The Elizabeth Jonas of 1559 was the first large English galleon, built in Woolwich Dockyard from 1557 and launched in July 1559.

Elizabeth Jonas served effectively under the command of Sir Robert Southwell during the battle of the Spanish Armada in 1588.

[4] On 5 August 1606, held as a day of thanksgiving for the king's deliverance from the Gowrie Conspiracy at Perth in 1600, James VI and I, Anne of Denmark, their son Henry, and her brother Christian IV of Denmark had dinner aboard the Elizabeth Jonas at Upnor Castle near Rochester, and then were rowed to Chatham.

[5][6][7] The Elizabeth Jonas was joined to the White Bear by a bridge, and a third ship moored in between served as the kitchen.

[9] In the early seventeenth century she was listed as one of the Navy's Ships Royal, denoting the largest and most prestigious vessels in the fleet.