THE FISHERIES 81 



1594, fifteen years before he issued, as king of England as 

 well as of Scotland, his famous proclamation forbidding pro- 

 miscuous and unlicensed fishing. On the occasion of the 

 baptism of his son, Prince Henry, which took place at Stirling 

 on 30th August 1594, the States -General despatched two 

 ambassadors, Walraven van Brederode and Jacob Valck, laden 

 with costly gifts, to take part in the ceremony, and also to do 

 a little business with the king. The two previous treaties 

 between Scotland and the Netherlands had been concluded 

 at a time when the whole of that country had been under the 

 rule of Charles V. In the interval it had passed into the 

 possession of Philip of Spain, and then the northern provinces 

 had revolted, thrown off the Spanish yoke, and formed the 

 famous federal commonwealth of the seven United Provinces 

 of Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, Gelderland, Over-Yssel, Fries- 

 land, and Groningen. It was thought to be desirable by the 

 prudent Dutchmen to renew if possible on their own behalf 

 the treaties with Scotland, especially as it was then recognised 

 that James would succeed to the English throne. The am- 

 bassadors therefore brought with them a long draft treaty, in 

 which the previous treaty of 1541 was recited and that of 1550 

 was given in full. James agreed to the confirmation of the 

 previous treaties, and the ratification was signed at Edinburgh 

 on 14th September 1594. In his declaration he stated that he 

 had "seen, read, and examined" the treaty of peace and 

 alliance made at Binche in 1550 between Charles V., Emperor 

 of the Romans, in the capacity of sovereign of the Low 

 Countries, and Queeen Mary, " his honoured dame and mother," 

 and having found it . very desirable, good, and beneficial for 

 him and his country, it was to be observed inviolably for the 

 good of the traffic and commerce of the subjects of the two 

 nations ; and he sincerely promised to observe the treaty and 

 every clause and article in it. Then the easy-going monarch 

 appears to have forgotten all about it. The document itself 

 was lost, and when it was urgently wanted for the negotiations 

 in the next century it could not be found, and nobody in this 

 country seemed to know what it contained; it was even 

 regarded by some as the English ambassador at The Hague 

 as apocryphal. Although the Dutch relied much on this 

 treaty, it contained no stipulation regarding liberty of fishing. 



