James Anthony Froude (1818–1894) was one of the foremost historians in Victorian England, famous for his controversial 1884 biography of Thomas Carlyle (also to be reissued in this series), and for many works on England during the Reformation period. In 1892 Froude was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford. This volume, first published posthumously in 1895, contains a series of lectures on the English navy in the sixteenth century which he gave at Oxford between 1893 and 1894. Informed by Froude's earlier research on the Reformation, the lectures focus on key leaders and events, as well as exploring the relationship between the growth of the English navy and the Reformation, and the role of Sir John Hawkins in exposing the Ridolfi plot to overthrow Elizabeth I. They provide many insights into the close connection between the court of Elizabeth I and the development of the navy.