Royal Navy (Urcea)

The Royal Navy is the maritime service branch of the Armed Forces of the Apostolic Kingdom of Urcea. Though it has existed in various forms since the Golden Bull of 1098, the advent of an organized and permanent naval force came about under King Leo II, who organized a standing fleet in 1591. As a blue-water navy, it operates a wide range of fighting vessels, which include the nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, various aeronaval forces, attack submarines and ballistic missile submarines, frigates, patrol boats and support ships. It is among the world's largest navies. The Royal Navy is also the parent organization of the Royal Marine Corps, which is formally organized under the Navy.

History
The Golden Bull of 1098, which elevated Urcea to the level of a Kingdom, authorized the new Crown to organize whatever military forces necessary for the preservation of the patrimony of Saint Julius I. Unlike the Royal Army of the time, Urcea had no major need for naval traditions given the location of its major rivals on mainland Levantia and lack of significant coastline. Many of the earliest engagements the nation took part in on the sea were against pirates from Crotona in the late 1100s and early 1200s in order to protect the coastlines of Callan and Canaery. During the Saint's War, any pretense of naval effort was largely abandoned as the Kingdom was engulfed in generations-long dynastic conflict, though a small Caenish naval force was employed in the 1250s to establish a foothold on Crotona. At the end of the war, House de Weluta emerged in control of the Apostolic Kingdom in the early 1400s, and this new ruling dynasty had an interest in solidifying its control of the south Levantine coast and expanding its lands in Crotona, necessitating the beginnings of a navy. This period mostly saw the Apostolic King of Urcea's personally owned vessels forming the nucleus of a force supplanted by conscripted merchant vessels facing similarly conscripted forces from the mercantile city-states of Crotona, as both fleets would be disbanded immediately following the war. The acquisition of the Principality of Halfway in 1474 necessitated an expansion of the King's personal fleet, but it also gave access to a much larger network of mercantile ships to enlist in times of war.

Although the Great Confessional War was primarily fought on land, Protestant-aligned privateers continually harassed Urcean merchants across the entire Sea of Canete in raids that the King's personal fleet could not properly counter given the small size of the King's personal fleet and the unavailability of additional merchant vessels to supplement the navy. King Leo's experiences during the conflict lead to his adoption of the Naval Quartering Act in 1591, which created dedicated navy dockyards, purpose-built warships, and a basic military administrative apparatus. The King's personal fleet was incorporated as the first ships of the reformed navy, soon to be joined by dozens of others. This new navy was strong enough to help defeat Caphiria in the War of Urlazio in the 1620s and 30s and played a critical role in completing the conquests of the islands of Crotona and Tromarine in the 1660s and 1670s. By the time of the War of the Caroline Succession some 150-years later, Urcea's navy was capable and competent if not especially large. It remained respectable until the Second Caroline War, in which it was proven unable to interdict troop movements on the ocean. It was defeated by naval forces of South Dericania several times. Although the Royal Army would be rebuilt and made into an extremely potent fighting force in the coming decades under the rule of King Niall V and King Aedanicus VIII, the navy would remain a secondary concern and fell into irrelevance by the 1860s.

As part of the overall national revitalization of the 1850s and 1860s - along with a growing understanding of the influence of sea power on history - King Aedanicus VIII instigated a massive naval reconstruction effort in the 1860s and 1870s. Urcea began the construction of pioneering armored cruisers, having constructed an all-ironclad navy by 1876. While Aedanicus intended for Urcea to have a navy large enough to project power globally, budgetary problems and political instability in the late 1870s and 1880s lead to the cancellation of much of the fleet. A handful of protected cruisers were added in the late 1880s just prior to the King's death. With the King's death, the regency of Gréagóir FitzRex began. FitzRex believed Urcea's primary power projection should be in Levantia, and consequently his government believed Aedanicus's naval expansion to be a costly vanity project and canceled all remaining development. The Red Interregnum would not be kind to the Regal Navy, as a majority of its ships were more than 20 years old facing newer and better armed ships of Burgundie. The Regal Navy would be rendered functionally a non-entity in small skirmishes even before the Battle of Abylf Steppe, requiring the Imperial Naval Fleet to assume primary duties on the sea. The failure of a well-maintained Regal Navy to interdict the Legitimists - whose control of the sea allowed for the Fall of Cana and subsequent victorious campaigns - shaped the thinking of many Urcean leaders, including the new King Patrick III who assumed the Julian Throne after the war. Under the newly-restored King's leadership, Urcea began a major effort to rearm on the seas, and Patrick's reign saw an infusion of radical naval thinkers from Burgundie. Within a decade of his restoration, the Royal Navy would see the launching of the Coria-class cruiser and Archduchy-class battleship among many others, with the latter ship being the first class of dreadnoughts in Levantia. For these efforts, King Patrick III is considered by many to be the father of the modern Royal Navy. His reforms saw the beginning of the "big gun" era for the Royal Navy, which would change its reputation from a coastal and trade defense force into a truly powerful navy considered by most contemporaries to be among the world's best. It projected power globally during the Great War, managing to functionally eliminate Caphiria's Imperial Naval Fleet in the process. During the war, the Navy began to transition away from the large-gun battleships towards aircraft carriers, a transition that began during the critical Battle of the Adonáire Strait, though it retains gunned cruisers through today. During the Great War and following the battle, the Navy began to convert large numbers of outdated battleships and cruisers - as well as incomplete cruiser hulls - to aircraft carriers, making the Royal Navy the world's most wide user of aircraft carriers, a tradition that continued long after the war.

Organization
In the event of a potential war in Crona, the Nysdra Sea Guard becomes a subordinate element of the Royal Navy and is responsible for secondary protection duties in the Nysdra Sea as part of an enhancement of the Nysdra Squadron's mission.

Fleet Structure
The Royal Navy is divided into several geographically based Regional Fleet Commands (RFCs), referred to using the historic designation of "squadron". There are six such squadrons, each of which are commanded by a Návarce. Each squadron oversees a particular part of the world, though the Home Squadron overlaps the territory of the Sarpedon, Odoneru, and Far Eastern Squadrons. Each squadron is made up of several task forces, commanded by Návarce Juniors and Deputy Návarces, and out of the task forces there are various strike groups commanded by officers of differing ranks, depending on the size and strategic importance of the strike force.

Of the Navy
The navy of Urcea is commonly referred to as the "Royal Navy" both in the Urcea and other countries. Some navies of other monarchies, are also called "Royal Navy" in their own language.

Of ships
Royal Navy ships in commission are prefixed, since 1740, with His Most Christian Majesty's Ship.