A personal vanity project of King Charles I, Sovereign of the Seaswas a notoriously ostentatious gilded monstrosity that underwent several rebuilds.
This model comes with a choice of two sterns, the second of which is based on her appearance in a painting of her builder, Peter Pett.
To the nation states of the 17th century, great ships represented a nation’s prestige and the ultimate expression of a state’s hard power. Moreso than other ships of the line, large first rate flagships could be lavished in ornamentation, gold and expensive paints.
Sovereign of the Seas, though, was an extreme example; her total construction costs equated to a full third of total English tax revenues in 1637 and the money spent on her gilding alone would have been sufficient to have built a typical warship of the time.
Her name represented an attempt by the monarchy to recover some mythical right of the English kings of old to be recognised as sovereigns of the seas.
During the time of the English Commonwealth, she was renamed first to Commonwealth and then simply Sovereign. She went on to serve in three of the Anglo-Dutch Wars. The ship was notable enough that the Dutch placed a 3,000 gilder bounty upon her.
She fought at the Battle of the Kentish Knock, Four Days’ Battle, St James’s Day Battle and survived the Raid on the Medway.
She also served in the War of the Grand Alliance, where she fought at the Battle of Beachy Head and the Battle of La Hougue.
Sovereign’s destruction would prove inglorious for a ship with such a long and distinguished career, being destroyed by an accidental fire when a candle left unattended resulted in the ship being burned down to her waterline.
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