THE PARLIAMENT, THE COMMONWEALTH, AND THE PROTECTORATE.
THE FIRST DUTCH WAR.
On the 3rd November 1640 the Long Parliament commenced its sittings
at Westminster, and within two years thereafter--on 22nd August
1642--Charles raised the royal standard at Nottingham, and initiated
the great Civil War. During the period of strife little was heard
of the claim to the sovereignty of the sea, although the Parliament
continued to issue the usual instructions to the naval commanders to
compel homage to the flag. But under the Commonwealth and Protectorate
the English pretensions were carried to as high a pitch as ever they
were under the Stuarts. The stern men who then guided the destinies
of England were as jealous of the symbols of the nation’s greatness
as had been the vacillating king they destroyed. In particular, the
salutation of the flag was enforced with great vigour. A dispute on the
point between Tromp and Blake occasioned the first Dutch war, and the
result proved to the world that after all England possessed the actual
dominion of the sea by reason of her naval power. In the negotiations
with the Dutch which preceded the treaty of peace, we shall find that
Cromwell put in the forefront of his conditions the recognition of
England’s right to the herring fishery, and to the striking of the flag
within the British seas.
At first, as might have been expected from the actions of the king
with regard to the ship-money collections, little sympathy was shown
by the Parliament for the claim to the sovereignty of the sea. The
necessity of maintaining that sovereignty had always been put forward
as a principal argument for levying the money, and on that ground it
was objectionable to many of those opposed to the king. In a work said
to have been presented to the Parliament at its first meeting, forcible
opinions were expressed against the pretension. It was doubtful, it
was said, whether the sea really belonged to the crown, as the king
claimed. Even if it did, it was not apparent that the fate of the
land depended upon the dominion of the sea. That dominion might be
considered as a right, an honour, or a profit. As a right it was a
theme “fitter for scholars to fret their wits upon than for Christians
to fight and spill blood about”; as an honour, by making others strike
sails to our ships as they passed, it was “a glory fitter for women
and children to wonder at than for statesmen to contend about”; as a
matter of profit, to fence and enclose the sea, it was of moment, but
not more to us than to other nations: by too insolent contentions about
it we might provoke God and dishonour ourselves, and rather incense our
friends than quell our enemies.[680] If such sentiments reflected the
feeling of the Parliament at the beginning of their labours, they were
not of long duration. Within a few years a change was wrought, which
was probably in large measure due to the part taken by the fleet in the
struggle with the king, as well as to the abiding spirit of the people
for predominant power on the sea.
From an early stage in the conflict the control of the fleet passed
into the hands of the Parliament. In the summer of 1642, when the Earl
of Northumberland, the Lord High Admiral, was laid aside by illness,
the Parliament succeeded, with his connivance and assistance, in
placing the Earl of Warwick in actual command; Sir John Pennington, the
nominee of Charles, having to stand aside.[681] Under the management
of its new masters the navy rapidly became a powerful and efficient
instrument for the defence of the realm, as was shown at the opening
of the Dutch war. The general instructions given by the Parliament
to its naval officers respecting the honour of the flag and the
sovereignty of the sea were almost identical with those which had been
issued to the Earls of Lindsey and Northumberland, but the phraseology
was sometimes a little varied. On 5th April 1643 the Parliament, in
view of the attempt organised by Queen Henrietta Maria to smuggle into
England military supplies from the Netherlands for the use of the
royalists, ordered the Earl of Warwick, if he met with “any foreign
forces, ships, or vessels, as Spaniards, French, Danes, Dunkirkers, or
any other whatsoever, making towards the coasts of England, Ireland, or
any other of his Majesty’s dominions,” to command them, “according to
the usual manner, to strike their flags or top-sails,” and cause them
to be examined and searched for soldiers or munitions of war. If they
refused to strike, he was “to compel them thereunto by force of arms
and surprise, and to take all such ships and vessels, or otherwise to
burn, sink, or destroy them.”[682] In the following year the Committee
for the Admiralty instructed Vice-Admiral Batten, who was in command of
the fleet, “upon all occasions, as you shall be able, to maintain _the
Kingdom’s_ sovereignty and regality in the seas.”[683]
In the spring of 1647, the Committee of the Admiralty, for some reason
or other, appears to have devoted special attention to the question of
the flag and the sovereignty of the sea. Collections were made from the
Admiralty archives of precedents showing that all ships refusing to
strike in English waters were to be reputed enemies, and were liable
to forfeiture,--the examples beginning with the Ordinance of King
John and ending with the instructions issued by Charles.[684] These
collections were probably made in connection with the instructions
which the Committee drew up at this time for the guidance of the
captains and officers of the navy, and which were essentially similar
to those given by Charles to his ship-money fleets. “It must be your
principal care,” they ran, “to preserve the honour of this kingdom, and
the coasts, jurisdictions, territories, and subjects thereof, being in
amity with the Parliament, and within the extent of your employment,
as much as in you lieth; that no nation or people whatsoever intrude
thereon or injure any of them. And if you chance to meet in any of the
seas that are under the jurisdiction of England, Scotland, and Ireland,
with any ships or fleets belonging to any foreign prince or state, you
must expect that they, in acknowledgment of this kingdom’s sovereignty
there, shall perform their duty and homage in passing by, in striking
their top-sails and taking in their flags.” If they refused they were
to be forced to do so in the usual way. It will be noticed that the
region within which foreigners were to be compelled to strike was
greatly extended by the Parliament. Up to and including the reign of
James the “acknowledgment” was confined to the narrow seas, in which
it had been exacted for centuries; Charles in 1635 ordered Lindsey to
compel it “in his Majesty’s seas,” and now the Parliament extended
it specifically to all the seas under the jurisdiction of England,
Scotland, and Ireland. From a clause in the instructions it is clear
that the seas over which the Parliament claimed sovereignty reached
to the coasts of the Continent; but a territorial limit was excepted
on foreign coasts. The clause in question enjoined the naval officers
“to be very careful not to meddle with any ships within the harbours,
or ports, or under the command of any of the castles of any foreign
prince or state, or within any buoys (Buoyes) or rivers, that they may
have no just cause of offence.” Another feature of these instructions
is of interest. The clause which was inserted in the instructions to
Lindsey and Northumberland in 1635, 1636, and 1637, commanding them
to prevent all hostilities between men-of-war or merchant vessels in
the presence of the king’s ships, was repeated.[685] The Parliament
clearly intended to abate no jot of the pretensions which had been put
forward by the king.
An opportunity soon came for putting the instructions regarding the
flag into force. In May of the same year a Swedish fleet of fifteen
sail, consisting of ten merchantmen bound for the Mediterranean and
five ships of war convoying them, was met by Captain Owen in the
_Henrietta Maria_ off the Isle of Wight. On being called upon to
strike, the Swedes refused, declaring that they had been commanded by
the Queen of Sweden “not to strike to any whatsoever.” Owen, reinforced
by Batten, thereupon attacked them, the fight continuing till night.
