CHARLES I. : THE NAVY 277 



striking of the top-sail ; and although the omission of the flag 

 may have been only verbal, there are reasons for thinking that 

 the custom and etiquette of the ceremony were not well under- 

 stood at the Admiralty. Thus on Pennington reporting that 

 French men-of-war were trying to force English merchant 

 vessels to strike to the French flag, 1 he was ordered by the 

 Admiralty " to see that no one presumes to carry the flag in 

 the Narrow Seas"; all the more since "some" pretended to 

 have an interest in the sovereignty of these seas. 2 When 

 Pennington pointed out that this "was more than ever was 

 done, for our own merchants' ships and all other nations ever 

 have and do wear their flags, till they come within shot of the 

 king's ships : if they take them in and keep them in till they 

 are out of shot again, it is as much as has ever been expected," 

 when he told the Admiralty this, he was informed that the 

 "Lords would not expect impossibilities" the main business 

 he was to take care of was to see that no foreigner carried the 

 flag where his Majesty's ships were present in the Narrow 

 Seas. 3 Then Captain Plumleigh in the Antelope reported that 

 on meeting two States' men-of-war guarding the herring-fishers 

 off Orfordness, the Admiral had " stood " with the Antelope 

 with his flag aloft, and did not take it in till several shots had 

 been fired at him ; and when requested to come on board and 

 explain his conduct, he refused. How, asked Plumleigh, was he 

 to comport himself in such cases ? The matter was brought 

 before the Admiralty, but no answer appears to have been 



1 He reported, 16th September 1631, that two English merchantmen had met 

 five French men-of-war, bearing the French king's colours on the main-top, and the 

 Malta colours on the poop, who saluted them with, " Amain, rogues, for the King 

 of France " ; but as the English ships refused to strike and prepared to fight, the 

 French sheered off. He added that he had learned, through an interview between 

 one of his lieutenants and one of the French commanders, that the latter had 

 a commission to compel any English ships he could master to take in their flags 

 and dowse their top-sails, and that three French admirals had been appointed for 

 regaining the regality of the Narrow Seas, because, as the French officer said, the 

 Pope had taken it from France and given it to England, but now that we had fallen 

 from their religion it had been reassigned. Slate Papers, Dom., cxcix. 51. 



a Nicholas to Pennington, 29th September 1631. Ibid., cc. 45. 



3 Pennington to Nicholas, 2nd October (ibid., cci. 7). Pennington, whose 

 information about the French trying to make the English strike had given the 

 Admiralty and the king "good content" (ibid., cc. 27), had been ordered westwards 

 to retaliate, but " he hoped the Lords would not think that his two ships half- 

 manned were able to encounter with twenty well manned. Ibid., cci. 29. 



