form of Donation And therefore that is very vain which is objected by som That the Earth is given to the children of men but that the Sea belong's onely to God himself as if Dominion not common indeed but onely a common use of the Sea were permitted by the words of holy Scripture And as if it were not said in like manner The Earth is the Lord's and fulness thereof The tops of the Hills are his also Who know's not that such sayings as these cannot in any wise weaken the Dominion of Mankinde For whatsoëver is acquired by men still God Almightie as Father of the Univers retein's his supreme Dominion both over men as also all other Things which never was denied yet by any sober man But the Controversie is about the Dominion of man to wit that which comprehend's any enjoiment or proprietie whatsoëver saving still that right of the Dominion of God which cannot bee diminished And the distinction about this matter is very ordinarie in the Schools According to the first sort of Dominion nothing whatsoëver much less may the Sea belong unto men According to the second all things indeed are or may bee theirs which can bee apprehended seized and possessed And moreover that in the old Testament express mention is made more then once of such a Seisure possession or private Dominion as this whereof wee Treat and that as of a Thing lawfully brought in use There wee finde that the men of Tyre were Lords and Masters of the Phaenician and the Egyptians of the Alexandrian Sea Concerning the Phaenician saith the Prophet unto Tyrus All the Princes of the Sea shall com down from their Thrones c. And they shall take up a lamentation for thee and say to thee how art thou destroyed that wast inhabited of Seafaring men the renowned Citie which wast strong in the Sea Here the Dominion of the Tyrians at Sea is plainly set forth And in the following Chapter Thy Borders are in the midst or heart of the Sea as wee read it in the Hebrew and also in an Arabian Manuscript which render's it to the same purpose For both the Greek and vulgar Translation differ there from the Original It follow 's also thus All the Ships of the Sea with their Mariners were thine to occupie thy Merchandize In stead of which last words these are put in the Greek Copies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even Westward of the West or through a great part of the main or Western Sea that is the Phaenician or Syrian Again Becaus thine heart is lifted up and thou hast said I am a God I sit in the seat of God in the mid'st of the Sea Hee threaten's not the Tyrian becaus hee had gotten him a Dominion over the neighboring Sea but becaus beeing lifted up with pride hee had taken unto himself the name of God The Tyrian is called likewise in another Scripture the Sea it self and the strength of the Sea But concerning the Egyptian Sea another Prophet speak's thus unto Ninive Art thou better then populous Alexandria in the Original the Citie is called No taken here for Alexandria which is situate among the Rivers that hath the waters round about it whose Riches and strength as it is in the Hebrew or as the Greek render's it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is whose Empire or Dominion is the Sea Moreover it seem's to make mention of Kings of the Sea as well as of Islands The Kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents For Tarshish or Tharsis in Hebrew signifieth the Sea as it is often confessed both by the Greek and Chaldee Interpreters Although Munster a man otherwise very learned speak's unadvisedly upon the fore-mention'd place and will not have Tharsis there to signifie the Sea becaus saith hee Kings have nothing to do at Sea but rule onely upon Land forgetting what wee have alreadie told you that express mention is made by Ezechiel concerning Princes of the Sea With which agree's also that saying I will set his hand in the Sea and his right hand in the Flouds upon which place Aben-Ezra note 's that God Almightie assigned the Dominion of the Sea there unto King David That hee might rule over those that sailed either through the Sea or the Rivers It is written thus likewise in the Apocrypha O yee men do not men excel in strength that bear rule over Sea and Land and all things in them But yet the King is more mightie for hee is Lord of all these things and hath Dominion over them And in another place saith the Angel to Esdras The Sea is set in a wide place that it might bee deep and great But put case the entrance were narrow and like a River who then could enter the Sea to look upon it and have Dominion over it iâ— hee went not through the narrow The Dominion of the Sea and of the Land is granted alike in both these places It is said also of King Ahasuerus That hee made not onely the Land but all the Isles of the Sea to becom tributarie which words truly do clearly shew a Dominion of the Sea for so they are expressed in the vulgar Edition out of the Hebrew Original which is lost But the Greek Copies are more plain there The King wrote to his Kingdom of the Land and Sea Nor must wee omit that of Moses when hee blessed the people And of Naphtali hee said Naphtali shall enjoy abundance and bee full with the blessings of the Lord hee shall possess or inherit the Sea and the South as the â—â—lgar and the Greek do render that place But by many others the Sea is