Channel Squadron (England)

Initially the English Navy had organised its fleet into sub-commands namely squadrons from at least 1205.[3] and certainly during the 16th century. A channel squadron was operating out of Portsmouth from around 1523. By 1560 The Navy Royal had four functioning squadrons one in the Channel (Western), and the Irish Sea, Narrow Seas (Eastern) and another in the North Sea.[4] During the Spanish Armada campaign a detached Western squadron was reassigned from the main English Fleet and sent to Plymouth under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir Francis Drake.[5] From 1509 until 1649 Vice-Admirals commanding particular fleets or squadrons were styled so as to denote they were junior to the Lord Admiral of England these flag officers were formally appointed by the crown.[6]

From 1709 the Channel Squadron of the Royal Navy was administered and controlled out of Spithead, Hampshire, England under the command of Sir John Norris.[7]

• Corbett, Julian Stafford (1917). "The Navy of Elizabeth". Drake and the Tudor navy, with a history of the rise of England as a maritime power. London, England: London : Longmans, Green.
• Hammer, Paul E. J. (2003). Elizabeth's Wars: War, Government and Society in Tudor England, 1544-1604. London: Macmillan International Higher Education. ISBN 9780230629769.
• Martin, Colin (1999). The Spanish Armada: Revised Edition. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781901341140.
• Rodger, N.A.M. (1997). "Social History of Officers 1509-1603". The safeguard of the sea : a naval history of Britain. Vol 1., 660–1649. London, England: Penguin. ISBN 9780140297249.
• Rose, Susan (2013). "3:The Navy of England understanding the resources of the crown". England's Medieval Navy 1066-1509: Ships, Men & Warfare. Barnsley, England: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 9781473853546.
• Runyan, Timothy J. (1987). Ships, Seafaring, and Society: Essays in Maritime History. Detroit, Michigan, USA: Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0814319912.