Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	france_n	king_n	prisoner_n	4,350	5	8.4560	4	true

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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

sailed in to be of her Dominion There was an ancient Custom used in the East That when Great Kings had a design to bring any Nation under their power they commanded Water and Earth the pledges of Empire and Dominion to be delivered unto them conceiving that the Command of the Sea as well as of the Land was signified by such a Token And if we take a view of these late times as to the Rights and Customs of Forreign Nations we shall find that the Commonwealth of Venice hath enjoyed the Dominion of the Adriatique-Sea for many Ages The Tuscans to this day have an Absolute Dominion in the Tyrhene-Sea and those of Genoa in the Lygustick To conclude That the Dominion of the Sea is admitted amongst those things that are lawful and received into the Customs of Nations is so far from contradiction that nothing at all can be found to controul it in the Customs of our later times unless it be by the Encroaching Hollander who bordering so near our shores hath done and doth endeavour to violate the Right of His Most Sacred Majesty under the pretence of Civil Community Besides it is most evident from the Custom of all Times That Commerce and free Passage hath ever been so limited by Princes in their Territories that is either granted or denied according to the various concernments of the Publick Good Princes are concerned to be wary and careful that they admit no such Strangers or Forreign Commerce where the Commonwealth may receive any damage thereby Some Oppugners to the Mare Clausum introduce this Argument That the Water is open to All and therefore by Law it must be open at all times to all men What a trifle is this Before the distribution of things there was no Land which did not lie open to All before it came under particular possession If the Hollanders should object this Argument against our Dominion over the Narrow Seas I would ask them the reason of their Custom in Delph-land 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 the hundredth part for the use of those Waters 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 nearer home and inform you That the ancient Britains did Enjoy and Possess the Sea as Lords thereof before they were subjected to the Roman Power We find no History of Britain to which any credit ought to be given elder than the time of Julius Caesar at whose coming we find the Britains used the Sea as their own for Navigation and Fishing and withal permitted none besides Merchants to sail into the Island without their leave nor any man at all to sound or view their Sea-coasts or Harbours Amongst several Kings of old that not only ruled this Land but had also Dominion over the Sea I find none more potent than King Edgar who possessing an absolute Dominion of the Seas sailed round it once a year and secured it with a constant Guard of Ships of which as is reported he had Four thousand eight hundred stout ones and what Dominion this was King Edgar had as Absolute Lord of the Sea appeareth in these words I Edgar King of England and of all the Kings of the Islands and of all the Ocean lying about Britain and of all the Nations that are included within the circuit c. 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 on Southampton shore he is reported to have made trial of the Seas obedience in this manner Thou O Sea art under my Dominion as the Land also which I sit upon is mine therefore I command thee not to wet the feet or garments of thy Soveraign Although the event did not answer his expectation yet by this he professed himself to be Soveraign of the Seas as well as of the Land There is nothing more clear than that the Kings of England have been accustomed to constitute Governours who had a charge to guard the English Sea and these were called Custodes Maritimi In this number you shall find in Parliamentary Rolls of the 48 of Hen. 3. Thomas de Moleton who is called Captain and Guardian of the Sea this Title was afterwards changed into Admiral 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 Kingdom 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 Customs that were imposed and payed for the guard and protection of those Seas and this was paid to the Reign of King Stephen Since Subsidies have been demanded of the people in Parliament upon the same account Neither was this imposed only on the English but also upon the ships of Forreigners every Vessel paying after the rate of six pence a Tun that passed by such ships only excepted that brought Merchandize out of Flanders If a Vessel were employed to fish for Herrings it payed six pence a week for every Tun if for other fish so much was to be paid every three weeks as they who brought Coles from Newcastle to London every three months Mr. Selden that learned Antiquary affirmeth That before a Court of