The Swedes suffered much loss; the colours of their vice-admiral
and rear-admiral were shot away, a “great breach” was made in the
vice-admiral’s ship, and their vessels were captured and taken into
Portsmouth. They were afterwards released, but the Admiralty Committee
expressed the opinion that the proceedings of their officers “in
order to the maintenance of the kingdom’s sovereignty at sea” were
to be commended, and this resolution was reported to both Houses of
Parliament.[686] The question of the salute between ships of war of
different nations had been brought to the front in most other maritime
countries by the forcible measures taken by Charles in 1633 and later.
Two years before the encounter with the Swedes in the Channel, Denmark
and Sweden had regulated the ceremony, as affecting their own ships of
war, in the treaty of peace then concluded between them.[687]
From this time until shortly before the war with the Dutch there
is little to record about the claims to the dominion of the sea.
In 1649, the instructions issued to Popham, Blake, and Dean, the
commanders of the fleet, included the guarding of the North Sea and
the mackerel-fishing, as well as the maintenance “of the sovereignty
of the Commonwealth in the sea,” all in the prescribed form.[688] In
the following year the Council of State issued express commands to
Blake on the subject when he was ordered to proceed against Prince
Rupert and the revolted ships at Lisbon. The dominion of “these seas,”
they said, had anciently and time out of mind belonged to the English
nation, and the ships of all other nations in acknowledgment of that
dominion had been accustomed to take down their flags “upon sight” of
the Admiral of England, and not to bear them in his presence. Blake was
therefore, to the best of his powers, and “as he found himself and the
fleet of strength and ability,” to do his utmost endeavours to preserve
the dominion of the sea, and to cause the ships of all other nations
to strike their flags and keep them in in his presence, and to compel
such as were refractory, by seizing their ships and sending them into
port, to be punished according to the “laws of the sea,” unless they,
submitted and made such reparation as he required. At the same time,
although the dominion of the sea was so ancient and indubitable, and it
concerned the honour and reputation of the nation to uphold it, Blake
was not to imperil his fleet over it in the expedition on which he was
employed. If he was opposed in the question of the flag by a force so
considerable as to prove dangerous, he was not to press it, but to note
who they were that refused, so that they might be forced to strike at
some better opportunity.[689]
Such were the instructions of the Government to the English naval
commanders, and they were soon to bear bitter fruit. At this period
the Dutch men-of-war apparently did not show unwillingness to salute
the English flag, even sometimes in distant seas. Penn notes in his
journal, on 13th September 1651, that on meeting with the Dutch Admiral
with his vice- and rear-admirals between Cape Trafalgar and Cape Sprat,
they struck their flags to him and saluted; but they then hoisted
them, which would have been contrary to the custom in the narrow sea,
and Penn thereupon called his captains together for advice, but they
said the Dutch “had done enough.” A little later he records that young
Tromp, convoying thirteen merchantmen, came into Gibraltar Road, where
Penn was lying, with his flag in the main-top. The English Admiral,
however, did nothing, since Tromp was in a port of the King of Spain.
Shortly afterwards in the same place eight sail of Hollanders, four of
which were men-of-war, all struck their flags and saluted the English
fleet.[690]
The claims of England to the sovereignty of the seas were now about
to enter on a new phase, which culminated in the first Dutch war. So
long as the ambitious and energetic Prince William II. of Orange was
alive, the relations between the United Provinces and the Parliament
were strained and menacing. The States-General, under Orange influence,
refused to enter into diplomatic communication with the English
Government, or to admit their ambassador, Strickland, to audience. The
execution of Charles I. had raised strong feelings of reprobation and
horror in the Netherlands, even amongst the Hollanders and Zealanders,
who sympathised with the Puritans; and it was believed in England
that the Prince of Orange was contemplating war against them for the
restoration of his brother-in-law, Charles II., to the throne. The
death of the Prince, on 27th October 1650, produced a great change. It
was followed by a political revolution in the United Provinces, the
chief outcome of which was the predominance of the States of Holland
and of the party opposed to the Orange faction, and most favourably
inclined to maintain good relations with the English Commonwealth.[691]
It was therefore agreed at The Hague to send back Joachimi, who had
been dismissed by the Parliament in the previous year, with credentials
as ambassador from the States-General to the Parliament.
In London the accession to power of the republican party in the
Netherlands had been watched with keen interest. The time, it was
believed, was come for a close alliance between the two great
Protestant Republics for safeguarding their religious and political
liberties; perhaps, it was thought by some, for even a closer union
than was implied in the strictest alliance known to diplomacy. The
Parliament accordingly lost no time in opening negotiations with the
States-General. On 17th March, 1651, Lord Chief-Justice St John and
Walter Strickland entered The Hague with great pomp and splendour as
ambassadors from the Commonwealth, attended by an imposing retinue
of 246 persons. They were greeted in the street with insulting cries
from Orange partisans and royalist refugees. On the following days
their suite only ventured abroad in parties, and with their rapiers in
their hands. The ambassadors themselves were openly jeered at, and
threatened by Prince Edward, son of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia; and
though the States-General received them with ostentatious courtesy, and
prompt measures were taken to suppress the disorders and insults, the
conditions of their surroundings produced irritation and impatience in
their minds, with important results in the sequel.[692] The principal
object of the Parliament was to make use of the Dutch Republic to help
them to maintain the Commonwealth, and to resist any attempt to place
Charles II. on the throne. In return they were willing to aid the
Republic against the House of Orange or any other inclined to disturb
it.
St John had with him two series of propositions,--one relating to
a strict alliance and union; the other, private and never fully
disclosed, included a novel scheme for the coalescence and fusion of
the two states and peoples, on the lines propounded by the Council
of State in the following year. He brought out his propositions one
by one, requiring categorical acceptance of each before dealing with
the next, the design being to lead step by step to the proposals for
coalescence and fusion. His first proposition was in substance for
“a more strict and intimate alliance and union” than any before, by
which there might be “a more intrinsical and mutual interest of each
in other” for the good of both.[693] After some fencing and much
hesitation and delay--the Dutch proferring a qualified acceptance,
which the ambassadors rejected--a guarded assent was given. St John,
though not satisfied, thinking the “manner of penning the answer was
dark and doubtful,” “determined to proceed into some further thing
which might come nearer to make a discovery of their temper and
inclination in point of their neutrality, than stay any longer upon
general terms,” and he accordingly at the same meeting submitted
another proposition requiring the confederation of the two states
for the defence and preservation of the freedom and liberty of the
people of each against all that might attempt to disturb them, or that
were declared to be enemies to the freedom and liberty of the people
living under either Government.[694] The Dutch commissioners, however,
declared that this was a general proposition, and they insisted on
a request they had made from the first, to be furnished with the
“particulars”--they wanted the particulars, _simul et semel_, that were
intended to be insisted upon.
