204 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



Of one symbol of this sovereignty of the sea comparatively 

 little was heard during James's reign namely, the salute or 

 homage to his flag. This traditional custom of the narrow 

 seas, while maintained on important occasions, was not 

 enforced with the vigour and arrogance which characterised 

 it later, perhaps less rigorously than under the Great Queen. 

 " I myself remember," said Raleigh a few years before his 

 execution, "when one ship of her Majesty's would have made 

 forty Hollanders strike sail and come to anchor. They did 

 not then dispute de mari libero, but readily acknowledged 

 the English to be domini maris Britannici." ! Sir William 

 Monson, too, who was Admiral of the Narrow Seas in the 

 earlier part of James's reign, tells us that the Hollanders were 

 very " stubborn " about striking their top-sails and performing 

 the duty due to the king's prerogative, and that he earned 

 their lasting ill-will by compelling them to do it. 2 



But the English commanders were punctilious in enforcing 

 the salute in the narrow seas on state occasions. A notable 

 instance occurred in 1603, when King Henry IV. of France 

 sent over the famous Sieur de Rosny, afterwards Duke of 

 Sully, to congratulate James on his accession to the throne 

 of England. With a numerous retinue he went on board an 

 English man-of-war at Calais, which then made sail for Dover 

 accompanied by a French warship under the command of 

 M. de Vic, the Vice- Admiral of France. The English captain 

 observed with displeasure that the French vessel bore the arms 

 of France at his top, " contrary to the custom of the narrow 

 seas " ; but on account of the important personage on board 

 and the nature of his mission, he restrained himself from 

 challenging the "indignity" until they approached Dover 

 Road. Unable to brook the affront any longer, he fired at the 

 French ship, and so " constrained her to strike her flag." The 

 shot did no harm, but M. de Vic at once turned round his 

 vessel and went back to France in high dudgeon. Cecil 

 thought it necessary to send a despatch to the English am- 

 bassador at Paris explaining the circumstances, and while 

 saying that the English captain " rashly discharged " his gun, 

 he thought that if the matter was " well looked into, and the 



1 A Discourse of the Invention of Ships. Collected Works, viii. 326. 



2 Naval Tracts, in Churchill's Collection of Voyages, iii. 220, 224. 



