Admiralty in the 16th century has organized the fleet into squadrons from at early 13th century and certainly during the 16th century. In 1560 three squadrons were operating in the Channel, Irish Sea and North Sea Until the 16th century, admirals were high officials under kings, and were charged with protecting the realm from sea attack. The English navy's Narrow Seas Squadron also called as the Eastern Squadron mainly operated in the two seas which laying between England and Kingdom of France (the English Channel particularly the Straits of Dover) and England and the Spanish Netherlands later the Dutch Republic (the southern North Sea). Include:
St. Bartholomew's Day massacre 18th-century historian Louis-Pierre Anquetil, in his "Esprit de la Ligue" of 1767, was among the first to begin impartial historical investigation, emphasizing the lack of premeditation (before the attempt on Coligny) in the massacre and that Catholic mob violence had a history of uncontrollable escalation. By this period the Massacre was being widely used by Voltaire (in his "Henriade") and other Enlightenment writers in polemics against organized religion in general. The question of whether the massacre had long been premeditated was not entirely settled until the late 19th century; Lord Acton changed his mind on the matter twice, finally concluding