The negotiations had been protracted. By this time a month had elapsed
since the ambassadors arrived, and St John, now conscious that his
mission for coalescence would fail, and irritated by the indignities
to which he had been subjected, obtained an order from the Parliament
for his recall. At the urgent entreaty of the States of Holland
the Parliament allowed their ambassadors to stay for other forty
days, and also gave them authority to treat on the basis of the old
Intercursus Magnus of 1496, which the Dutch had suddenly proposed. The
States, in truth, had totally different aims from the Commonwealth.
They were thinking about their commerce, their navigation, and their
fisheries, rather than about the repression of “rebels”; and they
desired that their alliance with England should confirm and extend the
benefits conferred upon them in these respects by the old treaty. The
Intercursus Magnus had for generations been the sheet-anchor of Dutch
policy towards England. It gave them the utmost freedom of commercial
intercourse, and complete liberty of fishing on the English coasts.
But it contained other clauses appropriate in spirit to the political
conditions of 1651. The treaty had been concluded by Henry VII. in
the year in which apprehensions were entertained that Perkin Warbeck
would effect a landing in England; it provided for mutual military aid
against the enemies of either country, and the expulsion of rebels
and fugitives from the territories of the other. St John naturally
took the clauses embodying these stipulations as the basis of his
new draft articles, which he submitted to the Dutch commissioners
on 10th May. They were seven in number. The first required that the
proposition made on 17th April for mutual defence of the freedom and
liberty of each people should be an article of the treaty. The second
provided that neither party should afford any aid or favour to any
one whomsoever to the injury or prejudice of the other, but should
expressly oppose “and really hinder all whomsoever,” abiding in either
commonwealth or under its power, that should do or attempt anything
against the other; and the remaining articles were of similar tenour,
relating to “rebels” and enemies. They were, in short, political
articles of the most comprehensive scope, aimed against the royalists;
so comprehensive and thorough that the English Commonwealth might, by
declaring the Prince of Orange himself its enemy, demand his expulsion
from the Provinces.[695] St John’s articles were by no means to the
liking of the Dutch; and though he pointed out that they were “but a
translation of the old treaty, only enlarged for the better assurance
of performance,”--the treaty which they themselves had proposed as
the basis for the new one,--they insisted on sending the articles to
the various Provinces for their opinion. For a full month the English
ambassadors waited without an answer to their articles--a delay which
they believed was meant “to spin out the treaty until the Scotch mist
was over” and the result of the struggle in Scotland apparent. But the
Dutch, though slow, had not been idle. On 14th June, when only four of
the forty days allotted by the Parliament remained, the Dutch produced
counter-proposals in the form of draft articles, thirty-six in number,
which were paraphrased from the Intercursus Magnus, the treaty with
King James VI. of Scotland in 1594, the treaty of Southampton with
Charles in 1625, and the marine treaty with Spain in 1650.
These articles had been submitted by Holland to the convocation of the
States-General on 15th May, and were under the consideration of the
provincial states for nearly a month. They provided for a “perpetual
friendship, unity, correspondence, and a further and nearer alliance,
confederation, and union” against all who should attempt anything
derogatory to the liberties of the two peoples, their commerce, and
common interests; mutual defence and mutual assistance with men and
ships against “notorious or known” enemies of the other, and the
prohibition of assisting rebels. But there was no article under which
the royalists could be expelled from the United Provinces, or which
prevented the House of Orange from aiding or harbouring declared
rebels of England; and it was expressly stipulated that the States
should in no way be drawn into the disputes and war between Scotland
and the Parliament. Having thus whittled down the proposals of the
Parliament for a close alliance directed against the royalists, the
Dutch propounded a whole series of articles providing for the freest
commercial intercourse between the two countries, for freedom of
navigation and of fishing. The trade to Virginia and the Caribbean
Islands, which had been closed by the Parliament, was to be thrown
open to both nations; ships were to be free to anchor without seizure
of goods; the subjects of one state were not to be taxed higher in
the territories of the other than the natives, and they were to be
free to carry on their business or profession with the same liberty.
A number of articles dealt with questions relative to the sovereignty
of the seas, in such a way as to show clearly that the design of the
Dutch was to render harmless a pretension which had caused them so much
trouble. They had not forgotten the declarations of Charles sixteen
years before, or the forceful operations of Northumberland against
their herring-busses. With regard to fishing, they wished the subjects
of either state to be at liberty to go to any part of the sea to fish
for herrings and all other kinds of fish, great or small, without any
license or pass being required. If the fishermen were forced by storms,
pirates, enemies, or any other cause, to go to land, they desired that
they should be courteously received and well treated in the ports of
either country, and permitted to depart with their ships and cargoes,
and if they had not broken their cargoes, without paying any customs
or dues.[696] These stipulations paraphrased corresponding provisions
in the Intercursus Magnus, and rather more favourably to the Dutch. If
they had been accepted, they would have destroyed the English policy
which had been pursued, though fitfully, from 1609 to the outbreak of
the Civil War, of requiring foreigners to pay tribute and take out
licenses for fishing on the British coasts.
Some of the other articles proposed by the Dutch were directed against
the claims put forward in Selden’s _Mare Clausum_, and by Charles
himself, to a special dominion and jurisdiction of England in the
surrounding seas. If the freedom of commerce and navigation was to
be assured, it would be necessary, it was said, for both countries
to equip fleets to secure the safety and liberty of the subjects of
both, to purge the sea of pirates and sea-rovers, and to preserve
the security of commerce and of fishing. The proposition was that
each state should set forth a fleet yearly, its strength to be fixed
by mutual agreement, and the ocean as well as the North Sea and the
Mediterranean, with their straits and channels, were to be patrolled
by the two fleets, each under its own admiral and flag. This was in
effect asking the Commonwealth not only for equality of sovereignty on
the sea, but for the assistance of England in protecting the immense
commerce and shipping of the United Provinces. They desired that each
nation should shield and defend the merchant vessels of the other, and
help to recover them if taken by an enemy.
Among other proposals were that men-of-war, but only in small
numbers, should be allowed freely into the ports and havens of the
other, and were not to be subjected to visitation and search, the
showing of the commission to be sufficient; and that no sea-rovers
were to be tolerated in harbours, and no ships with letters of
marque allowed to leave without first providing security that they
would not exceed their commissions. One of the provisions went much
further, and seems to smack of Dutch humour, when we think of the
action of James and Charles. For the sake of liberty, both peoples
were to use their fleets, not only against pirates, but against all
and sundry, whomsoever they might be, who should attempt to molest,
hinder, or--“against the right of all peoples”--impose exactions on
their commerce, navigation, or their fishery. In such an event, if
amicable remonstrances failed, the whole sea forces of each nation were
to attack the depredators and wage war against them until complete
satisfaction had been obtained.[697]
So resolved were the Dutch to have a general clearing-up with England
on all points concerning the sovereignty of the sea, that they at
first proposed to insert among their draft articles one relating to
the striking of the flag and similar ceremonies, which frequently gave
rise to differences. The States-General, however, considered the matter
“too delicate” to be raised at that time, and the article was not
inserted.[698] Two or three months before this, as elsewhere mentioned
(p. 398), the question of striking the flag to the English had been
raised and debated in the States-General in connection with Tromp’s
expedition to the Scilly Islands.
