The ‘Sovereign of the Seas’, a flagship built for Charles I

A spectacular engraving of one biggest warships in the Stuart Navy, published in Mortier's monumental sea-atlas, the 'Neptune François'. Ordered by Charles I as part of the arms race with the Dutch, she was paid for with the notorious 'Ship Money' tax that made Charles so unpopular. Built by Peter Pett and launched in 1637, the 'Sovereign of the Seas' had 102 guns, but soon after she entered service the number was cut to make her faster and safer. The diarist John Evelyn described her as 'a monstrous vessel ... being for burthen, defense and ornament the richest that ever spread cloth before the wind'. During the Commonwealth she was renamed, first 'Commonwealth' then 'Sovereign', before being made the 'Royal Sovereign' on the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. She survived the three Anglo-Dutch Wars and the Nine Years' War with the French only to burn while laid up at Chatham in 1697, just before this print was published. Mortier's source for this engraving was a two-sheet engraving by John Payne of c.1638, known now from only six extant examples, published for public display as a propaganda piece. (BM 1854,0614.252).