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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	great_a	king_n	time_n	14,389	5	3.4431	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33599	His Majesties propriety, and dominion on the Brittish seas asserted together with a true account of the Neatherlanders insupportable insolencies, and injuries, they have committed; and the inestimable benefits they have gained in their fishing on the English seas. As also their prodigious and horrid cruelties in the East and West-Indies, and other places. To which is added an exact mapp, containing the isles of Great Britain, and Ireland, with the several coastings, and the adjacent parts of our neighbours: by an experienced hand.	Codrington, Robert, 1601-1665.; Clavell, Robert, d. 1711, attributed name.	1672 (1672)	Wing C4876B; ESTC R219456	66,598	191

These Saxons being sent for by the Brittains to Assist them against the Scots and Picts did get at length the whole Power into their own hand Bede De Natura Rerum cap. 28 These Saxons being Arch Pirats did not only know but were familiarly acquainted with the Dangers of the Sea The same may be said of the Danes and Normans for these names being promiscuously used do often signifie the same Nation as is sufficiently attested by Regino Dudo the Monk of Malmesbury and others And these People had so great and so admirable a Knowledge of the Sea and Sea Affairs that by an exquisite observation of the Tides and Ebbings of the Sea they were accustomed to reckon their Months and Years yea and to frame Computations of years thereby In Antient Records diverse particulars are to be seen which most plainly show that both the Saxons and Danes had a Dominion over the Sea whilest they Reigned in Brittain Mt. In Bibleothecâ Cottonianâ In the Reign of the English Saxons we read in Asserius Bishop of Sherburn that Hengist being invited into England by the Perswasions of Vortigern there came presently afterwards to recruit him Octa and Ebissa who putting Pirates aboard his ships he charged them to Guard the passages of the Sea You are to understand that the word Pirate was not then taken as now commonly it is for Robbers or Rovers but for such who being the most skilfull in Sea-Affairs were judged to be the fittest Men to Encounter with their Enemies The word sayes my Authour doth seem to be deriv'd from the Greek for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Pira in the Greek Tongue signifieth Craft or Art and from this Art in Maritine Discipline they are now called Pirates which infest the Seas But amongst these Kings none was more Potent then King Edgar who possessing an Absolute Dominion of the Seas sayled round about it every Year and secured it with a constant Guard It is Recorded that these ships being very stout ones Hunting lib. 5. were in number One Thousand Two Hundred Other Writers affirm that they were Foure Thousand the Abbot of Jorvaux John Bramton by name doth number them to be Four Thousand and Eight Hundred sayle And what Dominion King Edgar had as Absolute Lord of the Sea appears in these words I Edgar King of England Guil. Malmesb lib. 2. cap. 8. and of all the Kings of the Islands and of the Ocean lying round about Brittain and of all the Nations that are Included within the Circuit thereof Supream Lord and Governour do render my thanks to Almighty GOD My KING who hath Enlarged my Empire and Exalted it above the Royal Estate of my Prog●nitors who although they Arrived to the Monarchy of all England ever since Athelstan yet the Divine Goodness hath favoured me to Subdue all the Kingdomes of the Island in the Ocean with their most Stout and Mighty Kings even as far as Norway and the greatest part of Ireland together with their most Famous City of Dublin After him King Canutus left a Testimony whereby he most expresly Asserteth the Sea to be a part of his Dominion For placing himself by the Sea side in the time of a High Tide upon Southampton shoare he is reported to have made tryal of the Obedience of the Sea in this manner Thou O Sea art under my Dominion as the Land also which I sit upon is mine And there was never any that disobeyed my Command without Punishment Therefore I command thee not to ascend upon my Land nor do thou presume to wet the Feet or Garments of Thy Sovereign But although the Event did not answer his Expectation yet most plain it is that here he openly professed himself to be Sovereign of the Seas as well as of the Land From the Testimonies of the Saxons and Danes we shall Descend to the Government of the Normans where by many Notable and Cleer Proofs we shall finde That 1. The Custody Government or Admiralty of the English Sea did belong unto the King together with the Dominion of the Adjacent Islands 2. That the Leave of Passage through this Sea was granted unto Forreigners upon Request 3. That the Liberty of Fishing was upon Courtesie Allowed to Forreigners and Neighbours and Protection given to the Fisher-men 4. That Laws and Limits were Prescribed to Forreigners who being in Hostility the one with the other but both in Amity with the English made Prize