With the foregoing proposals before him, it is not to be wondered at
that St John was dissatisfied, and longed more than ever to get away
from The Hague. The Commonwealth had asked for a strict and close
alliance at the very least, for the security of religious and political
liberty and the common interests of both Republics, but in reality
and above all for aid against the royalists. The Dutch also desired
security for liberty, but it was chiefly for the liberty of commerce,
navigation, and fishing; and they were anxious, if they could, to get
rid of the troublesome English pretension to a sovereignty of the sea.
The proposals of the two sides were incompatible, and St John left
The Hague a few days later with the unuttered plan for the fusion
of the nations in his pocket and with bitterness in his heart. His
disappointment was to cost the Dutch dear. Within a few months of his
return the Navigation Act was passed, mainly by his impulse, and it
dealt a serious blow to the commerce of the United Provinces.[699] It
was the retort of the English Commonwealth to the rebuff of the States.
If the Dutch put their commerce and fisheries above everything else,
the Parliament would show them how they could injure them and at the
same time foster English shipping and fisheries.
But much more than the Navigation Act, some other proceedings of the
Parliament increased the tension between the two countries. In November
they renewed certain letters of reprisal against the Dutch, under
which a few of their vessels were captured. More serious were the
actions of English men-of-war and of some privateers who held letters
of reprisal against the French. An informal maritime war with France
began in 1649 and continued till 1655, and though there was nominally
peace, the English captured French vessels, and _vice versâ_. They then
began to seize Dutch ships, suspected of having French goods on board,
and brought them into English ports for trial in the Admiralty Court.
This was an interference with freedom of commerce which the States
could not tolerate, and an embassy to England, which had been decided
upon after St John left The Hague, was despatched thither.[700] The
three ambassadors, Cats, Schaep, and van de Perre, arrived in London
on 15th December 1651. They were instructed to renew negotiations
for a treaty on the basis of the thirty-six articles, to endeavour to
get the Navigation Act repealed, the captured vessels released, and
the letters of reprisal withdrawn, with compensation for the losses
suffered by reason of them. The question of adding another article to
their instructions, about the striking of the flag, which had been
omitted from the thirty-six articles, had again been considered. But,
for the same reason as before, it was withheld. “The carrying or
striking of the flags by the one side or the other” was judged to be
“very delicate”; and it was decided (on 10th November 1651) that the
States-General should deliberate further on the matter, and send later
to the ambassadors such instructions “as should be found suitable for
the removal of misunderstandings and hostilities.”[701] We thus see
that in 1651 the Government of the United Provinces was fully alive to
the risks and difficulties about the flag. But from their proceedings
at this time it would seem that they were unwilling to acknowledge
unreservedly the claim of the Commonwealth to the salute, which was
looked upon as a symbol of England’s sovereignty of the sea. The
question was only rendered “delicate” because of certain qualifications
and conditions of reciprocity which they desired to attach to it, and
for which they struggled hard with Cromwell during the subsequent
negotiations for peace.
The ambassadors had an audience with the Parliament on 19th
December,--Cats treating the members to a long and flowery oration
in Latin,--and with the Council of State on 1st January 1652; but it
was not until the 16th that commissioners were appointed to deal with
them. The English commissioners[702] showed no anxiety to facilitate
the negotiations. The spirit with which they were animated was evident
from their eagerness to bring forward all imaginable reasons for
dispute,--the interest taken by the Dutch in the fate of Charles I.;
the partiality of some of their ambassadors at foreign Courts; their
refusal to receive Strickland; and so forth. In the end, the Dutch
ambassadors failed to get what they wanted. The English refused to
cancel or modify the Navigation Act, to release the captured ships
before the cases had been tried in the Admiralty Court, or to make
reparation. They suspended the letters of direct reprisal against the
Dutch, but not those against the French, which were by far the more
important.
It was felt in Holland that such interference with their trade could
not be endured. There were loud complaints about the seizure of the
ships, and the opinion was growing in the Netherlands that it was
the intention of the Commonwealth to force a war upon them. As a
precautionary measure the States-General decided on 22nd February to
add 150 ships to the existing fleet, “for the security of the sea and
the preservation of the shipping and commerce of the United Provinces”;
and the ambassadors were requested to inform the English Council of
their intention, which was done on 5th March, with the explanation that
it was not with the object of doing the slightest harm to any nation,
and least of all to England, that the increase in the fleet was to be
made, but only to preserve their freedom of navigation.[703] As this
extraordinary addition to the navy of the Dutch Republic would raise
it to the formidable number of 226 ships, it is not surprising that
the proceeding was viewed in England as a preparation for war. The
Council, on their part, put forward a series of more or less provoking
claims. They demanded reparation for wrongs and losses suffered by the
English at the hands of the Dutch at “Greenland” in 1618, in the East
Indies since 1619, and at Brazil; and they complained of various other
wrongs and affronts they had suffered. But pending an answer from the
States-General to their complaints and requests, they agreed, on 3rd
May, to discuss with the ambassadors the thirty-six articles.
These articles had been previously considered by the Council of State,
which had prepared a commentary on them; and now both documents were
taken up together. On the proposals concerning the sovereignty of the
sea many differences arose. With regard to the right of the English
to visit and search vessels, men-of-war as well as merchantmen, the
ambassadors referred to the edicts of the States forbidding warships to
take merchandise on board, and to the certificates of their Admiralty
to the same effect; but it was argued on the other side that these
measures had not stopped the abuse, and that the visitation was
not prejudicial; and no agreement on this clause was reached. The
commentary of the Council on the fishery article (see p. 388) was
that, saving and asserting the right of the Commonwealth, they would
be willing to proceed to such an agreement as should be found fit
and reasonable; while the Dutch took their stand on the provision in
the Intercursus Magnus, and urged that it would be unjust to deviate
from an agreement which had endured for a century and a half. It was
admitted by the English commissioners that the treaty gave liberty of
fishing, but they asserted that long before the time of Henry VII.
the right to the fisheries and to the sovereignty of the sea belonged
to England. It had, moreover, been impeached by succeeding kings and
especially by James, to whom, as King of Scotland, the right to the
fishery pertained; while after the union of the crowns he pursued the
same policy as King of England, and now that Scotland had been brought
under the dominion of the English Republic, it was thought that the
best course was to make a new treaty about the fisheries.[704] The
ambassadors could obtain no definite information as to the nature
of the treaty proposed, but it would not be difficult for them to
comprehend its general tenour, for they had to listen to the recital
of the “evidences” that England had constantly made use of her rights
in the fishery, and of the care she had always exercised as to the
sovereignty of the sea. The Dutch endeavoured to avoid mixing up these
two questions, pleading that the fishery concerned the lives of a
multitude of poor fishermen; but the commissioners retorted that it was
a very valuable industry, the right to which belonged to England, and
this, they said, had been acknowledged by neighbouring nations paying
taxes for liberty to fish in their seas, adding that all peoples had
been accustomed to recognise in them the masters of the sea by striking
the flag to them, and that the Dutch themselves had earlier instructed
their naval officers to salute English ships “_cum debita reverentia_,”
and it was also expressly ordered in the commissions issued by Prince
William and Maurice. From the language of the English commissioners,
it appears probable that they were acquainted with the proceedings of
the States-General as to the proposed article on the striking of the
flag, and with the debates in the previous year concerning Tromp’s
instructions (see p. 398). The negotiations on the fishery question
were not carried further at this stage.
