The Sovereignty of the Sea

extravagant proportions,-a circumstance which was owing in great measure to the condition of domestic affairs and the king's assumption of personal government. James had be

any guard" there, to offer any violence, to take prize or booty, or to search the merchant vessels of other nations. The blockade of the opposite coasts of the Continent by an enemy's fleet, as that of Flanders by the Dutch or French, was to be interdicted, because those coasts were washed by the British seas and blockading was a warlike operation. On the other hand the king was to 210 protect the commerce and navigation of his friends and allies. Foreign merchantmen might go on their way in security, undisturbed by fears of pirates or enemies, for "all men trading or sailing within those his Majesty's seas do justly take themselves to be in pace Domini Regis,"-under the peace of our Lord the King. And as an external symbol and acknowledgment of this absolute

tamely surrender their sovereign rights in the seas off their own coasts and ports, abandon the protection of their commerce and shipping and their rights as belligerents, simply because the King of England wished to be lord of the sea. Had Charles been able to give effect to his selfish and ambitious scheme, he would soon have been confronted with an overwhelming coalition of maritime Powers, to whom the fr

n of the r?le of the Plantagenet kings was intimately related to the state of home affairs and the means taken for the equipment of a fleet. Parliament having refused supply and been dissolved, recourse was ultimately had to the famous ship-money writs, by which it was possible to obtain the necessary ships independently of Parliament, as had been done by the early kings. To declare that these measures were i

ion, provided that Charles would free the Scottish seas of the Hollander busses. In the long series of papers respecting the fishery project, mostly prepared by the indefatigable Secretary Coke, the change referred to may be perceived. In those of 1629 and 1630 there is no 212 suggestion of the sovereignty of the seas, but in 1631 instances become numerous. Coke claims the sea fishings as belonging to the crown; he begins to speak of the king's "undoubted right of sovereignty in all the seas of his dominions," and plainly says it will be necessary to exclude foreign fishermen from the British seas once the fishing society is a success. In the next year he goes further. He begins a long and formal document-also on fisheries-in the following words: "The greatnesse and glorie of this Kingdom of Great Britaine consisteth not so much

bassador at The Hague) for some information, however little, concerning the 213 King's admiralty in the narrow seas. Boswell sent a few brief notes of little relevancy about the jurisdiction of the admiral and the Cinque Ports; but he added the interesting information that he believed Sir John Boroughs, the Keeper of the Records in the Tower, was able to produce an "original" concerning the first institution of "La Rool d'Oleron" by Edward I., in which the sovereignty of the kings of England in those seas appeared. This, said Boswell, was therefore before the kings of France could pretend to any sovereignty there, having "neither right nor possession of any part, or part of Britany, Normandy, or Aquitaine."39

en this disclosing by Boroughs of the ancient roll. All the later writers on the English side of the controversy a

; proclamations appeared prohibiting wasteful fishing; a vigorous 214 effort was made to suppress the use of injurious appliances; the strict observance of Lent was repeatedly enjoined. But what proved most attractive was the notion which had haunted men's minds since the time of the Great Queen, and had always eluded realisation. Charles became convinced that the formation of a grand national fishery association would wrest from the Dutch their predominance in the fisheries, drive their busses from our seas, and transfer to the English peo

drafted to empower the king to levy two shillings in the pound on all herrings or fish exported in foreign vessels, and the tenth of the fish taken by foreigners in the British seas, the revenue so obtained to be employed for the king's use. The latter suggestion looks almost satirical in view of the failure of the many attempts of James to get revenue from that s

would exceed ￡800,000. This, he admitted, would be a work of time, and he proposed, for a beginning, that timber should be felled in England, Scotland, and Ireland so as to be seasoned for the construction of 200 busses in the following year-40 in Scotland, 40 in Ireland, and 120 in England. Meanwhile, for the year beginning in January 1630, he recommended that ten or twelve busses should be bought in Holland, six Dutchmen to serve in each for the year; and that the necessary salt and timber for casks for curing the herrings should be got at Dunkirk from the prizes taken from the Dutch. As the cost of ten new busses built in England, fully equipped, would a

