UNDER THE TUDORS 111 



declare that the Law of Nations allowed fishing in the sea 



o 



everywhere, as well as the use of the ports and coasts of princes 

 in amity for traffic and the avoiding of the dangers from 

 tempests ; so that if the English were debarred from the enjoy- 

 ment of those common rights, it could only be in virtue of an 

 agreement. But there was no such contract or agreement. On 

 the contrary, by denying English subjects the right of fishing 

 in the sea and despoiling them for so doing, the King of Den- 

 mark had injured them against the Law of Nations and the 

 terms of the treaty. Moreover, with respect to the licenses the 

 Queen declared that if her predecessors had " yielded " to take 

 them, "it was more than by the Law of Nations was due"; 

 they might have yielded for some special consideration ; and in 

 any case it could not be concluded that the right of fishing, 

 "due by the Law of Nations," failed because licenses were 

 omitted. As to the claim to the sea between Iceland and Nor- 

 way on the ground that the King of Denmark possessed both 

 coasts the argument used by Dee and Plowden for the domin- 

 ion of the English crown in the Channel Elizabeth was 

 emphatic. If it was supposed thereby " that for the property 

 of a whole sea it is sufficient to have the banks on both sides, 

 as in rivers," the ambassadors were to declare "that though 

 property of sea, in some small distance from the coast, may 

 yield some oversight and jurisdiction, yet use not princes to 

 forbid passage or fishing, as is well seen in our Seas of England 

 and Ireland, and in the Adriatic Sea of the Venetians, where 

 we in ours and they in theirs, have property of command ; and 

 yet neither we in ours nor they in theirs, offer to forbid fishing, 

 much less passage to ships of merchandise ; the which by Law 

 of Nations cannot be forbidden ordinarily ; neither is it to be 

 allowed that property of sea in whatsoever distance is con- 

 sequent to the banks, as it happeneth in small rivers. For 

 then, by like reason, the half of every sea should be appro- 

 priated to the next bank, as it happeneth in small rivers, where 

 the banks are proper to divers men ; whereby it would follow 

 that no sea were common, the banks on every side being in the 

 property of one or other ; wherefore there remain eth no colour 

 that Denmark may claim any property in those seas, to forbid 

 passage or fishing therein." 



The ambassadors were to declare that the Queen could not 