With regard to the article relating to the equipment of a fleet by each
nation for the protection of commerce, the commentary of the Council
of State was that “the Commonwealth of England shall take such care
for the guard of their seas and defence of the freedom of trade and
commerce therein as shall be fit”; and with respect to the next, which
stipulated that both countries should protect commerce and fisheries
from molestation or impositions, the reply was equally uncompromising.
“If any person,” it was said, “shall, within those seas, trouble,
hinder, or unlawfully burthen any in the exercise of that freedom of
trade which belongs of right unto them, this Commonwealth will use all
means just and honourable to restore and preserve freedom to all lawful
commerce in those seas as aforesaid.”[705] The meaning of this language
was unmistakable. The Commonwealth intended to adhere to the old claim
to the dominion of the seas, which had been revived by Charles. And
this exclusive sovereign jurisdiction, it was explained, would be of
advantage to the Dutch, since they would bear no part of the cost; they
must be content with freedom of navigation and commerce, and leave
to the English the duty of maintaining the security of “their seas.”
On inquiring what means the Commonwealth proposed to take for this
purpose, the ambassadors were told that the intention of the Council
was “to defend the sea in their own right,” and that any further
explanation would be given by the Council if they applied to it.
At this stage of the proceedings William Nieuport, a member of the
States-General, came to London with fresh instructions for the
ambassadors. That body had been considering the English demands for
reparation, above alluded to, and also the commentary of the Council
on the thirty-six articles; but the refusal to liberate the captured
ships, or to stop the operations of privateers against Dutch vessels,
made them obdurate. The ambassadors were now told to insist on the
articles relating to visitation and search as an essential part of
the treaty. No Dutch vessel was to be visited, whether it was on the
sea, in harbour, or in a roadstead. The principle of “free ship, free
goods,” was to be strictly enforced, and no investigation of the cargo
of a merchant vessel was to be permitted; still less should they agree
to the visitation of a man-of-war. The ambassadors were specially
requested to avoid discussion as to any claim on the part of England
to exclusive right in any portion of the sea; in any case, they were
not to admit that such right existed, but were to treat only about the
liberty and security of the fishery on both sides.[706] If the English
protested that they would not allow themselves to be prejudiced in any
of their “pretended rights,” the ambassadors were then to make a formal
declaration that they, on their part, could not allow the freedom of
navigation and of fishery, or the free use of the sea, to be called
in question, nor could they recognise the special claims of any one
over the sea which might prejudice those rights. In order to avoid, if
possible, directly raising the question of the dominion of the sea,
they were requested when dealing with the crucial articles to speak
only of commerce and fishery, and not of the “purging” of the sea of
pirates; and they were also to abandon the proposal for a division of
the sea into districts.[707]
So passed, peacefully enough, the early weeks of May at the conferences
in London. The States’ ambassadors, on the one hand, demanding freedom
of navigation and fishery; above all, that the visitation and seizure
of their vessels should cease. The English commissioners, on their
part, putting forward incompatible claims to the sovereignty of the
British seas: the right of exclusive jurisdiction, of guardianship,
the right to the fishery. Whether the negotiations would have reached
a happy conclusion, as the ambassadors, and apparently also the
States-General, believed they would, may only 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 searching 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.[708] 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 subject
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
expedition to the Scilly Isles, in view of the likelihood of his
falling in with the English fleet,--its consideration, indeed, delayed
his departure,--but the Government hesitated in coming to a decision,
and a general wish was expressed to hear Tromp’s own opinion first. He
accordingly prepared a memorandum describing what the States’ ships
had done in the past. He said that whenever their men-of-war met at
sea a ship of the King of England carrying the flag of an admiral,
vice-admiral, or rear-admiral, they struck their admiral’s flag,
lowered top-sails, and fired nine, seven, or five guns, the English
answering with a like number, and the States’ flag remained struck
until the ships separated, when three or one adieu-shots were fired,
and the flag was then hoisted. On meeting a single king’s ship, he
said, they did not strike their flag, but only exchanged guns; but
it sometimes happened that an English ship of little power tried to
compel them to strike, out of pride (“uyt hooghmoet”), but when they
fired back and showed their teeth, and the English ship found it had
not power to force them, it went on its way with derision; in such
cases striking was a matter of discretion. When they entered a harbour
or came before a castle they fired a salute, which was returned; the
flag was taken in and a pennant run up in its place, and kept flying so
long as they were there, particularly if a king’s ship, carrying the
king’s flag, was present. If no king’s ship was present, the governor
sometimes gave his permission, out of courtesy, for the admiral to wear
his flag until his departure, when it was again struck and a salute
exchanged.[709]
The substance of Tromp’s report was communicated to the States of
Holland by De Witt on 1st/11th March 1651, stress apparently being laid
on the point that it had been the custom in earlier times for the
States’ ships, “particularly when they were weakest,”[710] to salute
with guns and strike their flag on meeting the English fleet.[711] The
Government, however, thought that the conditions had changed; but they
failed to give the admiral definite directions one way or the other
as to how he should act if he met the fleet of the Parliament. He was
merely told in general terms that he must so manage matters, if he met
with the English fleet, that the state should suffer no affront (“geen
cleynicheyt”),--a decision which left everything to his own discretion.
There was the more risk in this course as the English at this time were
said to be jealous of Tromp, owing to his reluctance to strike his flag
to them.[712]
Later in the same year, the question was again raised by Vice-Admiral
Jan Evertsen, who was placed in command of a squadron to cruise
between Cape Ortegal, the Scillies, and Ushant. Before his departure
he endeavoured to obtain precise orders as to how he should comport
himself if called upon to strike, so that no “inconvenience” might
be caused. The States thereupon merely renewed the instructions they
had given to Tromp in March, and they ordered that copies of Tromp’s
memorandum should be distributed to the other commanders.[713]
No further directions on the matter were given to Tromp when he took
command of the fleet in 1652, though it ought to have been evident
to the States that in the delicate position of affairs with England,
and from the nature of the duties they had laid upon their admiral,
the risk of misunderstanding and collision with the English fleet was
great and imminent. They hesitated to give decided orders to strike,
apparently lest such action might be construed into an acknowledgment
of the inferiority of the Dutch Republic to the English Commonwealth,
especially at a time when they believed themselves to be superior to it
in naval power;[714] and though alive to the importance of the matter,
they were very reluctant to have it discussed in the negotiations in
London. But if the Dutch had no clear idea as to what they were to do
about the flag on meeting the English fleet, the English commanders
had no doubt about their own line of action. Their instructions were
explicit. They were, by force if necessary, to compel the ships of all
nations to this acknowledgment of England’s sovereignty of the sea.
