CHARLES II.
THE SECOND DUTCH WAR.
The Restoration, in 1660, made no change either in the national
sentiment or the national policy of England concerning the sovereignty
of the sea. Charles II. encouraged the pretension with as much zeal
as had been shown by his father, or by the Commonwealth and the Lord
Protector; and he was more astute than any of his predecessors in
taking advantage of the national feeling with regard to it in order to
carry out his own selfish policy. Under the pretence of maintaining
the dominion of the sea, a base and treacherous war was waged against
the United Provinces in circumstances which will for ever sully the
reputation of the king. The measures at first taken were, however, of
a peaceful kind. Commercial jealousy of the Dutch was still a strong
factor in England. As firmly as ever the opinion was held that the
primary source of their great trade, shipping, and wealth lay in their
fisheries, which also formed a great “nursery” of seamen for the navy.
As in the reign of Charles I., it was therefore towards the development
of British fisheries that efforts were first directed. The means taken
with this view were twofold: the taxation of imported fish which
had been caught by foreigners, and the creation of great fishery
associations like those which had been established earlier in the
century. The Navigation Act, which was passed a few months after the
Restoration, while more oppressive to Dutch commerce and shipping than
the Act of 1651, was less stringent in this particular. The measure
of the Rump Parliament prohibited the importation or exportation of
fish, or its carriage coastways, unless such fish had been caught
by subjects. This prohibition was ineffective,[811] and it was now
replaced by the imposition of double customs on all kinds of dried
or salted fish imported, if caught or brought by vessels other than
English.[812] Three years later, the importation of fresh herrings,
cod, haddocks, and coal-fish was absolutely prohibited unless they
had been taken and imported in vessels certified to be English.[813]
With the view of still further promoting the fisheries, the same
prohibition was afterwards extended to cured fish and certain other
fresh fish,[814] which practically restored the provision of the first
Act of 1651. To a large extent these variations were due to the trade
rivalries that existed in England, the party which was uppermost at the
time forcing the measures that were most in its interest.
Besides protective duties and monopolies, more direct means of
encouraging the fisheries were tried. The always attractive idea was
revived of establishing a great national fishery society, which, on
the one hand, would enrich those who supported it with their purse,
and on the other hand would increase the prosperity and the power of
the country. Simon Smith, who had been the agent of the Royal Fishery
Society in the reign of Charles I., lost no time in presenting to the
king his two books on the subject, along with a petition in which he
dwelt upon the advantages that would accrue to the nation from the
labours of such an association.[815] Smith recommended that all the
corporations and county towns in the kingdom should conjointly raise
a stock to buy hemp and other materials to equip busses, which were
to be built at the seaports nearest to them and sent to the fishing
at Shetland; and he calculated, after the usual fashion, that each
buss would maintain twenty families in work, “breed country youths to
be mariners,” and cause many ships to be employed in exporting the
herrings and bringing back commodities.
Charles was apparently impressed by Smith’s arguments. Within two
months of the Restoration he caused a letter to be written to the Lord
Mayor of London, referring to the good done by the Society formed in
1632, “as by the book called the Royal Herring Busse Fishing (_sic_)
presented to him, plainly appeared”; requesting particulars to be
obtained of all the poor inhabitants within each ward who were in want
of employment; requesting that the Lord Mayor and Aldermen should
raise a stock by a free subscription to fit out a buss or fishing
vessel for each ward; and that storehouses should be built in suitable
places about the river Thames, provided with nets, casks, salt, and
all things in readiness. The busses were to attend the fishing at
Shetland, according to the “prescribed orders in the aforesaid book,”
and the king declared he would recommend the same course to all the
cities and towns throughout the kingdom, so as to make it a national
employment.[816]
The assistance of Parliament was also called in. On 8th November 1660
the House of Commons remitted “the consideration of the fisheries” to
the Committee for Trade and Navigation, who were asked to inform the
House “what they thought necessary for the regulation and advancement
of that trade.”[817] The Committee’s report does not appear to have
been preserved, but on 8th December a “Bill for Encouraging the
Fisheries of this Kingdom” was introduced. It was remitted to a large
committee, including the members for the seaport towns, and being
read a third time on 27th December, was sent up to the Lords.[818] It
was, to a large extent, directed against fishing by foreigners on the
British coasts and the use of destructive methods of fishing. One of
its clauses prohibited trawling, whether by subjects or foreigners,
within eight miles of certain parts of the coast. The fate of this
important measure was unfortunate. The Parliament was dissolved two
days after it reached the Lords, and nothing further was heard of
it.[819]
In the following year a measure dealing with the fisheries was passed
by the Scottish Parliament.[820] The preamble contained the common
declarations as to the value of the fisheries to shipping and commerce,
to the navy, in the employment of the poor, and as furnishing the
materials for a great native export. The Act provided for the formation
of societies and companies of free-born Scotsmen, each member to supply
at least 500 merks Scots as stock, and they were to receive various
privileges and immunities, including power to erect houses for the
fishing trade wherever it was most convenient, a “limited allowance”
to be paid for the ground. An absolute monopoly of the export of
fish, fresh or cured, was granted to the companies; foreigners were
prohibited from curing herrings or white fish on land, or erecting
booths for the purpose,--a provision aimed against the German merchants
at Shetland,--but encouragement was given to foreign fishermen
to settle and become naturalised in Scotland, and even to become
burgesses, and they were to be exempt from taxation for seven years.
The importation of everything required for the fishery, including
“Holland nets,” was to be free of custom dues; the exports were to be
similarly exempted, and the “teind” and “assize” herrings were to be
remitted for nine years.
