Talk:Battle of Dungeness (1666)

Latest comment: 6 years ago by Eastfarthingan in topic Review

Review

edit

C class. The introduction says that the Duke of Beaufort commanded the French, but the infobox says Job Forant. The narrative is not clear on who was in charge. Do you have access to the sources, so you can clear this up? Thanks. Djmaschek (talk) 16:06, 4 May 2018 (UTC)Reply

No Beaufort was the 'superintendent' of the Navy so just gave out orders, hope that clears it up? Eastfarthingan (talk) 17:22, 4 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
Apologies. As Eastfarthingan says de Beaufort was the equivalent of the naval commander in chief. A previous editor had written that the fleet was under his command, in the lead, which strictly is accurate. It read so naturally that I overlooked it. Sloppy. Now amended and de Beaufort's role explained in the article. Thanks for picking it up. I have made a couple of other changes which hopefully improve the flow. Gog the Mild (talk) 17:36, 4 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
B class. Djmaschek (talk) 22:58, 4 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
As grand-mâitre, chef et surintendant général de la navigation et commerce de France (since 22 October 1665), François de Bourbon-Vendôme, duc de Beaufort (and incidentally a grandson of Henri IV of France) was in overall charge of the French Navy, responsible directly to his cousin Louis XIV. This title had been created by Richelieu in 1626, and had replaced the role of Admiral of France as the supreme head of naval and maritime policy.
I find it curious that Job Forant, who was relatively inexperienced compared with Gilles de la Roche-Saint-André, was said to be in command of the squadron. In 1666 both Job Forant and Gilles de la Roche-Saint-André held the rank of capitaine de vaisseau; de la Roche-Saint-André was, as the article says, promoted to chef d'escadre (the equivalent of rear-admiral) in 1667, in spite of losing the Rubis; Job Forant only reached that rank in February 1686, twenty years later.
I would point out also that the ship named as L'Oms was not a French ship (there was never a French naval ship of this name), and I presume was one of the Dutch vessels, named Oms. I suspect this mistake came from a misreading of the equivalent French wikipédia . This means that in the article we only have names for six of the eight French ships, and I would like to know what were the remaining two, as I don't have this information. Rif Winfield (talk) 08:40, 22 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
Thank you for the clarification on this. Eastfarthingan (talk) 13:56, 22 May 2018 (UTC)Reply