330 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



reported that the French fleet was about to put to sea. Pen- 

 nington was nevertheless ordered to prevent the affronts as 

 best he could. He then said he would do his best ; but he had 

 only four ships available, and he asked for express orders how 

 far he should proceed if he were resisted with overmastering 

 strength. 1 



But the question of the right of search was for the moment 

 relegated to diplomatic channels, and before anything could 

 be done, either by peaceful agreement or by Pennington's ships, 

 another event put an end to it, and dissipated the king's dreams 

 of the dominion of the seas. The battle of the Downs was 

 fought between the Dutch and the Spaniards on llth October 

 1639, in spite of Charles's express prohibition, and in spite of 

 his helpless fleet. So glaring a violation of one of the King's 

 Chambers within three years of the appearance of Selden's 

 Mare Clausum an injury which he was as unable to prevent 

 as to redress proclaimed to Europe that he was no longer 

 sovereign over the sea that was incontestably his own. 



At the end of August a large Spanish fleet, consisting of 

 some thirty great galleons and thirty -six transports with 

 troops for Flanders, set sail from Corunna. On 6th September 

 it was attacked in the Channel by a Dutch squadron of seven- 

 teen ships, and a running fight was kept up, the Spaniards 

 passing eastwards off the English coast. Tromp, engaged in 

 blockading Dunkirk, heard the cannonading, and on the 8th 

 he joined the Dutch squadron with fifteen sail, when a fierce 

 battle took place in the Straits of Dover. 2 The Spanish 

 Admiral, Don Antonio de Oquendo, having expended all his 

 powder, took refuge with his shattered galleons in the Downs 

 on 9th September, whither Tromp followed him. Great anxiety 

 ,was felt in London, first of all lest the powerful foreign fleets 

 should refuse to strike to the small English squadron under 

 Sir John Pennington, and then lest they should begin hostilities 

 in the King's Chamber. On the former point doubts were soon 

 set at rest. Tromp at once took in his flag in the presence of 

 the English ships, a " civility " with which Charles was pleased. 

 So also did the proud Spaniard, but only after preliminary 

 refusal and demur; and Pennington's insistence that the 



1 Pennington to Windebank, 13th July. State Papers, Dom., ccccxxv. 61, 68. 



2 Gardiner, Hist., ix. 69 ; State Papers, Dom., ccccxxviii. 52. 