taken there for the West-Quarter as it is often in the Scriptures Yet truly it is clear those words are meant of the Sea of Galilee or of the Lake of Tiberias not of the great or Phaenician Sea which lie's Westward becaus the Land of Naphtali was situate near that Lake which also is often called the Sea As it appear's likewise out of Onkelus his Paraphrase where express mention is made of the Sea of Genesareth called also the Lake of Tiberias or the Sea of Chinnereth and by this name it passeth with the salt Sea or the Lake of Asphaltites in the sacred description of the Eastern part of the holy Land But the former place of Deuteronomie is â—…usly rendred by Rupert the Abbot of Tuitiuâ— Maâ—e Meridiem possidebit for Mare Meridiem hee shall possess the Morning and the South for the Sea and the South However it is clear I suppose out of the places alleged such plain Testimonies are found in holy Writ touching such a Dominion of the Sea that in the mean time it must bee granted that according to the Universal Permissive Law any man may acquire it as well as the Land And truly as for those places quoted in the foregoing Chapter concerning the
forbid men passage in the common Road without som just caus which must bee determined in an Imperial Diet nevertheless it is wrested by som to prove a freedom of Navigation at Sea For that happen'd by a particular Law agree'd upon by the Estates of the Empire who themselvs also are subject to a Diet But other Nations that are under several and distinct Soveraignties have not as yet made any such Agreement that there should alwaies bee a libertie of Passage to and fro nor have they like the Germanet and others within their Dominion referr'd themselvs unto an Umpire to determine the business An Answer to that Objection concerning the uncertain fluid nature of the Sea and its continual Alteration It is proved that Rivers also and the adjoyning Aër which are more fluid and uncertain may becom appropriate CHAP. XXI BUT they say that the very Nature of the Sea render's it unfit for privat Dominion both becaus it is ever in Motion and in no wise remain's the same as also becaus a convenient matter as well as Instruments are wanting therein to make a distinction of Bounds without which private Dominions cannot well consist yea and becaus by reason of its vast and spatious Body it is alwaies sufficient for all As to what concern's its fluid Nature are not Rivers and Fountains much more in a perpetual Flux or Motion Rivers alwaies run forward wherewith the Sea beeing compared it seem's to stand immovable as saith Strabo And Eustathius saith that Homer therefore call's the Sea by the name of a standing Pool becaus it run's not forward as Rivers do but is very stable And another saith the Sea stands without Motion as it were som dull heap of matter that Nature could not bring to perfection But suppose wee grant it bee so fluid as is usually said of the most Northernly Seas and Channels yet certainly the Channels and places out of which the waters flow remain ever the same though the waters themselvs do shift and change continually Nor yet can it be supposed that the Right of private Dominion over Rivers is any whit prejudiced thereby In the Romane-Germane Empire Rivers according to the Civil Law are of publick use yet they are reckoned in the Emperor 's private Patrimonie and among the Rights or Roialties belonging to his Exchequer so that either the Emperor or others by his Grant have in like manner a yearly Revenue out of the Fisheries in them Upon which accompt it come's to pass that they of Lombardy and other particular People throughout Italy enjoie all the Rivers of their Territories as proper and peculiar to themselvs by Prescription as wee are told by Caepola Nor is any thing more common then an asserting of the private Dominion of Rivers as well as their Banks in the Laws of Spain France Poland and Venice and in a word of all Nations whose Customs are known to us Nor as to what concern's this Objection fetch 't from the fluid Constitution of the sea is there any difference in nature between a greater and a lesser a private and a publick River Even Ulpian himself concerning Rivers saith There is no difference between a private River and other private Places And Martianus If a man hath fish't all alone many years in a Corner of a publick River hee may hinder any other from using the same Libertie Moreover oftentimes heretofore in the Romane Empire Rivers were made over as well as other Parts after the manner of Lands assigned Siculus Flaccus saith In som Countries even the Rivers themselvs are assigned out by measure But in som the subcesive or remanent part onely is left out unassigned and yet it is excepted out from the parts assigned as belonging still onely to the river it self After the same manner also Aggenus Urbicus For it was never conceived that the Rivers were otherwise acquired by the People or Emperor of Rome then the adjoyning Lands accordding to that of the river Danubius speaking to the Emperors Danubius penitis caput occultatus in oris Totus sub vestrâ jam Ditione fluo Et quà Dives aquis Scythico solvo ostia Ponto Omnia sub vestrum flumina mitto Jugum Danubius I whose Fountain few do know Now wholly under your Dominion flow And when full-charg'd run to the Euxin sea I make all Rivers to you