HMS Royal Sovereign

Seven ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Royal Sovereign, while another was planned but renamed before being launched:


 * HMS Sovereign of the Seas was a 102-gun first rate ship of the line launched in 1637. She was rebuilt in 1660 and renamed Royal Sovereign, rebuilt again in 1685 and burnt by accident in 1697.
 * HMS Royal Sovereign (1701) was a 100-gun first-rate launched in 1701. She underwent a "great repair" (1722–1725) so extensive that the result might be considered a new ship. She was finally broken up in 1768.
 * HMS Royal Sovereign (1786) was a 100-gun first-rate launched in 1786. She was at the Battle of Trafalgar, renamed HMS Captain after being reduced to harbour service in 1825, and was broken up in 1841.
 * HMS Royal Sovereign (1804) was a yacht launched in 1804 and broken up in 1849.
 * HMS Royal Sovereign was to have been a 110-gun first-rate. She was ordered in 1833, renamed HMS Royal Frederick in 1839, then HMS Frederick William in 1860, before being launched later that year. She became a training ship named Worcester in 1876, was sold in 1948 and foundered that year.
 * HMS Royal Sovereign (1857) was a 121-gun screw first-rate launched in 1857. She was converted between 1861 and 1863 into the first turret ship of the Royal Navy. She was sold for breaking in 1885.
 * HMS Royal Sovereign (1891) was a Royal Sovereign-class battleship launched in 1891 and scrapped in 1913.
 * HMS Royal Sovereign (05) was a Revenge-class battleship launched in 1915. She was transferred to the Soviet Navy in 1944 and renamed SOVIET BATTLESHIP Arkhangelsk, and in 1949 sent back to Britain and scrapped.

MV Royal Sovereign, a cross-channel passenger boat owned by the New Medway Steam Packet Company, was requisitioned for use as a troop transport in 1939 and participated in the Dunkirk evacuation in May 1940. Renamed HMS Royal Scot, she struck a mine and sank in the Bristol Channel in December 1940.

Battle honours
Ships named Royal Sovereign have earned the following battle honours:


 * Kentish Knock, 1652
 * Orfordness, 1666
 * Sole Bay, 1672
 * Schooneveld, 1673
 * Texel, 1673
 * Barfleur, 1692
 * Vigo, 1702
 * First of June, 1794
 * Cornwallis's Retreat, 1795
 * Trafalgar, 1805
 * Dunkirk, 19401
 * Calabria, 1940
 * Atlantic, 1940−41

1: Awarded to merchant vessel MV Royal Sovereign