more than 1000 lasts were consumed in England;401 and he 216 calculated that the ten busses would catch another thousand lasts, which he thought might be mostly exported to Prussia and

this charter and refused to give effect to it, all the more since Seaforth had settled at Stornoway a number of Dutch people who were engaged in the fisheries there. From an interesting report by a Captain John Dymes, who visited Lewis in 1630 at the request of certain members of the Privy Council, and apparently in the interest of the proposed fishery society, we learn that the Dutch had been fishing there with great success. Their four busses, each with twenty-five nets and a crew of sixteen men, caught 300 lasts of herrings in three months, which were sold at Dantzic for 400 guilders or about ￡38 a last, which Dymes calculated would total ￡11,400, showing, after charges had been met, a gain for the 217 three months' work of ￡7500.404 T

to obtain from him a detailed account of Lewis and its fisheries, and of the Dutch fishings on the coast of Scotland, which, it was said, sometimes employed a fleet of 3000 busses; and from the information acquired an "estimate of the charge of a fishing to be established in the island of Lewes in Scotland" was prepared. This document showed that ten Scottish fisher-boats, of from twenty-five

the natives; that by the laws of Scotland any stranger found fishing within these limits was liable to confiscation of goods and loss of life, citing as an example the story of the barbarous treatment by James V. of the Dutch fishermen who had transgressed the "reserved waters" by fishing in the Firth of Forth.406 This point about t

jects we ought no longer to neglect that great blessing offered unto us in the great abundance of fishe upon all the coasts of these Yllands. To the end we may at lenth injoy with more honnour these rights whiche properlie belong to our imperiall crowne and ar vsurped by strangers, We have considered of a way whiche in tyme by God's favour may produce this good effe

nions," and added-what must have been unwelcome news to the Scottish burghs and people-that as it was to be a "common benefit" to all the three kingdoms, so it could not be "dividedly enjoyed" by any one nation in particular. The Council were enjoined to take the matter into serious consideration, and to give their advice and assistance in bringing it

in the principal town or burgh of each province, to be related to one central body or corporation. No foreigners were to be admitted as members of the company, although they might be employed as servants. All the adventurers, whether English, Irish, or Scottish, were to be allowed to fish freely "in all places and at all times"; and the king signified that as the Lewes was "the most proper seate fo

aforth, and were negotiating among themselves for the formation of a company to carry on the fishing at the Lewes and establish a free burgh there. But the charter of the Highland Earl was a small thing to the scheme of the king. They saw in it an invasion of their special rights and privileges in trading and fish-curing, w

ld undertake it themselves by a company or by burgesses, and what sums might be subscribed for an exclusive company. On the following day it was complained in the Convention that, though the king had cancelled the patent to the Earl of Seaforth, the "Flemings" still remained in the Lewes; and the burghs thereupon decided that as the Privy Council had appointed commissioners from each of the Estates of Parliament to treat on the king's proposals, their own commission

and twenty aucht myles frome the land, and whilk is proper to the natives, and whairof they have been in continuall possessioun and neuer interrupted thairin be the Hollanders,"-a statement inconsistent with the frequent complaints made by the burghs in the reign of James. The burghs, they said, were able and content to undertake the "said land fis

hs to the English; for it was well known that in the Draft Treaty of union which James had caused to be prepared in 1604, and which would also have conferred important privileges on Scotland in matters of trade, words had been inserted reserving to each nation the fishings within all lochs, firths, and bays within land and up to a distance of fourteen miles from the coast. This treaty was drawn up by commissioners appointed by the respective Parliaments, the most active of whom were Secretary Lord Cecil (afterwards Earl of Salisbury) and the illustrious Sir Francis (afterwards Lord) Bacon on the English side, and Lord President Fyvie and Sir Thomas Hamilton (later Earls of Dunfermline and Haddington) on the part of the Scots. It was signed