of each other on the Sea 5. The Records whereby this Dominion is expressely Asserted as a most Undoubted Right and that not onely by the Kings but by the Parliaments of England As for the First There is nothing more Cleer than that the Kings of England have been Accustomed to Constitute Governours or Commanders who had a Charge to Guard the English Seas and these were called Custodes Navium or Custodes Maritimi These were the Officers that were called Butsecarli as may be gathered out of that Breviary of England called Doomes Day Rot. Pat. 48. Hen. 3. In this Number was Thomas de Moleton who is Stiled Captain and Guardian of the Sea and Hugh de Cerquen Afterwards the Title of Guardians was changed into that of Admiral as is alleaged by Thomas Walsingham 22. Edw. 1. in the days of Edward the First We finde that in the days of Edward the third The Principal End of Calling that Parliament was concerning the Preservation of Peace both by Land and Sea giving us to understand that the Land and Sea together made one entire Body of the Kingdome of England In the time of Richard the Second 2. Rich. 2. Hugh Calverley was made Admiral of the Sea saith the same Author and the Universal Custody of the Sea was committed by our Kings to the High Admirals of England And that the Dominion of the Seas is properly in the Power and Jurisdiction of the King may appear by those Tributes and Customes that were Imposed and Payed for the Guard and Protection of them The Tribute called the Danegeld was paid in the Time of the English Saxons which amounted to four shillings upon every Hide of Land for the defending of the Dominion by Sea Roger Houerden affirmeth Annal. 1. part page 276. that this was paid until the Time of King Stephen Afterwards Subsidies have been demanded of the People in Parliament upon the same Account and in the Parliament-Records of King Richard the Second it is Observable That a Custome was imposed upon every Ship that passed through the Northern Admiralty that is from the Thames along the Eastern Shoare of England towards the North-East for the Maintenance of a Guard for the Seas Neither was this Imposed onely upon the English but also upon the Ships of Forreigners payment was made at the Rate of six pence a Tun upon every Vessell that passed by such Ships only excepted that brought Merchandize out of Flanders into London If a Vessel were imployed to Fish for Herrings it

sayle and they were not to be protected upon the Account of Amity who should in any wise presume to do the contrary Penalties were also appointed by the Kings of England in the same manner as if mention were made concerning a Crime committed in some Territory of his Land But above all that as yet hath been said there can hardly be alledged a more convincing Argument to prove the Truth of all that hath hitherto been spoken then the Acknowledgement of the Sea-Dominion of the King of England by very many of our Neighbouring Nations At what time the Agreement was made by Edward the First of England and Philip the Fair of France Reyner Grimbald Governour of the French Navy Intercepted and Spoyled on the English Seas the Goods of many Merchants that were going to Flanders Rot. Parl. 31 Edw. 1. Membran 16. as well English as Others and not contented with the Depredation of their Goods He Imprisoned also their Persons and delivered them up to the Officers of the King of France and in a very insolent manner justified his Actions in Writing as done by Authority of the King his Masters Commission This being alledged to be done to the great Damage and Prejudice of the King of England the Prelats Peers and the rest of the Nation a Bill against Reyner Grimbald was exhibited and managed by Procurators on the behalf of the Prelates Peers and of the Cities and Towns throughout England and lastly of the whole English Nation by an Authority as I believe of the Estates Assembled in Parliament with these were joyned the Procurators of most Nations bordering upon the Sea throughout Europe Viz. The Genoeses The Catalonians The Spaniards The Almayns The Zealanders The Hollanders The Freislanders The Danes The Noruegians The Hamburghers c. All these instituted a Complaint against Reyner Grimbald who was Governour of the French Navy Ibidem ut Supra in the time of the War of Philip King of France and Guy Earle of Flanders And all these Complainants in their Bill do joyntly affirm that the King of England and his Predecessors have time out of minde and without Controversie Enjoyed the Soveraignty and Dominion of the English Seas and the Isles belonging to the same by Right of their Realm of England that is to say by Prescribing Laws Statutes and Prohibitions of Armes and of Ships otherwise furnished then with such necessaries and Commodities as belong to Merchants and by demanding Security and affording protection in all places where need should require and ordering all other things necessary for the conservation of Peace Right and Equity between all sorts of People passing through that Sea as well Strangers as others in Subjection to the Crown of England Also that they have had and have the