292 



THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



in the course of the negotiations about the Fishery Society, re- 

 peatedly insisted that the unwelcome Hollander should be driven 

 from their seas (see pp. 227, 234). As early indeed as 1630 

 rumours were rife in Paris that a fleet of fifteen English ships, 

 under the command of Sir Kenelm Digby, was to be equipped 

 for this purpose ; l and there were signs from other quarters 

 of what was impending. In 1634 Sir Nicholas Halse addressed 

 a treatise to the king on Dutch trade and fisheries, like those 

 so profusely bestowed on James, in which he drew a lively 

 picture of the ills which arose from their predominance. The 

 yearly profit derived by the Hollanders from their fishing in 

 the British seas he placed at 6,000,000 sterling, which enabled 

 them to maintain their wars ; and yet they were so ungrateful 

 as to say that England would never be well governed until 

 they had the governing of it. He recommended that the 

 Hollanders should be licensed to enjoy half the fishings, a 

 course which he said would make Charles the most powerful 

 sovereign in Christendom, superlatives and hyperbole never 

 being stinted in such forecastings. 2 Then a very influential 

 body, the Merchant Adventurers, exasperated by certain 

 measures taken by Holland and the States - General with 

 respect to their staple at Amsterdam, petitioned the Council 

 to retaliate, and among their retributory suggestions was the 

 prohibition of the Hollanders from fishing on the British coasts 

 or drying their nets on the English shore. 3 It would appear 

 indeed that originally one of the principal ostensible objects 

 of the fleet of 1635 was to force licenses on the Dutch. Thus 

 Nicholas, the Secretary to the Admiralty, who was not in the 

 secret of the Spanish negotiations, in a memorandum drawn up 

 in that year, suggested that the duties of the fleet should be 

 the suppression of piracy about the mouth of the Straits, and 

 the establishment of the king's rights to the fishings in the 

 eastern and northern seas. 4 



The course upon which Charles had now embarked in refer- 



1 Rowland Woodward to Francis Windebank, 16th December 1630. State Papers, 

 Dom., clxxvii. 13. The writer said he " much feared the event if it should be put 

 in execution." 



2 Ibid., cclxxix. 67. 



* Petition of the Governor, Assistants, and Fellowship of the Merchant Adven- 

 turers of England to the Council. Ibid., cclxxxix. 91. 

 4 Ibid., cclxxxv. 84. 





