Earlier English naval forces predated the emergence of a durable administrative organization. The Admiralty's continuous bureaucratic roots can arguably be traced to roughly 1414, when dockyards, personnel, appointments, and regular expenditure began to fall within a professionalizing system. Earlier bodies such as the Cinque Ports still organized naval force, so the date does not mark the beginning of an English navy. By the seventeenth century, ship money disputes and dependence on maritime trade showed why naval power could no longer be improvised only when war began.
Chapter · 4:26-12:00
How the Admiralty became a permanent naval administration
Permanent dockyards, staff, appointments, and budgets distinguish the Admiralty's administrative roots around 1414 from earlier ways of organizing English naval forces.