DOMINIUM MARIS 107 



commissioners in England at a conference called 

 to decide the question whether an English 

 royal licence was required before Dutch vessels 

 could fish in Greenland waters. The point was 

 no new one. But it was the pivot upon which 

 turned the great decisions of International Law 

 and British naval policy, and on its interpre- 

 tation ultimately rest the foundations of the 

 British Empire as we now know it. 



The English claim was far more ancient 

 than is commonly supposed. As far back as 

 1295 Edward I. styled himself " sovereign of 

 the sea," but forbade his own subjects to 

 molest the Dutch, Zeelanders and Prisons while 

 fishing off Yarmouth, and in 1384 what may 

 be called the first Navigation Act was passed. 

 Henry VI., however, in 1440 rejected the pro- 

 posal of the Commons to resume the policy 

 embodied in this Act, 5 Richard II., c. 3. 



Two Acts in the reign of Henry VII. in 1485 

 and 1489, an Act of Henry VIII., 1541, and an 

 Act of Elizabeth, 1593, all dealt with the privi- 

 leges of English shipping. About the time of 

 the marriage of Queen Mary with King Philip 

 of Spain, the English claim to the sovereignty 

 of the seas was enforced by compelling King 

 }\ Philip's subjects in Flanders to pay a fine and 

 an annual rent of £1,000 for a twenty-one 

 years' lease of the fishing near the North Irish 



I coast, while a similar lease with similar con- 

 ditions was granted by Queen Mary to " the 