The provisions of this Act differed essentially from the scheme
proposed by Charles I. in 1630, which aroused so much opposition,
inasmuch as the companies were to be composed solely of Scotsmen. The
question of the territorial or “reserved” waters belonging to Scotland
was thus avoided. It appears, indeed, that the Act was due to the
representations of the Royal Burghs, for in the preceding autumn they
expressed a desire for the “erection of the fishing trade in Scotland,”
and resolved to bring the subject before the next Parliament.[821]
Little was done in Scotland under this Act. A company was formed,
which, however, seemed more desirous of misusing its privileges than
of fostering the fisheries, if we may judge from a petition of the
burghs to the Lords of the Exchequer, praying that the company might
be restricted to import nothing but what was necessary for the fishing
trade. The town of Musselburgh also was empowered to equip busses, and
various towns in Fife applied for and received permission to fish in
the northern seas. The Scottish society became an incubus, and in 1690,
when its function seems to have shrunk to the mechanical exaction of a
tax of £6 Scots per last of herrings exported from Scotland, the Act
under which it had been formed was repealed.[822]
In England the efforts to establish a fishery association met with
but little more success, although the king showed an active interest
in its promotion. On 22nd August he issued a commission under the
great seal, appointing his brother, the Duke of York, and twenty-nine
noblemen, including all the great officers of the Court, with six
others, as the “Council of the Royal Fishery of Great Britain and
Ireland,” to which he assigned various privileges and monopolies. To
encourage the building of busses, the king “requested” that wharfs,
docks, and storehouses should be built on the Thames and in all the
ports of the kingdom for their accommodation and use; all the “returns”
or commodities brought back from foreign lands for the fish exported
were exempted from customs for seven years; all victuallers, inns,
alehouses, taverns, coffee-houses, and the like, were to be bound to
take from one to four, or more, barrels of herrings from the society
yearly at thirty shillings a-barrel, “until foreign vent be attained to
perfection”; each barrel of pickled herrings or cod-fish brought into
the realm by the Flemings, or others, was to be taxed half-a-crown,
the tax to be paid into the coffers of the society, and the protection
of the State was to be given to their fishing vessels and the vessels
employed in exporting fish. It was further provided that the money
necessary for the scheme should be obtained by a lottery, to be set up
for three years, and by a collection in every parish in the kingdom.
A few days later, Charles issued letters-patent saying that he had
requested a bountiful subscription from London to fit out fishing
vessels, which should belong to the wards, and recommending the
same to the whole country, as the Hollanders had so engrossed the
fisheries that the fishing towns were greatly decayed; the local
officers were to see to the collections being made, the monies to be
paid to the high-sheriff and by him remitted to the Earl of Pembroke,
who was appointed treasurer. Those who subscribed to the stock were
to pay their money in three instalments to Mr Thomas King, a London
merchant and member of Parliament, who became the moving spirit in the
project; and the adventurers were to have the option of withdrawing
after three years, on giving six months’ notice.[823] Literary puffs
were not neglected. A highly-coloured account of the value of the
Dutch fisheries (founded mainly on the Raleigh tract) and of the
rosy prospects of the society was published “by command.” The cost
of a buss, equipped and provisioned for four months, was set down
at £835; the herrings caught in that time were calculated to fetch
a round £1000, giving an immediate profit of £165 after meeting all
expenses.[824]
Notwithstanding the active support of the Court and the energy of
many agents, subscriptions to the fishery society filtered in but
slowly. The sum collected for it in the London churches in the year
1661 amounted to the paltry total of £818, 6s. 4½d.--scarcely enough
to set forth one buss,--and in the autumn of 1664 it was reported that
the amount collected throughout England and Ireland was only £1076.
The lottery, too, from which a great deal was hoped, gave rise to much
corruption, confusion, and dispute, without notably enriching the
society.[825] In these depressing circumstances recourse was again
had to Parliament. On 5th March 1662 a “Bill to confirm his Majesty’s
letters patent concerning the fishing trade” was introduced into the
House of Commons and remitted to a committee; but it ultimately became
transformed into a mere local Act dealing with pilchard-fishing.[826]
The king was not yet discouraged. The Masters of the Trinity House
were consulted in July as to the cost of ten busses he had resolved
to build, and the amount required--£9000--was actually handed over to
Mr Thomas King. Charles further offered to pay £200 to every person
who had a new English-built fishing-buss ready for the fishing before
the middle of the following year.[827] To facilitate the success of
the society on the foreign markets, an Act was passed in 1663, after
considerable discussion, to make the use of the Dutch system of curing
and packing herrings compulsory, so as to avoid abuses, and bring the
English-cured herrings into repute.[828]
At a meeting of the Privy Council a few months later, Sir William
Batten, Sir Richard Chaterton, and Sir William Ryder were appointed to
formulate proposals for the organisation of the Royal Herring Fishery,
and, after consultation with Simon Smith and Mr Thomas King, it was
resolved to adopt the Dutch system and regulations and to go on with
the scheme.[829] The next step was the issue by the king in the spring
of 1664 of another commission under the great seal, by which the Duke
of York and thirty-six assistants were incorporated as Governors
and Company of the Royal Fishery of Great Britain and Ireland; the
Lord Mayor and the Chamberlain of the City of London were appointed
treasurers.[830]
In spite of all efforts, such as they were, extremely little was
done by the society before the outbreak of the second Dutch war. The
slovenly way in which the business was managed and the corruption in
regard to the finances were notorious. Pepys, who was a member of the
council of the society, and had grave misgivings as to the issue of
their labours, gives amusing glimpses of the proceedings in his Diary.
He examined the accounts, and declared that “the loose and base manner
that monies so collected are disposed of in, would make a man never
part with a penny in that manner.” The Duke of York and the members did
not even meet to read the king’s commission until July, and the later
meetings were often futile from the want of a quorum. “A sad thing it
is to see,” says Pepys, “so great a work so ill followed, for at this
pace it can come to nothing but disgrace to us all.”[831]
The failure of the attempt to establish a great national fishery to
expel the foreigner from the British seas, after five years’ endeavour,
was very agreeable to the Dutch, who had watched the proceedings with
close attention, and had tried, openly and secretly, to hinder success
whenever they had an opportunity. Immediately after the Restoration,
the States-General, anxious to come to a good understanding with
Charles, sent special ambassadors to London to arrange a treaty
of friendship and alliance, and to renew previous treaties.[832]
The negotiations which ensued dealt, among other things, with the
fisheries, the flag, and the sovereignty of the sea. The object of De
Witt, the great Dutch Minister, was the usual one of his countrymen on
similar occasions--viz., to secure as far as possible the commercial
and other privileges which had been granted by the Intercursus Magnus.
Charles, on the other hand, wished at the very least to retain all the
concessions that Cromwell had secured by the treaty of 1654.[833]
When the Dutch ambassadors arrived, or at all events when they began
negotiations in London, the House of Commons had already taken up the
question of the fisheries. Action of this kind always occasioned the
Dutch anxiety. They knew it was directed against their predominance
in a vital industry, and that it was usually followed by troublesome
claims to the sovereignty of the sea and to an exclusive fishing on the
British coasts. Here were all those questions raised in threatening
fashion in the Bill passed by the Commons and sent up to the Lords.
