The Deptford area had been used to build royal ships since the early fifteenth century, during the reign of Henry V. Moves were made to improve the administration and operation of the Royal Navy during the Tudor period, and Henry VII paid £5 rent for a storehouse in Deptford in 1487, before going on to found the first royal dockyard at Portsmouth in 1496. Henry's son, Henry VIII furthered his father's expansion plans, but preferred locations along the Thames to south coast ports, establishing Woolwich Dockyard in 1512, followed by dockyards at Deptford in 1513 and Erith in 1514. The latter two were centred around large storehouses, built in order to serve the navy's needs in the War of the League of Cambrai.