HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF THE TERRITORIAL SEA 553 



limits of jurisdiction were better defined, but still, in many 

 cases, without precision. Within the King's Chambers, as 

 specified by James I. in 1604, "or other places of our dominion, 

 or so near to any of our said ports, or havens, as may be reason- 

 ably construed to be within that title, limit, or precinct," the 

 hostile acts of belligerents, captures of the enemy's vessels, and 

 the hovering of foreign ships of war were forbidden. The 

 injunction with respect to the neutral waters was renewed in 

 1633, 1668, and 1683, and it was in no case confined strictly 

 to the "chambers." In the proclamations of 1668 and 1683, 

 which were drawn up by Sir Leoline Jenkins, the definition 

 was merely " within our ports, havens, roads, and creeks, as also 

 in every other place or tract at sea that may be reasonably 

 construed to be within any of these denominations, limits, or 

 precincts." l These limits were upheld by the decisions of the 

 High Court of Admiralty during the greater part of the century. 

 Sir Leoline Jenkins, it may be noted, although in questions of 

 international policy advocating the most extreme pretensions 

 of the English crown to the sovereignty of the seas, was careful 

 in his judicial decisions to restrict jurisdiction within the terms 

 of the royal proclamations. If a capture was made in one of 

 the chambers or beyond them by a foreign privateer which had 

 issued from an English port and had been hovering in the 

 neighbourhood, the vessel was ordered to be restored. So also 

 if the prize was taken, in any case, outside a chamber, but near 

 enough the coast to be " reasonably construed " to be within the 

 king's jurisdiction. This usually happened on the east coast, 

 where the chambers were small. In one such case the vessel 

 was taken between half a league and one league off Orfordness 

 (the headland of a chamber) ; in another instance the vessel 

 was seized eight leagues at sea off Harwich, and presumably 

 four leagues from the boundary of the nearest chamber. 2 



1 State Papers, Dom., Chas. II., ccxxxiv. 112, 113, 8th Feb. 166g. Brit. Mu*. 

 Add. MSS., 30,221, fol. 64, 12th March 1683. 



2 Wynne, Life of Sir Leoline Jenkins, ii. 727, 732, 755, 780, 783. In reporting 

 to the king in one case, in which he found the capture was made in the Channel 

 beyond the limits of a chamber, Jenkins says : " However the truth be as to the 

 chamber, 'tis certain the seizure was made in your Majesty's seas : but so it is, 

 that notwithstanding your Majesty's undoubted right of dominion and protec- 

 tion in these seas, strangers do hold themselves, if not permitted, yet excused for 

 such hostilities, when they are acted at a due distance from your Majesty's ports, 



