UNDER THE STUARTS: JAMES I. I A NEW POLICY 159 



The negotiations between the English and Dutch commis- 

 sioners went on for a short time, the arguments on either side 

 being elaborated without much hope of agreement, when an 

 event occurred that brought them to a sudden end. This was 

 the assassination of King Henry IV. of France, the head of 

 the Protestant League, which made James anxious to retain 

 the goodwill and alliance of the Dutch Republic, in view of 

 his relations with Spain. On 14th May the ambassadors 

 were told by the Earl of Salisbury that while the king held 

 his right to forbid the Netherlander to fish on his coasts 



o 



to be indubitable, he, "out of his great love to the Low 

 Countries, would forbear to proceed according to the pro- 

 clamation." l At the farewell audience James used very kind 

 expressions. He made the remarkable but characteristic state- 

 ment to the ambassadors that he had issued the proclamation 

 owing to the just complaints of his subjects, not from the 

 solicitation of courtesans or courtiers. 2 He assured them 

 of his affection towards them and the preservation of their 

 state, "which next unto his own he held most dear above 

 all other respects in the world." As for the business of the 

 fishing, he thought it was not fit now to spend more time 

 on it, but to refer it to some better season, and in the mean- 

 time, he said, things would remain as they were. 3 This termi- 

 nation to the negotiations was naturally gratifying to the 

 Dutch. Barnevelt and the States -General had become some- 

 what anxious as to the issue, and the ambassadors had been 

 instructed to try to get the matter shelved for a little. Al- 

 though James had suspended the operation of the proclamation, 

 however, he had not withdrawn it. The question was merely 

 postponed to a more convenient season. 



The failure to carry out the policy of exacting tribute from 

 the Dutch fishermen was fatal to the scheme of the London 

 merchants to form a Society of Fishing Merchants. Rainsford 

 wrote to Lord Salisbury in October 1609 expressing his fears 

 that the Earl disapproved of the project to raise a great 



1 State Papers, Dom., xlvii. 111. Vreede, op. cit. Muller, op. cit. Brit. Mus. 

 Lansdowne MSS., 142, fol. 362. " Answers for prohibiting of strangers fishing 

 upon the English coastes without the King's license, 5th May 1610" in the writ- 

 ing of Sir Julius Cicsar. 



2 " Niet door sollicitatien van eenige courtisauen ofte hovelingen." 



3 The Lords of the Council to Win wood, Memorials, Hi. 166. 



