High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Queen Elizabeth-class battleships were a class of five super-dreadnoughts of the Royal Navy. The lead ship was named in honour of Elizabeth I of England. These majestic battleships were superior in firepower, protection and speed to their Royal Navy predecessors of the Iron Duke-class as well as preceding German classes such as the König-class, although the corresponding Bayern-class ships were competitive except for being 2 knots (3.7 km/h) slower. As such, they are generally considered the first fast battleships. The Queen Elizabeths were the first battleships to be armed with BL 15 inch /42 Mk I guns (381 mm), and were described in the 1919 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships as "the finest class of Capital Ships yet turned out.