Soveraign Guard thereof with all manner of Cognisance and Jurisdiction in doing Right and Justice according to the said Laws Ordinances and Prohibitions and in all other matters which may concern the Exercise of Soveraign Dominion in the said places This is the Declaration of the Nations above named manifestly acknowledging the Sovereignty and Dominion of our Kings over the Seas and thereupon demanding protection for themselves Tilius in Recueil destraictes fol. 4. But more particularly we do finde an acknowledgment of the Sea-Dominions of the Kings of England made by the Flemmings themselves in the Parliament of England in the Reign of Edward the Second the Records of the Parliament speak it thus In the Fourteenth Year of the Reign of Edward the Second Rot. Parl. 14. Edvar 2. Membran 26. there appeared certain Ambassadours of the Earl of Flanders to Treat about the Reformation of some Injuries they received and as soon as the said Ambassadours had been admitted by our Lord the King to Treat of the said Injuries amongst other particulars they required that the said Lord the King would at his own Suit by Vertue of his Royal Authority cause Enquiry to be made and do Justice about a Depredation by the Subjects of England upon the English Seas taking Wines and other sort of Merchandizes belonging to certain Merchants of Flanders towards the parts of Crauden within the Territory and Jurisdiction of the King of England Alledging that the said Wines and other Merchandizes taken from the Flemmings were brought within the Realm and Jurisdiction of the King and that it belonged to the King to see Justice done in Regard that HE IS LORD OF THE SEA and the aforesaid Depredation was made upon the said Sea within his Territory and Jurisdiction c. This we have Cited out of the Parliament Records which may Declare an Acknowledgement of the Sea-Dominion of our Kings made by those Foreign and Neighbour-Nations who were most concerned in the Business Having given you thus besides the Attestation of our own Writers the acknowledgment of Foreign Nations that the King of England hath the Dominion of the Seas we shall now come to give you an Account of those Northern Seas which came unto the Subjection of the Kings of England at what time King James of Blessed Memory by reducing the two Nations into one Great Brittanie United the Crown of Scotland to the Crown of England Odericus in his Ecclesiastical History informs us that the Orcades was subject heretofore to the King o● Norway and that the people of the Orcades do speak the Gothish Language to this day these Isles are Numerous and onely Twenty Eight of them are at this day Inhabited Above One Hundred Miles beyond the Orcades towards Norway are the Shetland Isles in Number Eighteen which are at this day Inhabited and in subjection to the King of Scotland Cambd. in Insul Britan p. 849. concerning which there hath been a great Quarrel in former Ages between the Scots and Danes but the Dane kept the Possession All these Islands did Christiern King of Denmark peaceably Surrender together with his Daughter in Marriage to James King of Scots until that either he himself or his Posterity paid to the Scottish King or his Successors the sum of Fifty Thousand Rhenish Florens which were never discharged to this day But afterwards when the Queen had been delivered of Her Eldest Son the Danish King being willing to Congratulate his Daughters good Delivery did for ever Surrender his Right in the Islands of the Orcades Shetland the rest unto the Scottish King This was in the days of James the Third of Scotland in the Year 1468. A Claim was afterwards laid to Iseland by Q. Elizabeth And her Successor K. James the Sixth of Scotland Cambden Annal. Elizab. and first of England hath a Dominion in the Sea which lieth farr more Northerly then Iseland which is that of Greenland For that Sea having never been entred by Occupation nor used in the Art and Exercise of Fishery was first of all rendered very gainful through a peculiar Fishing for Whales by those English Merchants of the Muscovie Company who first Sailed that way The use of a Sea

Iames himself for whereas the Duke of Lennox as Admiral of Scotland had by order from the Majesty of King Iames in the year One Thousand Six Hundred and Sixteen sent one Master Brown to demand of the Hollanders then fishing upon the Coasts of Scotland a certain antient Duty called Size Herring they began to contest with him about it and after a long Disputation they payed it as in former times it had been accustomed but not without some affronting terms that it was the last time it should be payed And it is most observable that the same Gentleman coming the year following with the same Authority and Commandment with one only Ship of His Majesties to demand the Duty aforesaid And with Order if he were denyed to take witness of the refusal in writing and so peaceably depart He came aboard one of their Ships and no sooner demanded the aforesaid Duty but by the Master of the Ship he was denyed it who as plainly as peremptorily told him That he was commanded by the States of Holland not to pay it