38 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



that sovereignty. A recent author 1 doubts whether there 

 was any connection between Edward's noble and the battle 

 of Sluys or the claim to the sovereignty of the sea; but at 

 all events in the next century, in the reign of Henry VI., 

 when the naval power of England had again sunk to a low 

 point, the noble was made an object of jest and derision among 

 foreigners, especially the Flemish and French. They told the 

 English to take away the ship from their noble and put a 

 sheep on it instead an allusion, no doubt, to the growth of 

 sheep-farming in England. 2 



If Edward intended to symbolise his naval power and sea 

 sovereignty by the device on the gold noble in the early part of 

 his reign, it was certainly inappropriate towards the end of it. 

 The navy had been starved for the sake of the army, and when 

 the Spaniards defeated the English fleet and were masters of 

 the sea, complaints became rife as to the insecurity of the 

 country. The king had then to listen to language from 

 his Parliament to which he was unaccustomed, and which 

 must have galled him. There are many instances in our 

 history where the Commons have shown their spirit and temper 

 when they thought the navy was inadequate for its duties, 

 and on the occasion in question, in 1372, after granting a 

 naval subsidy, they called the king's attention to the fact that 

 while twenty years previously, and always before, the navy was 

 so noble and so numerous in all the ports, coast towns, and 

 rivers that the whole country deemed and called him King of 

 the Sea, 3 and he and all his country were the more dreaded by 

 sea and by land by reason of the said navy, it was then so 

 decreased and weakened from various causes that there was 

 scarcely sufficient to defend the country, if need were, against 



1 Oppenheim, A History of the Administration of the Royal Navy, i. 7. 



2 Cunningham, op. cit., 361. In the Libelle it is asked 



" Wher ben our shippes, wher ben our swerdes become? 

 Our enmyes bid for the ship set a sheep " ; 



and the rubric of an anonymous commentator states that the advice quoted was 

 owing to the fact that while in the time of Edward III. the English were lords of 

 the sea, they were now in these days mad (vecordes), vanquished, and for waging 

 war and guarding the sea, like sheep. The jest is also alluded to by Capgrave, 

 Liber de Illustribus Henricis, 135. 



3 " Tous les pays tenoient et appelloient nostre avandit seigneur, le Roi de la 

 Mier." 