Moreover, English privateers, sailing under Swedish colours, had lately
been seizing Dutch herring-busses, and though protests were made by the
ambassadors, no redress was obtained.[834] The debates and proceedings
in the House of Commons attracted immediate attention in Holland.[835]
De Witt at once took up a firm attitude. He declared that the new
pretension of England to the dominion of the seas and for the ruin of
the Great Fishery would meet with the most determined resistance of the
Republic; and, while consoling himself with the thought that reason
had always prevailed against it in the past, he urged the ambassadors
to use every means in their power with the Peers and the king in order
to frustrate it. The Marquis of Ormonde, who was an intimate friend
of Beverwaert’s and one of Charles’s Ministers, was bribed to use his
influence to the same end. This nobleman informed the ambassador that
when he was asked to favour the fishery project, he had answered that
while he desired the advantage of the nation as much as any man, it
would be first necessary to prepare for war, as it was in reality an
affair of state; and he took credit with his Dutch friend for having
induced many members of Parliament to oppose the Bill.[836] Whether
these intrigues had any influence in causing the fishery question to be
so frequently “laid aside” in Parliament can only be surmised.
So much concerned were the States-General about the provisions of the
Bill, that they despatched a special letter to be presented to the
king, in the hope, as De Witt said, that the resolution of the Commons
might be suspended and its execution prevented.[837] But when it became
known in Holland that the Bill had been shelved by the dissolution of
Parliament, and that Charles was unlikely to summon another Parliament
for a long time, the ambassadors were told to withhold it, but at
the same time to make its substance known to the Ministers, so that
the king might learn of it indirectly. They were also warned to say
nothing, in the negotiations for the treaty on which they were engaged,
that might allow it to be supposed that the right of the Dutch to fish
in the seas around the coast of England was derived from any treaty
or compact, or from any concession on the part of England. On the
contrary, it arose _jure proprio_ from the law of nature and the law of
nations, the stipulation in the treaty of 1495 merely expressing this
mutual right of free fishery with the view of preventing violence on
either side.
The negotiations dragged on slowly. The English commissioners showed
no anxiety to discuss the questions of the fishery, commerce, or
navigation, about which the Dutch were most concerned. Taking their
stand on the Navigation Act, which Parliament had recently passed, they
declined to listen to any proposal for free fishing on the English
coast. The Dutch ambassadors grew hopeless of being able to conclude a
treaty satisfactory to the States, and this feeling was strengthened
by the jealousy and resentment which the English began to manifest
concerning the simultaneous negotiations that were going on between
Paris and The Hague.[838] Foreseeing the difficulties likely to arise
with England over the fishery question, De Witt had made a dexterous
move. In the negotiations with France for a treaty between the two
countries, he proposed that an article should be inserted reciprocally
guaranteeing the right of free fishing in the sea to the subjects of
each nation against any that might endeavour to interfere with it. A
similar proposal had been made to France in 1653, but was rejected
owing to the desire of the French Government to avoid irritating
Cromwell.[839] Even now, when international conditions were more
favourable for its acceptance, the French looked askance at it, and
asked the States to define precisely their position as to the right of
fishery. They said in reply that they claimed the right of fishing in
the open sea by the law of nations; that it was a right independent of
any treaties, which merely illustrated and explained it, and was like
the liberty of commerce and navigation--free and open to all. The two
countries should therefore, it was urged, agree mutually to support
one another in the free exercise of this common right. In substance
this was clearly a demand that France should combine with them to
resist the English pretension to the sovereignty of the sea, on the
point in which it chiefly affected the United Provinces--namely, the
fishery. The French met it by suggesting that, as a _quid pro quo_, the
States should guarantee them in the same way against the claim of the
English to make French ships lower their flag to them in the narrow
seas. France, as we have seen, was not troubled by England about the
fishery, although many French vessels fished off the English coast.
On the other hand, the Dutch had formally agreed to strike to English
ships by the treaty of 1654,--a ceremony that France declined to
render, and avoided as far as possible. De Witt saw that if the States
gave the guarantee desired, it would place in the hands of the French
the power to compel them to take up arms against England at any time
they chose, and he instructed the Dutch ambassadors, if they could not
evade the proposal altogether, to request a declaration, in writing,
of the precise claims concerning the striking of the flag which the
King of France put forward as against the King of England. He said the
obligation of the States to strike was indisputable; but it was not
a recognition of England’s pretended dominion of the sea, but merely
a formal deference that republics had always shown to monarchies. De
Witt privately expressed the opinion that the French would hesitate to
formulate in writing any claim of that kind, and the result proved his
foresight. The French ambassador in London made certain overtures to
Charles without receiving a satisfactory reply, and the French proposal
for a guarantee about the flag was dropped.
A diplomatic tussle then took place as to whether the word “fishery”
should appear in the treaty. The French were anxious to keep it out,
and the Dutch as desirous that it should be expressly included. Later,
De Witt seemed disposed to concede the point, provided other words
could be found which would “clearly stipulate, in express terms, that
if their subjects were molested in their fishery the French would carry
out against those who molested them the guarantee promised.” At this
stage, however,--March 1662,--the Dutch towns insisted on the fishery
guarantee being absolutely explicit. The states most concerned--Holland
and West Friesland--unanimously passed a resolution that if France
refused to agree to the word “fishery” being inserted, the negotiations
should be broken off and the ambassadors recalled. Louis XIV. then gave
way. “I must admit,” he wrote to his ambassador in London, “that I have
the same interest in this guarantee as the Dutch, since the right of
fishing may just as well be refused by England to my subjects as to
those of the States-General.”[840] The treaty was signed on 27th April
1662, and in the fourth article the two contracting Powers mutually
agreed to assist one another in protecting their fishermen from those
who might molest them.[841]
The stipulation in the treaty with France was a notable triumph for
De Witt. For the first time in their history the Dutch had succeeded
in formally binding another Power to help them in resisting the
English claims to the sovereignty of the sea, so far as concerned the
liberty of fishing. Should Charles II. wish to emulate the exploits
of his father by sending a fleet to force licenses on the Dutch
herring-busses, he would now have to reckon on the combined opposition
of France and the United Provinces. The triumph was, however, a barren
one, and the treaty had no practical effect. Within a few years the
Dutch Republic was in the throes of war, first with England, and then
with England and France, and other treaties took its place. It had,
however, an immediate influence upon the policy of Charles, who feared
an alliance of the two Continental Powers against England. When he
heard of the negotiations about the fishery guarantee he tried, both
at Paris and at The Hague, to prevent an agreement being reached, and
the obstacles which he interposed delayed the conclusion of the treaty.
