Henry VIII watched from Southsea Castle as his favourite warship, the Mary Rose, sank in the Solent, off the south coast of England, with the loss of up to 700 lives.
Launched in 1511, the Mary Rose saw service in wars against France and Scotland. In 1545, tensions with France came to a head, and King Francis I retaliated against the English, leading to the Battle of the Solent. The Mary Rose was a casualty of this battle.
There are many theories about why it sank. One surviving witness claimed that a freak gust of wind caused the ship to keel over and become flooded. Another theory suggested that the crew disliked their vice admiral, Sir George Carew, and were unruly and not listening to commands. Alternatively, the crew might have been suffering from dysentery and become incapable of running the ship. Another theory is that the crew spoke many languages as they were mercenaries recruited from the Continent and did not understand the commands. A further theory is that the ship had too many heavy weapons on board and the gun ports were too low.
No one knows the exact cause of the sinking of the Mary Rose, but historians tend to agree it was not a single event but a combination of factors.
In 1971, the Mary Rose was located in the Solent, and it was raised on 11 October 1982. The Mary Rose Museum, located in Portsmouth, opened in 1984.