UNDER THE TUDORS 103 



The limits of the British seas, and the sovereignty per- 

 taining to them, were more fully described by Dr Dee some 

 years later in a long unpublished letter or treatise addressed to 

 Sir Edward Dyer, 1 who had apparently asked him for a fuller 

 statement of his views on the subject. In his book Dee said 

 little about the boundaries in the Channel, where the principle 

 of the mid-line was complicated by two circumstances the 

 claim of Elizabeth to the French crown, and the possession by 

 England of the Channel Islands. In his later treatise he says 

 that presupposing " for doctrine's sake " that Calais was in the 

 hands of Spain, and the northern coasts of Picardy and Nor- 

 mandy were appropriated by France (which was the case), then 

 the boundary must be drawn in the very middle of the Channel 

 between Dover and Calais, and then westwards in the middle 

 line between the opposite coasts of England and of Picardy and 

 Normandy, until it touched the middle of a straight line drawn 

 between Portland and the island of Alderney. In this region, 

 west of the line, inasmuch as the coasts of the Channel Islands 

 and the opposite coast of England belonged to the Queen, her 

 Majesty had "absolute, peculiar, and appropriate Sea Sovereignty 

 and Jurisdiction Royall." The western boundary of this area 

 of absolute sovereignty in the narrow seas coincided with a 

 line drawn from Start Point to an "island" that Dee calls 

 "Rocktow," which is unrepresented on charts, but which is 

 probably a phonetic synonym for " Roches Douvres," a group 

 of islets off the north coast of Brittany. 2 From the middle of 

 this line the boundary passed westwards, again midway between 

 the coasts of England and Brittany, until it touched the middle 

 of a third straight line drawn from the north-west part of 

 Ushant to about the Lizard. These were the limits on the 

 supposition above referred to; but, "speaking more boldly in 

 her Majesty's right," Dee declared that the whole sea between 



1 Two MS. copies exist, one bound up with Dee's copy of the General and Rare 

 Memorials in the British Museum, which was sent to Dyer with the MS., the 

 other in Harleian MSS. 249, fol. 95. The latter, which is a draft, is addressed 

 " To my very honorable frende Syr Edward Dyer, Knight," and a note inscribed on 

 it says, ' ' Written by Dr John Dee, out of whose library I bought it after his death 

 Ao Do 1625, S.D." The title on both MSS. is AAATTOKAPTI'A BPETTANIKH 4 : 

 Miscclanea qucedam extemporanca de Imperil Britannici lurisdictione in Mari ; 

 and both are dated 8th September 1597. 



2 Lat. 49 6' N., long. 2 49' W. 