Tribute pay Wee know that an Island newly sprung up in a river as also a Chanel that is deserted is even by antient Custom common to such as upon the Bank of any river do possess Lands that are not limited that is to say after the manner of Lands or Possessions unless there bee som special Law or Custom to the contrary And touching the Division of such an Island according to the nature of several Lands situate near one Bank or both Bartolus in Tiberiade hath written long since but of later time Joannes Buteo Baptista Aymus Antonius Maria Joannes Gryphiander and others Therefore in that case a Proprietie of the Chanel and so of the River even of that which according to the Civil Law is of publick and common use as well as of a Field that hath a common Thorow-fare was common before to the Owners that had Lands lying on both sides By the same reason almost an Island newly sprung up in any sea that never was possessed by any and whatsoêver shall bee built upon it become's his that first enter's it by occupation For the Chanel and that Sea at first belong'd to all men in general But by virtue of that Universal Compact or Agreement before mentioned whereby things not yet possessed were to becom the Proprietie of him that should first enjoie them by Occupation hee that shall so possess them by Occupation receiv's the Island and Building as it were by a Surrender of Right from former Owners Seeing therefore that a Proprietie and private Dominion of Rivers hath been every where acknowledged why should it not bee acknowledged in like manner that there may bee Owners of any Sea whatsoëver Since the fluid nature of water can no more hinder a Dominion in the one then in the other Yea the Rivers themselvs are onely lesser Seas as also the Fenns and Lakes even as the Sea it self as to its fluid Constitution is no other then a River Fen or Lake differing onely in bigness from the rest And so it hath been taken by the Antients In the very storie of the Creation all the Gatherings together of the waters are called Seas which hath been observed also by the Fathers to this purpose There are also very eminent examples in holy Scripture touching the two Lakes of Asphaltites and Tiberias both which are equally called Seas Asphaltites is by Pliny Ptolomy Josephus Solinus and Vitruvius tearm'd a Lake But by Moses the salt Sea and by most of the late Writers the dead Sea Tiberias is in like manner by the Antients and also
South West or Sea and Northen Bounds of the holy Land they are so understood both by the Jewish Lawyers and Divines that they would have either the great or Phaenician Sea it self or at least som adjoyning part of it to bee assigned also by God unto the Israëlites as Lords of it for ever of which point wee shall discours a little more fully As for that which is rendred there out of the vulgar Edition touching the South Border As far as the river of Egypt and it shall bee bounded by the shore of the great Sea the Hebrew saith ad â—orrentem AEgypti unto the River of Egypt or the North entrance of Niâ—us which divided the â—and of Israël from Egypt at the Sea erunt exitus ejus in Mare and the goings out thereof shall bee into the Sea So that concerning that Borders beeing bounded by the shore as it is in the vulgar wee finde it no otherwise expressed there in the Original Then it is added next concerning the West-border or that which is at the great Sea word for word out of the Hebrew As for your Sea-border you may have the great Sea And let this bee your border or let it bee your Sea border or border of the Sea And there the Greek Interpreter's render it thus you shall have the bounds of the Sea or they shall bee your bounds The great Sea shall bound you wherein after their usual manner they plainly follow the Text of the Samaritan Copie For there wee read it thus And you shall have a Sea-border The great Sea shall bound you Let this bee your Sea or Western-border And thus the word SEA beeing used as well for the Western Quarter as for the Sea it self that place is for the most part so rendred that in so short a period the Sea is taken for both As for the West-Border you shall have the great Sea And this Border shall bee your West-Border As it is expressed by the Jews of Spain y Termino de ponente y sera à vos el mar el grande y Termino este sera à vos Termino de ponente Thus is also in Onkelus and Erpenius his Arabick save that Onkelus render's it thus But your West-border shall bee the great Sea and the Border thereof the same shall bee your West-border But an Arabian Translation in manuscript for which wee are beholden to the Earl or Arundel's Librarie after these words unto the River of Egypt add's also And the going out thereof shall bee at the Coasts or parts of the Sea And the Border of the Sea shall bee your Border Also the great Sea in their Borders Thiâ— shall bee your Border from the Sea Coast. But the North part as appear's by the particulars alleged in the former Chapter is bounded by mount Hor so that it appear's hence that the more Northerly enterance of Nilus that is the Pelusiock as it seem's for they are not well agreed about the very particular place served instead of Bounds to the South part of the Land of Israël which border'd upon the Sea as also to that part of the Promontorie or foot of mount Hor which was situated North-East by