The Mary Rose was built between 1509 and 1511 as the flagship of Henry VIII’s fleet. By AD 1545, when she faced a French invasion force of Portsmouth, she had been superseded as flagship by the Henry Grace à Dieu. During manoeuvres, the Mary Rose heeled over and sank and this gun sank with her. The recovery of the wreck of the Mary Rose in AD 1982 is one of the great stories of British archaeology. The cannon makes a good starting point for investigating the circumstances in which the attempted French invasion took place, the foreign policy of Henry VIII and the development of the English navy, as well as how the finds from the Mary Rose enrich our knowledge of life in Tudor England.