Anthony Roll

The only known contemporary depictions of prominent Tudor era vessels like the Henry Grace à Dieu and the Mary Rose are contained in the Anthony Roll.

He rose to the rank of overseer of the Ordnance Office, the government body responsible for supplying the armed forces with artillery, and it was in this position that he compiled his Roll.

Although Beets' suggestion of kinship was conjectural and without any direct evidence, it was picked up by Geoffrey Callender in the Mariner's Mirror in 1963 and has been relayed by several other authors.

[7] The Anthony Roll belongs to a genre of works that was intended to serve a dual role for the king and the military leadership: as reasonably informative overviews listing details of ships or strategic areas of coastlines they could be studied to determine strengths and weaknesses, and as boastful and lively depictions of Tudor military might they could be used to flatter the king, impress courtiers and impose martial authority on foreign ambassadors.

Contemporary maps, or "plats", were routinely decorated with detailed pictures of ships, to mark bodies of water as much as to liven up the scenes.

The inclusion of the Mary Rose that sank at the Battle of the Solent 19 July 1545 does not mean it was necessarily started before this date, since it was still considered possible that she could be raised even as late as 1549.

It is considered likely that King Charles was aware of Pepys' plans and presented him with two of the rolls either as a gift or as payment for the intended publication of the escape story.

Pepys had resigned from his position as Secretary of the Admiralty that same year and refused to recognize the reign of William III and Mary II, which meant that acquisition of the final roll for his collection was out of the question.

In 1857 Frederic Madden, keeper of manuscripts at the British Museum, was shown the second roll and learned that Mary Fox wished to sell it.

[2] The Anthony Roll has been used frequently as a primary source for histories of the English navy of the 16th century but the full text and all illustrations were not collected in one volume until 2000.

The first three illustrations of the Henry Grace à Dieu, Mary Rose and Peter Pomegranate were all too large to fit on one page and were therefore converted to two-page spreads.

The second roll, British Library Add MS 22047, is still in its original condition with the exception of a written endorsement by Mary Fox from 1857 and some damage caused by an application of chemicals to reveal faded writing.

Each ship is presented along with its name, tonnage,[a] crew size and, in Anthony's own words, "the ordenaunce, artillery, munitions and habillimentes for warre".

Anthony's style is signified by a "naive draughtsmanship and conformity to a pattern [...] consistent with the abilities of a government official with a decent amateur grasp of form and colour".

[15][16] The lettering, framing lines and floral pattern decorations are painted in red or black with the exception of the first three ships of the first roll, which also feature gold.

Ship timbers are a light brown that are shaded in the bow and stern to achieve depth, decorations and anchors are highlighted with red, and green is used for guns.

The first two ships of the first roll, the Henry Grace à Dieu and the Mary Rose, have traces of a grid pattern, indicating that they were transferred from a different drawing while the rest are done in freehand.

It is more consistent in type with Mediterranean-type galleys than the galleasses and small rowbarges, and features a considerable amount of detail not present in the other ships.

It is the only known fully illustrated list of a Tudor period royal navy,[22] though the pictures should not be seen as exact depictions drawn from real life.

For example, the lists of guns of the individual ships, which are considered to be an accurate record produced by a senior state official, are only approximately matched to the paintings.

[23] The rigging is only roughly accurate, and has been described by Margaret Rule, archaeological project leader of the Mary Rose excavations, as "a confusing assemblage of shrouds, ratlines and stays".

Many details are present, but others are missing, such as the chain-wales (the horizontal platforms extending from the sides) to which the shrouds (the parallel ropes that stabilized the masts) were attached to keep them clear of the hull.

[27] As the source that is closest in time to the sinking of the Mary Rose, it has been of central importance for the archaeological project, especially in estimating the size of the crew.

[32] Along the railing of all ships, most prominently on the large carracks and the Galley Subtle, there are rows of banners displaying various heraldic designs, including the English royal arms, one or three fleur-de-lis of the French arms, Saint George's crosses and Henry VIII's monogram ("HR") in gold on blue, what appears to be the Tudor rose, and the green and white of the House of Tudor.

A colorful illustration shows a highly ornamented ship with four masts and bristling with guns sailing over a mild swell towards the right of the picture, towing a small boat
The first illustration of the first roll of the Anthony Roll, depicting the Henry Grace à Dieu , the largest ship in the English navy during the reign of King Henry VIII .
A small fleet of large, highly decorated carracks are riding on a wavy sea. In the foreground are two low, fortified towers bristling with cannon and armed soldiers and retinue walking between them.
The Embarkation of Henry VIII at Dover , a contemporary painting that, just like the Anthony Roll, was intended to serve as a showpiece of Tudor royal authority and military might.
A painting of a man with a composed expression wearing a large, dark, long-haired wig.
Samuel Pepys , who owned two of the rolls and had them cut up and bound in a single volume.
A worn parchment document with several columns of text above a picture of a small sailing vessel.
A view of the second roll of the Anthony Roll, showing the layout used throughout the document. The information for each vessel is displayed in columns directly below its illustration, here with the text for the Grand Mistress (seen only partially above the text) and a full view of the illustration of the galleass Anne Gallant .
A colorful image of a one-masted vessel propelled by a large group of rowers. Toward the back of the ship a man is holding a raised baton, urging the rowers on.
The Galley Subtle , a Mediterranean-type galley which formed the centrepiece of the three combined rolls and the illustration that displays the highest artistic quality.
A small four-masted sailing vessel with a small lizard-like sculpture in its bow.
The Salamander , a galleass captured from the Scots and one of only three ships in the Anthony Roll which has an identifiable figurehead .
Peter Pomegranate sister ship of the "Mary Rose"
A sailing vessel similar in size to the Henry Grace a Dieu already described. On the top of the forecastle in the bow of the ship is a small sculpture of a bright-red flower.
The illustration of the Mary Rose , which has been compared to the salvaged wreck of the actual ship to determine the historical accuracy of Anthony Anthony's ship portrayals
A sailing vessel with square flags along its railing: the designs include horizontal green and white stripes, the cross of Saint George, three fleurs-de-lys on a blue background and the blue, red and gold English royal arms.
The carrack Pansy with various types of heraldic banners along its railings.