time of Richard the Second 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 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 payed the Rate of Six pence a week upon every Tun If for other kind of Fish so much was to be payed every three weeks as they who brought Coles to London from New-Castle paid it every three Moneths But if a Vessel were bound North-wards to Prussia Scone or Norway or any of the Neighbouring Countries it payed a particular Custome according to the Weight and Proportion of the Freight And if any were unwilling it was Lawful to Compel them to pay In this Place we shall give you the Copy of the usual form of a Commission whereby the High Admiral of England is Invested with Authority for the Guard of the Sea it runneth in these Words VVE Give and Grant to N. the Office of our Great Admiral of England Ireland Wales and of the Dominions and Islands belonging to the same also of our Town of Calais and our Marches thereof Normandy Acquitayn and Gascoign and we have Made Appointed and Ordained And by these Presents we Make Appoint and Ordain â—im the said N. our Admiral of England Ireland and Wales and our Dominions and Isles of the same our Town of Calais and our Marches thereof Normandy Gascoign and Aquitayn as also General Governour over all our Fleets and SEAS of our said Kingdomes of England and Ireland and our Dominions and Islands belonging to the same And know ye further that we of our especial Grace and upon certain Knowledge do Give and Grant to the said N our Great Admiral of England and Governour General over our Fleets and Seas aforesaid all manner of Iurisdictions Authorities Liberties Offices Fees Profits Duties Emoluments Wracks of the Sea cast Goods Regards Advantages Commodities Preheminences Priviledges whatsoever to the said Officer our Great Admiral of England and Ireland and of the other Places and Dominions aforesaid in any manner Whatsoever Belonging or Appertaining Thus we see we have a continual Possession or Dominion of the Kings of England by Sea pointed out in very Expresse Words for very many years We may add to this that it can be proved by words plain enough in the form of the Commissions for the Command of High Admiral of England that the Sea for whose Defence he was appointed by the King of England who is Lord and Sovereign of it was ever bounded towards the South by the Shores of Aquitain Normandy and Picardy for although those Countries sometimes in the Possession of the English are now lost and for many years under the Jurisdiction of the French yet the whole Sea Flowing betwixt our Brittish Isles and the Provinces over against them are by a Peculiar Dominion and Right of the King of England on those Seas subject unto them whom he puts in Command over the English Fleet and Coasts that there remaineth neither Place nor Use for any other Commanders of that kinde And as for the Islands of Gernesey Jersey and the rest Mr. Selden affirmeth that before a Court of Delegats in France in expresse terms it hath been acknowledged that the King of England hath ever been Lord not onely of this Sea but also of the Islands placed therein Par raison du Royalmed ' Angleterre upon the Account of the Realm of England or as they were Kings of England And in the Treaty held at Charters when Edward the Third Renounced his Claim to Normandy and some other Counties of France that bordered upon the Sea it was added that no Controversie should remain touching the Islands but that he should hold all Islands whatsoever which he Possessed at that time whither they lay before those Countries y t he held there or others For Reason required this that he should maintain his Dominion by Sea And both Gernesey and Jersey as well as the Isles of Wight and Man in several Treaties held betwixt the Kings of England and other Princes are acknowledged not onely to lye neer unto the Kingdome of England but to belong unto it But to give a greater Light to this Truth we may from several Records produce many Testimonies that the Kings of England have given leave unto to Forreigners upon Request to passe through their Seas he gave permission to Ferrando Vrtis de Sarachione a Spaniard to Sail freely from the Port of London through his Kingdomes Dominions and Jurisdiction to the Town of Rochel There are Innumerable Letters of safe Conducts in the Records especially of Henry the Fifth and Sixth whereby safe Port and Passage was usually granted And it is worthy of observation that these kinde of Letters was usually superscribed and directed by those Kings to their Governours of the Sea-Admirals Vice-Admirals and Sea-Captains And to clear all at once the Kings of England have such an absolute Dominion in the English Seas that they have called the Sea it self their Admiralty And this we finde in a Commission of King Edward the Third The Title whereof is De Navibus Arrestandis Capiendis For the Arresting and Seizing of Ships The Form of it runs in these Words The King to his beloved Thomas de Wenlock his Serjeant at Armes and Lievtenant To our Beloved and Trusty Reginald de Cobham Admiral of our Fleet of Ships from the mouth of the River of Thames towards the Western parts Greeting Be it known unto you that we have appointed you with all the speed that may be used by you and such as shall be Deputed by you to Arrest and Seize all Ships Flie-Boats Barks and Burges of ten Tun burthen and upwards which may happen to be found in my foresaid ADMIRALTY that is in the Sea reaching from the Thames Mouth towards the South and West and
