INTRODUCTION 9 



rights were, moreover, recognised in numerous treaties with 

 other nations. 



Until the accession of the Stuarts indeed, any pretension 

 of England to a sovereignty in the sea had but little inter- 

 national importance. The custom of lowering the sail by 

 vessels encountering a king's ship, which probably, as above 

 described, originated in a practical way, had grown into a 

 ceremony in which the top-sails were dropped and the flag 

 hauled down ; but it is evident that this was done, even in 

 Tudor times, rather as a matter of " honour " and respect than 

 as an acknowledgment of maritime sovereignty. But after 

 the Stuarts came to the throne the claim of England to the 

 sovereignty of the sea became prominent in international 

 affairs. The doctrine may be said to have been introduced by 

 this dynasty and to have expired with it. One of the first 

 acts of James I. was to cause to be laid down on charts the 

 precise limits of the bays or " chambers " along the English 

 coast, within which all hostile actions of belligerents were 

 prohibited. This sensible proceeding, which had reference to 

 the continuance of the war between the United Provinces and 

 Spain (from which James had himself withdrawn), is not to be 

 regarded as in any sense an assertion of maritime sovereignty 

 or jurisdiction beyond what was customary ; and it does not 

 appear that any other prince or state contested the right of the 

 king to treat these bays and arms of the sea as territorial in 

 respect of neutrality. The limits of the "King's Chambers" 

 were fixed by a jury of thirteen skilled men, appointed by the 

 Trinity House, according to their knowledge of what had been 

 the custom in the past ; and there is little doubt that the limits 

 they adopted merely defined in an exact way what was pre- 

 viously held, to be the waters under the special jurisdiction of 

 the crown, or, in other words, the " Sea of England," though 

 the latter doubtless included, at times at least, the Straits of 

 Dover and perhaps the Channel as well. 



But James went further than this. In 1609 he issued a 

 proclamation in which he laid claim to the fisheries along the 

 British and Irish coasts, and prohibited all foreigners from 

 fishing on those coasts until they had demanded and obtained 

 licenses from him or his commissioners. This policy of 

 exclusive fishing, though in complete agreement with the 



