378 



CHAPTER X. 



THE PARLIAMENT, THE COMMONWEALTH, AND THE 

 PROTECTORATE. 



THE FIRST DUTCH WAR. 



ON the 3rd November 1640 the Long Parliament commenced 

 its sittings at Westminster, and within two years there- 

 after on 22nd August 1642 Charles raised the royal 

 standard at Nottingham, and initiated the great Civil War. 

 During the period of strife little was heard of the claim 

 to the sovereignty of the sea, although the Parliament con- 

 tinued to issue the usual instructions to the naval commanders 

 to compel homage to the flag. But under the Common- 

 wealth and Protectorate the English pretensions were carried 

 to as high a pitch as ever they were under the Stuarts. 

 The stern men who then guided the destinies of England 

 were as jealous of the symbols of the nation's greatness as 

 had been the vacillating king they destroyed. In particular, 

 the salutation of the flag was enforced with great vigour. 

 A dispute on the point between Tromp and Blake occasioned 

 the first Dutch war, and the result proved to the world that 

 after all England possessed the actual dominion of the sea 

 by reason of her naval power. In the negotiations with 

 the Dutch which preceded the treaty of peace, we shall find 

 that Cromwell put in the forefront of his conditions the 

 recognition of England's right to the herring fishery, and 

 to the striking of the flag within the British seas. 



At first, as might have been expected from the actions 

 of the king with regard to the ship-money collections, little 

 sympathy was shown by the Parliament for the claim to 



