268 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



his conduct was regarded from despatches from Coke. Since 

 the Earl went to sea, wrote the bustling Secretary, the account 

 he had been able to give the king out of his despatches had 

 been only of a fall from his coach, and of the stay his fleet had 

 made in the Downs, then near St Helens, and thence of his 

 plying along the coast to Plymouth, where the Mayor had 

 advised him he was on Sunday, five days earlier. All this, 

 he said, gave his Majesty little satisfaction, who expected to 

 hear the fame of his acts in the open sea, whereof he had 

 committed the custody to his trust. And though the civil 

 answer sent by the French Vice - Admiral to the Mayor of 

 Weymouth l had been well taken, yet it would have been more 

 for the king's honour and the Earl's also if this office had been 

 done with due homage to the Earl. And this all the more 

 because there was a common report that the French had forced 

 some English merchant vessels to strike sail to them, and that 

 the French and Dutch had visited English ships, an act, said 

 Coke, of direct pretence to equal rights in our seas which the 

 Earl must not suffer; he must not allow English ships to be 

 visited by the men-of-war of any nation whatsoever, and he 

 must be careful to protect them from all wrongs. In par- 

 ticular and the request should have opened his eyes, if any 

 English merchant ships came from the Straits, Spain, or Por- 

 tugal, with Spanish coin or other commodities (for Dunkirk), 

 he must take care that no man go on board or interrupt them. 

 He should convoy English ships in the same way, and for the 

 honourable execution of his employment he should "strive to 

 keep the open sea." Coke concluded by telling him that he 

 " thus freely enlarged himself " chiefly by the direction of the 

 king, out of his own honour and interest. In another letter 

 to Viscount Conway, who was on board the Admiral's ship 

 and had written a note to Coke of their proceedings, he used 

 similar language. He did not want to hear of "misinfor- 

 mations," but of " noble effects " ; he had written to the Admiral 

 whereby he would "perceive that neither spending time in 

 harbour, nor at anchor, nor coasting along our shore, would 



1 The inhabitants of the coast were apprehensive of the French fleet, and the 

 Admiral sent a message to the Mayor offering to show his orders from the King of 

 France, which bound him to honour and respect everything that belonged to his 

 Majesty of Great Britain. State Papers, Dom., ccxci. 23. 



