48 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



other, he may take cognizance hereof and do that which belongs to 

 his office aforesaid, and that the said Monsieur Reyner be condemned 

 and constrained to make due satisfaction to all the persons wronged 

 as aforesaid as, etc. [so far as he is able to do, and in his default 

 his said lord the King of France, by whom he was deputed to the said 

 office, and that after due satisfaction made for the said damages, 

 the said Monsieur Eeyner may be so duly punished for the vio- 

 lation of the said alliance that his punishment may be an example 

 to others in times to come. 1 ] Item, the said proctors require that 

 whereas according to the ancient laws, franchises and customs of 

 the realm of England, to the keeping whereof your said lord the 

 King and his ancestors Kings of England were wont to be bound 

 by their oaths. Their admirals of the sea of England with the 

 masters and mariners of ships of ports of the coast of England, 

 being in the armies of the said admirals, needed not to answer 

 before any justices of the Kings aforesaid concerning actions in 

 the sea abovesaid during their wars against their enemies. And 

 the said admiral of your said lord the King and many of the 

 masters and mariners of the ports aforesaid now being in his 

 army against the [their] enemies of Scotland and their helpers 

 and allies, by express commandment of your said lord the King, 

 are accused before you by people of Normandy and Brittany and 

 elsewhere concerning some actions in the said sea in time of truce 

 and since the peace confirmed between the said Kings of England 

 and France, and before the war begun between them as is said. 

 It may please you to surcease the process already commenced 

 against them and to forbear to commence a new one during the 

 war abovesaid, that they may have no cause to complain to your 

 said lord and to the prelates and nobles of his said realm, bound 

 by their oath to keep and maintain the said laws, franchises, and 

 customs. 



Selden alludes to this document as proving that the right of 

 dominion over the sea, and that ancient and confirmed by long 

 prescription, was in express terms here acknowledged by al- 

 most all the neighbouring nations to belong to England. 2 

 This is, however, not quite justified, because there is no record 

 at all to show any decision, or even whether the matter was 



1 The part within brackets is to be found on the membranes 1, 14d, and 15, 

 but not on 12. 



2 Mare Clausum, lib. ii. c. xxvii. Hall, in his excellent Treatise on International 

 Law (p. 141), and with reference apparently to this roll, says that exclusive dominion 

 over the English seas by the English king was acknowledged as early as 1299 (sic), 

 at a commission in Paris, by the representatives of the merchants and mariners of 

 the countries mentioned in the above document. 