Tromp proceeded to his cruising station off the coast of Flanders,
between Dunkirk and Nieuport, and while riding at anchor there a
strong north-east gale set in, which damaged some of his vessels, and
on the evening of the 18th May he crossed over to the English coast
for shelter and repairs. At this time Bourne was lying in the Downs
with eight Parliamentary ships, and Tromp sent two of his captains
to him to explain the accidental cause of his coming, the ships
conveying them saluting Bourne’s flag. One of the officers, according
to Bourne’s account, said that Tromp himself would have gone into the
Downs “but that he was not willing to breed any difference about his
flag, forasmuch as he had not orders to take it down”; to which Bourne
replied that he “presumed there would be no new thing required of them,
and neither more nor less would be expected from them but what they
knew to be the ancient right of this nation”; and he added that the
reality of the explanation given for their presence “would best appear
by their speedy drawing off from this place.”[715] According to Tromp’s
account of the interview, Bourne merely thanked him courteously for the
message.[716]
At all events, the Dutch fleet passed along the English coast in all
its bravery, the admiral’s ship with his flag on the main-top-mast
head, the rest with “jacks and ancients” flying, and about seven in the
evening they cast anchor off Dover, within little more than gunshot of
the castle. Here they remained till the following afternoon with all
their flags displayed, and without saluting. Three times a gun was
fired from Dover Castle, according to the usual practice, warning the
Dutch admiral to strike his flag; but Tromp--strictly within his right
if beyond gunshot--took no heed. He had probably purposely selected
an anchorage beyond the range of cannon in order to avoid striking to
the English flag. Not only did he not strike, but he exercised his
raw musketeers in discharging volleys of small-shot for many hours
together, in a way that must have been provoking to the English. On
the afternoon of the 19th, Blake, who had been lying at anchor in Rye
Bay a little to the westward, and who had received intimation from
Bourne of the presence of the Dutch fleet, came upon the scene with
fifteen ships. As he approached Tromp weighed anchor and stood off
to sea towards Calais,--a movement which Blake thought to be due to
a desire to avoid “the dispute of the flag.”[717] So far Tromp had
carried out his instructions. He had indeed, through stress of weather,
gone upon the English coast, which he had been requested to avoid as
far as possible. But he had preserved the States from suffering any
“indignity” about the flag. Obviously there was great tension between
the fleets as to the question of striking. Not unnaturally, Tromp’s
proceedings were regarded by the English as an attempt to brave them
upon their own coast; and the English admirals, who were vigilantly
watching, would not be slow to challenge any infraction of the custom
of the narrow seas. They too had to take care that their country
suffered no dishonour, as they understood it.
When Tromp was on his way to Calais, and about half seas over, a
small Dutch vessel fired a gun and came up to him, and communicated
the intelligence that a week earlier a Dutch convoy had been attacked
by the English for not striking their flags; and, above all, that
the seven homeward-bound merchant vessels which had been under their
charge, with valuable cargoes on board, were at that moment lying at
anchor off the English coast, and, it was believed, in danger from the
English fleet.[718] The occurrence referred to took place on 12th May.
Captain Young, in the _President_, while off the Start, accompanied
by two other English men-of-war, fell in with seven Dutch merchantmen
from Genoa and Leghorn, convoyed by three men-of-war, with their
flags displayed. Young sent a boat to their admiral to request him to
strike his flag “before any blood was shed in the controversy,” which
he did. But the vice-admiral, contrary to the custom in the narrow
sea, came to the windward of Young, and refused to strike, telling
him to come on board and strike the flag himself. The _President_
then poured a broadside into the Dutch ship, together with a volley
of small-shot, and several broadsides were exchanged before the
vice-admiral struck, and then the rear-admiral did the same. On Young
demanding the vice-admiral or his ship to carry into port to make good
the damage done, he was told by the admiral that he himself had not
interfered so long as it was only a question of striking the flag, but
if he attempted to seize the ship he would resist him; and the matter
was carried no further. “I do believe,” said Young, “I gave him his
bellyful of it, for he sent me word he had order from the State that if
he struck he should lose his head.”[719] It is probable that the Dutch
vessels encountered the north-east gale that forced Tromp from his
anchorage; at all events, they were brought by their convoyers along
the English coast to Fairlight,[720] between Hastings and Winchelsea,
where they cast anchor; then the Dutch captain who had been attacked,
Joris van der Saen, went in search of Tromp to tell him of their plight.
On hearing his story, Tromp instantly turned about and made straight
for the English coast, which he had left only a few hours before.
In this case, at all events, his instructions were explicit. He had
been ordered to prevent Dutch vessels from being visited or searched,
and to recover them if captured. Blake, on seeing the Dutch fleet
returning, stood off to meet it. He did not know the real reason that
had made Tromp alter his course: he had passed the merchant-ships a few
days after their meeting with Young, and had done nothing to them. He
believed that Tromp was seeking an occasion of quarrel, and watching
for an advantage to brave them on their own coast. The Dutch admiral
came on with his flag at the main-top, and when he was well within
range, Blake fired a gun across his bows to make him strike, and after
an interval a second, and yet again a third at his flag; the ball going
through the main-sail and killing a man on deck. Tromp then, still
with the States’ colours aloft, fired a single gun at Blake’s flag,
ran up a red flag,--the prearranged signal for battle,--and poured a
broadside into Blake’s ship, and the two fleets entered into a fierce
encounter.[721] The fight lasted from four or five o’clock until nine,
Blake being assisted by Bourne, who came from the Downs with his small
squadron and assailed Tromp in the rear. The Dutch fleet, with the loss
of two ships, gradually drew off towards the French coast, and Blake
kept his position all night and anchored some leagues off Dungeness.
This was the first great fight over the striking of the flag, and it
occasioned immediate war between the two countries. Encounters on a
small scale had been not infrequent before, but no foreign fleet had
hitherto ventured to challenge an English fleet in this way off the
English coast. Tromp himself, thirteen years before, when he possessed
an overwhelming force, readily struck his flag to Pennington’s small
squadron in the Downs. After the battle attempts were made to justify
Tromp’s action, but not at all on the ground that the demand for him
to strike his flag to the English admiral was unjust or contrary to
custom. Blake was accused of having precipitated the battle. Tromp, it
was said, had men aloft ready to strike the top-sails, or had already
done so; he had sent a man up to strike his flag; he was preparing to
send his boat to Blake after the second gun was fired to ask him the
reason of his firing, and so forth. But the Dutch admiral well knew the
custom of the narrow sea, and had no need to ask Blake the reason of
his firing across his bows.[722] When the nature of his instructions
with reference to saluting is considered, along with his memorandum
and the discussions connected with it, his action before Dover Castle
on the day before, and the variation in his own subsequent accounts of
his intentions and proceedings, the inference is strong that he had
resolved not to strike to the weaker fleet of the Commonwealth.