unto the King of England any more of which he took witness according to his Order from His Majesty This taking of witness did so startle the Dutch that before Master Brown had got off to his own Ship the Master of another Ship of Holland came presently aboard that Ship in which he was who demanding of Master Brown his Name he replyed that his Name was Brown Why then quoth he if you be the Man I have Order to Arrest you and to carry you into Holland whereof Master Brown gave notice to the Master of the Kings Ship requiring him to advertise His Majesty of this Insolency and Master Brown was in this manner Arrested and carried away Prisoner into Holland where for a while he was detained I do read that much about the same time one Master Archibald Ranthin a Scotch Gentleman and residing at Stockholme in Sweden where he sollicited for the payment of some sums of monies due to the English Merchants there was at the same time in the same City one Vandyke who lying there as an Agent for the States of Holland Vide Observations concerning the Affairs of Holland said unto some Principal Persons of the Swedes that they need not be so hasty in paying any Monies to the Subjects of the King of England or to give them any high Respect because the said Kings promises were not to be believed nor his threatnings to be feared for which Vile and Insolent Speeches being afterwards challenged by Master Archibald Ranthin he had no better Excuse then to say he was drunk when he did speak those words for deny them he could not and by this means his Excuse of playing the Beast did excuse him for playing the Man Now from these Insolent Affronts by words let us proceed and come to what they have done by deeds where in the first place we may observe their rude demeanour to our English Nation in the Northern Seas on the Coasts of Greenland and those parts about the Fishing for Whales and the Commodity of Train Oyle where violently they have offered unpardonable abuses by giving of blows and chasing the English-men away and by procuring much loss and prejudice unto them their Pride of Heart was so high that it would not give their Reason leave to apprehend that Fishing at Sea is free for every Man where it is not upon the Coast of any Country unto which the Dominion of the Sea belongeth by antient Prerogative And yet all this is but inconsiderable in regard of their usage of our Nation in the East-Indies where in open Hostility they have as fiercely set upon them as if they had been most mortal Enemies having in several Encounters slain many of our Men and sunk sundry of our Ships And when they had taken our Men Prisoners they would use them in the sight of the Indians in such a Contemptible and Disdainfull manner as if at their own Home and in the Country of the Butter-Boxes the English in respect of them were but a sordid and a slavish Nation and the Hollanders were either their Superiours and might use them at their own pleasure or the English were so spiritless or so unpowerfull that they durst not be revenged but quietly must put up all the Affronts and Injuries which they received at their Hands And as for the Commodious Trade which the English have had in Muscovy for above these fourscore years and some other Countries that lye upon the East and North which the Hollanders have now gotten quite out of their Hands Their spoyling of our Trade in Muscovy and other Countries of the East to the great Grief and Prejudice of many Merchants in this City What shall we say seeing not long since they have been acting the same again with our English Merchants in Turkey And it is a practise so usual with them to spoyle the Trade of other Nations that when they cannot find any Occasion to do it they will show a Nature so wretchedly Barbarous that they will not stick to spoyle one another so great is their Covetous and most Insatiable desire of Gain And yet all this proceedeth out of an ignoble and a sordid spirit for let them arrive to what Wealth they will they can never be the Masters of a Noble and a Generous Disposition Had it not been for their Neighbouring Nation of the English they had never arrived to the liberty of a Free State yet so ungratefull have they been that they have endeavoured to forget all the Obligations of Humanity and have digged into the very Bowels of those who did preserve them Many Examples of this may be instanced I shall look a little back again on the cruelty of their proceedings in the East Indies before their studied malice at Amboyna and afterwards of their horrid Massacre at Amboyna it self As their Avarice was unsatisfied so their quarrels with the English were many Covetousness and Ambition not long enduring a Co-partner Queen Elizabeth being translated into a better World and the Hollanders to be the more ready to set the English at nought having by the Assistance of Sir Ralph Winwood got the Cautionary Towns into their own Possession they presently began to appear in their true Colours by adding Cruelty to Hypocrisie and Avarice to Insolence The English that were Trafficking in the East Indies being sensible thereof and finding no redress preferred their Just Complaints to the Majesty of King Iames on which ensued the first Treaty in the year One thousand six hundred and thirteen in the City of London and after that another Treaty in the year One thousand six hundred and fifteen at the Hague in Holland which taking up much time to little effect there was a third Treaty which was held in London in the year One thousand six hundred and nineteen touching the Differences between the English and Dutch in the East Indies in which a full and

