168 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



by the whole realm and by the merchants in particular through 

 the non-observance of the Act of 1581, "anent the comming of 

 schippis to burrowis in the west and north Isles be Flemings 

 and uther nations " ; and in the following year the " mater of 

 the fischeing of the Flemins in the West and North Isles " was 

 again brought up, and it was remitted to the burghs of Edin- 

 burgh and Dundee to draw up a supplication to the Privy 

 Council to have the fishing by the Flemings in those places 

 repressed. 1 



In view of the decision of the Privy Council, the Duke of 

 Lennox did not at this time attempt to collect the tribute from 

 the foreign fishermen at the North Isles. But two years later 

 the political relations between this country and the Nether- 

 lands having become strained, the opportunity was seized to 

 raise once more the question of the fishery and the exaction 

 of the assize-herrings. Serious disputes involving retaliatory 

 measures had broken out respecting the trade in cloth. In 

 England strong resentment was aroused by an edict of the 

 States prohibiting the importation of English dyed cloth. 

 Winwood, now Secretary of State, wrote to Sir Dudley Carle- 

 ton, who had taken his place at The Hague, that it was the 

 opinion of "every true-hearted Englishman" that the king 

 " ought to forbid all manner of intercourse between the King- 

 doms and the United Provinces, and forbid the Hollanders, by 

 a fresh reviving of former proclamations, to continue their 

 yearly fishing upon our coasts." 2 The influence of this feeling 

 was soon apparent. The Duke of Lennox was now instructed 

 by the king to levy the assize-herrings from foreigners fishing 

 at the North Isles, the grant, under the great seal of Scotland, 

 being dated in June 1616 ; and to render his task more easy he 

 obtained from Sir Noel Caron in the same month a letter of 

 recommendation (" aanbevelingsbrief ") to the captains of the 

 Dutch convoying-ships. This letter was innocently given by 

 Caron in the belief that it concerned the payment of dues on 

 land at Shetland, which the busses had been accustomed to 



1 Rec. Conv. Roy. Burghs Scot., ii. 323, 350, 354, 374. 



2 Winwood to Carleton, ^ September 1616. Letters from and to Sir Dudley 



Carleton, Knt., during his Embassy in Holland ; from January 161f to December 

 1620, p. 52. 