Sir George Downing, the English ambassador in Holland, who had taken
a prominent part in the debates in the Commons on the Fishery Bill,
and whose hostile sentiments to the Dutch were notorious, took up an
unusual attitude. He assured De Witt that since the United Provinces
were a republic and did not seek to encroach on England, they might
freely continue their fishery without fearing the least trouble; but
England could never allow that France, a monarchy, and a bold and
enterprising nation, should have unrestricted liberty of fishing
on the English coasts. It was feared, he said, that by its fishery
the abundance of mariners and the increase in shipping which would
follow would make it formidable to England, and this the English, in
accordance with their political maxims, would prevent. The French had
frequently requested and received licenses for a limited number of
vessels to fish in English waters, sometimes for the king’s table. If,
therefore, he continued, the proposed guarantee were agreed to, the
Republic as well as France would be _de facto_ at war with England,
because England would never leave the French fishermen at peace.
The same language was used by Downing to many of the deputies of
the States-General, in the hope of frightening them, but it made no
impression. “I have declared to Downing,” wrote De Witt, “that sooner
than acknowledge this imaginary sovereignty over the seas, or even
receive from the English, as a concession, that freedom of navigation
and fishing which belongs to us by natural right and the law of
nations, we would shed our last drop of blood.”[842]
The inflexible attitude of De Witt, and the actual conclusion of the
treaty with France, extinguished for a time the hope of compelling the
Dutch to acknowledge the right of England to the exclusive fishing
along her coasts, and the proposal was not pressed upon the ambassadors
in London during the dilatory negotiations for the Anglo-Dutch
treaty. With regard to the striking of the flag, Charles received
more satisfaction. The tenth article of the treaty, which was signed
at Whitehall on 4/14 September 1662, stipulated that Dutch ships,
whether men-of-war or others, should strike their flag and lower their
top-sails on meeting an English man-of-war on the British seas. It was
indeed precisely the same clause as that contained in Cromwell’s treaty
of 1654, except that certain verbal alterations were made in accordance
with the change in the form of the English government.[843]
In the earlier years of the reign of Charles II., comparatively little
was heard of disputes about the flag, which afterwards became so
frequent and important. One instance occurred in 1662, when a Dutch
vessel that was in Yarmouth Roads without a commission was taken to the
Downs for refusing to lower her sails to a king’s ship.[844] A case
of much greater interest happened in the previous year, when Captain
R. Holmes, in command of the _Royal Charles_, allowed the ship of the
Swedish ambassador to pass him on the Thames without compelling it to
strike. As the English Admiralty were always punctilious in enforcing
the salute on state occasions, as when a foreign ambassador was
concerned, Holmes for his remissness was deprived of his command.[845]
The case of Holmes had some interesting consequences. It revealed
once more the want of precise knowledge at the Admiralty as to the
rules which should be followed in making foreign ships strike their
flag. The Duke of York, who was the Lord High Admiral, was himself
ignorant on the point, and he asked the principal officials about
it--Sir George Carteret, the treasurer; Coventry, his own secretary;
Sir William Batten and Sir William Penn, commissioners of the navy and
experienced naval officers; and lastly Mr Pepys, who was the clerk to
the navy. It appears, however, that though they all “did do as much as
they could,” the information they possessed was of the scantiest kind.
Pepys tells us that he knew nothing about it himself, and was forced
“to study a lie” by fathering an improbable story on Selden, on the
spur of the moment; but on the same evening the genial diarist bought
a copy of Selden’s _Mare Clausum_ and sat up at nights diligently
studying it, with the view of writing a treatise “about the business
of striking sail” to present to the Duke. After nearly six weeks’
inquiry and cogitation the Admiralty officials “agreed upon some things
to answer to the Duke about the practice of striking of the flags,”
which encouraged Pepys to persevere with his treatise, but it was never
completed.[846]
A case of greater international importance occurred in the
Mediterranean in the following year. Vice-Admiral Sir John Lawson was
co-operating with De Ruyter against the Algerine pirates, and when the
fleets met, the Dutch admiral saluted the English flag with guns and by
lowering his own flag. Lawson returned the guns, but he did not strike
his flag, as was the custom in distant seas, and De Ruyter, indignant
at the slight, resolved not to strike his flag in future either, on
the ground that he was not in British waters, and that he had verbal
orders which authorised him in refusing. When De Witt heard of his
intentions, he immediately sent instructions in the name of the States
of Holland strictly to observe the treaty, and declaring that the
lowering of the flag must not be confined to British waters, since that
might be interpreted into subjection to English dominion of the seas.
If the English admiral again declined to lower his flag in return, De
Ruyter was merely to report the fact to the States.[847] The action of
De Witt was not designed simply to avoid a quarrel. As will be seen
later, it expressed his settled conviction and the fixed policy of the
Republic on this thorny subject.
All such questions as to the flag and the fisheries were soon submerged
in the second Dutch war. The causes which brought it about were at
root the same as those which had led up to the first. Commercial
jealousy was always a smouldering flame, ready to burst into a great
conflagration. The English believed that the Dutch had juggled them out
of their trade and trading rights in several quarters of the globe, and
with some reason. But probably the real motive was succinctly stated
by Monk, now Duke of Albemarle, when he said that the essential cause
of the quarrels between the two nations was that the English wanted a
larger share of the trade of the Dutch. Charles himself, like his great
Minister, the Chancellor Clarendon, seems to have been disinclined to
the war, which, however, was advocated strongly by the Duke of York,
who supported the contention of the merchants that it would benefit
English commerce. Accusations were levelled against the Dutch of having
by fraud and stratagem driven English trade almost entirely from the
East and West Indies, and greatly reduced it in the Mediterranean and
in Africa. These complaints were echoed in Parliament, and in April
1664 a resolution was passed by the two Houses declaring that the
wrongs and outrages committed by the Dutch on our merchants in India,
Africa, and elsewhere were “the greatest obstruction of our foreign
trade,” and that the king should be asked to “take some speedy course
for redress.” John de Witt fruitlessly endeavoured by all honourable
means to avert hostilities. The warlike and marauding expedition of
Holmes (now restored to favour) against the Dutch settlements on the
west coast of Africa and in America was followed, as it was bound to
be, by the retaliatory expedition of De Ruyter, which gave the English
the pretext for declaring war in the spring of 1665.[848]
The war was exceedingly popular in England, and large sums were
willingly voted by the House of Commons. Pepys tells us that the Court
were “mad” for it, and another contemporary writer says it was the
universal wish of the people.[849] Thus no appeal to the national
passion of Englishmen about the sovereignty of the sea was required
on this occasion, and such references as were made to the subject
were of a formal kind. One of the accusations which the Parliament
flung at the Dutch was that they had “proclaimed themselves Lords of
the South Sea; and, in contempt, shot at and use other indignities
to our royall flag, thereby affronting his Majesty and this nation.”