In London the news of the battle aroused intense indignation. It was
everywhere believed that Tromp had deliberately attacked the English
fleet,--an opinion confirmed by the commissioners, of whom Cromwell was
one, sent to Dover to inquire into the facts. The meeting of Joris van
der Saen with Tromp, which had been seen from the English fleet, was
viewed in a sinister light. The little Dutch ship was thought to have
carried instructions from the States for Tromp to make the attack. The
Parliament thought so also: “They found too much cause,” they said,
“to believe that the Lords the States-General of the United Provinces
have an intention by force to usurp the known rights of England in
the seas, to destroy the fleets that are, under God, their walls and
bulwarks, and thereby expose this Commonwealth to invasion at their
pleasure.”[723] It was in vain that the States disowned responsibility
for Tromp’s action and sent over a copy of their instructions to
him, showing that he had been commanded to avoid the English coast.
The ambassadors appealed to the Council to hold their hand until the
States-General had made an inquiry. Tromp was cautioned to use the
greatest circumspection, so that while preserving the reputation
of his country, nothing further should be done to widen the breach
with England. And now, when too late, the Dutch Government came to a
definite decision as to the striking of the flag. Tromp was expressly
ordered to strike his flag on meeting the English fleet, according to
the manner that had been customary when England was under its kings;
and not to attack them, but only to defend himself if assailed.[724]
The States also sent over a special ambassador, Adrian Pauw, the Grand
Pensionary of Holland, and the most venerable and influential personage
in the Republic, to assure the Parliament of their pacific intentions,
and to strive to maintain peace. He urged that the encounter of the
fleets should be looked upon as an “accident,” and that a joint inquiry
should be made and the admiral found to have been in fault duly
punished. He proposed, further, that regulations should be drawn up for
the fleets, so that in future such disputes might be avoided,--not,
he said, that it was the wish of the States to dispute the honour and
the dignity of the English Republic, which they esteemed the first
and greatest in Europe.[725] But the Parliament insisted that the
States should first pay them the costs and compensate them for the
injuries they had sustained by the Dutch naval preparations and Tromp’s
attack, and give security for an alliance between the two countries.
Meanwhile, the Parliament had been seizing Dutch vessels and preparing
for war, while in the United Provinces feeling was rising steadily and
angrily against England. The ambassadors were recalled and the naval
preparations on both sides pushed on with energy.
It was well understood that the most vulnerable part of the States lay
in their shipping and fishery. A day or two after the news of Blake’s
encounter with Tromp reached London, the Council issued instructions
to Major-General Dean, who commanded the troops in Scotland, that in
view of the fishery carried on every year by the Dutch about Orkney and
Shetland, the forces there should be increased.[726] A month later,
on 26th June, before the ambassadors had left London, Blake himself
sailed northwards with a fleet of about sixty ships, with a double
object of putting a stop to the Dutch herring fishery and intercepting
their homeward-bound East-Indiamen, which were expected to return to
Holland by way of the Shetlands.[727] On 12th July he sent forward in
advance eight frigates to discover the Dutch convoying men-of-war,
which they soon fell in with, guarding the herring-busses, to the
north of Buchan Ness. They were twelve in number, and after a stubborn
fight of over three hours’ duration, towards the end of which the
English frigates were reinforced by other five, they were all taken,
before the main fleet came up. The English wounded were sent in three
of the captured ships to Inverness; other three ships were so much
shattered that they were sunk. While the fight went on, most of the
herring-busses escaped and made their way homewards with all speed,
but about thirty were taken by the English. Blake dealt with them very
leniently. He took from them “a taste and toll” of herrings, and then
sent them home with this “lesson,” that they “fish no more in those
seas without leave from the Republick of England.”[728] For this humane
action Blake was subsequently blamed, on the ground that the busses
might have been made use of in establishing a native fishery, while the
detention of their crews would have helped to cripple the resources of
the Dutch in manning their fleets.[729] The same generous spirit was
shown towards the French boats that fished in the Channel, which were
excepted from the general seizure of French shipping, unless they acted
improperly.[730] In the course of the war, however, it became the rule
for both the Dutch and the English vessels to bring into port all the
fishing-boats captured from the enemy.
After Blake dispersed the Dutch busses, the States of Holland at
first thought of calling home the rest of the herring fleet (only
about 600 or 700 had returned), and for that year to put a stop to
the fishing, which had just begun; but it was finally decided to
continue it with twenty-four armed busses and six men-of-war as a
guard,--a conclusion, no doubt, helped by the gentle way in which the
English admiral had dealt with the busses that fell into his hands.
When English herring-boats were seized and taken to the Netherlands,
Holland, which had the greatest stake in the fishery, tried to induce
the States-General to release them, and to issue orders that British
fishermen were not to be molested, in the hope that such forbearance
would be imitated in England. But the policy failed, and orders were
given to do the English fishermen all harm possible. In the following
year the States-General forbade the whaling-ships sailing for
Greenland, but they did not prohibit the herring fishery, though the
greater number of the busses were kept at home by the prudence of their
owners. Many were captured by English cruisers. More than fifty were
taken by the English fleet on the Dutch coast in May 1653, most of them
being brought into Aberdeen and there sold. Some of those seized in
the course of the war were handed over by the Council of State to the
London Corporation for the Poor, to be used in fishing on the English
coast. On the other hand, the English fishermen suffered greatly. The
Iceland and North Sea fishing came almost to a stop, and men-of-war had
to guard the herring and mackerel boats. In September 1653 the Council
sent a force of men and three “fit and nimble” ships to the Shetlands
to ply about the islands, to intercept the enemy’s trade of fishing,
with what results do not appear.[731]
But the operations against the enemy’s fisheries played only a
small part in the war. The struggle for the command of the sea was
concentrated in many fierce battles between the contending fleets in
1652 and 1653. The exploits of Blake, Dean, Monk, and Penn on the one
side, and of Tromp, De Ruyter, Evertsen, and De With on the other,
are famous in the naval history of the two countries; and although
victory finally rested with England, there were times when the actual
control of the British seas was in the hands of the Dutch. It was on
one of those occasions that the Dutch admiral was said to have hoisted
a broom at his mainmast-top as a sign that he would sweep the seas of
all Englishmen. Tromp unexpectedly appeared in force in the Channel
in the winter of 1652, and on 30th November he defeated Blake off
Dungeness. From that date till the end of February in the following
year no English fleet was able to oppose him. The Dutch were “lords
and masters” of the sea, and English commerce suffered severely. But
the popular story about the broom seems to have uncertain foundation.
It was first set afloat in two English newspapers, published on 9th
March 1653, after the decisive “three days’ battle.” In one it was said
that Tromp had set forth “a flag (or standard) of Broom; and being
demanded what he meant by it, reply’d, That he was once more going to
sweep the Narrow Seas of all Englishmen.” The other paper gave a letter
from the _Nonsuch_ frigate at Portsmouth, stating that the Hollanders
had probably gone home after the battle, and that “their gallant Mr
Trump when he was in France (we understand) wore a flagg of Broom,
and being demanded what he meant by it, replied that he was going to
sweep the narrow seas of all English men.” The story is not mentioned
by Dutch authorities, and is now generally discredited, but in an
earlier century the broom had been used in this way by a Dutch admiral
to signalise a victory in the Baltic;[732] and it is said that after
the two days’ battle in the following summer, when the Dutch had been
driven from the sea, the English fleet rode triumphant off the Texel
with a broom displayed at their mast-heads, perhaps in ironical parody
of Tromp.