remain ever the same although the waters themselves do shift and change continually In the Germane Empire according to the Civil Law Rivers are all of them of Publick Use yet for all that they are reckoned in the Emperours private Patrimony Seneca Ep. 39. and amongst the Royalties belonging to his Exchequer So that the Emperour or others by his Grant have a yearly Revenue out of the Fisheries in them Neither is there any thing more common then an Asserting of the Private Dominion of Rivers in the Lawes of France Spain Poland and Venice and in a word of all Nations whose Customes are known seeing therefore that a Dominion and Propriety of Rivers hath been every where acknowledged why should it not in the like manner be acknowledged that there may be Owners of any Sea whatsoever Since the always running and flowing Nature of water can no more hinder a Dominion in the one then in the other for the Rivers themselves are but little Seas as the Sea it self to its fluide Constitution is but a River the one differing only in bignes from the other and so it hath been taken by the Antients In the very History of the Creation all the Gatherings together of the waters are called Seas Many Lakes have been called Seas Tiberias by St. Luke Luke 5.1 is called a Lake but by the other Evangelists a Sea Asphaltites is by Pliny Solinus and others termed a Lake but by Moses in the Fourteenth of Genesis the Salt Sea and by most of the late Writers the Dead Sea They indeed who make use of such frivolous subtilties as these to oppose the Dominion of the Sea deserve to be turned over to the Phylosophers Heraclitus and Epicharmus who taught that every thing is so altered changed and renewed that nothing in this World continues the same as it was in the instant immediately going before Our Bodies saith Seneca are hurried like Rivers whatsoever thou seest runneth with Time Not one of all those things that are visible continueth I even whilest I speak of these changes am changed my self But let such men as dream that the fluide Inconstant Nature of the Sea disproves the private Dominion of it entertain the same opinion if they please with these Men and then they must of necessity grant also that themselves are not Owners or Possessors of Houses Lands or Money or any other thing whatsoever As to that Argument that the water is open to All and therefore by Law it must lye open at all times to all men it is a very trifling Argument Before the first Distribution of things there was no Land which did not lye open unto All before it came under particular Possession In many places payment is made for the use of water as amongst the Hollanders they have in Delph-Land a Custome called Jus Grutae which hath ever been under the care of those Officers called in Dutch Pluymgraven whereby the Beer-Brewers are obliged to pay them the hundreth part for the use of the water Some men may here object that saying of Antonius Forcus in cap. Juris cap. 9. I am Sovereign of the World but the Law is Sovereign of the Sea The True and Genuine sense of those words is this I am Lord of the World because I Govern the World by my own Law but the Rhodian Law is the Law of the Sea because by this Law Justice is administred on the Sea therefore let this case of Eudaemon concerning Navigation be determined by the Rhodian Law so far as none of our Lawes doth oppose the same There is no man unlesse he will renounce his own Reason who will affirme that any Denial is made of the Dominion of the Sea in that Answer or that the least Tittle can be found in it against the Dominion thereof Having thus in general given you an account that almost amongst all Nations there hath been allowed a Private Dominion of the Sea we shall now come more particularly to our selves and acquaint you that the Antient Brittains did Enjoy and Possesse the Sea as Lords thereof before they were subjected to the Roman Power It is upon good ground concluded that the most Antient History whereunto any credit ought to be given about the Affaires of Brittain is not elder then the Time of Cajus Julius Caesar Seld. Marc Clausum 158. the Ages before him being too obscured with Fables but at his coming we finde many clear passages of the Brittains Dominion of the Sea flowing about them especially the South and East part thereof as a perpetual Appendant of the Sovereignty of the Island For at that time they not onely used the Sea as their own for Navigation and Fishing but also permitted none besides Merchants to sayle into the Island without their leave nor any Man at all to view or sound their Sea-Coasts or their Harbours And though