THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 475 



intent on home affairs, was not at leisure to resent. The 

 events of 1640 utterly broke the king's power to make 

 himself respected abroad, and the impending fall of the 

 House of Stuart put an end, for a long period, to open 

 contestation between the two nations as regards the right 

 to fishery in the North Sea. Under Cromwell, other and 

 still more important questions than that of the free sea 

 fishery were at issue between the two then greatest naval 

 powers of Europe ; and their next collisions were the 

 beginning of that series of naval wars, the effects of which 

 upon the Dutch sea fisheries have already been described 

 in former chapters. Nor does the " Dominium Maris " 

 question, as between Great Britain and the Dutch 

 Republic, appear to have told upon the actual state of 

 the fishery in later years, though it continued for some 

 time to influence the diplomatical relations between the 

 two countries, especially in 1661, when British influence 

 considerably retarded the conclusion of a treaty between 

 France and the Republic, by which the former power 

 engaged to protect the latter's fishermen. 



Besides England, Denmark has at several periods pre- 

 tended to " Dominium Maris," in the shape of a fishing 

 monopoly within a certain range from the shores of Green- 

 land, Iceland, and Spitzbergen. The Danish claims never 

 had anything like the importance of the British ; for, 

 besides being preferred by a power much less formidable, 

 they bore exclusively upon two minor branches of sea 

 fishery, viz. the whale and the cod-fish business. Still, as 

 Denmark more than once actually interfered with Dutch 

 fishery in virtue of these claims, they are entitled to a 

 brief mention in these pages. 



The first instance I have found of controversies on 



