The King's Ships
Henry V and the Birth of the English Navy
July 30, 2025 - 7pm
Bath Freight Shed and Zoom
Matt Blazek - Education Director, Maine's First Ship
This lecture explores the pivotal role of King Henry V in the formation of England’s first centralized naval force—the first steps of transforming England’s ad-hoc coastal flotillas to what would eventually evolve into the Royal Navy. Faced with the logistical demands of the Hundred Years’ War, Henry V recognized the strategic necessity of maritime power and undertook a deliberate effort to build and organize a royal fleet.
Drawing on period shipbuilding records, royal ordinances, and archaeological discoveries, we examine how vessels like the Grace Dieu and other crown-commissioned ships marked a turning point in English naval development. The talk also explores the creation of permanent dockyards, advancements in naval administration, and the emergence of a professional maritime infrastructure under Henry’s reign.
These developments are explored within the broader context of medieval warfare, commerce, and state-building, illustrating how Henry’s naval innovations laid the groundwork for England’s future as a dominant seafaring nation. Combining narrative history with material culture, this lecture offers a look at the birth of England’s naval identity.
This is the eighth and final of the 2025 Summer Lecture Series. The lectures will be held on Wednesday evenings at the Bath Freight Shed (27 Commercial St, Bath Maine). Recordings will be available here a couple of days later. You can also join by Zoom. Zoom codes will be available here a few days before the lecture.
The lectures are free, but if you consider them valuable, please donate to Maine’s First Ship in person or online.
Matt Blazek is a public historian and seasoned interpreter with a focus on late medieval and early modern cultural, military, and early colonial history. He currently serves as Director of Educational Operations for Maine’s First Ship in Bath, Maine, where he leads interpretive planning, exhibit development, and hands-on educational programming centered around the reconstruction of the 1607 pinnace Virginia and Popham Colony.
Matt is a NAI Certified Interpretive Guide and a former member of the Educators and Interpreters Advisory Committee for the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH). With more than a decade of experience in museum education, historical interpretation, and living history. He is also the founder of History Live North East, a K-12 lecture series dedicated to immersive public history.
His work emphasizes hands-on, project-based learning and interactive history lessons that bring the past to life for modern audiences. Through place-based interpretation and experiential education, he helps learners connect deeply with complex historical themes —all grounded in the people, places, and material culture of the time. Matt lives in Union, Maine, with his amazing wife and two great kids.