THE FIRST DUTCH WAR 397 



be conjectured. For an event of momentous importance 

 now occurred which swept their labours away and embroiled 

 the two nations in war. On the 19th May, at the very 

 moment when the Dutch ambassadors were conveying their 

 new instructions to the English commissioners, Tromp and 

 Blake were engaged in furious battle in the Straits of Dover 

 about that very matter which the States-General had found 

 to be " so delicate " the striking of the flag. The long- 

 impending struggle engendered by years of mutual jealousy 

 and commercial rivalry had now come suddenly. The claim 

 of England to the sovereignty of the sea was to be decided, 

 in the words of Sir Philip Meadows, by a longer weapon 

 than a pen. 



Tromp had put to sea early in May, 1652, with a fleet of 

 forty-two sail, and bearing instructions to prevent the search- 

 ing of Dutch merchantmen, to protect them against any who 

 interfered with them, and to free them, by force if necessary, 

 if they were captured. He was further told to refrain as 

 far as possible from going on the English coast. 1 On one 

 important point his instructions were defective. He received 

 no definite orders as to how he should act if the fleet of the 

 Commonwealth called upon him to strike his flag. The sub- 

 ject of the salute had been much discussed in the Netherlands, 

 and an opinion was widely held that while their ships would 

 suffer no loss of dignity in striking to a fleet belonging to 

 a crowned head, it was doubtful whether the same homage 

 should be rendered to the ships of a republic like themselves. 

 The question had been definitely raised and fully discussed 

 early in the previous year in connection with Tromp's expedi- 



1 Aitzema, iii. 713. Tideman, 124, 130, 132. The draft instructions were 

 dated ** r ' < and were approved on May ^,. A translation of the 7th Article is 



as follows : " The superior officers and captains either already in command of the 

 aforesaid squadrons or hereafter appointed, are to be charged to free the ships of 

 this country from all search by any one whatever, and to defend them against all 

 who try to do them injury, and to release them to the uttermost of their power 

 from every one who may have captured them, and further to do whatever their 

 ordinary instructions in their commission requires in a sailor-like fashion for the 

 service of the country." By the 5th Article, fifteen men-of-war were to be sent for 

 the protection of the " great " (herring) fishery, " which is of so great importance 

 to the State," along with the ordinary national convoy-ships, and the ships which 

 the towns of Knkhui/en, Delft, Rotterdam, and Schiedam were accustomed to 

 add. Gardiner, Letters and Papen, i. 155. 