Dominion and Possession of the place And this may yet more clearly appear by the Laws and Limits usually set by our Kings to such Foreigners as were at Enmity with each other but in Amity with the English and to this effect is the Proclamation of King James who having made Peace with all Nations did give equal Protection to the Spaniards and the United Neatherlands at that time exercising Acts of great Hostility one against another Our Pleasure saith he and Commandment is to all our Officers and Subjects by Sea and Land that they shall Prohibite as much as in them lieth all hovering of Men of War of either Spaniard or Hollander neer to the Entry of any of our Coasts or Havens and that they shall Rescue and Succour all Merchants and others that shall fall within the Danger of any such as shall Await our Coasts And it is further to be observed that as our Kings have very often Commanded that all manner of persons should cease from Hostility throughout all the spaces extended into their Territories by Sea so they indulged the like Privilege for ever throughout the more Neighbouring Coasts of the French shore that all manner of Persons though Enemies to one another should securely sayle to and fro as it were under the wings of an Arbitrator or Moderatour of the Sea and also freely should use the Sea according to such spaces and limits as they were pleased at first to appoint which without doubt is a clear Evidence of Dominion In this next place I shall cite some of the Publick Records which are kept in the Tower of London in which the Dominion of the Sea is expresly Asserted as belonging to the Kings of England We Read that Edward the Third in his Commissions given to Geoffery de Say Governour or Commander of the Western and Southern Seas and to John de Norwich of the Northern expresseth himself in these following words We calling to mind that our Progenitors the Kings of England having before these times been Lords of the English Sea on every side yea and Defendors thereof against the Invasions of Enemies do strictly Require and Charge you by the Duty and Allegiance wherein you stand bound that you set forth to Sea with the Ships of the Ports and the other Ships that are ready and that you Arrest the other ships under our Command and that with all Diligence you make search after the Gallies and Ships of War that are abroad against Us and that stoatly and manfully you set upon them if they shall presume to bend their Course towards any part of our Dominions or the Coasts of Scotland c. Then followeth a Power to Press Seamen and other matters of that kind We read also in the Reign of the said King in the preferring of a certain Bill in Parliament which is the voice of the Estates of the Realm that he was usually accounted King or Sovereign of the Seas by all Nations The words in French are to this sence in English The Nation of the English were ever in the Ages past Renowned for Sea-Affairs in all Countries near the Seas and they bad also so numerous a Navy that the People of all Countries Esteemed and called the K. of Engl. the K. or Sovereign of the Sea Another Testimony to the same Effect we read in the Parliamentary Records of Henry the Fifth where the Tenour of the Bill runs after this manner The Commons do pray that seeing our Sovereign Lord the King and his Illustrious Progenitors have ever been Lords of the Sea and now seeing through Gods Grace it is so come to pass that our Lord the King is Lord of the Shores on both sides of the Sea such a Tribute may be imposed upon all Strangers passing through the said Sea for the Benefit and Advantage of our said Lord the King as may seem agreeable to reason for the safegard of the said Sea The Answer subscribed to the said Bill was Soit avise par le Roy which is Let the King Himself be advised of it For the King at that time Resided in France being Lord of that Country as well by Conquest as Inheritance And Humphrey Duke of Glocester was then President of the Parliament and Leivtenant of England by whom as the Kings Deputy that Answer was given to the said Bill but when the King was present in person Le Roy S' advisera the King will Advise was the Answer from the Antient down to our present times in such Bills as were to be passed into Acts Many other Testimonies in this Nature may be produced which for brevities sake are purposely omitted Neither hath the High Court of Parliament onely given this Attestation to our Kings as Supream and Sovereign of the Seas But to confirme it we shall produce the Testimonies of Robert Belknap an Eminent Judge in the Time of Richard the Second who affirmeth that the Sea is Subject to the King as a part of his Kingdom or of the Patrimony of the Crown And it appeareth by Publick Records containing diverse main points touching which the Judges of the Land were to be consulted for the good of the Common-Wealth that the Kings Sea-Dominion which they called The Antient Superiority of the Sea was a matter out of Question amongst all Lawyers of that Age and Asserted by the Determinations and Customes of the Law of the Land and by the express words of the Writs and Forms of the Actions themselves Neither is this Truth confirmed only by our Laws but by our Medals There hath been a piece of Gold very often Coyned by our Kings called a Rose-Noble which was stamped on the one side of it with a Ship floting in the Sea and