CHARLES I. I THE NAVY 251 



two miles. 1 There was a natural excuse for the violence of 

 the Hollanders in these proceedings. They were exasper- 

 ated by the immense havoc which the privateers had just 

 committed on their herring - busses, by sinking or burning 

 over 100 of them, the remainder of the fishing fleet escap- 

 ing into Scottish and English harbours. 2 



This insecurity of the sea and the open and daring viola- 

 tion of English ports remind one of the conditions that too 

 frequently prevailed in earlier centuries. The misdeeds must 

 have been galling to Charles, for only a short time before 

 he had issued a public proclamation with the object of put- 

 ting a stop to them. In February 1633 Sir H. Marten, 

 Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, along with the 

 Attorney-General, had been instructed, in view of the war 

 between Spain and the United Provinces, to draw up a 

 regulation whereby " his Majesty's ancient rights, honours, 

 and sovereignty in the narrow seas and in the chambers 

 and ports may be preserved, and the trade of the king- 

 dom of England and Ireland secured." 3 In this regulation 

 (which is printed in Appendix H) a claim to absolute dominion 

 over the Four Seas was made. The king spoke of "that 

 sovereignty and especial and peculiar interest and property 

 which he and his predecessors, time out of mind, have had 

 and enjoyed in the said seas, and so- approved not only by 

 the fundamental laws of this his kingdom, but by the acknow- 

 ledgment and assent of the bordering princes and nations, 

 as appeareth by undoubted records" language which seems 

 like an echo of Selden's Mare Clausum. Moreover, in 

 referring to the limits of the " King's Chambers," he contin- 

 ued : " Albeit his Majesty doth justly challenge sovereignty 

 and property in all those his seas, far beyond the limits 

 hereafter to be described, and might with like justice require 



1 State Papers, Dom. t ccxciii. 107 ; ccxciv. 46 ; ccxcv. 31, 69, 71 ; cclxiv. 

 fol. 164. Many of the crew of the man-of-war were English, Scottish, or 

 Irish. It was probably owing in part to the considerable numbers of British 

 subjects serving on the Dutch men-of-war that they were always favoured by 

 the country people. 



- Ibid., ccxcvi. 5, 14, 30. Joachimi to States-General, ^", Brit. Atus. Add. 



MSS., 17,677,0, fol. 380. 



3 Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 30,221, fol. 436. 



