APPENDIX F 755 



APPENDIX F. 



(P. 148.) 



PROCLAMATION OF JAMES I. FOR THE RESTRAINT OF 

 FOREIGNERS FISHING ON THE BRITISH COASTS. 



(A Booke of Proclamations, &c. 1609 [1602-1612].) 



JAMES by the Grace of God King of Great Britaine, France and Ire- 

 land, Defender of the Faith, &c. To all and singular persons to 

 whom it may appertaine, Greeting. Although we doe sufficiently 

 know by our experience in the Office of Regall dignitie (in which by 

 the fauour of Almighty God, we haue bene placed and exercised these 

 many yeres) as also by the obseruation which wee haue made of other 

 Christian Princes exemplary Actions, how farre the absolutenesse of 

 Soueraigne power extendeth it selfe, And that in regard thereof we 

 need not yeeld accompt to any person under God, for any action of 

 ours, which is lawfully grounded upon that iust prerogatiue : Yet 

 such hath euer bene, and shalbe our care and desire to give satisfaction 

 to our neighbour Princes, and friends, in any Action which may haue 

 the least relation to their Subiects and Estates, as we haue thought 

 good (by way of friendly premonition) to declare unto them all, and 

 to whom soeuer it may appertaine, as followeth. 



Whereas wee haue bene contented since our comming to the 

 Crowne, to tolerate an indifferent and promiscuous kinde of libertie 

 to all our friends whatsoeuer, to fish within our streames, and vpon 

 any of our coasts of Great Britaine, Ireland, and other adiacent 

 Islands, so farre foorth as the permission or vse thereof might not 

 redound to the empeachment of our Prerogatiue Royall, nor to the 

 hurt and damage of our louing Subiects, whose preseruation and 

 flourishing estate we hold our selfe principally bound to aduance 

 before all worldly respects : So finding that our conniuence therein, 

 hath not onely giuen occasion of ouer great encrochments vpon our 

 Regalities, or rather questioning for our Right, but hath bene a 

 meanes of much dayly wrongs to our owne people that exercise the 

 trade of Fishing as (either by the multitude of Strangers, which doe 

 preoccupy those places, or by the iniuries which they receiue most 

 comonly at their hands) our Subiects are constrained to abandon their 

 Fishing, or at the least are become so discouraged in the same, as they 

 hold it better for them, to betake themselues to some other course of 

 liuing, whereby not onely diuers of our Coast-townes are much decayed, 

 but the number of Mariners dayly diminished, which is a matter of 

 great consequence to our Estate, considering how much the strength 



