EARLY HISTORY 41 



Selden was probably written between 1430 and 1440 ; that 

 of the Black Book itself a little later, but still in the reign of 

 Henry VI. 1 The others are not older than the seventeenth 

 century. None of the manuscripts is therefore contempor- 

 aneous with the reign of John, but it is clear that the ordinance 

 existed and was ascribed to John in the reign of Henry V., 

 before 1422. Moreover, from intrinsic evidence it is proved 

 that part of the Black Book originated in 1375, in the reign of 

 Edward III., and that the compilation of other parts of it is still 

 earlier. Pardessus, 2 the great authority on ancient marine 

 laws, is of opinion that the part of the Black Book which 

 includes the ordinance of John contains the results of the con- 

 sultations with the judges in 1338 on the subject of the mari- 

 time laws, which were recorded in the roll, still preserved, of 

 12 Edward III., De Superioritate Moris which also, as we 

 shall see, claimed supremacy for the king in the sea of England. 

 T*viss, however, thinks it was more probably compiled between 

 1360 and 1369. He is of opinion that the ordinance is authentic, 

 and was in reality, as it purports, made by John at Hastings 

 on 30th March 1201, and that it was transcribed into the 

 compilation of the Black Book with the earlier ordinances of 

 Henry I. and Richard I. 



The arguments against the authenticity of the ordinance are 

 mainly that it is written in the French language instead of in 

 Latin, as was customary at the time ; that there is no other 

 evidence that John was ever at Hastings ; and that the terms 

 " king's admiral " or " king's lieutenant " are not to be found in 

 contemporary documents. Twiss has shown that John and his 

 Queen were ajb Canterbury on Easter Day 1201, and it is not an 

 improbable conjecture that the king passed from Canterbury to 

 Hastings, and thence to London a supposition that Sir Thomas 

 Dutfus Hardy, the author of the Itinerary of King John, 

 regards as quite possible. Twiss also explains in an elaborate 

 argument that the circumstance of the ordinance being written 

 in French offers no difficulty, if the compilation of the third 

 part of the Black Book is assigned, as above stated, to the reign 

 of Edward III. ; but there might be some difficulty in deciding 

 whether the ordinances attributed to Henry I., Richard I., 



1 The Black Book, iii. Intro, viii, x. Se p. 410. 

 * Collection det Lvit Maritime*, iv. 199. 



