THE JURIDICAL CONTROVERSIES 365 



this Kingdome," was completed in 1633, but it was not pub- 

 lished until 1651, when the question of maritime rights had 

 been again raised between England and the United Provinces. 1 

 It is probable that the king discarded it for Mare Clausum, 

 the incomparably superior treatise by Selden, of the existence 

 of which he was probably made aware as early at least as 1634. 

 Nevertheless, Boroughs' work was the first successful attempt 

 to bring together a great array of historical facts in favour of 

 the English claims to the dominion of the seas. Like Selden, 

 he begins with the Eoman occupation of Britain in order to 

 show that from the first the " British nation had the supreme 

 power of command of their own seas " ; and, moreover, he 

 gives all the more important documents to be found in Mare 

 Clausum, the ordinance of John, the rolls of Edward I. and 

 Edward III., the charter of Edgar, the Laws of Oleron, com- 

 missions to the admirals, safe-conducts, and extracts from the 

 Burgundy treaties. He is very emphatic as to the king's right 

 to the dominion of the seas and the fisheries. " That princes," 

 he says, " may have an exclusive property in the soveraigntie 

 of the severall parts of the sea, and in the navigation, fishing 

 and shores thereof, is so evidently true by way of fact, as no 

 man that is not desperately impudent can deny it " ; and no 

 doubt for the benefit of the Dutch he adds that "if any 

 nation usurp our rights, the king has a good sword to defend 

 them." He asserts that the kings of England in succession 

 had the " sovereign guard " of the seas ; had imposed taxes and 

 tributes upon all ships navigating or fishing in them ; and had 

 closed and opened the passage through them to strangers, as 

 they saw cause. The sovereignty of the sea he calls "the 

 most precious jewel of his Majesty's crown, next (after God) 

 the principal means of our wealth and safety." A considerable 



1 The original Latin copy bearing the date 1633 (confirmed by internal evidence) 

 is in the British Museum (Harleian MSS., 4314). It is entitled Dominium Maris 

 Britannici assertum ex Archiuis Historiis et Municipalibus Regni Legibus, per 

 D. Johannem de Burgo, 1633 ; it is dedicated to the king. Other MS. copies in 

 the British Museum are Sari., 1323 ; Lansdowne, 806, f. 40 ; Sloane, 1696 ; and 

 Harl., 4626, the latter being very imperfect. There is also a fine copy in English 

 i among the State Papers, dated 1637, with this addition to the title: "Also a 

 Perticuler Relation concerning the Inastimable Riches and Commodities of the 

 British Seas" (State Papers, Dom., ccclxxvi. 68). It was republished in the third 

 edition of Malyne's Consuetudo vel Lex Mercatoria, in 1686. 



