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SUMMARY:Structures of Warfare at Sea during the First British Civil War\,1
 642-1646 - Richard Blakemore (Selwyn)
DTSTART:20110222T173000Z
DTEND:20110222T190000Z
UID:TALK29493@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ilya Berkovich
DESCRIPTION:The wars which erupted in the three British kingdoms in the mi
 ddle of the seventeenth century are regarded as one of the most turbulent 
 periods in British history\, as levels of violence and destruction rose to
  a point rarely witnessed before or since. Much scholarship and popular wr
 iting has focused on these wars within the British kingdoms\, but comparat
 ively less well-known is the warfare which took place in the seas geograph
 ically defining and linking these kingdoms. Yet the maritime sphere was an
  important theatre of the British civil wars\, especially because of the s
 upremacy of marine transport in the early modern period. This paper will e
 xplore the structures of warfare at sea during the period of the first\nci
 vil war\, the longest phase of sustained violence in the wars of the three
  kingdoms. While warfare (by which is understood the perpetration of delib
 erate\, organised violence) regularly occurred at sea before 1642\, the ci
 vil wars brought an increase in the level of violence and a shift in the n
 ature and organisation of maritime warfare. Parliament\, with the support 
 of influential figures in the London maritime community\, took control of 
 the royal navy\, which increased in size and operations during the 1640s. 
 While both parliamentarian and royalist privateering occurred\, as well as
  violent encounters with foreign ships\, parliament's control of the navy\
 ngave it the most effective instrument of warfare at sea. This in turn len
 t legitimacy to parliament's claims to maritime authority\, as it challeng
 ed Charles I for the role of sovereign arbiter at sea as well as on land\,
  forcing warfare at sea to be reinterpreted in new terms.
LOCATION:Seminar Room N7\, Pembroke College
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