English members was not in the least degree founded upon the reservation of fishing rights, but upon the nationalisation clauses, whic

me. These negotiations, which were carried on for more than two years, were conducted on the part of Scotla

p-sea buss-fishing), and did not in any way touch the fishings which were enjoyed by the natives of any of the three kingdoms, so that the laws and freedom of every kingdom might be preserved, as indeed was "contained in the said instructions." It was therefore necessary, they said, in the first place, that such fishings "in everie kingdom whiche ar onely injoyed be the natives be made known," and that it should be clearly determined what those fishings were which were called "common benefits" that could not be "dividedly enjoyed." With their ey

free to fish "in places near and remote, where common fishing is, or may be, used by any of his people," this "mutual participation being the bond of union and sole means to recover his Majes

ccess of his enterprise, that he added a postscript in his own hand, in which he said: "This is a worke of so great good to both my kingdomes that I have thought good by these few lynes of my owne hand seriouslie to recommend it unto yow. The furthering or hindering of whiche will ather oblige me or disoblige me more then anie one business that hes happ

that the natives of Scotland were to be preferred in the choice of the best places for establishing "magazines" for the fishery, and that the places appointed for the English should be such as would not prejudice the "land fishing" of the Scotch; the Scottish members of the association were to have the same privileges and immunities, with power to erect magazines, in England and Ireland; English members who settled in Scotland were to be debarred from fishing in the reserved w

at the seas foreanent the coasts of this kingdome and about the Yles thairof and all that is interjected betuix thame and that mid-lyne in the seas whilk is equallie distant and divyding frome the opposite land, ar the Scotish Seas properlie belonging to the crowne of Scotland, and that the English hes no right nor libertie to fishe thairin, nor in no part thairof, bot be vertew of the association and not

if they wished any south of Buchan Ness; and the burghs were also to have the right to establish colonies at the Lewes. In "retribution," as they said, for these privileges to be granted to the English in Scotland, they required the "liberty" of the pilchard-fishing in England and Ireland, with equal privileges regarding it. The king was also to remove the "Flemings" from the Isles, and to prohibit t

h to be a nursery of seamen and for the increase of navigation, 228 and "to make the store of fish of all kinds, being a necessary food for the people on fish-days, to be had at reasonable prices, and the overplus thereof to be a principal addition to the staple commodities of our kingdom for the increase of trade." In order that this common fishing might be extended and freely exercised in "all places by his subje

h the natives could not subsist, and not to hinder the good public work," and they craved full and particular instructions on this point. The Privy Council at once summoned the Lord Provost and Bailies of Edinburgh before them to furnish the information required, but they replied that it was a subject which concerned all the burghs, and that time must be given to consult them. After some further d

nauer to the head of Stoir of Assint [Stoir Head] and 14 myles aff the said coast, and frome the said heid of Stoir Assint directlie west north-west to the eastmost point of the yle of the Lewes, comprehending thairin the haill seas interjected betuixt the said heid of Stoir of Assint and eastmost point of the said yle of the Lewes, with all the yles and loches within the same, and 14 myles without the course frome the said heid of the Stoir of Assint to the said east point of the Lewes; frome the said eastmost point of the Lewes south about the haill yles of the Lewes to the westmost part of Barra, and 14 myles without the samine; frome the said westmost part of Barra n-west, south, south-east to southmost part of the yle of Yla [Islay], frome the said southmost part of yla south-east to the mull of Kintyre, frome the said mull of Kintyre n-west, south-east, to the mull of Gallouay: Whiche bounds frome the said heid of Stoir Assint west north-west to the eastmost point of the Lewes and frome thence south to Bara be

as considered to be necessary for the subsistence of the people. Not only were all the great firths included, and the waters of the Minch and within the Isles, but it