at Caesars first Arrival they were Terrified with the sight of his long ships beaked with Brass or Iron and they fled to the shore and from it to the In-lands being not sufficiently provided for such a Sea-fight as was then at hand and which they never had been acquainted with yet most certain it is that they had Vessels of their own in which they used to Coast about the Neighbouring Seas And though mention is made by Writers that commonly they were framed with Twiggs as the fashion then was in the more Antient Nations and covered with Oxe-Hides yet with good ground we may conceive that they were wont to Build and set forth ships of War of a far more commodious and solid substance for the Guarding of the Seas and the Isles We read in Caesar's Commentaries De Bello Gallico lib. 9. that they were strong at Sea and it is not to be doubted but that besides their Twiggs and Leathern Vessels they had a considerable Navy which was able at pleasure to Encounter the ships of their Neighbours that were best Armed But the Southernly Parts of Great Brittain being Invaded by the Emperour Claudius and the Isle of Wight surrendred to them the Brittish Sea following the Fate of the Island was annexed with it to the Roman Empire From the Dominion of the Brittish Sea as being continually United to the Island or an Inseparable Concomitant thereof many remarquable passages have proceeded amongst those who have left unto Posterity the Atchievements of the Romans when they were Masters of this Island But when the Roman Empire was declining and they had scarce Forces enough to Guard the City it self The Brittains about the Year of our Lord Zosimus Hist lib. 6. Four Hundred and Fourscore did cast off the Roman Government and setled a Common-Wealth after their own liking In the mean time the Saxons Inhabiting the Shoar over against them had a great and greedy mind unto it who being a People extreamly given to Piracy the Romans were accustomed to appoint an Officer to drive them away called The Count of the Saxon Shore throughout Brittain

expired For Conclusion seeing by that which hath formerly been declared it evidently appeareth that the Kings of England by immemorable prescription continual usage and possession the acknowledgment of all our Neighbour-States and the Municipal Laws of the Kingdom have ever held the Sovereign Lordship of the Seas of England and that unto his Majesty by reason of his Sovereignty the supream command and Jurisdiction over the passage and Fishing in the same rightfully apperteineth considering also the natural Scite of those our Seas that interpose themselves between the great Northern Commerce of that of the whole world and that of the East West and Southern Climates and withal the infinite commodities that by Fishing in the same is daily made It cannot be doubted but his Majesty by means of his own excellent Wisdom and Virtue and by the Industry of his faithful Subjects and People may easily without injustice to any Prince or Person whatsoever be made the greatest Monarch for Command and Wealth and his People the most opulent and Flourishing Nation of any other in the world And this the rather for that his Majesty is now absolute Commander of the Brittish Isle and hath also enlarged his Dominions over a great part of the Western Indies by means of which extent of Empire crossing in a manner the whole Ocean the Trade and persons of all Nations removing from one part of the world to the other must of necessity first or last come within compass of his power and jurisdiction And therefore the Sovereignty of our Seas being the most precious Jewel of his Majestie 's Crown and next under God the principal means of our Wealth and Safety all true English hearts and hands are bound by all possible means and diligence to preserve and maintain the same even with the uttermost hazzard of their Lives their Goods and Fortunes Thus you see what wonderous advantages may redound to the Felicity and Glory of this Nation if God give hearts and resolutions to vindicate those rights which are now most impiously and injuriously invaded There is also another Dominion of the Sea belonging to the King of Great Brittain and that of a very large Extent upon the Shore of America as on the Virginian Sea and the Islands of the Barbadoes and Saint Christophers and many other places but how farr our English Colonies Transported into America have Possessed themselves of the Sea there is not exactly as yet discovered A further Assertion that the Sea is under the Laws of Propriety Declared in a full Convention betwixt Ferdinando Emperour of Germany and the Republick of Venice in the Year 1563. AT this Convention the Complaints on both sides were opened And it being required in the Name of his Emperial Majesty that it may be Lawful for his Subjects and others to Traffick freely in the Adriatick Sea It was answered by the Advocate of the Common-Wealth of Venice that Navigation indeed ought to be free yet those things at which his Imperial Majesty found himself agrieved were no ways repugnant to this Freedom How farr Navigation is to be free for as much as in Countries