Delegates in France in express terms it hath been acknowledged That the King of England hath ever been Lord not only of the Sea but of the Islands therein contained upon the account of being King of England But to give greater light to this truth we may from several Records produce many testimonies That the Kings of England have given leave to Forreigners upon request to pass through their seas There are innumerable Letters of safe conducts in the Records especially of Henry the fifth and sixth and it is worthy of observation that those Letters were directed by those Kings to their Governors or 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 find in a Commission of Edward the Third the Title whereof is de Navibus Arestandis Capiendis And as a freedom of Passage so a liberty of Fishing hath been obtained by Petition from the Kings of England We read that Henry the sixth gave leave to the French and other Forreigners sometimes for a year sometimes but for six months to go and fish throughout his seas provided that the Fishing-boats and Busses exceeded not the burthen of thirty Tuns and if any Forreigners whatever should molest or disturb any of the King's subjects as they were fishing they were forthwith to

and Ammunition which have ever been prohibited the Indians by the English all their Musquets were charged with Powder and Ball which with some of the principal Indians were carried to Boston who upon examination confessed the Dutch had set them a work all that we could then doe was but to put our selves in our best Posture of Defence Having thus given you a summary account of some of their cruelties I cannot omit one particular passage Chronicled by themselves wherein you may see in the cruel disposition of one the bloody inclination of the whole Flemish Nation At the Siedg of Leyden a Fort being held by the Spanish Party was after taken by the Dutch by assault or storm The Defendants according to the Law of Arms were put to the sword where one of the Dutch in the fury of the slaughter ript up the Captains body and with a barbarous hand tore out the yet living heart panting among the reeking bowels then with his teeth rent it still warm with blood into gobbets which he did spit over the Battlements in defiance to the rest of the Army Now as we have with brevity displayed the cruelty and treachery of the Nature and Actions of the Hollander both at home and abroad so we must not forget what hath been by them committed since the year 1660. At which time it was his Majesties particular care to conclude a strict League with the States General of the United Provinces upon such equal Terms as would certainly not have been broken if any Obligations could have kept them within the bounds of Justice or Friendship this League was inviolably kept and maintained on his But in the year 1664. such and so many were the complaints of his Majesties Subjects abused and wronged by the ungrateful Hollander that the King with the Unanimous vote of both Houses of Parliament was provoked to war finding it a vain attempt to indeavour the prosperity of the three Kingdoms by peaceable wayes at home whilst the People thereof were still exposed to the injuries and oppressions of the States abroad His Majesty spent a whole Summer in negotiations and indeavours to bring them to reasonable terms which notwithstanding all He could do proved at length ineffectual for the more his Majesty pursued them with friendly Propositions the more obstinately and unworthily they kept off from agreeing thereunto upon this ensued the War in the year 1665. and continued to the year 1667. in all which time our Victories and their Losses were memorable enough to put them in mind of being more faithful to their Leagues for the future Which Victories they endeavoured to stifle by misreporting them conquests to their People over the their gallantly equipt English Navy and particularly that of the third of June 1665. under the conduct of his Royal Highness the Duke of York Narrative whereof was Printed for general satisfaction and to preven● misreports which are commonly through ignorance or malice begotten upon occasions of that Nature and lest that signal Victory should be forgotten in short it was this the Dutch Fleet was brought on our Coasts in all probability rather in expectation of finding Ours in disorder upon the proceeding foul weather or by the Reports of our unreadiness then from their own innate Valour but they were much mistaken for it cost his Royal Highness but little time to make ready his fore-going care and the cheerfulness of our men having prevented all hazard of disorder and the happy arrival of the Colliers haveing supplyed us with what we only wanted Men but not Courage the Dutch perceiving this stood off to Sea the number of their Ships being one Hundred and ten Sail besides ten Fire Ships we followed them till that Evening and the next day forced them to fight upon the whole matter it pleased God to give his