CHARLES I. : THE NAVY 337 



minster, and Charles was rapidly stripped of sovereign power 

 within his own kingdom. The Dutch, conscious that they and 

 not the King of England were the real masters of the sea, 

 became overbearing in their conduct. More than ever their 

 fishermen indulged in the bad treatment of British subjects, 

 which this country was unable to prevent. But their triumph 

 was short-lived. A decade later they were smitten by the heavy 

 hand of Cromwell, who resumed the sovereignty of the sea. It 

 is to the period beginning about this time that the Dutch 

 trace the decadence which set in in their great fisheries as 

 well as the decline of their trade. It is, however, a satisfaction 

 to think that the part played by this country in causing the 

 misfortunes of Holland a country to which civilisation is 

 indebted for immense advances, both material and intellectual 

 was comparatively small. From about the middle of the 

 seventeenth century to the peace of Utrecht, in 1713, the 

 Dutch Republic was involved in almost constant wars with its 

 Continental neighbours, and the herring-fishery and the trade 

 in general suffered severely, and never afterwards regained the 

 prosperity they formerly enjoyed. 



