172 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



the year before, and on receiving a reply in the affirmative he 

 at once arrested him, saying he had orders to that effect ; and 

 notwithstanding Brown's warning as to the consequences, and 

 the exhibition of his commission, he was made prisoner by the 

 irate Dutchman and carried off to Holland. Whether the 

 king's pinnace had on this occasion, as two years later, more 

 than "two small guns and ten muscattis" to represent the 

 power and majesty of the British navy, does not appear. But 

 Brown, meek and peaceful, was seemingly quite contented with 

 his position. He wrote from the Dutch ship to Captain Murray, 

 in charge of the king's pinnace, telling him of his arrest and 

 advising him to make no attempt at rescue, but to return to 

 Scotland and report the matter to the king. 1 



James received the news of the capture of Brown at Dum- 

 fries while on a visit to Scotland. He felt that the arrest of 

 an officer of the state, discharging business of the state and 

 with his Admiral's commission in his pocket, was an " insolent " 

 personal affront to himself. The members of the Privy Council 

 who were with him and the Duke of Lennox was one of 

 them immediately wrote to the Council in London requesting 

 them in the name of the king to arrest the masters of two or 

 three Dutch ships in the Thames by way of reprisal, and to 

 retain them as hostages ; to inform Sir Noel Caron that repara- 

 tion must be made by the States ; and to instruct the British 

 ambassador at The Hague to " demand satisfaction from them 

 for this insolence offered to his Majesty." Win wood at once 

 sent for Caron, and informed him of the " disgraceful affront " 

 which had been put upon the king while his Majesty himself 

 was in Scotland. The king, he said, was very sensible of their 

 " injurious and scornful carriage," and immediate satisfaction 

 , and redress were demanded. Sir Dudley Carleton used even 

 stronger language in addressing the States - General at The 

 Hague. What, he asked, would the world say when they 

 knew that a public officer and Minister of the King of England 

 had been seized by them in Scotland, in sight of the ships of 

 other nations and while the king himself was in that country ? 

 That the outrage was committed by the orders of the States 



1 Carleton, Letters, 156, 157. Muller, op. cit., 110. Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 

 17,677, J, fol. 2136. Lansdoivne MSS., 142, fol. 410. State Papers, Dom. 

 Collection, Charles II., vol. 339. 



