16 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



Venice assumed maritime dominion, for the Adriatic is a 

 narrow landlocked gulf whose boundaries were obvious. It 

 was much the same with the claims put forward by Denmark. 

 Both shores of the Sound were in her possession, and both 

 coasts of the northern or Norwegian Sea. But with our island, 

 washed everywhere by the waves, no such natural boundaries 

 existed. Except when the crown possessed the opposite coast 

 of France, England was isolated ; and the Sea of England, so 

 frequently referred to from the thirteenth to the seventeenth 

 century, like the British Seas later, remained only a political 

 expression, not officially described or represented on charts. 

 Reasons have been given above for supposing that the Sea of 

 England prior to the accession of the Stuarts included the 

 waters of the King's Chambers as defined by James, and 

 perhaps also at times the Straits of Dover and it may be 

 the Channel, though precise evidence is lacking. In the 

 seventeenth century, when the term the British Seas was 

 commonly used, it is clear that the boundaries assigned to, 

 them were as vague and fluctuating as the sovereignty exer-. 

 cised over them. They expanded and contracted according 

 to the naval power at the time and the condition of inter- 

 national affairs. Sometimes the whole sea up to the con- 

 tinental coasts was claimed as British ; at other times the- 

 claim was restricted to the Channel or the Straits of Dover,, 

 and to a more or less narrow but undefined belt along the 

 coast ; not unfrequently it seemed to vanish altogether, at 

 least as a thing to be regarded in international affairs. In 

 the earlier records in which the sea is referred to in connection 

 with English law or jurisdiction, it is evident that a certain 

 part was held to appertain to the crown. In an article in 

 the Black Book of tlie Admiralty which is ascribed to the 

 reign of Henry I. (A.D. 1100-1135), reference is made to "the 

 sea belonging to the king of England " ; in John's ordinance 

 of 1201 the term was simply "the sea" (la mery, but very 

 commonly it was " our sea," or the " sea of England," or " the 

 sea under the dominion or jurisdiction of the king " ; while 

 the declaration is often made that the kings of England 



o o 



are lords of the sea or of the English sea. 1 Similar phrases 



1 "II sera barmy hors dAngleterre et de mer appartenant au roi dAngleterre, "~ 

 Article in Slack Book, i. 58, ascribed to the reign of Henry I, (A.D. 1100-1135) \_ 