Majesty a great and signal Victory the Enemy being driven into the Texe●… as far as the draught of water and the condition of our Ships would permit the day being also very far spent the summe of all is the Enemie●… whole Fleet was defeated Thirty of them burnt or taken Opdam with his Ship blown up as is supposed by a lucky shot in the Powder-room most of their Admirals killed with many more of their Principal Officers and according to their general computation eight Thousand Seamen and Soldiers on our side only one Ship lost with some other slight damage The God of Heaven be praised for preserving his Royal Highness to be the great instrument of so signal a success and continuing him to the perfecting this great work in hand to the honour of his Majesty and the welfare of his People And that you may trace them farther in their unworthiness and ingratitude this Victory with the fear of being made no People had no sooner brought them on their knees and his Majesty out of his accustomed Clemency and Commiseration had received them into favour by making Peace with them but they returned to their usual custom of breaking Articles and supplanting our Trade For instance the States were particularly ingaged in an Article of the Treaty at Breda to send Commissioners to his Majesty at London about the Regulation of our Trade in the East Indies but they were so far from doing it on that obligation that when an Ambassador was sent over to put them in mind of it He could not in three years time get from them any satisfaction in the material points nor a forbearance of the wrongs his Majesties Subjects received in those parts To give you an account of every particular wrong and injury the English suffered by the Dutch in their East India factory would be a Task as difficult to do as to tell the spokes of a running Coach-wheele let it suffice his Majestie is throughly sensible of them from the just and miserable complaints of the Sufferers and will now with Gods Assistance now call them to a severe account for all their insufferable wrongs and abuses which the East could not contain and therefore they went a little farther in the West Indies For by an Article in the same Treaty his Majesty was to restore Surinam into their hands and by Articles upon the Place confirmed by that Treaty they were to give liberty to all the King of Englands subjects in that Colony to transport themselves and their Estates into any other of his Majesties Plantations In pursuance of this agreement the place was delivered up and yet they detained all our men in it only one emiminent Person they sent away prisoner for but desiring to remove according to the Articles To what a height will this insolence and perfidiousness of theirs arrive to if not timely check't and prevented How arrogant and presumptious will they be if the bladder of their pride blown up with violence and oppression be not suddenly prick't and so let out the airy opinion of their supposed strength and greatness I know not what their arrogance and ambition may

near Flamborough-head met with such multitude of Cod Ling and Herrings that one among the rest drew up in a small time as many as were sold for neer upon as much as her whole lading of Coales amounted to and some hundreds of Ships might have been there laden in two dayes and two nights Out of which wonderful affluence and abundance of Fish swarming upon our Seas that we the better perceive the infinite gain which the Dutch make thereof and by that means how infinitely beholding they unto us I shall insist upon the number of fishing Vessels they have formerly and lately imployed upon our coasts and by their vast income how they have increased in Shipping in Mariners in Trade in Towns and Fortifications in Power abroad in publick Revenue in private Wealth and lastly in all manner of Provisions and store of things necessary How poor and low these Hoghen Moghens were in Q. Elizabeths time is unknown to few at which time France tyred with labour the striving of her own Children had caused in the bowels of her state and child by the cold distrust conceived of the revolted Hollanders success rebelling against their lawful Soveraign deserted them into despair as well as other Neighbouring Princes then may they remember how England opened her tender arms to receive their Fugitives and her purse to pay their Soldiers so that a foot of ground cannot be called theirs that owes not a third part to the expence Valour or Counsel of the English of whom such glorious spirits have expired in their defence as have been thought at too too mean a rate to double the value of what they thought for Did not the English dispute their Title at Ostend till they had no Earth to plead on the very ground failing them before their Vallours yet whilst fighting there not only against the Flower of the Spanish Army but the Plague Hunger and cold despair so that it may be said without Hyperbole the Nobility and Gentry Queen Elizabeth lost