80 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



treaty, which it merely confirmed. " With regard to the 

 fishery and the free use of the sea," it said, " that which was 

 made, concluded, and agreed upon by the foresaid treaty 

 made at Binche on the 19th February 1541, between the 

 Most Serene Queen Mary (of Hungary and Bohemia) and the 

 aforesaid ambassador of the King of Scotland, shall be truly 

 and sincerely observed." 1 This treaty, which was called in 

 the Netherlands "celebre foedus," may be regarded as the 

 Scottish counterpart of the Intercursus Magnus, concluded 

 with England in 1496. The older Dutch writers, as Wagenaar 

 and Plegher, professed to regard it as having guaranteed 

 freedom of fishery on the coasts of Scotland in the same way ; 

 and it was cited by the Dutch ambassadors in the negotiations 

 concerning the fishery in the seventeenth century in this sense. 

 But in the English treaty freedom of fishing all over the sea 

 was expressly covenanted in the most plain and explicit 

 language, while the treaty with Scotland in 1550 merely 



A confirmed a previous treaty which certainly did not confer 

 .liberty of fishing, though the phrase " the free use of the sea," 



| now introduced in the preamble, might at first sight imply 

 the contrary. Nothing more appears to have been heard of 

 the proposal of the Scottish ambassador in 1541, which had 

 been deferred for further deliberation. 2 



A treaty which took a still more important place in the 

 subsequent disputes and negotiations respecting mare clausum 

 and unlicensed fishing, and upon which the Dutch relied even 

 more, at least in the reign of James, than they did on the 

 Intercursus Magnus, was concluded with King James VI. in 



1 Dumont, IV. iii. 12. " Circa piscationem vero ac liberum usum maris, ea 

 quaj per supradictum Tractatum anno 1541, 19 Februarii, Binchii inter Sereuissi- 

 mam Reginam Mariana et supra nominatum Oratorem Regis Scotiae inita, conclusa 

 ac conventa fuerint debite ac sincere observari debebunt." 



2 In 1618, when there was much searching of the records in Scotland (where 

 they were kept in a most careless and slovenly manner) to establish the claim of 

 James to the fishing in connection with the approaching visit of the Dutch am- 

 bassadors, the Earl of Dunfermline wrote to Lord Binning in London, forwarding 

 a copy, in French, of the treaty of 1541, and said, "Albeit ye will perseive by the 

 last article of the same annent the propositions of the fishings, the Queen of 

 Hungarie and Bohemia, who was for the Emperour Governant of the Low 

 Countries we call her commonly Frow Mary in that takes her to further 

 advysement with her Councill, and no thing resolved if any further proceeding ; 

 I pray God ye may find it othenvayes." MSS. Advoc. Lib., 31. 2. 16. 



