112 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



agree that her subjects should be absolutely forbidden the seas, 

 ports, or coasts in question for the use of fishing, " negotiation," 

 and safety ; she had never yielded any such right to Spain and 

 Portugal for the Indian seas and havens. Nevertheless, if the 

 King of Denmark for special reasons desired that she should 

 " yield to some renewing of license," or that " some special place 

 upon some special occasion " should be reserved for his own use, 

 they were in their discretion and for the sake of amity to 

 agree; but the manner of obtaining the license was to be 

 defined in such a way that it would not be prejudicial to her 

 subjects, nor "to the effect of some sufficient fishing," and the 

 licenses were to be issued in the subject's name rather than in 

 hers or the king's. 1 Denmark continued to insist upon her 

 right to the trade with Iceland, and to the fisheries in the 

 northern seas, 2 which became of greater importance early 

 in the next century when the whale-fishing was established 

 at Spitzbergen. The Danish claim to a very wide zone of 

 territorial sea around Iceland was enforced until quite recent 

 times. 



The dispute between Elizabeth and the King of Denmark as 

 to the rights of fishing in the North Atlantic bears a strong 

 resemblance to that between James I. and the Dutch, which 

 began a few years later, when the positions, however, were 

 reversed, James insisting on his right to the fishery on the 

 British coasts, while the Dutch used the arguments of Elizabeth 

 in favour of the complete freedom of the seas. One difference 

 in the two cases may be pointed out. England by agreeing to 

 take licenses from the King of Denmark, in the treaties of 

 1490 and 1523, acknowledged the sovereignty of Denmark in 

 northern waters, whereas the Netherlands never acknowledged 

 the sovereignty of England in the British seas, within which 

 the liberty of fishing had been expressly granted to them by 

 the Burgundy treaties. 



Meantime the condition of the English fisheries had not 

 much improve^, either under the restrictive legislation respect- 

 ing imports and exports of fish or by the measures taken to 

 enforce the political lent. The liberty given by the Act of 

 1571 for the importation of cod-fish was opposed to the interests 

 of the Iceland trade, and gave rise to abuses. Great quantities 



1 Fcedera, xvi. 433. - Brit. Mus. Lansdowne MSS., 142, fol. 380. 