the Sea But this mount is that which in the vulgar edition is called an exceeding high mountain In the Jewish Commentaries it is known also by the name of Amana and Amanon and Amanus and by som it is taken for that mountain in the Canticles called Amana And in the Jewish Targum Manus is put for mount Hor. It is taken also for Libanus by such as in their Descriptions of the Holie Land are wont to make mount Libanus its Northern Border But as touching this mount Hor or Amanus of the same name with that mountain which but 's out into the Gulph now called Golfo dell ' Aiazza by som also taken for the same or rather mount Taurus it is described after this manner by Solomon Jarchius it is seated in a north west corner It 's head bending downward stretcheth out into the very sea And it is wash't in divers places by the main Betwixt these Bounds to wit the Southern part or the Pelusiack entrance of Nilus and the North-East bound or Promontorie of the aforesaid mount the great sea which is reckoned the Western bound or Border haivng divers windings and turnings along the shore is stretcht out in such a manner above 200 miles that if a streight line should bee drawn from the North-East Border to the Southern a great part of the Sea that extend's it self within the line for so many miles must needs bee intercepted which also is very easily to bee understood without the help of a Map These things beeing thus premised briefly but so far as the matter in hand require's to discover the western part of the Holie Land bordering wholy upon the Sea and that according to the judgment of the antient Hebrews not by modern Descriptions it is to bee consider'd that the Jewish Divines and Lawyers when they discours about the precepts and Laws belonging to the Land of Israël that is of those to which they conceiv themselvs not bound by the Holy Law without the Limits of that Land use to treat very precisely even to an hair touching the Borders of their Dominion as it was appointed by the Command of God To wit touching the Bounds of their Territorie as the name Territorie signifie's the whole not onely Lands and Fields but Rivers also and all other waters within the circuit of each Citie as it is rightly taken also by the Civil Lawyers The Precepts spoken of are those which are received by the Jews touching the observation of the Sabbaticall year oblations of Fruits the Lâ—vitical custom of Tithing and others of that kinde For by the Law of God they will not yield that those things should bee observed out of the Israëlitish Dominions although by Tradition of their Ancestors they were usually observed in Egypt Jdumaea the Land of Moab and Shinar both by reason of their neighborhood and the frequent convers of the Israëlits among them But now so far as concern's the western or Sea-bordering of the Land of Israël as it was assigned at first by God in observing Precepts of this kinde according to the holie Law wee meet with two opinions in their Commentaries from both which indeed it will appear that the Sea was assigned by God Himself unto the Israëlites as Lords thereof in the same manner as the Land though one opinion assign's larger Bounds the other much more narrow So that they all agree about the thing differing onely about the latitude The first opinion is of those who affirm that the whole western Sea as it lie's before the western Coast of the Land of Israël or as it is bounded inward by streight lines drawn on both sides from the North-east and South border before mentioned through that Ocean into the west together with the Continent was given
acknowledg that common practice and received custom was for the other part In case saith hee I forbid any man to Fish before my Hous or Roialtie what can bee said may hee sue mee upon an action of Trespass or no The Sea and the shores indeed are common to all as the Aër And it hath been declared that no man can bee prohibited from Fishing or fowling any otherwise then as hee may bee debarr'd from entring upon another man's ground Yet for a man to bee forbidden to Fish before my Hous or Royaltie is the common custom although grounded upon no Law Wherefore if any man bee prohibited hee hath for all that an Action of Trespass Hee grant's it was a received use and custom that subjection should bee thus imposed on the Sea and so a private Dominion thereof bee admitted but least hee should bee found unconstant to his espoused opinion of the communitie of the Sea hee hath presumed to declare it don without any Law or Justice Yet hee himself deliver's his judgment in another place thus The vender or seller of the Geronian Farm imposed such a condition on the Botrojan Farm which hee still kept in his hands that from that time forward no fishing for Tunies should bee used upon the Coast thereof although no private contract can lay a restraint upon the Sea which nature set's open to all Yet in regard honestie and faithful dealing in the agreement require that this Article of the sale bee observed the persons that are in present possession and they that succeed into the said Farm are obliged by the condition of the covenant or bargain In this case the owner of the Botrojan Farm renounceth his right of Fishing And Ulpian might as well have said that restraint or subjection was imposed upon that adjacent Sea as indeed it was but that