a King Armed with a Sword and Shield sitting in the Ship it self as in a Throne to set forth a Representation of the English K. by Sea The first Authour hereof was Edward the Third when he Guarded his own Seas with a Numerous Navy consisting of Eleven Hundred ships at which time as at others he marched victoriously through France But what need we labour to produce so many Testimonies at home from our Records in the Tower and other places from our High Courts of Parliament from our Laws from our Coyns from our Histories to prove this Truth since it is acknowledged even by Forreigners themselves whom it most concerneth by their usual striking of sayles according to the antient Custom by every ship of any Forreign Nation whatsoever if they sayle near the Kings Navy or any ship belonging to it at Sea which is done not onely in Honour to the English King but also in acknowledgement of His Sovereignty and Dominion at Seas The Antiquity of this Custome and that it hath been in use for above these Four Hundred years may appear by this following testimony At Hastings a Town scituate upon the Shore of Sussex it was Decreed by K. John in the Second Year of His Reign with
the Assent of His Peers That if the Governour or Commander of the Kings Navy in His Naval Expeditions shall meet with any Ships whatsoever by Sea either Laden or Empty that shall refuse to strike their sayles at the Command of the Kings Governour or Admiral or his Lievtenant but make resistance against any who be long unto his Fleet that then they are to be reputed Enemies and if they be taken their Ships and Goods to be Consiscated as the Goods of Enemies And that although the Masters or Owners of the Ships shall Alledge afterwards that the same Ships and Goods do belong to the Friends and Allies of our Lord the King yet the persons who shall be found in these Ships are to be punished with Imprisonment at discretion for their Rebeltion It was accounted Treason saith Master Selden If any ship what soever had not acknowledged the Dominion of the King of England in His own Sea by striking 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 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 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 Englandand his Predecessors have time out of minde and without Controversie Enjoyed the Soveraignty and Dominion of theEnglish 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 ofEngland 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 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 ofEdward the Second 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 thatHE 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 of 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 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
instead of redressing their Injuries they have increased them About three years since they concluded a Treaty with the English and having ingaged that better order should for the future be observed they have since heaped new Injuries to the utter over-throw of all the Trade of His Majesties Subjects in the East and West-Indies Witness our Ships the Hope-well the Leopard and some others in the East-Indies And the Charles the James the Mary the Sampson the Hopefull Aduenture the Speed-well on the Coast of Africa And after all these Acts of the Highest Injustice and their utmost endeavours for driving on a War they would make the world believe that his Majesty is the first undertaker of it who from his own Mouth to their Ambassadour in England and by his Injunctions to Sir George Downing his Minister at the Hague hath given so many and such Remarkable Demonstrations to the contrary What can they say to the Memorial of the complaints which Sir George Downing exhibited to the States General importing that in the space of a very few years almost twenty English Ships with their whole Lading to a very great value have been seized upon in a horrible manner and the Men in them most Barbarously and most Inhumanely Treated being put into stinking and nasty Dungeons and Holes at Castel del Mina where they did lye bedded and bathed in their own Excrements having nothing but bread and water given them and not enough of that neither to sustain Nature their Bodies being under the Fury of Exquisite and Horrid Torments and when any of them died the living and the dead were left together and such as out-lived that cruelty were exposed in the woods to famine or to the mercy of wild beasts in those desolate Countries or to be carried into Captivity by the Natives by which means several Hundreds of His Majesties Good Subjects have perished and been destroyed And unto this hour notwithstanding all sollicitations and endeavous of his Majesties Envoy not one penny of Satisfaction can be had either for the loss of the Ships or the Persons concerned in any of them but to the contrary they have ever since hindred and shot at the English Ships that have Anchored by them and have took by force all the Boats of those Natives who have endeavoured to come aboard them and have seized also upon the English Boats that would go on shore and deprive them of all manner of Provision nor suffer so much as fresh water to be brought unto them And to give a further proof of their Confidence and Ambition they have published a Declaration wherein they assume and challenge to themselves a Right to that whole Coast to the Exclusion of all other Nations Although by Order from