which are most free Those who have the Dominion thereof receive Custome and do give Bounds and prescribe Order by which way all Merchandize shall pass and therefore none should finde themselves agrieved if the Venetians for their own Respects did use to do so in the Adriatick Seas which is under their Dominion there being nothing more known then that the Common-Wealth of Venice were Lords of the Adriatick Sea and do exercise that Dominion which from time out of minde it had always done as well in receiving of Customes as in assigning of places for the Exaction of it And that according to former Capitulations the Subjects of the Venetians were to have no less liberty in the Lands of the Austrians then the Austrian Subjects in the Sea of Venice And if his Imperial Majesty within his own State upon the Land will not permit that the Subjects of the Common-Wealth of Venice shall go which way they list but doth constrain them to go by such places onely where customs is to be paid he cannot with Justice demand that his Subjects may passe by or through the Sea of the Republick which way they please but must content himself that they passe that way onely which shall best stand with the Advantage of those who have the Dominion over it And if his Majesty cause Custome to be paid upon his Land why may not the Venetians likewise do it upon their Sea He demanded of them if by the Capitulation they would have it that the Emperour should be restrained or hindred from the taking of Custome And if not why would they have the Venetians tyed thereunto by a Capitulation which speaks of both Potentates equally with the same words He proceeded in a Confirmation of the Truth that the Republick had the Dominion of the Sea and although the proposition was true that the Sea is common and free yet it is no otherwise to be understood there in the same sence when usually we say The Sea in His Majesties Dominions no more common nor free then is the High-way by Land that the high-way are common free by which is meant that they cannot be Usurped by any private Person for his sole proper service but remain to the use of every one Not therefore that they are so free as that they should not be under the Protection and Government of some Prince and that every one might do therein Licenciously whatsoever pleaseth Him either by Right or by Wrong for as much as such Licenciousness or Anarchy both of God Nature as well by Sea as by Land That the true liberty of the Sea excludes it not from the protection and superiority of such as maintain it in Liberty nor from the Subjection to the Laws of such as have Command over it but rather necessarily it includes it That the Sea no less then the Land is Subject to be divided amongst men appropriated to Cities and Potentates which long since was ordained by God from the beginning of man kind as a thing most Natural And this was well understood by Aristotle when he said The Dominion of the Seas appropriated to such and such places ever since the begining of Mankind that unto Maritine Cities the Sea is the Territory because from thence they take their Sustenance and Defence A thing which cannot possibly be unless that part of it be appropriated in the like manner as the Land is which is divided betwixt Cities and Governments not by equal parts nor according to their Greatness but as they have been or are able to Rule Govern or Defend them Bern he said was not the greatest City of Switzerland and yet it hath as large a Teritory as all the rest of the twelve Cantons together The City of Norimburg is very great and yet the Dominions and Teritories of it do hardly exceed the

wals The City of Venice it self for many years was known to be without any possession at all upon the firm Land Upon the Sea likewise certain other Cities of great Force and Valour have possessed a large quantity of it and other Cities of less force have contented themselves with the next waters Neither are there wanting Examples of such who notwithstanding they do border upon the Sea yet having fertile Lands and adjacent to them have satisfied themselves with their Land Possessions without ever attempting to gain any Sea Dominion Others there are who being awed by their more mighty Neighbours have been constrained to forbear any such Attempt for which two causes a City notwithstanding it be Maritine and bordereth upon the Sea may happen to remain without any possession of the Sea He added that God did institute Principalities for the maintenance of Justice to the benefit of Mankind which was necessary to be executed as well by Sea as by Land And St. Paul said that for this cause there were due unto Princes Customes and Contributions that it should be a great Absurdity to praise the well Governing Regulating and Defence of the Land and to condemn that of the Sea The Propriety of the Seas according to the Laws of God And that if the Sea in some parts thereof for the ampleness and extream distance of it from the Land is not possibly to be Governed and Protected it doth proceed from a Disability and Defect in Mankind as in the same consideration there are Desarts or