Then, in the preamble of the Act granting money for the equipment of
a fleet, it was declared to be “for the preservation of his Majesty’s
ancient and undoubted sovereignty and dominion in the seas”;[850] and
in his instructions to the Duke of York as Lord High Admiral, the king
said the great fleet he had prepared was “to assert his right to the
dominion of the Narrow Seas,” and for the mastery of the sea and the
security of navigation.[851] But these phrases were to be expected. For
the same reason, popular literature on England’s dominion of the seas
was on this occasion scanty, though some attempts were made to excite
national animosity by the familiar arguments.[852]
The general course of the war, in which France, and then Denmark,
combined with the United Provinces against England, does not concern
us here.[853] It did not add fresh laurels to the brow of Charles
II. as Sovereign of the Sea. Three great sea-fights took place--off
Lowestoft, on 13th June 1665; in the Straits of Dover, from 11th to
14th June 1666 (the Four Days’ Battle); and off the North Foreland,
on 4th August in the same year. In the first and last the English
were successful; in the Four Days’ Battle the advantage lay with the
Dutch; but the war ended in naval disaster and national humiliation for
England. In June 1667, when the plenipotentiaries were quietly sitting
at Breda leisurely engaged in arranging terms of peace, De Ruyter,
with Cornelius the brother of John de Witt, suddenly appeared in the
mouth of the Thames, and sent up a squadron which seized Sheerness
and Chatham, and might have gone to London Bridge for all the king
could have done to prevent it. They burned the best ships of the great
fleet which was to have “asserted England’s dominion of the sea”;
London was paralysed with consternation and amazement,--Pepys locked
his father and wife in a bedroom to save them from the perils of a
sack,--and while Monk, the one stout heart among them, posted down to
Gravesend “in his shirt,” the libertine monarch was engaged with his
mistresses in pursuing “a poor moth” about the supper-room! For many
weeks afterwards, until the peace of Breda, De Ruyter rode triumphant
in the narrow seas, and England was in terror of a French invasion, not
knowing of the ignoble intrigue in which Louis and Charles were now
engaged.
Passing from these notorious blots on English history, and before
considering the relevant business in the negotiations for peace, a
word or two must be said of some of the minor events and consequences
of the war. During its continuance the fisheries of England, and still
more those of the United Provinces, suffered severely. In January 1665,
before war was declared, but when it was obvious it might break out
at any moment, the States-General laid an embargo on the fisheries
and on all shipping,--a measure which, it was reported in England,
furnished them with 30,000 men for their navy. The stoppage of the
fishing was a heavy blow to those dependent on it, and advantage was
taken of the fact by the English, who tempted the Dutch fishermen by
offering licenses, for a nominal payment, which would enable them
to fish notwithstanding the war. The States of Holland, however,
forbade the acceptance of the obnoxious licenses, “considering that
it might be of very dangerous consequence, as making the inhabitants
of these countries indirectly tributary to the King of England”; and
the treasurer of the herring fishery at Maassluis, who had purchased
some of them, was severely censured and forbidden to make use of them.
Notwithstanding this patriotic resolution, it appears that private
cupidity in some cases prevailed, and a few licenses were accepted
in the following year. One of these, dated 21st November 1666, was
granted on the petition of one, Gisbert Petersen, of “Scheveling”
(Scheveningen), the captain of the “sailing waggons” of the Prince of
Orange, who “wafted” the king on board his fleet at the Restoration.
It gave him authority, in his vessel, the _Young Prince of Orange_,
“to fish in any part of our seas, not being within ... leagues of
land,” and to carry the fish which were caught to Holland; and in
certain circumstances he was to have the freedom of English ports. The
Scandinavian name of the recipient, and the circumstances recited,
throw doubt on the genuineness of the case. The license was renewed on
7th June 1667.[854]
A much more interesting concession for fishing in all parts of the
British seas, irrespective of distance from shore, was granted by
Charles in the same year, though not to subjects of the United
Provinces. The citizens of Bruges, in Flanders, where the king had
received friendly treatment when in exile, petitioned him to allow
all the sworn burgers and citizens of that city to fish “freely and
frankly” at all times, to the number of fifty busses or other vessels
fit for fishing, on the seas and coasts of his kingdoms; to enter the
ports and rivers to buy necessaries, for shelter, and to dry their
nets, and to depart without molestation, on giving security not to
sell fish to his enemies.[855] Charles granted them a charter under
the great seals of England and Scotland, giving them liberty to fish
with fifty vessels at a time for herrings or any kind of fish in the
British seas, up to the coasts or shores, with the privilege of drying
their nets on land, and using English or Scottish ports in security.
