Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	england_n	king_n	lord_n	3,923	5	3.9670	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38802	Navigation and commerce, their original and progress containing a succinct account of traffick in general : its benefits and improvements : of discoveries, wars, and conflicts at sea, from the original of navigation to this day, with special regard to the English nation : their several voyages and expeditions, to the beginning of our late differences with Holland : in which His Majesties title to the dominion of the sea is asserted, against the novel, and later pretenders / by J. Evelyn ...	Evelyn, John, 1620-1706.	1674 (1674)	Wing E3504; ESTC R8611	50,775	174

Borders of that Shoar and West part of Denmark to the Western Gallia all along the other side 44. There are who put some stress here upon ancient Inscriptions especially that mention'd by Greuter of a Proefect of a British Fleet and on the Ornaments and Ensigns of Dominion found in several Medals and Antiquities to be met withal in the Collections of learned men vindicating the peculiar we contend for and continu'd from Edward the Third in several fair stamps nor are they to be rejected It suffices us that whatever the Government were still the dominion of the Sea return'd with that of the land to the Nation Z●zimus l. 6. An. 43● See Claud. in La●d Stil● l. 2. as when the Britains rejected the Roman Yoak which how extended when it came under the power of the English Saxon Kings and Danes is known to all the World as well as with what mighty Navies Edgar Canutus and others asserted and protected it under no lower Style than that of King Supream Lord and Governour of the Ocean Lying round about Britain for so runs the settlement of certain Revenues given by King Edgar to the Cathedral of Worcester says Mr. Selden 45. Since the Norman Conquest the Government of the several Provinces or Sheriffs exercised Jurisdiction on the Sea as far as their Countys extended Henry the Third constituted Captain Guardians and our First Edward distributed this Guard to three Admirals so did the second of that name and the form of our ancient Commissions to the several Admiralties mention the dominion of our Kings upon the Sea nor did any other Nation whatsoever Contest it as having little or nothing on the opposite Shoars whilst 't is evident the English Monarchs possess'd their Right in its intire Latitude for more than a thousand Years under one intire Empire and an un-interrupted enjoyment of the Sea as an appendant 46. To this we might add the Pass-Ports sued for by Forreigners from the Reign of Henry the Fourth and so down to Queen Elizabeth who during her War with Spain sometimes gave leave to the Swedes Dances and Ansiatic Towns and sometimes prohibited them Petitioning for Passes to sail through her Seas nay more she caus'd to be taken and brought into her Harbours Laden-ships of those Nations transgressing her Orders as far as the Streights of Lisbon which she could never have justify'd had she not been acknowledged Soveraign of the Seas through which they were to pass And though her Successour King Iames appointed certain limits on the English Coast by imaginary lines drawn from point to point round the Island in which he sometimes extended them far into the Sea I was not to Circumscribe a Jurisdiction a thing which he most industriously caution'd his Ministers never to yield R●t pat 2. Iac. part 32. so much as in discourse beyond which he did not pretend but in relation only to Acts of Hostility between the two great Antagonists the Spaniard and the Hollander declaring himself both Lord and Moderator of the British Seas from his Royal Predecessors 47. In several Commissions given to Sea Commanders by Edward the Third Rot. Scot. 10. Ed. Membran 16. the words are Our Progenitors the Kings of England have before these times been Lords of the British Seas on every side and in a certain Bill prefer'd in Parliament to the same Prince Rot. pat 46. Ed. 3. N. 2. 't is said That the English were ever in the Ages past so renown'd for Navies and Sea-Affairs that the Countries about them usually esteem'd and call'd them Soveraigns of the Sea And from the same Parliamentory testimony in the Reign of Henry the Fifth we learn that the Estates in that august Assembly did with one Consent affirm it as a thing unquestionable Rot. pat 8. Hen. 5. Mem. 3. A●t 6. That the Kings of England were Lords of the Sea and that That Sea was all which flow'd between the stream on both sides and made no doubt but a Tribute might be impos'd by Authority of Parliament upon all Strangers passing through them as we shall find Richard the Second to have done long before 48. In the Reign of Edward the Second Rot. pat 14. Ed. 2. p. 2. M. 26. in dorso Robert Earl of ●landers complaining of Injuries done his Subjects at Sea alledges that the King of England is bound in Right to do him Justice for that he was Lord of the Sea But there cannot in the World be a more pregnant Instance for the vindication of this dominion and the silencing all Objections than the famous complaint against the Genoeze Grimbaldi who during the War between the French and those of Flanders infesting the Seas and disturbing Comme●ce occasion'd all the Nations of Europe bordering on the Sea to have recourse and appeal to the Kings of England whom from time to time and by Right immemorial they acknowledged to be in peaceable possession of the Soveraign Lordship and dominion of the Seas of England and Islands of the same This Libel or Complaint was exhibited in the time of Edward the First almost three hundred years since and is still extant in the Archives of the Tower 49. And thus we have seen how the Sea is not only a distinct province Capable of Propriety Limits and other just Circumstances of Peculiar Dominion as a bound not Bounding his Majesties Empire but as bounded by it in another respect and that this was never violated so much as by Syllogism 'till some Mercenary pens were set on work against Spain through whose tender sides at that time and with great artifice 1509. Treaty with Spain concerning Trade to the Indies the Barnevelt faction endeavour'd to transfix us Soon it was perceiv'd and as soon encounter'd in the mean time that one would smile to find their mighty Champion then fairly accknowledg upon another Occasion and when it seems he resolv'd to speak out Angliae Regina Oceani Imperium That the Queen of England Grot. Annal. l. 2. 1570. was Dominatrix of the Sea So great is the Truth and will prevail In a word if the premier Occupant be a legal and just plea to the Right of other possessions the Kings and Queens of England descending from or succeeding to them who first asserted the Title are still invested with it sure we are this Argument was held good and illustrated by the First and best foundation of Empire when the State of Venice claiming the Adriatic by no other held that famous Controversie with Ferdinand of Friuli by their Advocate Rapicio and Chizzola Commissioners being mutually chosen to determine it and how far Antiquity is on our side The Greeks Romans Tyrians Phoenicians and othe●s have abundantly declar'd and with what caution they interdicted Strangers here with us till the Claudian Expedition annex'd it with the dominion of all Britain to that Glorious Empire which to protect against the Piratical Saxons then not seldom infesting our Coasts the Comites Maritimi