimonious Pepys, who complained, "God knows, it is even the flinging away of £100 out of the King's purse."
Commercial rivalry between England and the Dutch Republic led to the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1665. At the Battle of Lowestoft, Royal Charles was flagship of the Duke of York (later James II), Lord High Admiral. The two fleets—each numbered over 100 ships—met before dawn on June 13. Although the English had superior organization and more powerful guns, the Dutch fought well. By midafternoon, Royal Charles was in danger of being sunk or surrendered to Eendracht when the Dutch flagship exploded, killing all but five of her 400 crew, including the Dutch Admiral Wassenaer van Obdam. Royal Charles was so damaged that the Duke of York shifted his flag to the St. Michael and later still the James. Nonetheless, Lowestoft was a clear English victory, with only 250 dead compared with 4,000 Dutch dead. For his failure to pursue the retreating Dutch fleet, the Duke of York was obliged to pull down his flag after the battle, which was the last of the year.
In the spring of 1666, command of the fleet was divided between Prince Rupert and George Monck, Duke of Albemarle, in Royal Charles. At the end of May, with the Dutch fleet still in port, Charles unwisely divided his force and sent Rupert west to prevent a French force from joining Admiral Michiel Adriaanszoon de Ruyter. Monck was left with only 56 ships to oppose the 85 Dutch ships under de Ruyter. Nonetheless, Monck attacked the Dutch force as soon as it appeared on June 11. The English attack was impressive, and he renewed battle the next day. Early on the second day, he profited from a tactical error by Lieutenant Admiral Cornelis Tromp, until de Ruyter came to his countryman's assistance. Each side lost three ships. On June 13, Monck retreated to the west in hopes of joining Rupert, but in so doing the Royal Prince (90 guns) ran aground on Galloper Shoal and was burned by the Dutch. Battle was joined again on June 14, but by the end of the day, with the wind rising and supplies exhausted (to say nothing of the crews), both sides retired. The Four Days' Battle remains one of the longest fleet engagements on record. Although the English losses were more than double those of the Dutch—20 ships lost, 5,000 crew killed, and 2,000 taken prisoner—the English regrouped fast, and the fleet put to sea again in July.
On August 4, the two fleets met in the North Sea off North Foreland, both Rupert and Monck flying their flags in Royal Charles. The battle proved disastrous for the Dutch, as usual because of the lack of discipline, although de Ruyter fought long and well. Dutch losses amounted to 20 ships, 4,000 dead, and 3,000 prisoners; the English lost three ships. (This battle was also known as the St. James' Day Fight because it took place on the Feast of St. James, July 24 in the Julian calendar, by which England still reckoned dates.)
In the spring of 1667, the English treasury was exhausted by a combination of Charles's extravagance and the lasting effects of both the Great Plague of 1665 and the London fire of September 1666. Charles decided to economize by laying up his fleet. Seeing their opportunity, the Dutch fleet attacked the fort at Sheerness on June 10 and advanced up the Medway. The English scuttled a number of ships in an effort to block the channel, and an iron chain was strung across the river between Upnor and Gillingham. Over the course of three days, twenty-three ships were lost, most intentionally sunk by the English and then burned by the Dutch. The losses included two first rates, three second rates, two third rates, six fourth rates, and one sixth rate. Orders were given to burn the Royal Charles, but at the approach of a Dutch boat from the Bescherming, the crew fled. As Pepys recounted,
The Dutch did take her with a boat of nine men, who found not a man aboard her, and ... presently a man went up and struck her flag and jack.... They did carry her down at a time when both for wind and tide, when the best pilot in Chatham would not have undertaken it, they heeling her on one side to make her draw little water.
Incompatible with the needs of the Dutch fleet, Royal Charles never fought again and the Dutch displayed her at Rotterdam as a war trophy. She was auctioned and broken up in 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War.
Clowes, Royal Navy. Fox, Great Ships. Hepper, British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail. Pepys, Pepys' Diary.
