26 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



of sea -beasts (walrus), first tries to show that the passage 

 applied also to the Britons, and then argues that there must 

 have been a great fishing and a large number of fishermen 

 to provide sufficient material, the conclusion being that the 

 British seas were "occupied" by navigation and fishing. In 

 reality the walrus tusks came by barter from the north, and 

 there is little or no evidence to show that the ancient Britons 

 fished for anything except salmon. At the utmost it may be 

 said that the Romans were masters of the British seas, or parts 

 of them, in a military sense. During their occupation of Britain 

 they were also in possession of Gaul, and thus held both coasts 

 of the narrow sea, and no doubt exercised authority over it, as 

 the Norman and Angevin kings under similar circumstances 

 did later. 



Throughout the Anglo-Saxon period of English history 

 evidence of the existence of a sovereignty over the adjoining 

 sea, or even of a pretension to it, is almost as unsatisfactory. 

 Here again the authors who championed mare clausum pro- 

 fessed to find in very ordinary events arguments in favour of 

 their case. The seafaring habits of the Teutonic invaders and 

 their daring and valour they were described by the Roman 

 poet as sea-wolves, fierce and cunning, with the sea as their 

 school of war and the storm their friend were regarded as 

 proof that they possessed maritime sovereignty after their 

 conquest of Britain. The Danegeld, a tax which was originally 

 levied as a means of buying off the Danes, or of providing a 

 fleet to resist their attacks, was thought by Selden to show the 

 same thing. 1 So also with the fleets collected by Alfred, Edgar, 

 Ethelred, and other English kings to oppose the invasions of 

 the Northmen, they were believed to have secured and main- 

 tained dominion over the sea. Even the beautiful lesson in 

 humility which Cnut desired to convey to his courtiers when, 

 seated in regal pomp on the seashore, he vainly commanded the 

 , inflowing tide to stay its course at his behest, was seized on for 

 the same end. " Thou, O sea," said the great king, " art under 

 my dominion, like the land on which I sit ; nor is there any one 

 who dares resist my commands. I therefore enjoin thee not to 

 come up on my land, nor to presume to wet the feet or gar- 

 ments of thy lord." In these words Selden professed to find 



1 Mare Clausum, lib. ii. c. xi. 



