The ARW local French fleet superiority was due to a BIG chunk of the French fleet being off the coast of North America facing a small chunk of the RN. No, I don't remember relative %'s or numbers. But even then, the RN tried to maintain a fleet that could take on #2 & #3 together.
Back in the early 1600's, and without a North American empire? Ya, the predominant RN might well be butterflied away.
Oh, in the early 1600s we CAN'T talk about a British superiority on the seas. There was even a certain period when the French and the Dutch were fighting for that domination, leaving Britain in the third place. Britain gets its big break from the 1680s, since the Dutch lose their best admiral and France is forced to invest more in the land forces.