JAMES I. : DISPUTES WITH THE DUTCH 201 



were close to the king's heart, and many people whom they 

 had met had shown much irritation in speaking of them, and 

 had even advised forcible measures against the Dutch. By this 

 time the Republic was again at war with Spain, while Prince 

 Charles and Buckingham had gone to Madrid to woo the 

 Infanta : it would be prudent to do all that could reasonably 

 be done to cultivate good relations with England. The States 

 therefore wrote to Sir Noel Caron telling him they had resolved 

 to take the fishery matter into serious consideration, and their 

 efforts were directed to the removal of all cause of complaint in 

 Scotland. Two edicts had already been issued one, in 1618, 

 prohibiting any wrong from being committed on Scottish sub- 

 jects ; the other, in 1620, ordering their fishermen to refrain from 

 taking herrings within the rocks and reefs of Shetland, Ireland, 

 and Norway, on the ground that such herrings were inferior 

 in quality and unfit for curing. 1 The technical reason given in 

 the latter for keeping away from the coast had some founda- 

 tion, but the real motive was probably to redeem the pledge 

 which the States had given in the year before (see p. 193). 

 What the States now did was to renew the edict of 1618, and, 

 after a conference between the ambassadors who had returned 

 from England and the College or Board of Fisheries, to issue 

 orders that the herring-busses were not to go too near the coast 

 of Scotland, which had, indeed, been agreed upon some years 

 earlier, so as to avoid causing inconvenience to the native 

 fishermen. 2 



There is evidence that the warning which the ambassadors 

 gave to the States-General as to the feeling in England was 

 well founded, and there occurred at this time, both in England 

 and Scotland, a revival of proposals aimed against the Hol- 

 landers. The Scottish burghs complained of the " heavie hurt " 

 they sustained owing to the English and the " Fleymings," who 

 had lately taken up the " trade of fishing " in the North and 

 West Isles, by which was probably meant the curing of herrings 

 and other fish. The Council accordingly ordained that the 

 Islesmen should "suffer no strangers to come within their 



o 



1 j2 May 1620. Verboth van Hariugh binnen de Rlippen van Yerlandt, Hitlandt, 

 oft Noorwegen te vangen. Groot Placaet-Soeck, i. 752. 



2 ^ June 1623, Groot Placaet-Boeck, i. 708. Muller, op. cit., 206. 



