The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed significant change to the appearance, armament, mobility and size of state shipping. Naval vessels transformed from the medieval large craft that could aid and transport armies, to the modern ships that were heavily armed and easily manoeuvrable. Warships advanced from ships of war in 1500 to weapons of war by 1650. Although the reforms to naval administration and fiscal policy discussed in the previous chapters were crucial to deliver improvements to the size and shape of fleets, transnational interactions and knowledge also facilitated the architectural enhancements to warships. Yet, the thriving international theatre of shipbuilding expertise was not the only influence for the design of these vessels. Their development was also shaped by the character, ambitions and influence of individual monarchs, as heads of state. Personal aspirations, maritime expertise and interstate competition all contributed to the structure of fleet composition, as well as to the visual appearance of warships.

Naval ships were a product of their surroundings, which included their rulers, and for this reason Louis Sicking and Hervé Coutau-Bégarie have suggested that a cultural and ecological divide existed between the northern and southern European maritime theatres. Warship architecture, maritime expertise and tactics deployed in warfare varied by location and this affected the potency of sea power, knowledge and the cultural traits used to connect navies with their nations. For these reasons, this chapter explores and assesses whether the architectural improvements to the English and French navies from 1500 to 1650 should be perceived as products of national or transnational influence.

To ensure that the integrity of data is maintained, it is important before discussing architectural advances to address the instances when different methods were used to measure an early modern vessel's size. This varied not only according to the years of focus, but also by geography, meaning that England and France did not always use the same procedures for determining a ship's dimensions. As techniques and formulae used for this differed by both time and location, direct comparisons between crafts that were not sourced in the same location can be difficult to draw judgement on concisely.