The Duke of Lennox and Richmond, the High Admiral of Scotland, and
others concerned were commanded to treat the vessels of Bruges with
friendship, “in whatever part of the sea, whether near the shores, in
rivers, or ports” they might be.[856] The fishermen of Bruges continued
to fish near our shores, in terms of this charter, and even from our
harbours, until 1850, and the charter was regarded by the English
authorities as spurious.[857]
By granting this charter, it is not unlikely that Charles also hoped
to strike a blow at the fisheries of the Dutch Republic. While
refusing to allow their subjects to accept any compromising English
license or concession for fishing, the States-General tried to bring
about a mutual and equitable arrangement. Early in 1665 they issued
instructions that English fishermen should not be attacked till further
orders; and in October of the same year--that is, when, in peaceful
times, Dutch fishermen would have been taking part in the profitable
fishing at Yarmouth--one of their naval officers delivered an official
letter to the Bailiffs of that town, intimating that orders had been
given to all their admirals, commanders, and captains at sea that no
English fisherman was to be molested, and expressing a hope that a
similar Christian forbearance (_medelijdentheyt_) might be shown to
Dutch fishermen on the part of England. No answer was returned, but
an emphatic response was made a week or two later when the _Sapphire_
seized several Dutch fishing vessels and brought them into port,--a
circumstance which also shows that the embargo had not been strictly
observed.[858] In the following year the embargo was officially
continued, the “small” or fresh-herring fishery carried on along the
coast being excepted;[859] but after the defeat of the English fleet
in the beginning of June, the deep-sea fishing appears to have been
partially resumed. Early in August reports reached London from Yarmouth
and Whitby that the Holland busses and doggers were fishing off the
land, and had been seen by our fishermen. They were said to number 400
and to be guarded by eight convoyers, and it was rumoured the English
fleet had gone in pursuit and sunk eighty busses; and a few doggers
were in reality brought in. It was again reported later that a fleet
of busses was fishing off the coast of Suffolk, attended by seventeen
ships of war.[860] If the retaliation of the Dutch was less effective,
it was because the English fishermen carried on their industry close
to their own ports; to which, moreover, they were often confined by
fear of the Dutch privateers, which boldly hovered about the coast, and
the sight of a sail was enough to frighten them back.[861] After Van
Ghent had burned the English ships in the Thames and the Dutch were
supreme at sea, the States of Holland withdrew the embargo on the Great
Fishery, and when peace was proclaimed the _schuyts_ again took part in
the autumn fishing at Yarmouth.[862]
It has been already mentioned that France, which had bound itself by
the recent treaty to aid the United Provinces, declared war against
England in January 1666, but Louis showed great reluctance to begin
actual hostilities; and one of the diplomatic obstacles which served
to delay the junction of the French and Dutch fleets referred to
the striking of the flag. A French squadron of thirty sail had been
equipped under the Duke de Beaufort, and Louis required that the Dutch
admiral should salute not only the Admiral of France, but the vice-
and rear-admirals; and further, that the French admiral should not be
required to lower his flag in returning the salute of the Dutch. The
States-General were willing that their admiral should strike to De
Beaufort first, but they demanded that the latter should return the
salute in a similar manner. The French, who were apparently anxious
to be placed in the same position as England with respect to this
ceremony, argued that the English did not re-salute the Dutch fleet by
striking the flag, but only returned the guns, citing the treaty of
1662 and the actual practice; and they proudly boasted that the flag
of the Admiral of France had never at any time been lowered to that
of any nation. To this De Witt replied that they were willing to give
the same respect to the French as they did to the English; that the
re-salute was not expressly mentioned in the treaty because it was a
well-understood custom on their own coast; and that in point of fact
the English did return the salute, as had been done by Admiral Montague
(the Earl of Sandwich) in 1661 and by Vice-Admiral Lawson on meeting
De Ruyter. If on some occasions it was omitted by the English, it was
on the seas they called “British,” and was to be attributed to the
claim they pretended to the dominion of the seas--a claim which France
and the Republic had solemnly agreed by treaty to resist. If a similar
claim was now advanced by France, it would argue a like pretension to
maritime sovereignty by a nation which had engaged itself to preserve
the liberty of the sea. Moreover, the salute at sea between the fleets
of two sovereign states was not an act of submission of an inferior
to a superior, but one of civility, honour, and respect, and should
therefore be mutual and equal. They, as a republic, offered to strike
first, and to keep their flag lowered until the French admiral had
struck and re-hoisted his flag. This discussion about the re-salute was
prolonged, extending from June 1666 to July 1667, for De Witt was not a
man lightly to agree to diminish the dignity of his country; and after
the peace conference met at Breda, and De Ruyter was master of the sea,
the Dutch roundly declared they would not strike to the French admiral
at all, unless he agreed to return the salute by dipping his flag, but
would only salute him with guns.[863]
At the conferences at Breda Charles had little right to expect that he
would gain much, in view of the inglorious events at the end of the
war. He retained New Amsterdam (re-named New York), which Holmes had
taken in 1664, but he lost Poleroon and Surinam, and relinquished the
claims which had been put forward to justify the war. An important
concession was made to the Dutch by a modification of the Navigation
Act, for a repeal of which they pressed, by a stipulation, in separate
articles, that they might import into England in Dutch vessels all
commodities produced or manufactured in Germany or Flanders, for which,
it was claimed, the United Provinces were the natural outlet to the
sea; and all the essential articles of the commercial treaty of 1662
were confirmed.[864] All pretensions to exclusive fishing off the
British coasts were withdrawn; the old stipulations of the Burgundy
treaties were not, however, renewed.
With regard to the “honour of the flag,” De Witt, in the preliminary
negotiations, strove to come to an arrangement with France and Denmark,
who were also parties to the treaty, to compel England to relinquish
her claim to pre-eminence in this matter, especially by insisting
that English vessels should return the salute by lowering their
flag.[865] Charles was saved from this humiliation by the good offices
of Louis, and the article in the treaty of 1662 was simply repeated in
precisely the same words.[866] Another of the maritime articles gave
less contentment in England. We have already seen how persistently
the Dutch had struggled in deliberating on the terms of the treaty
of 1654 to restrict the application of the term “British Sea” to the
Channel. What they were then unable to accomplish was now conceded to
them. In the usual article about the cessation of hostilities on the
sea, it was specified that restitution of prizes should not be made
if they were taken “in the Channel or British Sea within the space of
twelve days, and the same in the North Sea; and within the space of six
weeks from the mouth of the Channel unto the Cape of St Vincent.”[867]
In the treaty with France, signed at Breda on the same day, the
French plenipotentiaries took care that the terms English Channel or
British Sea in the corresponding clause were omitted, the neutral if
indefinite phrase “the neighbouring seas” (_maria proxima_) being
substituted.[868] In the similar treaty with Denmark, the phraseology
was even less tender to English susceptibilities--namely, “in the
Northern Ocean and in the Baltic Sea and the Channel, &c.”[869]
However trifling such points may appear to us now, they had a real
importance in the seventeenth century, and the phraseology cited caused
some heart-burning in England as being derogatory to our rights to the
dominion of the British seas.[870]
For some years after the conclusion of peace at Breda, and indeed up
to the opening of the third Dutch war, the question of the salute was
a frequent subject of international discussion. Dutch statesmen had
always wished to come to a definite arrangement with England about it,
for they saw that to leave it in ambiguity while the English looked
upon it as touching their national honour, was fraught with danger. A
whole series of points was in doubt, any one of which might furnish
occasion for war unless clearly defined and mutually understood. Was
a whole fleet or squadron of the States to strike to a single English
ship of war? Were they to strike to a frigate, or to a still smaller
ship, such as a ketch, or only to ships carrying the flag of an
admiral, vice-admiral, or rear-admiral? Was the salute to be returned
by the English in the same way, by dipping the flag and lowering the
top-sails as well as by guns? Within what parts of the sea was the
salute to be enforced, or differentiated, or the re-salute given?