While the fleets were contending for actual dominion over the sea, the
Parliament took care to keep alive the historic claims to maritime
sovereignty and to place them well before the people. As early as 25th
June 1652--the day before Blake sailed away to the north in quest of
the herring-busses--they passed a resolution: “That it be referred to
the Council of State to prepare a declaration to assert the right of
this Commonwealth to the Sovereignty of the Seas, and to the fishery;
to be made use of when the Parliament shall see cause.”[733] No time
was lost, for on the same day the Council remitted the instruction
of the Parliament to the Committee for Law and Examinations, with
the request that they should bring the declaration to the Council
with all speed, and Bradshaw was desired to see that this was
done.[734] Apparently, for the use of the Committee in drawing up this
declaration, Mr William Ryley, the Keeper of the Records in the Tower,
made transcripts of several of the records in his charge referring to
the sovereignty of the sea, as the ordinance of King John, Edgar’s
charter, the mandate of Edward I. to the Bailiffs of Yarmouth, the
rolls of the same king concerning Grimbald, and of Edward III. on the
laws of the sea, and some others.[735]
It was soon apparent to the Council that the task of again attempting
formally to vindicate the claims of England to the sovereignty of the
seas, while Selden’s _Mare Clausum_ was at their disposal, would be
like painting the lily. They therefore instructed the Committee for
Foreign Affairs “to take order for printing the book called _Mare
Clausum_ and Mr Dugard to print it.”[736] But simply to reprint
Selden’s work, with its fulsome dedication to Charles II., and in the
Latin tongue, would not have served the purpose in view, and it was
then resolved to translate it. This task was assigned to Marchamont
Needham, who had deserted the royalist cause and placed his pen at the
service of the Commonwealth, writing the _Mercurius Politicus_, in
which he had latterly the assistance of Milton.[737] The translation
was rapidly made, and the work was published later in the year.[738]
And just as the original had been dedicated to the king, so now the
translation was dedicated to “the Supreme Authority of the Nation,
the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England”; and so pleased were
the Council of State with it that they, on 8th November, ordered
two hundred copies for their own use, and paid Needham £200 for his
labours, as the book, they said, “learnedly asserted the rights and
interests of the Commonwealth in the adjacent seas, and would be of
good use for these and future times.”[739]
The “additional evidences” brought forward by Needham comprised the
proclamation of James in 1609, and of Charles in 1636, forbidding
unlicensed fishing; some of the letters that passed between the English
Government and their ambassadors at The Hague; extracts from Sir John
Boroughs’ _Sovereignty of the British Seas_, which was first published
in the previous year; and a few other papers of little importance. The
purpose of the book was better served by Needham’s bitter if rather
frothy invective against the Dutch, and by his ranting appeals to
English patriotism to conquer the foe and establish our interests on
the sea beyond the possibility of future question.[740]
Selden was still alive, and the translation was doubtless made with
his concurrence, whatever he may have thought of it. He was himself
soon drawn into the controversy which the book evoked. Graswinckel,
the Dutch lawyer who had been chosen by the States-General in 1636 to
reply to Selden’s _Mare Clausum_, and whose neglected treatise had
ever since being lying in the secret archives at The Hague, again
entered the lists. His shaft was ostensibly directed against a certain
Italian writer, P. B. Burgus, who had published a work eleven years
before in support of the right of Genoa to the dominion of the Ligurian
Sea.[741] There was no apparent reason why the Dutch lawyer should
be at the pains to attempt to refute a claim so remote and after so
long an interval; but Burgus quoted largely from _Mare Clausum_, and
Graswinckel seized upon the opportunity to attack Selden, and to
gratify his feelings by making use of his early abortive treatise,
under the guise of replying to the Italian author. And his attack
on Selden was very bitter.[742] On the main question, the familiar
arguments were adduced against the appropriation of seas, with the
usual seasoning of Scriptural and classical quotations; the historical
claims of England to the sovereignty of the sea were treated in a
sarcastic and bantering spirit, and the authenticity of some of the
records cited by Selden was questioned; while he said that in many
respects the Hollanders were the real lords of the British seas. But
he made a personal attack on Selden, accusing him of having written
_Mare Clausum_ in order to get out of prison.[743] Selden made a strong
reply, explaining the circumstances under which his treatise was
written, and entering into a minute description of the documents which
Graswinckel suggested he had invented; but on the controversy as to the
dominion of the seas he contributed nothing new.[744]
Stimulated by the war and the dispute which had precipitated it, a
number of works were now published in Holland in defence of the freedom
of the seas and the liberty of fishing, and opposing the claims of
England to any special maritime jurisdiction. Among them was another
dissertation by Graswinckel, published before he was aware of Selden’s
reply to his attack, and apparently containing further extracts from
his stillborn treatise. This time the earlier Scottish lawyer, Welwood,
was assailed, and his book, _De Dominio Maris_, was republished
in Holland in order to serve, apparently, as a theme and target.
Graswinckel was especially severe against any claim to interfere with
the herring fishery or to impose tribute on the fishermen.[745] The
controversy continued to rage on both sides of the North Sea, but
in England it fell for the most part into the incompetent hands of
ignorant pamphleteers, who vilified the Dutch in pious but intemperate
language without shedding much light upon the question.
But if there was a dearth of competent pens in England able to carry
on a juridical controversy about the sovereignty of the sea, it was
not for lack of belief in the importance of the matter. At no previous
time in English history had popular feeling been more aroused or was
the general resolution stronger to maintain the rights of the country
in the seas. The traditional sentiment of the nation, which Charles had
in large measure alienated by his ship-money exactions and his bungling
and fruitless attempts to maintain those rights, was revived in full
force, and it was greatly strengthened by other considerations relating
to commerce and trade. Though English commerce and shipping had greatly
developed since the earlier part of the century, by far the larger part
of oversea traffic was still in the hands of the Dutch. It was against
this predominance that the Navigation Act was aimed. The pre-eminence
of the Dutch excited the emulation of the nation to outvie and outdo
them, and success in this policy was believed to be closely bound
up with the assertion of the sovereignty of the sea. Before the war
began, the authors of works on commerce and navigation had urged the
Parliament to enforce these claims, even in the Mediterranean against
France, and for the same reasons that were formerly used by Sir Walter
Raleigh.[746] To the national sentiment and commercial ambitions was
added the zeal of religious fanaticism. The godly Barebones Parliament
of 1653, who looked askance at the Dutch as carnal and worldly
politicians, held it necessary that the seas should be secured and
preserved as peaceable as the land, in order to prepare for the coming
of Christ and the personal reign.[747]