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England: The Anthony Roll

The Anthony Roll - an illustrated survey of Henry VIII's navy
The Anthony Roll - page 2
The Anthony Roll - page 3
The Ships

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England

The Anthony Roll

Anthony Anthony, a clerk in the Ordnance Office, compiled an illustrated survey of Henry VIII's Navy. Paintings of fifty-eight ships on three rolls of vellum were presented to the King in 1546. Later, Charles II gave two of the rolls to Samuel Pepys, who had them cut, and made into a book, which is now in Magdalene College, Cambridge. The third roll remained in its original form and was sold to the British Museum by Lady Mary Fox, a daughter of William IV. In 2000, photographs of the paintings, and transcriptions of the associated text, from both book and roll were combined and published as 'The Anthony Roll' (Knighton & Loades, 2000). There are six pages of commentary about the flags on the ships; 'Function and Heraldry' by Timothy Wilson (Flags at Sea), and 'Fabric' by Maria Hayward.

Wilson wrote;
"The flags on the Anthony Roll are an amazing display. They are the most elaborate source we have for the flags flown on the ships of King Henry VIII, being richer in visual detail than all other sources put together."

All the ships are seen from a few degrees abaft the starboard beam, with sails furled. The ships are, with two exceptions, arranged in descending order of size/importance. The flags are blowing from bow to stern, showing their reverse sides. Square flags are flat, but oblong flags have been drawn with a vertical fold and some shading. It is difficult to distinguish the details of some flags, which are quite small. Some parts of the paintings have faded, and the fold and shading on the oblong flags tends to obscure or confuse any detail. Many of the white areas on St George flags, striped flags, and streamers have dark blotches and streaks, which are thought to represent silver (oxidized to black) decoration that was sometimes woven into the fabric of flags, or to be silver added to paintings of flags, to enhance their appearance. Some of the St George flags also have yellow streaks along the arms of the cross, which are probably similar gold decoration. Altogether there are twelve different square flags, seventeen different oblong flags, two similar triangular pennants, and one style of streamer.

Streamers

by Rob Raeside

Every ship has one or more streamers; a St George hoist, and green over white tail. A line from each end of a rod at their hoist attaches them to a single point on a fighting top, or directly to a point on the masts of those ships without fighting tops. They are very long and it is supposed that they were only for show and decoration, and not used at sea. Perhaps the equivalent of the modern practice of rigging signal flags as decoration when dressing ship.

Reverse images

The hoist of every flag painted on the Roll (Knighton & Loades, 2000) is on the right, and thus all the flags show their reverse sides. Despite this, the quarters of t