74 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



was shown in a marked manner in 1521 in the negotiations 

 between the Emperor Charles V. and King Francis I. of France. 

 Cardinal Wolsey, who was the "mediator" between them, 

 strongly urged the need of allowing the herring fishery to be 

 free, safe, and unmolested. He made this stipulation one of the 

 chief points of the proposed treaty. It is stated in a despatch 

 which was sent to Charles V. by his ambassadors at Calais, 

 where the negotiations were being conducted, that the Cardinal 

 declared his intention to propose, among other things, security 

 for the fishermen and cessation of hostility on the sea between 

 England and Flanders, and that either party should be free 

 from attack by the other in English ports. There was no diffi- 

 culty about the fisheries, the ambassadors said, as they knew 

 the Emperor wished it, and that his subjects would more will- 

 ingly go to sea in that event than they then did under the 

 protection of ships charged to defend them. 1 The French 

 ambassadors also informed Francis that Wolsey pressed the 

 point on them, and that they had ultimately agreed in order 

 "to conciliate him, considering it can be revoked at pleasure, 

 and will be profitable to those living on the coast of Normandy 

 and Picardy, and without it they will not be able to pay their 

 taxes." 2 It is clear from the political events that followed, that 

 the great Cardinal, in stipulating for the security of the fisher- 

 men, had principally in view the interests of the Emperor, to 

 whom the Netherlands belonged ; but it was in perfect accord 

 with established English policy. The agreement for the secur- 

 ity of the herring fishery was embodied as a leading article in 

 the formal treaty concluded between the two potentates in 

 October of the same year, it being provided that until the end 

 of the following January, even though the war should continue 

 between the two countries, the fishermen of both parties should 

 be allowed to fish unmolested and to go home in safety. 3 In 

 the war which ensued, the French admirals did not push the 

 advantage they had on the sea to extremes, but sold safe-con- 

 ducts to the fishermen of the Netherlands, and allowed them to 

 pursue their fishing. In several treaties and truces made in the 



1 Ships of war were used to convoy the herring-busses of Holland and Zealand 

 at least as early as 1440. 



2 Col. State Papers, Foreign and Domestic, iii. Nos. 1534, 1535. 



3 Fcedera, xiii. 752. Dumont, IV. i. 352. 



