Book excerpt: In this 1917 work, the first volume of his exhaustive study of the rise of British power in the Mediterranean, Corbett focuses on British naval influence during the Stuart period. By dwelling on battles not fought as much as on those that were, he is able to show how "events which seemed but the most trifling episodes appear as links in a mighty chain." This unique take on a neglected part of English history is indispensable to anyone interested in British naval power in the years between the death of Elizabeth and the Peace of Utrecht. SIR JULIAN STAFFORD CORBETT (1854-1922) was a prominent British naval historian and geostrategist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, whose works helped shape the Royal Navy's reforms of that era. He also wrote The Campaign of Trafalgar, The Seven Years War and Some Principles of Maritime Strategy, which remains a classic among students of naval warfare.