ter of the English Channel. Again there was no decisive battle, though two English ship, the Anne Gallant and one curiously named the Grand Mistress, were reported to have "handled" the enemy ships "as well with their sides as with their prows."
What precisely happened in this action is unclear from the sketchy account, but it almost certainly means that they effectively battered the enemy with their heavy broadside guns. In the words of one writer on the British Navy, "on that day was first fired that incomparable battle-winner, the English broadside." This expression may be hyperbolic, and owe more to English patriotism than sober history, but in fact these naval actions of 1545 did mark a decisive turning point in English and European history.
Until 1545, the sea around England had been a highway for invaders of Britain rather than a barrier against them. Not since 1066, to be sure, had a foreign conqueror actually taken that highway, but this was an accident of history, not a consequence of English sea power. In 1216, a French army did in fact invade England, as a phase in the civil wars between King John and the rebel barons that led to Magna Carta, but this failed to become a second French conquest for complex feudal and political reaons. As recently as the Wars of the Roses, contenders for the English throne had successfully launched campaigns with invasion fleets; Henry VII himself had done so in 1485, making an unresisted landing at Milford Haven on his way to Bosworth Field and the crown. The medieval English had a formidible warlike reputation, but--in spite of the naval victory in the Battle of Sluys in 1340--this reputation was essentially military, not maritime. It was the longbowman, not the bluejacket, that was the symbol of English power in arms.
By contrast, the four centuries after 1545 saw repeated attempts at invasion and conquest by foreign powers. All were either defeated at sea, as was the S...