hee was so unwilling to forgo his Opinion of the Seas unalterable communitie Moreover the purchaser of the Geronian Farm was so fully possessed of the Sea that lay before the Botrojan that by virtue of this subjection really imposed on that Sea-territorie the Owner of the Botrojan Farm could never after justly claim or exercise a privilege of Fishing for Tunies without his permission Whereupon Stephanus Forcatulus once Professor of the Civil Law at Tholose conclude's to the purpose That there is nothing to hinder but that the Sea though common to all may by publick decree bee subjected to a Prince by the same right that hee hold's his adjoyning Kingdom since the same thing may in a manner bee effected by virtue of a private compact Where by private compact hee mean's that concerning the Purchaser of the Geronian Farm as hee himself saith expresly in the same place But the opinion of Ulpianus for a perpetual communitie of the Sea was so entertained as authentick by the Lawyers of the Eastern Empire that there was no Law in force among them whereby an adjacent Sea might bee made appropriate or any man bee debarr'd the libertie of Fishing by the Owner of such Lands as border'd thereupon And if any one were debarr'd hee might have an Action of Trespass Which is manifest enough not onely in the Basilica which before the dismembring of them were a bodie of the Law of the Grecian or Eastern Empire but also by the Decrees established by the Emperor Leo by virtue of which that stale opinion of the communitie of the Sea beeing utterly cashiered as not agreeing with equitie that ancient one of the lawfulness of a possession and private Dominion in the neighboring Sea back't with the Autoritie of other eminent Lawyers was entertain'd again Moreover also it was so firmly ratified by an Imperial Sanction that from that time forward it passed over all the AEgean Sea without controul That Law saith that Eastern Emperor who reigned about the nine hundreth year of our Lord which so take's away the right of possessions bordering on the Sea as to make the Lord thereof liable to an Action of Trespass if hee prohibite others to Fish upon those Coasts in our judgment seem's to determine that which is not equitable or just Hee add's the reason becaus whatsoëver com's into the possession of any man by good and lawful Title whether by succession art and industry or any other way which the Law approve's there is no reason that other men should have the use and benefit thereof without the owners leav Thus the matter beeing duly examined hee judged that hee who held any part of the Sea in the aforesaid manner had a Title grounded upon a very clear Right Therefore saith hee wee decree that every man possess his vestibula or Seas lying before his Lands and bee master of them by an unquestionable right and that hee have power to keep off any persons whatsoëver that go about to enjoy the benefit thereof without his permission And in that which follow 's hee make's the Proprietie of Sea and Land altogether equal The Seas which laie thus in the face of Manors were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sea-Courts or Entries nor did this sanction of Leo serv onely for the ratification of former Titles founded either upon particular possession or any other but ordained in general that every man for the future should bee Lord of that neighboring part of the Sea which laie before or flowed by his Lands although hee had never been possessed thereof before In this very sens it is taken by Constantinus Harmenopulus a Judg of Thessalonica Touching Sea-Courts or Entries by Sea saith hee it is decreed in the thirtieth Novel of the Emperor Leo that every one bee master of that which is adjoyning to his Lands and that power bee given him to prohibit such as at any time go about to make any benefit of these Vestibulas or Entries without his permission Harmenopulus following a different order of the Novels call's that the thirtieth which in the printed Copies is the fiftie-sixth But now how much of the Sea directly forward did pass into the possession of the same person that was Lord of the adjoyning Lands either by antient custom or by virtue of this decree is not yet certainly known nor is it necessarie to our purpose but for latitude even as it were in a field those Vestibulas or Entries of the Sea were bounded by the same limits with the adjacent Lands And it was the custom for particular owners to have their Epoches or Pens for fish which the later Greeks call T 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to saie Nets spread between stakes driven into the Sea but limited upon this condition that every Epoche should bee distant from the other three hundred sixtie-five Cubits if so bee the breadth of Land could conveniently permit And such an equal distance was observed on both sides that a direct line from each Epoche to the extremitie of the Vestibulum or Entrie was extended one hundred eightie two ells and a half but this
