THE FISHERIES 73 



on paying the ordinary dues. 1 As conservators for this treaty 

 of peace and commerce, which was received with much rejoic- 

 ing in the Low Countries, Henry appointed, among others, the 

 mayors and aldermen of London and of a large number of 

 towns, including Southampton, Sandwich, Dover, Winchelsea, 

 Boston, Yarmouth, and Berwick ; and the Archduke, on his 

 side, appointed the burgomasters of Ghent, Bruges, Dunkirk, 

 Antwerp, Dort, Delft, Leyden, Amsterdam, Briel, and others. 



Several supplementary treaties dealing with commercial sub- 

 jects were concluded between Henry VII. and Henry VIII. on 

 the one side, and the Archduke of Burgundy on the other viz., 

 in 1499, 1506, 1515, and 1520. 2 While they confirmed in 

 general terms the previous treaty, the clause referring to the 

 freedom of fishery was not specifically mentioned, a circum- 

 stance which, considering the nature of the matters dealt 

 with the staple at Calais, the cloth trade, the Zealand tolls, 

 was not surprising. Nevertheless, the fact that treaties of 

 commerce had been made with the Low Countries subsequent to 

 the Intercursus Magnus, without containing a clause expressly 

 renewing the liberty of fishing, was used later by English 

 statesmen, as by Lord Bacon, as an argument that the pro- 

 vision of that treaty had thereby been rendered inoperative. 

 But the policy of Henry VIII., and indeed of all the Tudor 

 sovereigns, proved the contrary ; liberty of fishing on the 

 English coast was not called in question till James came to 

 the throne. 



We have already seen that Margaret of Savoy appealed to 

 Henry VIII. in 1512 to protect the herring fishermen of the Low 

 Countries from the attacks of the Hanseatic towns, and appar- 

 ently with success. The same regard for the herring fishery 



1 "Item, conventum, concordatum et conclutsum est quod piscatores utriusque 

 partis partium prsedictarum (cujuscunque conditionis existant) poterunt ubique 

 ire, navigare per mare, secure piscari absque aliquo impedimento licentia seu salvo 

 conductu : Et, si contingat aliquos ex piscatoribus unius partis per fortunam, 

 tempestatem maris, vim hostium, aut alio modo compelli intrare aliquem portum 

 vel districtum alterius partis, ibidem pacifice et amicabiliter recipientur et tracta- 

 buntur (solvendo in locis ubi applicabunt jura et theolonia pncdicta) et ab illis 

 portubus et locis poterunt libere recedere et redire, cum eorum navibus et bonis, 

 sine impedimento vel coutradictione quacunque ; dummodo tamen per ipsos 

 piscatores non committatur fraus neque dolus, seu per eos aliis dampnum minime 



[AQe. 



fiat." 24 Feb. j|^. Fccdera, xii. 583. Dumont, III. ii. 338. 



2 Fcedera, xii. 714 ; xiii. 132, 539, 714. 



