CHARLES I. : THE NAVY 255 



an equivalent in money. 1 In similar language Coventry told 

 the Judges in 1635 that the dominion of the sea, "as it was 

 an ancient and undoubted right of the crown of England," 

 so was it the best security of the land, which was impregnable 

 so long as the sea was well guarded ; and that those subjects 

 "whose minds are most fixed upon the honour of the king 

 and country" would not endure that it should be either lost 

 or diminished. The safety of the realm, he said, required 

 the dominion of the sea to be kept and the sea guarded : " The 

 wooden- walls are the best walls of the kingdom ; and if the 

 riches and wealth of the kingdom be respected, for that cause 

 the dominion of the sea ought to be respected ; for else what 

 would become of our wool, lead, and the like, the price where- 

 of would fall to nothing if others should be masters of the 

 sea ? " If the dominion of the sea was lost, trade and commerce 

 would be lost by being placed at the mercy of the neighbouring 

 nations, and the whole kingdom would suffer. 2 



In carrying out his Spanish policy, Charles's first task was 

 to deceive his Council. 3 For this purpose no better agent 

 could have been chosen than Coke, who, as we have seen, 

 was by this time enthusiastic about the sovereignty of the 

 seas, and was known to be hostile to Spain. He was accord- 

 ingly directed to prepare a report for the king on the un- 

 satisfactory relations between England and foreign countries, 

 and the need of providing a fleet. In the long statement he 

 drew up, Coke described how the credit of the country had 

 been lowered abroad, and innumerable wrongs and insolences 

 suffered in various parts of the world, because of the want 

 of a sufficient navy to make our name respected. "All free 

 trade," he wrote, " is interrupted " ; within the king's own 

 chambers squadrons of men-of-war from Biscay and Flanders 

 took not only Hollanders, but Frenchmen, Hamburgers, and 

 his Majesty's subjects. From he Hollanders " we suffered 

 most by their intrusion on our fishings and pretence of Mare 



1 Rushworth, Collections, ii. 257. State Papers, Dom., cclxxvi. 64. Compare the 

 language of Edward III. in 1336, p. 36. 



2 Rushwortb, ii. 294, 353. Compare Windebank's notes of the speech, State 

 Papers, Dom., ccxc. 108 : "The Judges at the Assizes to let the people know his 

 Majesty's care to preserve the ancient dominion (of the seas)." 



3 Gardiner, op. cit. 



