THE FISHERIES 79 



tained some proposal about the fishery. Its nature does not 

 appear ; but from the fact that it was not agreed to, and was 

 reserved for further consideration on the part of the Emperor, 

 it is not unlikely that it referred to the fixing of a limit within 

 which the Dutch were not to fish. 1 The Scottish lawyer, 

 Welwood, early in the next century referred to the " notorious 

 covenant" which had been made with the Dutch, that they 

 should not fish within eighty miles of the coast of Scotland, a 

 statement that may have been a reminiscence of this proposal. 



The peace was not of long duration. The Scots again 

 attacked the Dutch fishermen on the coast of Scotland; the 

 goods of Scotch merchants were in turn seized in the Nether- 

 lands, and their ships and seamen arrested, and arrangements 

 were made by the Dutch to convoy their herring-busses with 

 many ships of war. 2 On the representations of Rotterdam 

 and Schiedam towns which had a great stake in the herring 

 fishery on the Scottish coast a request was made to the 

 Emperor, in the name of the States of Holland, asking him 

 to arrange in his negotiations with the Scots for the restitution 

 of the goods taken by them from the Hollander fishermen ; 

 and early in 1545 he was petitioned to conclude a truce with 

 them on account of the herring and dogger (cod) fishing. 3 It 

 was not until 1550 that another treaty was signed between 

 the two countries, also at Binche, on 15th December, on behalf 

 of the Emperor Charles V. and Mary Stuart, Queen of Scot- 

 land. It confirmed all previous treaties, and contained pro- 

 visions for mutual freedom of commerce and navigation 

 without the need of any safe-conduct or license, general or 

 special, and with liberty to make use of one another's ports, 

 and also mutually to protect one another's subjects, including 

 fishermen, from the attacks of pirates. The part referring to 

 the fishery did not, however, differ from that in the previous 



1 " Et quant au dernier article de la commission du Sr. de Limdy [Lundy] 

 amba-ssadeur, concernant le fait de la pescherie, ladite Dame Reine [the Queen 

 Dowager of Hungary and Bohemia] veuille par bonne et meure deliberation pro- 

 ceder en tellea et semblables affaires, se fera informer sur le contenu dudit article, 

 pour apres en ordonner comme il sera trouve" etre de raison, e"quite", et justice 

 d'une part et d'autre pour la conservation de la paix et amitie* mutuelle desdits 

 Sieurs." Op. cit., and see footnote next page. 



2 Wagenaar, op. cit., 355. 



Res. St. HoU., ^^ 1544 ; 2 |^ 1545, fcc. Bosgoed, op. cit., 320. 



