36 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



though it may also have implied the idea of sovereign juris- 

 diction. Nearly a century earlier than the above petition 

 we find the same title used by Edward III., who is peculiarly 

 identified with the naval glory of England, and he too refers 

 to his progenitors as having been lords of the sea. In a 

 mandate to his admirals in 1336, the king, after stating 

 that twenty-six galleys of the enemy were reported to be 

 on the coasts of Brittany and Normandy, said : " We, calling 

 to mind that our progenitors, the Kings of England, were 

 Lords of the English sea on every side, and also defenders 

 against the invasions of enemies before these times; and it 

 would greatly grieve us if our royal honour in such defence 

 should be lost or in any way diminished in our time, which 

 God forbid, and being desirous with the help of God to 

 obviate such dangers and to provide for the safety and defence 

 of our realm and people, and to restrain the malice of our 

 enemies : We strictly require and charge you " to proceed 

 against the galleys, &C. 1 Later in the same year, in a com- 

 mission to certain nobles, prelates, and the Warden of the 

 Cinque Ports respecting measures to be taken against the 

 Scottish fleet, which was attacking merchant and other ships, 

 and had ravaged Guernsey and Jersey, the king desired it to be 

 remembered that his progenitors the kings of England, in 

 similar disturbances between them and other lords of foreign 

 lands, were in all bygone times "lords of the sea and of the 

 passage across the sea," and he would be much afflicted if his 

 royal honour should be in his time impaired. 2 These declar- 

 ations, made in the first half of the fourteenth century, indicate 

 clearly enough at least the pretension to special interest and 

 jurisdiction in the narrow sea and the Straits of Dover on the 

 part of the earlier kings. No English king deserved the title of 

 Lord of the Sea better than Edward III. Only a few years after 

 the above missives were written he gained the memorable 

 victory over the French in the battle of Sluys, and in 1350 the 



1 Rotvli Scotice, i. 442, " Nos advertentes quod progenitores nostri reges Anglife 

 Domini Maria Anglicani circumquaque et etiam defensores contra hostium inva- 

 siones ante hsec tempora extiterint," &c. Part of the language of this mandate 

 was copied by Charles I. in his ship-money writs. See p. 211. 



2 Fcedera, iv. 722. " Consideratio etiam quod progenitores nostri, Reges Angliae, 

 in hujusmodi turbationibus, inter ipsos et alios terrarum exterarum dominos motis* 

 domini maris et transmarini passagii, totis prsoteritis temporibus, extiterunt," &c. 