doubled the number the cruelty of Spains great Philip had left you The Assistance that wise Queen gave them was good self-policy she made them able to defend themselves against Spain and was so at the Pole but they who inable them to offend others as her successors have done have gone beyond it questionless had this Thorne been removed out of the Spaniards side he might have been feared too soon to grasp his long intended Monarchy were the Spaniard possessed Lord of the Low-Countries or had the States General the wealth and power of Spain the rest of Europe might be like a People at Sea in a Ship on Fire that could only chuse whither they would drown or burn We have cherished this starveling Viper too long in our warm bosomes and now doth not only hiss at but indeavour to sting those who brought them to life from almost an irremediless condition Since we succoured them abroad and gave them leave to fish in our Seas pray consider their vast increase of Shipping They had many years since seven hundred Strand-boats four hundred Evars and four hundred Gallies Drivers and Jod-boats wherewith the Hollanders fisht on their Coasts every one of these employing another Ship to fetch Salt and carry the Fish into their own Country being in all three thousand sail maintaining and setting at work at least fourty thousand Persons Fishers Tradesmen Women and Children Besides they have an hundred Dager-boats one hundred and fifty tuns a peice or thereabouts seven hundred Pinds and Well-boats from sixty to an hundred tuns a peice which altogether fish upon the Sea of England and Scotland for Cod and Ling only and these too for the most employ other Ships to bring them Salt and carry the Fish home making in all sixteen hundred Ships which maintain and imploy at least four thousand Persons of all sorts For the Herring season they have at least sixteen hundred Busses all of them only fishing on our Coasts and every one of these maketh work for three other Ships which attend her the one to bring in Salt from forrein parts the other to carry that Salt and Cask to the Busses and to bring back the Herrings and the third to transport the said Fish into forreign Countries so that the total number plying the Herring-fishing is six thousand four hundred Moreover they have four hundred Vessels at least that take Herring at Yarmouth and there sell them for ready-money so that the Hollander besides their three hundred Ships fishing on their Coasts have at least eight thousand and four hundred Ships only maintained by the Seas of Great Britain by the which means principally Holland being not so big as one of our Shires in England conteining not above twenty eight miles in length and twenty three in bredth have increased the number of their Shipping to at least ten thousand sail and to that number they add in a manner daily although the Country it self affords them neither Materials nor Victuals nor Merchandise to be accounted of towards their setting forth Secondly let us consider the increase of their Mariners from the number of their Ships fishing on our Coasts which as we said before were eight thousand four hundred we must allow more hands to the fishing concern then for bare sailing if suppose ten men to every ship one with another the total of Marriners and Fishers will amount to fourscore and four thousand out of which number they continually furnish their longer Voyages to all parts of the World for by this they are not only inabled to brook the Sea and to know the use of the Tackle and Compass but are likewise instructed in Trade and in the Principles of Navigation and Pilotage insomuch as their chiefest Navigators have had from home their education and breeding and hence they are become as skilful and knowing in all the Sands Sholes Creeks and Channels belonging to our Coasts as the best of our Pilots Thirdly by reason of those multitudes of Ships and Mariners they have extended their Trade to all parts of the world and therein to speak the truth have out-thrown all ever yet have used the Sea many Bars length exporting in most of their Voyages Herring and other Fish returning in exchange the several commodities of other Countries From the Southern parts as France Spain and Portugal for our Herrings they return Oyl Wine Prunes Hony Wool Grain with store of forraign coyn from the Streights Velvets Sattins and all sorts of Silk Allom Currants all Grocery ware with much Money From the East Country for our Herrings they bring home Corn Wax Flax Hemph Pitch Tar Soap-ashes Iron Copper Steel Clap-board Wainscoate Masts Timber Deal-boards Polish-dollars and Hungary-gilders From Germany for Herrings and other Salt-fish Iron Steel Glass Mill-stones Rhenish-wines Battery-plate for Armour with other munitions also Silk Velvets Rashes Fustians Poratoes and such like Frankfort Commodities with store of Rixdollars From Brabant they return for the most part ready-Money with

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