Wildernesses so great upon the Land as it is altogether impossible to protect them witness the many sandy parts of Affrica and the Immense Vastities of the World but lately discovered And as it is a gift of God that a Land by the Laws and publisht Power be Ruled Protected and Governed so the same happeneth to the Sea He said that those were deceived by a gross Equivocation who affirmed that the Land by reason of its Stability and Firmness may be governed but not the Sea for being an unconstant Element it passeth and hath a motion proper to it as well as the Aire And if by the Sea and the Aire all and every part of those fluent Elements be intended it is a most certain thing that they cannot be governed because whilst a man secureth himself with any one part of them the other fliteth out of his power And this also hapeneth unto Rivers which cannot be restrained in their fluent motions But when mention is made to rule over a Sea or River it is not understood of the Element but of the Scite where they are placed The water of the Adriatick Sea doth continually run out of it neither can it at all be kept in and yet it is the same Sea as well as the Thames the Rhine or the Po are the same Rivers now as they were one Thousand years agoe The Sea not to be without Protection and this is that which is Subject to the Protection of Princes He askt the Germans if their pretence were that the Sea should be left without Protection so that any one might do therein whatsoever he listed by Robing Spoiling and making it Unnavigable This he said would be so absurd in reason that he durst answer for them that they had no such pretence he therefore concluded that therefore his Majesty of Germany by a necessary Consequence must acknowledge that it ought to be kept Governed The Sea to be protected by those to whom it doth appertain by Divine Disposition and Protected by those unto whom it did appertain by Divine Disposition which if it were so as indeed it is he desired to understand if in their Judgment it seemed to them a Just thing that such should do it with the expence of their own Pains and Treasure or rather that should contribute towards it who equally did enjoy the Benefit And as to this he said he durst answer for them the Doctrine of Saint Paul being clear in this particular that all such who are under Government and Protection are thereby bound to pay Customes and Contribution Much he said might be alleaged in matter of Law to confirm this Truth And thereupon he concluded that if the Common-Wealth of Venice were that Prince to whom it did appertain to Govern and Protect the Adriatick Sea it of necessity must follow that whosoever Traffick and Saileth on their Sea ought to be subject to their Laws in the same manner as such are who travail through a Country upon Land From hence he did proceed to show that this Dominion over the Sea from time out of minde did belong to the Common-Wealth of Venice And to prove this he caused to be read out of an Abstract which he had taken the opinion of Thirty Famous Lawyers who from the Year One Thousand Three Hundred until the present time did speak of the Dominion which the Common-Wealth of Venice had over the Sea as of a thing most known and of which even in their Times the mind of man knew not the Contrary some of them affirming that the Common-Wealth of Venice had no lesse Dominion over the Sea then over the City of Venice Others maintaining that the Adriatick Sea is the Territory and the Demeans of the said City And to render this more evident they do make mention of the lawful Power which the Venetians have to establish Laws over Navigation and to impose Customes upon such as traffique on those Seas And he added The Power of the Soveraign of the Seas to impose Customes in his own Jurisdiction that he never read any Lawyer which held forth to the contrary moreover he told the Advocate of the Emperour that if he would not believe those Authors who testified that the Sea belonged to the Venetians whereof they had possession from time out of minde before the age wherein those Authors lived yet he could not deny to receive them for the Testimonies of such things which they saw and knew in their times and to hold them as witnesses far above all Exception being all of them Famous men though dead so many years agoe and whose Impartial Pens could no ways be interested in the present Differences And because more then two hundred and fifty years were passed from the time that the Authors whom he alleaged as Witnesses hereof did Write to the time of those whose Names he last of all did mention in that behalf he urged that by their Attestation it was sufficiently proved that for a long time more then so many years the Common-Wealth hath commanded the Sea and therefore he could not deny the assured and certain possession of it to the present Then Addressing himself to the Judges he desired them to consider that notwithstanding some of the above mentioned Authors do speak in general words and name at large the Sea of the Venetians neither taking care to declare the Quality or the Quantity thereof yet others more expresly do