History of the French Navy
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Although the History of the French Navy goes back to the Middle Ages, its history can be said to effectively begin with Richelieu under Louis XIII.
Since the establishment of her present territory, France had to face three major challenges on the naval level:
The History of the French Navy can be divided into the following eras:
The French navy is affectionately known as La Royale ("the Royal"). The reason is not well known: it might be for its traditional attachment to the French monarchy; because, before being named "nationale", the Navy had been named "royale" (the navy did not sport the royal titles common with other European navies like the British Royal Navy); or simply because of the location of its headquarters, "rue Royale" in Paris.
Medieval fleets, in France as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into naval service in time of war. But the early beginning of the French Navy goes back to the Middle Ages, when it defeated the English Navy at the battle of Arnemuiden, on 23 September 1338. The battle of Arnemuiden was also the first naval battle using artillery.
During the reign of Henry IV, France was in an unstable state, and striving to guarantee her independence from Spanish and papal influences. This prompted both an emphasis on land forces, which drained resources, and an alliance with England, which would have unfavourably seen France challenging her naval supremacy.
When Richelieu became Minister of the Navy, he decided on a plan to rebuild a powerful navy, divided into two distinct forces.
The Mediterranean force was to be completely composed of galleys, to take advantage of the relatively calm sea. Initially, the plan called for 40 galleys, but was downsized to 24 of them, notably because of a lack of galley slaves — each galley was 400 or 500 slave strong.
The Oceanic force was to be composed of men-of-war. The designs were moderately large ships, for a lack of harbours fit for very large units, but very heavily armed with large calibre guns; these ships displaced between 300 and 2000 tonnes and bore up to 50 24-pound cannons, firing 150mm-round shots. The first ships were ordered from the Dutch, and French production started with the famous Couronne, a prestige ship typical of this era.
...
Wikipedia