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Original specifications: (later HMS Sovereign, HMS Royal Sovereign) 1st rate 102 (3m), L/B 70.7m * 39.8m, Hull: Wood, Armament: 102 guns, Designer: Phineas Pett, Built: Peter Pett, Woolwich Dockyard, England, 1637.

In 1634, the ill-fated monarch Charles I informed the great English shipbuilder Phineas Pett of his “princely resolution for the building of a great new ship” as part of his overall effort to improve and expand the English Navy. England enemies and concerns were many and included the Dutch, her most serious rival in overseas trade, France, Spain and North African corsairs preying on her vessels.

Built at a cost of £65,586, about ten 40-gun ships could have been built for that amount; Sovereign of the Seas was intended as a propaganda as well as war. The Royal Navy’s most lavishly ornamented vessel, her decorations wee carved by the brothers John and Mathias Christmas and described in a book by Thomas Heywood.

In fact, the ship-money tax levied by Charles for his Naval program was much resented by “his faithful and loving subjects”, and is one of the excesses that led to his overthrow and execution in 1649.

Under Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth, the ship was renamed Sovereign, and following the restoration of Charles II in 1660; she was rebuilt and renamed Royal Sovereign.