write's that Leo made a change against reason of Law And here especial care must bee taken to avoid that which som have presumed to affirm touching those most excellent Books of Justinian which make up an entire Bodie of the antient Law That the Law prescribed in those Books is not the Law onely of a Citie but even of Nations and nature and that the whole is so fitted unto nature that after the Empire was extinct though the Law was a long time buried yet it rose again and spread it self through all the world And therefore that it concern's even Princes although it was framed by Justinian for private persons As if the law natural and of Nations were to bee derived onely out of those Books For not to mention how that not onely very many Decrees and Custome's introduced in the Romane-Germane Empire it self and other places abroad have extremly alter'd many things conteined in those Books but also that wee finde divers Kings both of Spain and France have somtimes heretofore prohibited the use of them in any kinde within their Courts of Justice there are truly som things in the very Law of the Nations of Europe who receiv those Books and that upon very good ground both into their Schools and Courts so far as the particular Laws of their Kingdoms will permit I mean in their Law Common or Intervenient which are not grounded at all upon the Law of Justinian but have had their original from Customs quite contrarie thereto Prisoners of war are not now made slaves nor are the Laws concerning captivitie or Remitter upon return from Captivitie touching the persons of men in any use at all which notwithstanding take up a Title in the Digests Ships driven by wrack upon a Shore do by the Law of Justinian which is confirmed also in the Roman German Empire belong either to the former Owners or as things relinquished and unpossessed to the first Finders nor doth the Exchequer interpose any Claim whereas nevertheless according to the Law of divers Nations intervenient to themselvs and their Neighbors it bee most certain that those Ships are very often confiscated according to the varietie of Custom As among the English the Britains Sicilians som Borderers upon the Shores of Italie and others And although it bee accounted crueltie by som to persue profit upon so sad an occasion as it was also by the Emperor either Constantine or Antoninus who made a Law thereupon yea and though besides the Decree of the Lateran Councel the Bull Coenae Domini do blast those every year with Excommunication that plunder the goods of such as suffer Shipwrack in any Sea upon any pretence of Law or Custom whatsoêver yet the Custom of confiscation in this case derived not its Original from the rude and barbarous Ages but it flowed first from the most antient Maritim Laws of the Rhodians which were in use among the Grecians in their flourishing condition as shall bee shewn by and by and from thence was received by divers Princes Also when the Emperor's Ambassador as Bodin saith made complaint before Henrie the second King of France that two Ships beeing driven a Shore were seized by one Jordanes Ursinus and demanded a restitution of them Annas of Momorancie Master of the Hors made Answer that all things which had been cast upon Shore did by the Law of all Nations belong to such Princes as have commanded the Shores So far hath Custom taken place in this particular that Andraeas Doria did not so much as complain about those Ships that were cast upon the French Shore and made prize by the Admiral of France So far hee In like manner Whales and other Fish of extraordinarie bigness do not according to the known Law of England Portugal and other Nations belong to him that first seizeth them but either to the Exchequer or which is all one to such as the Prince shall grant a Royaltie of that nature Other instances might bee brought sufficiently to shew that the Law natural and of Nations is not wholly to bee drawn out of such Decrees or Determinations as are found in the Books of Justinian And so that what is there inserted touching a Communitie of the Sea doth not in any wise diminish the Autoritie of the received Customs of so many Ages and Nations But it is to bee observed that the Sea is said in those Books to bee common as the Aâ—r and as wilde Beasts are common As if indeed the neighboring Aâ—r it self could not pass into private Dominion as well as a River that is possels'â— and wilde Beasts that are taken Moreover those Antients do ordinarily conjoin a communitie of Shores and Ports not unlike to that which they teach of the Sea As if the very reason of the Dominion of Ports and Shores as they belonged either to the people of Rome or which is all one here to the Prince himself were not manifestly drawn as wee have expressly shewn alreadie out of Celsus from the Imposts and Customs which are frequent enough both in the Shores and Ports of the â—oman Empire and in the Books of Justinian as in many other places For as the paiment of that Tribute which is called Solarium à Solo and thence by the Greek Lawyers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for an hous that is built upon the ground of the Common-weal or the publick ground was a sufficient Argument that the Common-weal or the Prince was Lord of the Soil so indeed also the Custom paid for the use of Ports manifested that there was the same kinde of Dominion over Them Also Ports themselvs are rightly supposed to bee a part even of the Continent as appear's in another place Moreover also Justinian appropriated the Hellespont to himself in such a manner that hee would not permit Merchants and Sea-men to enjoy a freedom of that Sea and the Ports but at an