Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	earl_n	king_n	realm_n	4,820	5	8.3321	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36497	A discourse written by Sir George Downing, the King of Great Britain's envoy extraordinary to the states of the United Provinces vindicating his royal master from the insolencies of a scandalous libel, printed under the title of (An extract out of the register of the States General of the United Provinces, upon the memorial of Sir George Downing, envoy, &c.), and delivered by the agent De Hyde for such to several publick ministers : whereas no such resolution was ever communicated to the said envoy, nor any answer returned at all by their lordships to the said memorial : whereunto is added a relation of some former and later proceedings of the Hollanders / by a meaner hand.	Downing, George, Sir, 1623?-1684.	1672 (1672)	Wing D2108; ESTC R34994	50,712	177

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 Warr that are abroad against Vs and that stoutly and manfully you set upon them if they shall presume to bend their course to any part of our Dominions or the Coasts of Scotland c. We read also in the Reign of the said King in the preferring a certain Bill in Parliament which is the voice of the State of the Realm that he was usually accounted King or Soveraign of the Seas by all Nations written in French and thus translated into English The Nation of the English were ever in the Ages past renowned for Sea-Affairs in all Countries near the Seas and they had also so numerous a Navy that the people of all Countreys esteemed and called the King of Edgland the King or Soveraign 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 Soveraign Lord the King and his illustrious Progenitors have ever been Lords of the Sea and now seeing through God's grace it is now come to pass that our Lord the King is Lord of the shores on both sides the Sea such a Tribute may be imposed on 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 safeguard of the said Sea The Answer subscribed to the Bill was Soit avise par le Roy for the King at that time resided in France being Lord of that Countrey as well by Conquest as Inheritance Many other Testimonies in this nature may be produced which to avoid prolixity I must omit Neither hath the High Court of Parliament only given this attestation to our Kings as Supream and Soveraign of the Seas but to confirm it all the Judges of the Land were consulted herein and all jointly averred That the King's Sea-Dominion which they called the Ancient Superiority of the Sea was a matter out of question his Right Neither is this Truth confirmed only by our Laws but by our Medals There hath been a piece of Gold often coined by our Kings called a Rose-Noble upon the one side whereof was stamped a Ship floating in the Sea and a King armed with a Sword and Shield sitting in the Ship it self as in a Throne 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 Coyn and from our Histories to prove this Truth since it is acknowledged even by Forreigners themselves whom it most concerneth by striking sail according to the ancient custom by every ship of any forreign Nation whatsoever to any King's Man of War which is done not only in Honour to the King of England but also in acknowledgment of his Soveraignty and Dominion at sea The Antiquity of this Custom and that it hath been in use above these four hundred years may appear by this following Testimony At Hastings a Town scituate on the shore of Sussex it was decreed by King John and the assent of his Peers in the second year of his reign That if the Governour or Commander of the King's Navy in his Naval-Expeditions shall meet with any ships whatsoever at sea laden or empty that shall refuse to strike their sails at the command of the King's Governour or Admiral they are to be looked on as Enemies c. Mr. Selden in his excellent Treatise called Mare Clausum saith If any ship whatsoever had not acknowledged the Dominion of the King of England in his own sea by striking sail they were not to be protected on any account of Amity and Penalties were 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 yet hath been said There cannot be produced a more convincing Argument than the acknowledgment of the Sea-Dominion of the King of England by very many of our Neighbouring-Nations At what time the Agreement was made between Edward the first of England and Philip the Fair of France Reyner Grimbald Governour of the French Navy intercepted and spoiled on the English Seas the Goods of many Merchants that were going to Flanders and not contented with the depredation of their Commodities he imprisoned their Persons Hereupon a Bill was exhibited against the said Reyner Grimbald and managed by Procurators on the behalf of the Peers and People of the English Nation with these were joined the Procurators of most Nations bordering upon the Sea throughout Europe all these instituted a Complaint and all these Complainants in their Bill do jointly affirm That the King of England and his Predecessors have time out of mind 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 also that they have had and have the Soveraign Guard thereof with all manner of Cognizance and Jurisdiction in doing Right and Justice according to the said Laws Ordinances and Prohibitions with all other matters which may concern the exercise of Soveraign Dominion in the said places But more particularly We do find an acknowledgment of the Sea-Dominion 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 there appeared certain Embassadors of the Earl of Flanders to treat about the reformation of some injuries they received and as soon as the said Ambassadors 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 Commodities from certain Merchants of Flanders alledging that the said 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 In the seventh year of King James this Right was very strenuously asserted by Proclamation and all persons excluded from the use of the seas upon our Coasts without particular License but the Hollander continuing his encroachments till after the death of that wise and learned King CHARLES the First of ever blessed memory issued a Proclamation for restraint of fishing upon his Seas and Coasts without License in these terms Whereas our Father