practically the same. They rearranged the description of the lines at the Orkneys and Shetlands without diminishing the extent of the enclosed sea, and they carried the boundary down the east instead of the west side of the Hebrides, and so on to Islay. They thus reduced the area of the waters proposed to be reserved by omitting only the strip of fourteen miles to the west of the Hebrides. The Council declared that they had reserved an ar

ioners, saying there was no need to particularise the reserved waters, since they had been included in the Act of union, but that they had been persuaded to abandon this attitude and condescend to particulars

ts of the "Reserved Wate

gative in his seas, and Coke did not then, as he did a little later, make use of high arguments of that kind. But he believed that the opposition of Scotland would be prejudicial to the scheme, and that further negotiations would be vain; and he proposed that an English company should be formed without waiting for the concurrence of Scotland.423 But Charles was more patient. In June he again sent Sir William Alexander, the Secretary for Scotland, to Edinburgh, and despatched a letter to the burghs assuring them that he would be careful to preserve their privileges and liberties, and another to the Privy Council in which he expressed his astonishment that they had reserved so many places, and likewise "fyftene myles [sic] within the sea distant frome everie shoarr, where it would seeme expedient 233 that these of the association for this generall fishing, as they have libertie to land in any place, paying the ordinarie dewteis, sould lykewayes be fre

and Red Head; the Moray Firth within a line between Buchan Ness and Duncansby Head; the Firth of Clyde between the Mulls of Galloway and Cantyre, and also the waters within fourteen miles along the coast between Red H

places that should be reserved, where the fishings had been continually carried on by Scottish fishermen and merchants, who were able, they said, to undertake and fish the same "to the full," and within which no stranger had ever been admitted to fish. These places were as follows: (1) all lochs on the mainland between Farryhead (Cape Wrath) and the Kyle, together with Loch Hourn on the south side of Kyle; (2) the east side of Lewes, Uist, Barra, and "Muggersland" (? Mull), and the lochs of the same, together with the Broad Loch and the "Bybleheid" on the north-east part of the Lewes; (3) "Lochusherd" (? Loch Eishort) in Skye; (4) between the islands and the mainland, from "Farayhead" to

seas of Scotland and the Isles of the busses of the said Northlands (Netherlands)," 235 and of other strangers, from Hamburg and Bremen, resorting to Orkney and Shetland. At the very least, they said, he ought to free the seas of the Dutch busses or fishing-boats "for the space of twenty-eight or fourteen miles, and to discharge them to have any fishing near the coasts of the said mainland or isles." If the king would do this, the burghs promised to further to the utmost of their power "his Majesty's most royal work of fishing," to supply the proportional number of busses that might

"reserve" certain of them, still the king, by the undoubted right of sovereignty he had in all his seas, had power to give license of fishing within them, either to subjects or foreigners as he might think fit, and by his royal prerogative alone he could establish the proposed company "whereby all his subjects which are brethren thereof may enjoy that fishing by right which strangers have by usurpation in our seas."429 By this time the Scottish commissioners were becoming reconciled 236 to the proposal of forming the society on very much the original plan, and their opposition, perhaps partly from the

he sea, and would, it was said, be reduced to poverty and indigence unless these waters were reserved for their exclusive use. To meet this objection, Coke proposed a resolution at one of the meetings that the king should be asked to lay down a regulation to guard against interference with the poor fishermen at the places where the fishing of the company would be carried on, and at the next meeting a draft in the king's handwriting, perhaps laid on the table by Charles himself, was read as follows: "The English commissioners desire to take away all showes of wordes that may show diffidence between the two nations, and hauing heard that the Scots commissioners are to desire some places to be reserved from the company or association, it is conceived this to be the fitter way:-That 237 instead of those reservati

nted, also equally from both nations, to judge of controversies amongst the busses according to regulations to be made, with the right of appeal to the standing committee. Two hundred busses were "propounded" for the first year; "whereof," said the Scots commissioners, "wee gott to advise what number we wo

lso requested the Council to prohibit unseasonable fishing for herrings at Ballantrae Bank near the mouth of the Clyde, which, he had been informed, was very injurious to the herring fisheries on the west coast of Scotland, the Isles, and the neighbouring coast of Ireland, by destroying the fry of herrings at unseasonable times, which, he was informed, if they were spared, might produce such plenty in all these coasts as might very much advance the intended work of fishing. At the same time he declared that it was necessary to establish settlements for the fishings at the Isles, and the Council were asked to take sureties from the