English statesmen purposely left many of these points undefined, in
order to gain as wide a recognition of the ceremony as was possible,
and when disputes did arise with other Powers, to enable them to avoid
war or to make war as circumstances and policy might determine. They
held that England, and England alone, was the rightful interpreter of
what was due to her flag by ancient custom. On the other hand, the
Dutch Republic looked upon the whole business as a troublesome affair;
and as the greatest commercial nation of the time, whose chief interest
was peace, they naturally desired that the dubious points about the
salute should be permanently settled.
Immediately after the conclusion of the Triple Alliance against France,
at the beginning of 1668,[871] De Witt, taking advantage of the good
feeling existing between England and the Netherlands, and especially
of the presence of Sir William Temple as English ambassador at The
Hague, proposed that a formal settlement should be made of the doubtful
points concerning the striking of the flag. Temple, who was a staunch
friend of the Dutch and was on intimate terms with De Witt, shared
this opinion. He thought that by a slight concession, or by a definite
agreement, England might count with some confidence on the support of
the States-General in any future quarrel with other nations about the
flag. The subject was formally raised by De Witt on a proposal for
a union of the Dutch and English fleets, in certain contingencies,
against France. He offered to give the same honour to the king’s ships
at sea as their ambassadors gave to his Majesty’s person, “to uncover
first and cover last”; but stipulated that any agreement about the
flag must not be regarded as an acknowledgment of England’s pretension
to the sovereignty of the sea, which the Dutch would “die rather than
do.” Knowing that it was a “delicate” subject to broach with the
King of England, he thought the negotiations might be opened by the
States-General sending a polite letter to Charles, laying stress on the
good relations between the two nations, and intimating that in order to
prevent sinister encounters which any new sourness might occasion, they
had issued orders to all their naval officers to strike their flag with
every mark of civility on meeting with the royal flag of England. The
king was then (according to the scheme) to inform the States-General
that he had received this mark of deference to his royal dignity with
singular satisfaction, and that he on his part would order his admirals
and commanders to re-salute the States’ flag. Temple thought the matter
was so “ticklish,” that it ought to be first broached verbally at a
fitting opportunity; and De Witt, in advising the Dutch ambassadors in
London to this effect, reminded them that the salute was merely a mark
of honour and respect, and that if anything was put into writing this
should be expressed. He added that he had never been able to understand
how it could be conceived that the free element of the sea, or dominion
over it, could belong to England or to any nation, and that in Holland
the common right of sovereignty of all nations over it was held to be
incontestable.
When, about a month afterwards, the ambassadors spoke to the king, he
said he did not see how the question could be ambiguous, since it was
provided for in the treaty. They pointed out that the re-salute was
not mentioned, and then used the arguments which De Witt had put into
their mouths about its being a ceremony of respect which it would be
only reasonable and courteous to return, just as his Majesty would
do, sitting on his throne, in response to the salutations of the
ambassadors of the Republic; and they adduced one or two instances in
which the English ships had returned the salute. Charles told them they
were possibly thinking of the custom in the Mediterranean, which was
different from all the other seas (meaning the British seas), and said
he claimed nothing but the old practice; but he promised to look into
the matter. The ambassadors did not press the subject further, and the
important declaration they had been charged to make, that in future the
States’ ships would refuse to strike unless the salute was returned in
the same way, remained unspoken. Shortly afterwards, when the States
were asked to send some of their warships to strengthen the squadron
of Sir Thomas Allin, who was ordered to enforce the restitution of
some English vessels seized by the French, they refused, unless the
difficulties about the flag were first settled, and the discussion
continued throughout the summer.
It is interesting to note, in view of the antecedents of the next war,
that the ambassadors were instructed to say that the States’ fleet
would not strike, even in the Channel, to a frigate or ketch, which
did not customarily carry the royal flag in the main-top, but only to
an admiral’s ship, or one carrying the royal flag. This contention
was promptly set aside by the Duke of York and Lord Arlington (the
Secretary for State); but De Witt, still clinging to the hope that a
“regulation” might be arranged, asked the ambassadors to find out the
instructions which were actually issued to the English captains serving
in the Downs, the Channel, the North Sea, the Mediterranean, and the
Ocean, as it was generally believed in Holland that outside the Channel
neither side should strike the flag or lower the sails to the other,
but that the States’ ships should first salute with guns alone, and the
English answer with guns also. In any case, if the principal fleets of
the two countries were combined for any purpose, or jointly brought
into action, it was to be first arranged that they should salute one
another with guns only, or at all events in an equal and reciprocal
manner, the Dutch always giving the salute first; and the ambassadors
were to insist earnestly and finally for a settlement.
The ambassadors informed De Witt that, as was shown in the copy of
the instructions found on board the _Charity_, an English man-of-war
taken by the Dutch in the battle of Lowestoft, in 1665, and which
was published by Aitzema, the commander of an English man-of-war was
to compel every foreign ship, or ships, to strike their flag in the
British seas, and that in these seas no English king’s ship was to
strike to any foreign ship. In all other seas the English ship was
never to strike to a foreigner unless the latter struck first or at the
same time. According to this, they said, a single English man-of-war
could compel a whole fleet to strike their flags and lower their
top-sails in the so-called British seas, and it was forbidden for it
to strike in return. In all other seas, if the foreign ship did not
strike, the English would not strike, and no salute would be exchanged.
