256 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



Libemm," and they pursued and took prizes in our ports 

 and rivers. But our trade and rights were injured every- 

 where, from Constantinople and Morocco to Denmark and 

 Sweden, and Coke recommended that the navy should be 

 reinforced in order that the king might obtain justice and 

 " recover his undoubted right of sovereignty in all his seas." l 

 Coke read his report to the Council in June 1634; the ship- 

 money writs were issued in October ; and in May next year 

 the first of the "ship-money fleets" was ready and was 

 placed under the command of the Earl of Lindsey, with 

 special instructions to maintain the king's sovereignty of 

 the sea. 



On the Continent the naval preparations of England were 

 followed with close attention. As early as 1633, Joachimi, 

 the States' ambassador in London, informed his Government 

 that the English were putting forth pretensions to be sole 

 lords and masters of the narrow seas, and he earnestly ad- 

 vised the States to avoid everything which might give the 

 English offence in their excitable condition, on a matter which 

 they had so much at heart. 2 An indication of the feeling 

 prevailing in England was observed by the ambassador early 

 in the year, for when he complained that Dutch vessels had 

 been fired on from Portland Castle and then detained, he 

 was told they had presumed to put up their flags in the 

 face of the king's colours flying on the walls. 3 Next year 

 the repeated complaints from England as to the violation of 

 the King's Chambers by Dutch vessels of war, and the seizure 

 of one of them by the English in consequence of the attack 

 at Scarborough, did not lessen the apprehensions that began 

 to be entertained in Holland. Rumours circulated that the 

 English fleet was being prepared for the purpose of waging 

 war against the Republic, and the answer given by the 

 English ambassador at The Hague to inquiries as to the 



1 State Papers, Dom., cclxix. 51. 



g 



2 JResol. States-General, ^ Nov. 1633; Muller, Mare Clausum : ijdrag,e tot de 

 Geschicdenis der Rivaliteit van Engeland en Nederland in de Zeventiende Eeuw, 229. 



3 State Papers, Dom., ccxxxiv. 87 ; Nicholas's Letter Book, Feb. 16, fol. 97. 

 Muller thinks it was this revival of feeling about the dominion of the sea that 

 caused the edition of Grotius' Mare Liberum to be published this year, with the 

 Magnus Intercursus appended. 



