4 THE DUTCH GRAND FISHERY 
Dutch cured herring was quickly recognised in the princi- 
pal countries of Northern Europe, and Holland soon engaged 
in a lucrative export trade in herring. Holland attained 
her utmost greatness in the period of the Republic of the 
United Netherlands ; it is a clear index to the manner in 
which that position was gained, that this is also the epoch 
in which her sea fisheries attained their greatest importance. 
As is usually the case, it was the increased importance of 
Holland and particularly her growing maritime power which 
brought her into conflict with other nations. So long as the 
Low Countries had constituted merely a small province of 
the great Spanish Empire, both English and Scotch had 
been content to grant Dutch fishermen their protection and 
had willingly allowed them to fish in British waters, upon 
their acknowledging the sovereignty of the English king in 
the seas about Britain, and purchasing licenses permitting 
them to fish in these seas. The English kings had since 
the time of Edward III. definitely asserted their claim to 
sovereignty in the seas lying about the coasts of their king- 
dom. Edward III. issued a proclamation making this 
claim, and had his right admitted by the Treaty of Paris, 
1360; this same right was upheld by Henry V., Henry VI., 
and Henry VII. 
That this claim to sovereignty was much more than a 
mere idle assertion is clear from the fact that in the reign 
of Mary when the fishermen of the Low Countries wished 
to seek new fishing grounds, there was granted to King 
Philip’s subjects in Flanders a twenty-one years’ lease of 
the fishings about the North Coast of Ireland, this lease 
being granted in consideration of a fine and £1000 paid 
annually to Sir Edward Fitton, Treasurer for Ireland. A 
1 Cal. S.P. Dom. Car. II., vol. 339. ‘A collection of divers particulars 
touching the King’s Dominion and Soveraignty in ye Fishing as well in 
Scotland as in the Brittish Ocean, presented Aprill, 1633, Chronicon 
Malmsbury, John Haywood.” 
