THE FISHERIES 75 



next few years between the Powers named, it was provided that 

 the herring fishery should be carried on freely and in security 

 on both sides, even during the existence of hostilities. One of 

 these, to last for eight months, was concluded in 1528 between 

 Charles V., Francis I., Henry VIII., and Margaret of Austria, 

 who represented Holland, Zealand, and Friesland, as well as 

 Flanders. 1 It may perhaps be surmised that in the common 

 concern about the winter herring fishery the influence of the 

 Church was not without effect, so that the fish for Lent might 



* o 



not be wanting. 



From the foregoing it is apparent that the kings of England, 

 so far from claiming an exclusive right to the sea fisheries along 

 the English coast, entered into a series of treaties with their 

 neighbours, extending over a period of nearly two hundred 

 years, by which freedom of fishing was mutually recognised 

 and guaranteed. Throughout the reigns of the Plantagenet and 

 Lancastrian kings, as well as under the Yorkists and Tudors, 

 foreign fishermen were at liberty to fish freely in the English 

 seas without requiring any license or paying any tribute. Not 

 only so, but up to the middle of the sixteenth century, and 

 especially in the time of the Plantagenet kings, they were 

 encouraged to take part in the fisheries off our coasts, and 

 to bring into the realm and freely trade in fish, both fresh and 

 cured ; and, in point of fact, a large proportion of the fish 

 consumed in England was caught and sold by foreigners. It 

 was not until after the Reformation, when the English fisheries 

 began to decay, that protective measures were adopted in 

 favour of the native fishermen ; and it was not until the reign 

 of James I. that any attempt was made to place restrictions 

 on the liberty of fishing immemorially enjoyed by foreigners 

 along the English coasts. 



But when we turn to Scotland we find there was not only in 

 that country an absence of the toleration which was extended 

 in England to foreign fishermen, but that restrictive measures 

 were in force from an early period. The claim made by the 



1 Dumont, IV. i. 515. " Pourront aussi les Sujets des Pais, Roiaumes. Terres et 

 Seigneuries dessusdites, librement, et sans detourbier, ni empechement, pecher k 

 harangs, et autres poissons en la mer, oil ladite Treve aura lieu, et la oil la peche 

 dudit harang s'adonera, comme ils faisoient avant la Guerre, et pourroient et sont 

 accoutumez de faire au terns de Paix." 



