THE JURIDICAL CONTROVERSIES 359 



of the capture of Spanish vessels by the Dutch had to be 

 determined. His pleadings and the decisions in these and 

 similar cases were collected and published in 1613, after 

 his death, and they form, according to Wheaton, the earliest 

 reports of judicial decisions on maritime law published in 

 Europe. 1 



In discharging his duties in the English Prize Courts, it often 

 fell to the lot of Gentilis to deal with the jurisdiction of 

 England in the seas, for while he held office war existed 

 between Spain and the United Provinces, and Spanish ships 

 were frequently taken by the Dutch in the neighbourhood of 

 the British coasts. Of course, captures made in the King's 

 Chambers after the proclamation of 1604 (see p. 119) were not 

 good prize, and were restored. 2 But when a Spanish vessel 

 was seized clearly outside the limits of the King's Chambers, 

 Gentilis argued that it was not good prize, because, first, the 

 treaty of peace 3 between Spain and England provided that the 

 subjects of either were to be protected in all places throughout 

 the dominions of the other ; and, second, the dominion of the 

 King of England extended far into the neighbouring seas. 

 He seemed to stretch the joint sovereignty of Spain and England 

 as far as America, pointing out that the southern coasts of 

 Ireland were opposite to Spain, and the western coasts were 



1 Alberici Gentilis Juriscons. Hispanicce Advocationis, Libri Duo, Hanovise, 1613. 

 Gentilis was bora in 1551 and died, like Craig, in 1608. His most important works 

 were De Jure Belli (1588) and De Legationibus. Professor Holland has given an 

 account of his life and works in An Inaugural Lecture on Albericus Gentilis, 

 delivered at All Souls College, 1874. See also Alessandro de Giorgi, Delia Vita e 

 delle opere di Alberico Gentili, Parma, 1876. 



2 In a letter from the Earl of Salisbury to Sir Thomas Lake in 1606, referring 

 to a dispute between the Dutch and Spanish ambassadors about prizes taken in the 

 Narrow Sea, it is said that the king, in putting in force his proclamation about the 

 recall of subjects in foreign service (p. 119), dealt as follows : if a prize had been 

 taken and brought into the English limits (chambers), and Englishmen were aboard 

 the ta.ker, he dealt with them as having offended against his proclamation, and also 

 released the ship as not being good prize. Even more, proceeds the Earl, " although 

 there be no English but all Flemings, the king takes all from them and restores 

 it [the ship] wherein, tho' in effect it undoes the end of the States warr by sea, 

 because they have no way to come home but by the narrow seas, where the least 

 wind that can blow them can hardly keepe themself from the English coasts, 

 and so a partiall jugement of \ a mile more or less in a wyde sea looseth or 

 winneth their right." State Papers, Dom., xviii. 22. 



3 In 1604, between King James and Philip III. and the Archdukes. Dumont 

 Corps Diplomatique, V. ii. 34. 



