INTRODUCTION 1 7 



were used in later times. Thus Queen Elizabeth spoke of 

 "our seas of England and Ireland," and James of "his seas" 

 and " streams," as did also Charles I. ; and such terms as 

 " the adjacent sea," the " environing seas," the " ambient seas," 

 and "the seas flowing about the isle," were not uncommonly 

 used. 1 Still more common and scarcely more definite was 

 the term the " Four Seas of England," or simply the " Four Seas," 

 which was employed as early as the thirteenth century in 

 law books, statutes, and official documents, as indicating the 

 boundaries of the realm in connection with legal proceedings. 

 Within the four seas (infra or intra quatuor maria ; dedeinz 

 les quaters meers) was to be within the realm; and without 

 the four seas (extra quatuor 'maria, oultre les quaters meers) 

 was to be without the realm. 2 



In the seventeenth century, when the English pretension to 

 the sovereignty of the sea was at its height, Coke, Selden, 

 Prynne, and others maintained that to be on the four seas, 

 as well as within them, was to be within the realm, under 

 the jurisdiction of the Admiralty, and this doctrine was held, 

 at least formally, as late as 1830. 3 Rarely the " Three Seas " 

 are mentioned, 4 and less rarely the " Two Seas," by which was 



"Ad piscandum in mari uostro, prope Jernemuth," Edward I., A.D. 1295, Fcedera, 

 ii. 688; "la meer Dengleterre," A.D. 1306, Chanc. Rolls, Misc. Treaties, &c., Bd. 

 14, No. 15 ; "super mare Anglicanum" (Rot. Pat., 14 Edw. II., pt. ii. m. 26, d.), 

 A.D. 1320, &c., &c. ; "partibus maris infra regnum nostrum Anglise," A.D. 1317, 

 Edw. II., Fcedera, iii. 469 ; A.D. 1406, Hen. IV., giving freedom of fishing, 

 "ubicumque supra mare, per et infra dominia, jurisdictiones, et districtus 

 nostra " ; "Seigneur de la mer," A.D. 1320, Fcedera, iii. 852; "reges Anglise 

 domini maris Anglican! circumquaque," A.D. 1336, Rot. Scot., i. 442; " domini 

 maris et transmarini passagii," A.D. 1336, Fcedera, iv. 721 ; "le roi de la mier," 

 A.D. 1372, Rot. Parl., ii. 311 ; "seigneurs del meer," A.D. 1420, ibid., iv. 126, 

 &c. , &c. 



1 Fcedera, xvi. 395 ; State Papers, Dom. 1604, 11, 40 ; Fcedera, xix. 211 ; Libelle 

 of Enylyshe Polycye ; Dee, General and Rare Memorials, 6 ; State Papers, Dom. 

 1662, 66, 50, "It is a fundamental Maxime of England, that the sea flowing about 

 the Isle of Great Britaine is of the same dominion with the isle " ; " the dominion 

 of the ambient seas." 



2 Rot. Escheat., 41 Hen. III., A.D. 1259, referred to by Coke, 1. 107 ; Bracton, 

 Leyibus et Consuetudinibus Anglice, lib. v. c. xxx. fol. 437 (A.D. circa 1259) ; 

 Statutes of the Realm, 18 Edw. I. Stat. 4 (A.D. 1290) ; Rot. ParL, 13 Ric. II., "deinz 

 les quatre miers Dengleterre," &c. 



3 Hall, On the Rii/hts of the Croitm in the Sea Shores of the Realm, p. 1. 



4 "The guardian of his Majesty's three seas" (A.D. 1607). Ccesar Papers, MS. 

 Brit. Mus. Lansd., 142, fol. 373. 



B 