His Majesty Sir George Downing both in Publick Conferences with the Deputies of the Lords General as also with those of Holland in particular hath at large Remonstrated His Majesties Right and Interest in some part therein having by his Subjects bought the Ground of the King of that Country for a valuable Consideration and built a Factory thereon And yet for all this some of the Dutch-West-India Company by Fraud and ireachery have got into the place and no hopes of the Restitution of it but they are resolved to keep by violence what they have gained by deceit Moreover what can they say for themselves concerning their stirring up the King of Fantin by rewards and sums of Money and supplying him with all manner of Arms and Ammunition for the surprizing of his Majesties Castle at Cormantin in the West-Indies so that an absolute Necessity is imposed upon his Majesty and his Subjects either of losing all that have been actually taken from them and abandoning for ever that Trade it self or of betaking themselves to some other wayes for their Relief And what Hope is there of their Restoring back any place which they have once taken The Island of Polleroon hath been upon surrendring back to the English ever since the year 1622. at which by a Solemn and Particular Treaty it was promised to be done and again by another Treaty in the year 1654. and by an Order of the States General and the East Company of that Nation in the year 1661. and again by another Treaty in the year following And yet to this day there is not the least mention of any thing Restored And should any Man then think it strange that His Majesty after so long an experience of the perversness and deceitfulness of that Nation should suffer his Subjects to repossess themselves of those places which by the hand of Violence and Oppression they have forced from them Now as for the business of the New-Neatherlands as they are pleased to call it It hath been abundantly else-where prov'd that the said Land is part of the Possession of His Majesties Subjects of New England which their Charter plainly and precisely expresseth And those few Dutch that have lived there heretofore have lived there meerly upon the connivence and sufferance of the English which hath been permitted to them so to do so long as they demeaned themselves peaceably and quietly but the Dutch not contenting themselves therewith have incroached more and more upon the English imposing their Laws and Customs and endeavouring to raise Contributions and Excises on them and in those places where the Dutch had never been whereupon they have been necessitated several times to send Souldiers for the repulsing of them Since the Conclusion for the late Treaty the Dutch have made new Incursions upon the English and given them many new Provocations and have ordained a Tryal of Causes amongst themselves and a proceeding by course of Arms without any appealing into Europe at all And can any Prince then think it strange especially the King of France if His Majesty of England suffer his Subjects to rescue themselves from such continual Vexations seeing the King of France himself hath been pleased this year to Order his Subjects to re-possess themselves by force of Arms of a certain place called Cayen which the French alledge hath been wrongfully kept from them by the West-India Company of the Neatherlanders As for the business of Captain Holmes at Capo Verde in Guiney a complaint was no sooner made to His Majesty this last year in the Moneth of June But His Majesty immediately returned Answer that he had given no Order nor Direction there into Captain Holmes and that upon his Return he would examine the business and see that Right should be done according to the nature of the Offence In order whereunto when Captain Holmes was returned His Majesty sent him to the Tower and being afterwards allowed the liberty of some few dayes to follow his particular business he was again Commanded back where being strictly and throughly Examined touching the management of the whole matter complained of he so fully and so clearly upon every point did acquit himself that His Maâ—esty was graciously pleased to grant him his
is the Title of Successive Inheritance confirmed as well by the Law of Nature as of Nations and is so much the more considerable in regard of the infinite Advantages of the profits of it as the Brittish Ocean in its Latitude and Circumference exceedeth the small Boundaries of the Gulph of Venice But in this great Disputation where were present the most Remarkable Wits of Italy and Germany and where the Imperialists themselves and amongst them one of the most Eminent Stephen Baron of Gourz Attested openly that the Common-Wealth of Venice was Patron of the Adriatitk Sea and might impose what Customs they thought fitting and that all other the Commissaries thought so in their Consciences There is enough as may be thought in Reason to convince all Opponents that may pretend to differ in Judgement from us Yet so it is that the Indulgence of the Kings of England to their Neighbouring Nations especially to the Hollanders by giving them too much liberty hath incouraged them to assume a Liberty to themselves and what at the first was but a License they improve into a Custom and make that Custom their Authority Insomuch that some of the most busiest of them have openly declared against the Kings Propriety on the Brittish Seas Amongst these is one Hugo Grotius a Gentleman