CHARLES I. : THE NAVY 329 



pretensions of the king, and it was the more disagreeable 

 because Charles had now again veered round to the side of 



^ 



Spain. He was much moved at the " insolencies " of the 

 Hollanders, which "concerned his honour" and "put his sov- 

 ereignty in hazard"; and the Earl of Northumberland, who 

 had been created Lord High Admiral in the preceding year, 

 also expressed himself as much afflicted that such affronts were 

 put on the nation in his time. It was, said Windebank, a 

 very high disorder that any of the king's neighbours should 

 presume to lie with a fleet in his Majesty's Channel, near his 

 ports, and where he justly claimed sovereignty, and arrest 

 and search English ships, taking out of them "such persons, 

 being passengers, as they please " ; " especially " and this no 

 doubt was a potent reason of the king's displeasure " since 

 the merchants and others took occasion by such pretences of 

 interruption of their trade to make difficulty to pay their ship- 

 money, which his Majesty is resolved to maintain." The king 

 therefore commanded Pennington to put a stop to these affronts 

 and to preserve the sovereignty of the narrow seas, so "that 

 trade may be free and open, as well to his Majesty's subjects as 

 to others in league and amity with his Majesty, and that peace be 

 kept and the merchants secured according to his Majesty's pro- 

 clamations and declarations published heretofore to that effect." l 

 It was one thing to indite imperious commands in London 

 as to the necessity of maintaining the king's sovereignty of the 

 seas; it was quite another thing to carry them out in the 

 Channel in the presence of a powerful Dutch fleet under the 

 new Admiral, Maarten Harpentz Tromp. Pennington, conscious 

 of his impotency, tried at first to justify, or at least to ex- 

 tenuate, the action of the Dutch men-of-war. They only took 

 out of the English ships the Spanish soldiers, he said, who were 

 being carried to Flanders ; they were most civil and courteous 

 while doing so ; in reality, it was the English captains who had 

 committed the greater insolency. At all events, before attempt- 

 ing any reparation, it would be only prudent to have an over- 

 mastering force, lest greater loss and dishonour should happen, 

 because, he said, the Dutch were in great strength, and it was 



1 Windebank to Pennington, 10th, 15th, 16th July, State Paper*, Don., 

 ccccxxv. 45, 72, 81 ; Northumberland to Pennington, ibid., ccccxxv. 76 ; Winde- 

 bank to Hop ton, 16th August, Clarendon >'tatr Papers, i. 1283. 