extraordinarie rate if wee may believ Procopius who was his comtemporarie and wrote his Affairs Nor did they imagine there was any difference betwixt the Dominion of the Sea and that over the Land or People who about 400 years since put this Inscription upon the Monument of the Emperor Frederick the second Qui Mare qui Terras Populos Regna subegit Who subdued the Sea the Land Nations and Kingdoms To wit in the Cathedral Church of Palermo in which place notwithstanding the Imperial Law flourished at that time as well as in the rest of the Roman-German Empire The sum of all is that those antient Lawyers do deliver many things carelessly touching this matter not onely such as thwart the most received Customs of Nations through almost all Ages but such also as do sufficiently contradict one another especially whilst they join the Shore it self and consequently the Ports together as it were in an equal state of Communitie So that they are equally
been by them deliver'd Just in the same manner as if a man should so discours upon Aristotle's Astronomie or the opinion of Thales touching the Earth's floating like a Dish in the Sea and that of the Stoâ—cks of its encompassing the Earth like a Girdle with that of the Antients concerning an extreme heat under the Equinoctial and other opinions of that kinde which are rejected and condemned by the observation and experience of Posteritie that hee might seem not so much to search into the thing it self as to represent the person of the Autor thereby to trace out his meaning onely for the discovering of his opinion But as the root beeing cut the Tree fall's so the Autoritie of those antient Lawyers beeing removed out of the way all the determinations of the modern which are supported by it must bee extremely weakned Now therefore as to what hath been formerly alleged out of Fernandus Vosquius it is grounded upon such Arguments as are either manifestly fals or impertinent For what is this to the purpose That the Sea from the beginning of the world to this present day is and ever hath been in common without the least alteration as 't is generally known Whereas the quite contrarie is most certainly known to those who have had any insight into the received Laws and Customs of Ages and Nations That is to say that by most approved Law and Custom som Seas have passed into the Dominion and partrimonie both of Princes and private persons as is clearly made manifest out of what hath been alreadie shewn you Moreover also hee would have prescription to ceas betwixt Foreigners in relation to each other and not to take place in the Law of Nations but in the Civil onely so that by his Opinion prescription should bee of no force between those as between two supreme states or Princes who are not indifferently subject to the Civil Law which admit's prescription then which not any thing can bee said or imagined more absurd Almost all the principal points of the Intervenient Law of Nations beeing established by long consent of persons using them do depend upon prescription or antient Custom To say nothing of those Princes whose Territories were subject heretofore to the Roman Empire and who afterwards became absolute within themselvs not onely by Arms but also by prescription which is every where admitted among the Laws of Nations whence is it that Prisoners of war are not now made slaves among Christians unless it bee becaus that Custom began to grow out of date som Ages since upon a ground of Christian brotherhood and by prescription ratified betwixt Nations Whence is it that the ransoms of prisoners are to bee paid som to the Princes and som to the Persons that take them As for instance when the ransom is not above ten thousand Crowns it goe's to him that took the Prisoner when it exceed's it is to bee paid to the Prince Becaus saith Nicolaus Boërius if it exceed as when any one hath taken a Duke a Count a Baron or any other great man then it belong's to the Prince and so it is observed in the Kingdoms of France England and Spain It hath by prescription of time been observed among Princes and so it became Law And truly to deny a Title of prescription wholly among Princes is plainly to abrogate the very intervenient Laws of Nations As for those other things mentioned by Vasquius concerning Charitie and the inexhaustible abundance of the Sea whereby hee make's a difference betwixt Rivers and Seas and other things of the like nature they have no relation at all to the point of Dominion as you have been sufficiently told alreadie In the next place wee com to the other to wit Hugo Grotius a man of great learning and extraordinarie knowledg in things both Divine and Humane whose name is very frequent in the mouths of men every where to maintein a natural and perpetual Communitie of the Sea Hee hath handled that point in two Books in his Mare Liberum and in that excellent work De Jure Belli pacis As to what concern's Mare Liberum a Book that was written against the Portugals about trading into the Indies through the vast Atlantick and Southern Ocean it contein's indeed such things as have been delivered by antient Lawyers touching communitiâ— of the Sea Yea and disputing for the Profits and Interests of his Countrie hee draw's them into his own partie and so endeavor's to prove that the Sea is not capable of private Dominion But