The British Civil Wars at Sea was written by Dr. Richard Blakemore and Dr. Elaine Murphy in 2018. Dr. Blakemore is a professor of the social history of sailors and the Atlantic world at the University of Reading. He has a deep interest in maritime studies and Early Modern European dichotomies of power and politics. Dr. Murphy is a professor of maritime and naval history at the university of Plymouth. She also has written works about the Irish civil war at sea. Dr. Blakemore and Dr. Murphy both combine their expertise and passion for maritime history to create this work, emphasizing the often overlooked role of Naval warfare in the British Civil Wars. Within their introduction, Blakemore and Murphy delineate their objectives: to provide an overview of the British Civil Wars at sea, assess the influence of maritime activity on the course of the wars, and to understand the consequences (11).
The book consists of seven chapters with each chapter examining a different aspect of the aforementioned objectives. Chapter one, titled “The Nature of Warfare at Sea,” immerses the reader in maritime standards of procedure in regards to prize law and sovereignty, piracy and privateering, technological advancements, and naval tactics. The regulations at sea were heavily influenced by the interests of individual governments and seafarers, resulting in lack of consistency and inter-imperial tensions (18). Piracy remained a threat and a weapon between nations, targeting merchant and naval vessels alike as both were components of maritime martial power (13). Technological development resulted in faster and stronger vessels that heightened the competition between imperial nations for maritime prestige, legitimacy, and sovereignty (21). Chapter two, titled “The Outbreak of War,” examines the eruption of civil war in England, Ireland, and Scotland in 1638. Dr. Blakemore and Dr. Murphy highlight Charles I’s role as an uncompromising and authoritarian ruler and the peoples fear of a tyrannical ruler (36). Charles’s failure to heed Parliament and appeal to his subjects resulted in rebellion. Charles begins to lose grip on his command over the Royal Navy as Parliament gains full influence (57). Chapter three, titled “the War at Sea,” and Chapter four, titled “Parliament’s Navy,” discusses Parliament’s rise as a Naval power and defeat of royalist forces at the end of the first civil war. This placed Parliament as defender of the realm and defender against foreign invasion and maritime threats (86). Chapter four also explains how Parliament utilized preexisting networks to mobilize maritime forces such as the Trinity House (107). Chapter five examines how Royalist, Confederate, and Scottish naval efforts “experienced fluctuations in strength, an over-reliance on merchantmen or privately owned warships, shortage of facilities ashore, and a lack of centralized control and administration” (108). Chapter six, titled “Revolution,” discusses the fractures formed in Parliament after the first civil war as they attempt to govern a scarred and battered nation. Uprisings broke out in response to heavy taxes and harvest failures (152). These uprisings mark the outbreak of the second civil war with the execution of Charles I. After Charles’s execution, the Rump Parliament goes into effect and purges dissenters from positions of power (153). Chapter seven examines the response of other European monarchies to the regicide of Charles I. Many European powers severed trade relations and refused to recognize the newly formed Commonwealth out of horror (154). The Commonwealth uses this as a reason for strengthening the British Navy as the frontline defense against invasion as well as a tool utilized in conquering Scotland and Ireland (154). During this new era of British history, England became a “fiscal naval state:” focused on naval industry and infrastructure, the professionalization of sailors, and the expansion of British territory alongside globalization (177).
Dr. Blakemore and Dr. Murphy’s main argument is that the British Civil war had a crucial and previously unexamined naval component that led to the British domination of maritime power during the Colonial Era. Dr. Blakemore and Dr. Murphy use a vast array of sources beyond scholarly works by their peers to back their argument. Some primary sources include pamphlets, captain’s logs, letters of correspondence, government documents, addresses to parliament, and journal entries. Their use of sources and groundbreaking findings are major strengths of the work. The books structure is also incredibly straightforward and ensures an understanding of each section through the conclusion paragraph at the end of each chapter. The only real weaknesses of the work is that many of the sources are parliamentary records, leading to the threat of a biased interpretation, and the material in the body of the chapter. I felt as though this book could easily be condensed into an article rather than a full book. Much of the body of the chapter consists of extremely detailed naval battles and the introduction of various characters within each conflict. I did not find this material incredibly relevant to the main argument and considered it more of fluff material that would be of interest to a naval historian.
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