text: When Richelieu decided to renew the French Royal Navy in 1625, he began by ordering a number of warships to be built in Holland, as the French shipbuilding industry was not at that date capable of constructing them in sufficient quantity. However, in the interim, before these new ships could be built, he arranged to fill the gap by leasing or hiring a number of Dutch and English ships. In June 1625 he procured twenty Dutch warships, of which one was lost in action on 16 July and another on 17 September; the remaining eighteen ships were returned to the Dutch on 10 March 1626. In July 1625 he also hired the English Second rate warship Vanguard, and in August added six ships hired from the English East India Company; all these were returned to their owners on 26 May 1626. As these were never at any date owned by the French, they are excluded from the list below.
  Corail (1626 in Holland) – not mentioned after 1639
  Europe (1626 in Holland) – condemned 1645
  Fortune (1626 in Holland) – sold January 1650
  Hercule (1626 in Holland) – deleted by 1635
  Licorne (1626 in Holland) – lost off Sardinia 1643
  Vierge 48 (purchased) – Captured by the Rochellais, blew up at Ile de Ré on 17 September 1625
  Espérance de Dieu (1627)
  Grand Saint Louis (1627)
  Navire du Roi 52 guns (1627) – sold in December 1649 and broken up 1650
  Vaisseau de la Reine 40 guns (1627) – wrecked in July 1639 off Morbihan.
  Neptune (1628) – a frigate (dragon)
  Saint Charles (1628)
  Cygne (1629)
  Marguerite du Ponant (1629)