CHARLES I. I THE NAVY 265 



coasts, as they have anciently done?" To this the reply 

 was that they might stay in their harbours or roads, or 

 pass "to and again for trade," but not otherwise. Then he 

 asked whether the Dutch men-of-war might not lie before 



o 



Dunkirk, " as they have been accustomed to do " ? (in block- 

 ading the port, which belonged to Spain). For answer, he 

 was curtly referred to his instructions. Then there was 

 another disturbing suggestion : If no men-of-war were to 

 be permitted "to lie in the King's seas," notice, he said, 

 should be given of the fact by proclamation or otherwise. 

 He was told that this was already done the remark having 

 reference, no doubt, to the despatches sent to foreign Govern- 

 ments. Finally, he inquired what he should "do with the 

 herring fishers." But the patience of Coke appears to have 

 been exhausted, and no answer at all was given. 1 



It was obviously the intention of Charles to force a quarrel 

 with France and the Dutch Republic on a point or points 

 connected with the sovereignty of the sea, which might 

 rouse popular enthusiasm in England and enable him to 

 attempt to recover the Palatinate for his nephew, while 

 ostensibly defending the national honour. But the punctilios 

 and hesitation of Lindsey about the duties before him must 

 have raised misgivings at Court as to whether the right man 

 had been chosen for the job. It was not long before this 

 feeling deepened into mortification and disgust. 



The fleet was ready at the beginning of June. Before 

 its setting off one or two incidents happened which might 

 have seemed ominous to the superstitious. A shot fired from 

 the Admiral's ship, in answer to the salutation of the rest 

 of the fleet as he sailed into the Downs, hit a poor woman 

 on shore and broke her leg; the same day, during musketry 

 exercise, a seaman nearly killed a master of the navy, and 

 these, as it turned out, were the sole effective warlike opera- 

 tions of the fleet. On the very day of departure a couple 

 of Dunkirk privateers "were so insolent" as to set upon a 

 Dutch merchantman in Dover Road, under the Admiral's 

 nose and in sight of the fleet, battering the ship, slaying 

 the gunner, and wounding the men. As an offset, the fleet 

 captured a small prize from a Dunkirker, which was to be 



1 State Papers, Dom., cclxxxviii. 84, 85. 



