110 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



the Danes used stronger measures. In 1599 several English 



" O 



vessels were seized or molested. Five ships of Kingston-upon- 

 Hull, while at Wardhouse for fish, as had been their custom 

 for years, were met there by a small Danish fleet with the 

 King of Denmark himself on board, who caused them to be seized 

 as prize, took all the goods and effects of the Englishmen, beat 

 some of the crew and put them in irons, and finally carried off 

 four of the ships. 1 Other English vessels were driven away 

 from their fishing on the high seas around Iceland, although 

 far from the coast. 



Elizabeth complained strongly of these acts of injustice as . 

 being contrary to the Law of Nations. 2 A Danish ambassador 

 who came to England at this time tried to justify the pro- 

 hibitions by reference to the treaty of 1583, by which permis- 

 sion had been given to English vessels to navigate the northern 

 seas to Russia, but which did not grant any authority for fish- 

 ing ; and he requested the Queen to publish an edict inhibiting 

 her subjects from fishing at Iceland or Wardhouse without the 

 license of the King of Denmark, declaring that many English 

 vessels persisted in carrying on the fishery without any license, 

 contrary to the treaties. Reliance was also placed on an old 

 treaty made in 1468 between Edward IV. and Christian I., in 

 which it was stipulated that English vessels should not go 

 farther north on the coast of Norway than Hagaland. 3 In the 

 following year ambassadors were dispatched from England to 

 negotiate an arrangement concerning the tolls levied at the 

 Sound and the freedom of the northern seas for English fisher- 

 men, 4 and in a paper of 1602 conveying instructions to the 

 ambassadors at Bremen we find an admirable exposition of the 

 principles of the freedom of the seas. 



After claiming that the treaties of 1490 and 1523 had given 

 liberty of fishing to the English, the ambassadors were to- 

 kept and wintered in the ports there, on payment of the customs and abstaining 

 from trading, as well as freedom of fishing except where prohibited by royal 

 edicts, reserved for the king's use, or granted to others. Brit. Mus. Vespasian MSS.,. 

 C. xiv. fol. 21. 



1 Complaint of the Mayor of Kingston -upon -Hull to Cecil, 2nd July 1599. 

 State Papers, Dom., cclxxi. 68. 



* Fcedera, xvi. 395, 432. 



3 Brit. Mus. Vespasian MSS., C. xiv. fol. 22. Fatdera, xvi. 431. 



4 State Papers, Dom., cclxxiv. 