years an ordinary practice which we have endeavoured in vain to reform by the ways of Justice and Treaties the World I think will now be satisfied that we have reason to look about us And no wise man will doubt that it is high time to put our selves in this Equipage on the Seas and not to suffer the Stage of Action to be taken from Us for want of Our appearance So you see the general ground upon which our Counsels stand In particular you may take notice and publish as cause requires That His Majesty by this Fleet intendeth not a rupture with any Prince or State nor to infringe any point of His Treaties but resolveth to continue and maintain that happy Peace wherewith God hath blessed His Kingdom and to which all His Actions and Negotiations have hitherto tended as by your own Instructions you may fully understand But withal considering that Peace must be maintained by the Arm of Power which only keeps down Warr by keeping up Dominion His Majesty thus provoked finds it necessary even for His own defence and safety to reassume and keep his ancient and undoubted Right in the Dominion of these Seas and to suffer no other Prince or State to encroach upon Him thereby assuming to themselves or their Admirals any Soveraign Command but to force them to perform due homage to His Admirals and Ships and to pay them acknowledgments as in former times they did He will also set open and protect the free Trade of his Subjects and Allies and give them such safe Conduct and Convoy as they shall reasonably require He will suffer no other Fleets or Men of Warr to keep any Guard upon these Seas or there to offer violence or take Prizes or Booties or to give interruption to any lawful intercourse In a word His Majesty is resolved as to do no wrong so to do Justice both to His Subjects and Friends within the limits of His Seas And this is the Real and Royal Design of this Fleet. Whitehall April 16. 1635. Your assured Friend and Servant JOHN COOK Nay farthermore you may see the Dominion of His Majesty in His Brittish Seas clearly represented asserted and fully proved by that Propriety of Title and Soveraignty of Power which the Duke of Venice exerciseth on the Adriatick Sea if you will consult Mr. Howel in his Commonwealth of Venice which by the manner of Prescription the Consent of Histories and even by the Confession of their Adversaries themselves is almost the same with his Majesties of Great Britain But his Majesty hath one Title more above all theirs which 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 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 encouraged 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 busie of them have openly declar'd against the King's 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 Countrey-men that he disobliged himself of the Dutch and moreover to speak the truth of his Conscience it self for if you look into his Sylvae upon the first Inauguration of King James 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 Sume animos a Rege tuo quis det jura Mari Take courage from the King who giveth Laws unto the Seas In the same Book in the contemplation of so great a Power he concludeth Finis hic est qui fine caret c. This is an End beyond an End a bound that knoweth no 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 than 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 bowels which did afford them life and spirit We may observe that in their lowest condition which is most suitable to the name of their abode called the Low-Countreys they petitioned to the Majesty of the Queen of England whose Royal Heart and Hand being always open to those that were Distressed especially those that were her Neighbours upon the account of Religion she sent them Threescore thousand pound in the year 1572 and presently after there followed Four Regiments of Foot and after them the Warr encreasing there were sent over Col. North Col. Cotton Col. Candish and Col. Norris with other Persons of Quality who for the Honour of the English Nation made in that Warr excellent Demonstrations of their Valour and redeem'd the Dutch from the Power of those who otherwise would have brought them to a better understanding of their duties At the last the Prince of Orange being slain presently after the death of the Duke of Alanson Brother to Henry the Third of France the Queen of England sent over to them Robert Duke of Leicester with great provision both of Men and Money accompanied with divers of the Nobility and Gentry of good account and although the said Earl not long afterwards returned into England and the affairs of the Hollander were doubtful till the fatal battel at Newport 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 assist the Hollanders both with Men and Moneys she gave them hope in despair gave them strength when weak and with the charity of Her Princely Hand did support them when fallen And although the Hollanders do ungratefully alledg 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 Countrey It is most certain that at that time the English had no cause to fear a War at all but only for their Cause and for the taking their parts for it was for their Cause that the English in the year 1571 had seized upon the sum of Six hundred thousand Ducats on the West of England being the Money designed from Spain to the Duke d'Alva for the advancement of the Spanish Interests in the Netherlands And although the Hollanders do