They said this was well known to be the regular formula in England,
and no distinction was drawn between the Channel and other “pretended
English seas.” The “British seas,” they said, according to the
Admiralty instructions, extended to Cape Finisterre, in Galicia, and
westwards, according to Selden, to America. It would be an excellent
thing, they thought, if they could succeed in drawing a distinction
between the Channel and the other seas, since their fisheries, the main
object of solicitude, were carried on, not in the Channel, but in the
North Sea. But as the whole subject was very delicate, they advised
De Witt to pass from it for the time and to allow things to remain
on their old footing; and to show the spirit in which the matter was
regarded in England, they sent him specimens of the coin issued by
Charles a few years before, which bore the king’s effigy on one side
with the inscription _Carolus a Carolo_, and on the obverse the figure
of Britannia, with the proud words, _Quatuor Maria Vindico_.[872] De
Witt, who had just arranged with Temple that the matter should be
brought to the notice of the king, acquiesced, but with reluctance.
He expressed satisfaction that they now at least knew more about the
English pretension, so that fresh hostility and war could be avoided on
that point; but that an English frigate or ketch should claim to compel
a whole fleet to strike was, he said, intolerable. And it was this very
thing that Charles selected to force war upon the United Provinces a
few years later.[873]
It was not only with the Dutch that discussions arose at this time as
to the rights of the English to demand the salute. The astute Dutch
statesman, as was his wont, began to pull diplomatic wires at other
Courts in order to have the subject raised by them. The King of Denmark
in the following year proposed to Charles that new regulations should
be arranged with respect to the “salutes and civilities” at sea between
the men-of-war of the two nations. Charles declined the invitation.
He did not think it fit, he said, to make any new regulation on the
salutes at sea, “since there has never been any question made of the
constant practice in that matter, which we shall always observe.”[874]
A renewed attempt to convince the French that it was to their interest
to curtail the English claim to the sovereignty of the sea had
consequences little dreamt of by De Witt. The Dutch Minister, clinging
to his principle, urged at Paris that Charles, who wished to be the
supreme ruler of the sea, ought to be forced to modify his pretension
and to give the salute in return. It had indeed been rumoured in London
that the French king had decided to forbid his naval commanders to
strike to the English, and even to compel both English and Dutch to
strike to his own flag.[875] Louis certainly raised the question at the
Court of St James’s, but in a different way. Colbert, his ambassador
there, secretly revealed to Charles the confidential negotiations which
the States-General had opened at Paris, in the hope that this mark of
confidence would make more easy his policy of detaching the King of
England from the Triple Alliance.[876] By this time Charles and Louis
were drawing closer together, and in order to prevent chance disputes
about the flag, a verbal arrangement was made through Colbert, in the
summer of 1669, that no salutes should be exchanged between English
and French men-of-war in the Mediterranean, nor should the ship of one
be expected to go to leeward of the other. Instructions of this tenour
were given to Sir Thomas Allin, who was on the point of leaving with a
squadron to chastise the Barbary pirates.[877]
About this time the Duke of York and the officials of the navy began
to devote close attention to the rules regulating the salute and
the striking of the flag, and a number of memoranda were prepared
which described recent precedents, and dealt with other points. With
reference to recent practice, it was stated that the Earl of Sandwich
had struck in return to De Ruyter in 1661 or 1662; that Sir John Lawson
declared he would strike to none, and kept his flag aloft in Toulon
harbour; while Sir William Berkeley, serving under Lawson, refused even
to fire a gun on meeting De Beaufort, the Admiral of France, until he
was assured that the report attributed to him that he would force the
English to strike was unfounded. A statement was compiled of the number
of guns fired in salute to English vessels arriving in various foreign
ports, and rules were formulated with respect to the salutation of
forts and on other points. The general custom was that “the sea should
salute the land”--that is, the vessel first saluted the forts, except
on extraordinary occasions, as when a prince or an important foreign
embassy arrived. No foreign man-of-war was to be allowed to pass above
the ports at Gravesend and Sheerness, or at any other harbour, without
special permission from the Lord High Admiral or the governor of the
fort; all vessels were to keep in their flag as long as they were
in sight of the fort, and if they refused they were to be forced to
comply; salutes of foreign flagships were to be answered gun for gun,
and of other foreign ships with two guns less. As for the striking of
the flag, the Earl of Sandwich and other naval authorities who were
consulted intimated that the matter was too important for them to
decide upon, and should be left to the king--a plain acknowledgment
of its political character. The Duke of York, however, the Lord High
Admiral, stated that the rule was that English ships were everywhere to
be saluted first, and were not to strike in return, but only to answer
with guns; but if a single English ship met a foreign fleet out of the
British seas, it was to salute first with guns, but neither was to
strike the flag.[878]
This activity at the English Admiralty may not have been wholly
unconnected with the circumstances which ushered in the next war, but
it was more probably due to the general revival of punctiliousness
regarding the salute and similar naval ceremonies which took place at
this time throughout Europe. Even the petty states in the Mediterranean
became infected with the spirit of their powerful neighbours, and
followed their example. At Genoa and Leghorn frequent disputes, and
sometimes sanguinary encounters, occurred between the authorities and
Dutch and English men-of-war as to the number of guns that should
be fired, or the striking of the flag. French and Dutch men-of-war
lying in the Tagus were only prevented by the governor of the castle
from putting to the arbitrament of force the question whether the
latter should strike to the former. At Civita Vecchia, at Glückstadt,
at Dover, at Dieppe, at Kronberg, similar incidents took place. The
Earl of Essex, going on a special embassy to the King of Denmark,
and on board the king’s yacht, had a sharp dispute with the Governor
of Kronberg, in the Sound, as to lowering his flag, which the Danish
officer requested him to do. But Essex was well primed with precedents
before he left England, and was able to maintain his refusal.[879]
Though Dutch men-of-war engaged with spirit in such quarrels about
the salute in foreign ports, their action was not countenanced by the
policy of the States-General. On 16th May 1670 they instructed that
the fort of Kronberg should be saluted by Dutch vessels in such manner
as the King of Denmark might require; and on 3rd February next year
the States of Holland issued a general order that their men-of-war
should salute those of other sovereigns on their coasts, within the
reach of the guns of batteries or forts, in the precise manner that
the Government of the country might demand, leaving it entirely to the
discretion of that Government to return the salute or not, just as they
pleased. Every foreign Government, they added, was sovereign within its
own jurisdiction, and every foreigner was a subject there.[880]