Council mentioned above. In two or three years, as we shall see, when his naval power was greater, he would attempt to carry out their desire in quite a forcible and dramatic way. Charles would not concede the Moray Firth as an exclusive preserve for the Scottish fishermen, but he gave up to them the Firth of Lothian within a straight line from St Abb's Head to Red

immunities and privileges; they and their vessels were exempt from impressment for the king's service and relieved 240 of certain civil obligations. They were to be free to fish for sea-fish wherever they pleased "within his Majesty's seas" and dominions, and at the isles pertaining thereto, as well as in the "lochs, creeks, bays and estuaries" wherever herrings or sea-fish were or might be taken, except in such creeks or firths as might be reserved in a proclamation of the king. On the trading side of the enterprise, they were to be at liberty to carry the fish to any place within the kingdom, "as well within free burghs as without them," to salt, dry, and barrel them, to erect the necessary buildings and magazines, and to dispose of the fish as they thought best,

ers and others desirous of preferment. The first meeting of the Council was called for 24th January, but so few members attended that the meeting had to be adjourned until 19th February, when it took place in the Star Chamber. Oaths 241 were administered, two silver seals were ordered (and never paid for) at a cost of ￡12, and Captain John Mason was made "Admiral of their fleet" of busses. Differences of opinion soon arose in the Council, and the Society split up into two branches or associations, one under Weston (now Earl of Portland),-that "man of big looks and of a mean and abject spirit," as Clarendon describes him,-and after his death, under the Earl of Arundel; the other branch under the Earl of Pembroke,

obtained for them was so low that the loss amounted to ￡4261. This, according to the agents, was due to want of proper means of curing them (salt, casks, hoops, &c.), otherwise they said they might have obtained 1000 lasts or more. A great effort 242 was therefore put forth in the following year. Preparations were made to deal with 1500 lasts, and vessels were chartered to carry them from Stornoway to various Continental markets. But less than 443 lasts were cured in the second year; some were sent to Dantzic and fetched "m

ship of "one Thomas Lindsay, a fisherman of Crail," who pretended to be the deputy to the deputy of the Vice-Admiral of Scotland, were still less considerate. Lindsay "villified" their certificates, declared that King Charles had nothing to do with the Lewes, and vowed that "he would be the death of every Englishman on the island." He forcibly seized one of the vessels laden with 243 herrings which had gone ashore, on the ground that it was wreck

came across a Dutch-built buss, with a Dutch crew on board, they did not quite see why they should relinquish it because they were told it belonged to an English society; and the letters of "denization" which were provided by

and more importunate for help. Petitions were conveyed to him, and then "remonstrances." He was pointedly reminded that he was the originator and "Protector" of the Society; unless he "really" helped them the work must stop. But Charles was then unable either to compel the restitution of the captured busses or to induce his subjects to subscribe to the Society's funds. He did what he could. Pennington and the Warden of the Cinque Ports were ordered to seize Dunkirk ships to be sold for the benefit of the Society; he granted them a standing lottery, and issued a proclamation enjoining the strict observance of Lent, which might possibly help them by increasing the consumption of fish, and could at least do them no harm.

bers" should be flagrantly violated by the impatient Dutchman, with all the world looking on. And twelve days after the Council meeting this is just what Tromp did, and Charles's sovereignty of the seas vanished for ever. And the fishery scheme, "the Royal Fishery of Great Britain and Ireland," set agoing after