of great Ingenuity but in this particular so inclined to obey the Importunities and serve the Interests of his Country-men that he disobliged himself of the Truth and moreover to speak the truth of his Conscience it self for it you look into his Silvae upon the first Inauguration of King Iames of ever Blessed Memory he is pleased to express himself in these words Tria Sceptra profundi in magnum Cojere Ducem which is that the Rights of the English Scottish and Irish Seas are united under one Scepter neither is he satisfied with this bare profession but he goes on Sume animas a Rege tuo Quis det Iura Mari which is in English Take courage from the King who giveth Law unto the Seas In the same Book in the contemplation of so great a Power he concludeth Finis hic est qui fine caret that is This is an end beyond an end a bound that knoweth no bound a bound which even the winds and the waves must submit unto But with what ingratitude have the Dutch Answered the many Royal Favours which the Kings of England have almost perpetually conferred on them If there be no Monster greater then Ingratitude what Monsters are these Men who of late are so far from acknowledging their thankfulness that like Vipers they would feed upon and consume those Bowells which did afford them Life and Spirit We may observe that in their Lowest Condition which is most sutable to the Name of their Abode called the Low Countries they Petitioned to the Majesty of the Qâ—een of England whose Royal Heart and Hand being alwayes open to those that were Distressed especially those that were her Neighbours upon the account of Religion she sent them Threescore Thousand Pound upon the account of Sir Thomas Gresham in the year One Thousand Five Hundred Seventy and Two and presently afterwards there followed Colonel Morgan Colonel Gilbert Colonel Chester to Assist them in their Wars who were the Commanders of so many Regiments of Men And after them the War increasing there were sent over Colonel North Colonel Cotton Colonel Candish and Colonel Norris and some other persons of an Eminent Name who for the Honour of the English Nation made there Excellent Demonstrations of their Valour and Redeemed the Dutch from the Power of those who otherwise would have brought them to a better understanding of their Duties Great supplyes of monies were sent over to maintain so great a charge At the last the Prince of Orange being slain presently after the Death of the Duke Alanson Brother to Henry the third of France who if the successe had Answered the Expectation was wisely enough made Duke of Brabant the Queen of England sent over unto them Robert Duke of Leicester with great provision both of Men and Money accompanied with diverse of the Nobility and Gentlemen of good account And although the said Earle not long afterwards returned into England and the affairs of the Hollanders were doubtful untill the fatal Battel at Nieuport yet Queen Elizabeth of ever Blessed Memory out of her unspeakable goodness to the distressed and to those that suffered for Religion did as long as she lived constantly Assist the Hollanders both with Men and Monies she gave them Hope in Despair she gave them strength being weak and and with the Charity of her Princely Hand did support them being fallen And although the Hollanders do ungratefully alledge that it was a Benefit great enough for the English to Assist them in reason of state because by so doing they kept out a War from their own Country It is most certain that at that time the English had need to fear no Warr at all but onely for their Cause and for taking their parts for it was for their Cause that the English in the year One Thousand Five Hundred and seventy one had seized upon the sum of Six Hundred Thousand Ducats on the West Coast of England being the money designed from Spain to the Duke of Alva for the Advancement of the Spanish Interests in the Neatherlands And although the Hollanders do further alledge in their own Excuse that they were so grateful as that they offered unto the Queen of England the Soveraignty of the Neatherlands which she would not accept and therefore it was not their fault that she obtained it not It is in reason truly answered That the Queen of England well knowing that she was in danger to draw a perpetual Warr upon her Self and her Successours by the accepting of such a Gift to which she had no Right did wisely refuse their Liberality And yet for all that she continued still to aid them without that chargeable obligation The Hollanders do further alledge that the Queen of England had the Cautionary Town of Brill Flushing and the other places delivered into her Hands It is true she had so and thereby enjoyed only the Benefit of being at more Expence both of Men and Money and let the Reader take notice that most certain it is that the Hollander had no sooner made a Truce with the King of Spain and the Arch-Duke Albertus but he began presently to set the English at nought and to take the Bridle out of their Hands whereupon immediately insued their Forbiding of the bringing of English cloaths died and dressed into Holland and the adjoyning Provinces without ever making the King of England or his Ambassadour Leiger at the Hague Privy thereunto And to make amends for this their Saucy and Insolent Affront in a more High and Peremptory way they demeaned themselves to King Iames himself for whereas the Duke of Lennox as Admiral of Scotland had by order from