THE NAVY AND THE STUARTS 



the East, where the East India Company was making such progress 

 that it had excited the envy of its Dutch and Portuguese rivals. Fight- 

 ing in these waters became almost continuous, but the Navy had no 

 part in it. It will be described therefore in its more appropriate place, 

 but as it caused the issue of numerous Letters of Marque it had 

 considerable military importance. 



The Suppression of Piracy. 



At home the Navy had a certain amount of work to do in the 

 suppression of piracy round about the year 1610. Elizabeth had 

 granted Letters of Marque against the Spaniards, but legally these were 

 cancelled when James made peace with that Power. As he was 

 generally content to pardon any offender with a homily on the sacred- 

 ness of peace, the privateers soon came to regard his edicts very lightly, 

 and from that it was only a step to open piracy. Things got from bad 

 to worse until in 1614 Monson and Sir Francis Howard took the avail- 

 able ships of the fleet against the rovers. A little judicious hanging 

 worked wonders, but the Barbary corsairs were a very different proposi- 

 tion and kept the Navy busy, although the Sallee ships were so much 

 faster than ours that few were taken. 



The Spanish Scare. 



In 1617 the Spaniards were known to be preparing a big force, 

 and the question arose as to whether it was to be a surprise attack on 

 us or an attack on the Barbary corsairs as the Dons declared. The 

 King pulled of? a very clever stroke in immediately raising a fleet to 

 co-operate with them to rout out the pirates, thus having his force ready 

 to meet an invasion if necessary and at the same time avoiding 

 precipitating hostilities. It was one of the few occasions on which 

 James made good use of the Navy and it resulted in the Spanish scheme, 

 whatever it might have been, being abandoned. Meanwhile, however, 

 the Duke of Buckingham as Lord High Admiral had determined to 

 use the ships so raised quite straightforwardly, and accordingly Mansell 

 in 1620 sailed from Plymouth against the Barbary corsairs with six men- 

 of-war and twelve hired merchantmen. A certain amount of damage 

 was done to the corsairs, but little enough considering the size of the 

 expedition. 



The English as Mercenaries. 



One of the most extraordinary incidents in the history of the Navy 

 occurred in 1624, shortly before the death of James I, when he entered 

 into an agreement with the French King which hired out to that 

 monarch two British men-of-war and six armed merchantmen under 

 Admiral Penington for use against any enemy that he might have, 

 excepting the English and the Scots. All the details of the affair are 

 somewhat obscure, but it would appear that the Duke of Buckingham 

 had a very personal finger in the pie and that had his scheme been 

 carried out it would have practically meant handing over the ships. 

 As it was, only hopeless confusion resulted and eventually the fleet 

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