362 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



was prima facie vested in the crown in virtue of the royal 

 prerogative. 1 



Along with the development of this idea came another, 

 which was ultimately likewise engrafted on English law 

 that the crown had the exclusive right of property in the sea 

 and in the soil beneath it. The origin of the idea is to be 

 found in a treatise written in 1569 by Thomas Digges. 2 He 

 argued that as many things as wrecks, treasure-trove, waifs 

 and strays, which were originally common by the law of 

 nature now belonged to the Prince, so also should the sea, 

 which was the chief of all waters, and could not by the civil 

 law become the property of a subject. He held that just as 

 the owners of the soil had the property in a river and its banks, 

 the king had the interest and property in the " great salt river " 

 environing the island, and in its shores and bottom ; and he 

 speaks of the sea as the " King's river," the " King's streme," 

 and the "King's water," in which he had also jurisdiction. 

 Digges also claimed that the fishings in the sea belonged to 

 the crown, for "although the Kings of England have benne 

 content to suffer fishermen Jure gentium to enjoy to theire 

 owen use such fishe as by theire charges travill and adventure 

 they can in the Englishe Seas take, Yet haue the Kings of 

 England for remembrance of this theire favoure that the 

 memorie of theire propertie in the Seas shoulde not be extin- 

 guished, alwaie reserved to them selves the cheif fishe as 

 Sturgeon, Whale, &c." 3 



The contention that the crown had the right of property in 

 the sea and its bed, denied by Plowden, received in the reign 

 of James much fuller amplification at the hands of Serjeant 



1 Moore, A History of the Foreshore and the Law relating thereto, 1888. 



- " Arguments prooving the Queenes Maties propertye in the Sea Landes, and 

 salt shores thereof, and that no subiect cann lawfully hould eny parte thereof but 

 by the Kinges especiall graunte." It is printed by Moore (op. cit., 185) from 

 Lansdowne MSS., No. 100. Various copies exist ; one in Lansd. MSS., No. 105, 

 belonged to Lord Burghley, and is endorsed by him " Mr Digges. The Case of 

 Lands left by ye Seas." A copy is in State Papers, Dom., cccxxxix. 1. 



3 It may be said that this claim to "royal fish," made also by Bracton, was not 

 peculiar to the English crown. It was made on the Continent from an early period, 

 as is shown by the ancient laws of Jutland and of Scania, and the practice in many 

 parts of France and among the Normans. It may have been introduced into 

 England by William the Conqueror, who granted Dengey Marsh to Battle Abbey, 

 with the right to wreck and royal fish. 