hee hath so warily couched this subject with other things that whether in this hee did hit or miss the rest howsoëver might serv to assert the point which hee was to handle Moreover hee discourseth about the Title of Discoverie and primarie occupation pretended to by the Portugals and that also which is by Donation from the Pope And hee seem's in a manner either somtimes to quit that natural and perpetual Communitie which many Civil Lawyers are eager to maintein and hee himself in order to his design endeavored to confirm or els to confess that it can hardly bee defended For concerning those Seas that were inclosed by the antient Romans the nature of the Sea saith hee differ's from the Shore in this that the Sea unless it bee in som small part of it self is not easily capable of Building or Inclosure And put case it were yet even this could hardly bee without the hindrance of common use Nevertheless if any small part of it may bee thus possessed it fall's to him that enter's upon it first by occupation Now the difference of a lesser and a greaâ—er part cannot take place I suppose in the determining of private Dominion But in express words hee except's even a Bay or Creek of the Sea And a little after saith hee Wee do not speak here of an iâ—Iâ—-land Sea which in som places being streightned with Land on every side exceed's not the breadth even of a River yet 't is clear that this was it the Roman Lawyers spake of when they set forth those notable determinations against private Avarice But the Question is concerning the Ocean which Antiquitie called immense Infinit the Parent or Original of things confining with the Aër And afterwards hee saith The Controversie is not about a streight or Creek in this Ocean nor of so much as is within view when one stand's upon the shore A little farther also speaking of Prescription hee saith It is to bee added that their Autoritie who are of the contrarie opinion cannot bee applied to this Question For they speak of the Mediterranean Sea wee of the Ocean They of a Creek or Bay wee of the broad and wide Sea which differ very much in the point of Occupation And certainly there is no man but must conceiv it a very difficult thing to possess the whole Ocean Though if it could bee held by occupation like a narrow Sea or a Creek or as
all the Shipping together into one place from all parts to maintein the afore-said fight as Caesar saith expressly Therefore if the British Navie were called forth to their assistance as t is probable it was then questionless it was all lost before Caesar's arrival For the whole strength and Forces of the Veneti perished in that Sea fight Moreover also Peter Ramus speaking of that great tempest whereby Caesar's Ships were scatter'd up and down in this Sea with great hazard saith The Sea raised this Tempest as it were revenging the British bounds and disdaining to bear a new and strange Lord. As if hee had said that the Bounds of the British Empire were in the very Sea and the Sea it self angrie that it should bee transferr'd into the hands of any other Lord. But as to that which wee finde in a certain Panegyrist touching the time of Julius Caesar that Britain was not arm'd at that time with any Shipping fit for War by Sea it was spoken either in a Rhetorical way onely and highly to magnifie that Victorie of the Emperor Constantius Chlorus whereby having slain C. Allectus who had invaded Britain hee reduced the Island together with the Sea as is shewn hereafter or els it is to bee taken onely of the very time of Caesar's arrival Otherwise it is expressly contrarie to those reasons here alleged and grounded upon good Autors and therefore not to bee admitted for Truth But after that the Island was reduced under the Roman power doubtless the Britains were prohibited from having any Ships of war that they might bee the better held in obedience Which is the reason why Writers afterwards make mention of such onely as were made of Twigs That the Britains were Lords of the Northern Sea before they were subdued by the Romans And that the Sea and the Land made one entire Bodie of the British Empire CHAP. III. THat the Britains were Lords also at that time of the Northern or Deucalidonian Sea is a thing proved by sufficient Testimonie They called this part of the Sea Mario sui secretum The secret or Closet of their Sea Tacitus relating the Navigation of Julius Agricola into this part saith the Britains as it was understood by the Prisoners were amazed at the sight of his Navie as if upon thiâ— opening the Closet or secret part of their Sea there remained no farther refuge in case they were overcom And in that stout Oration of Galgacus the Caledonian wherein hee encouraged his Souldiers to fight Now saith hee the bound of Britain is laid open The secret part of their Sea or their Sea-Territorie in the North they called their bound Moreover saith the same Galgacus beyond us there is no Land and not the least securitie at Sea the Roman Navie beeing at hand giving them to understand that the Dominion hereof was to bee defended as was the Island as a thing acquired before Add also that among the Writers of that Age vincula dare Oceano and to subdue the Britains signified one and the same thing So that place of Lucan is to bee understood where hee reckon's what pompous Shewâ— and Triumphs might have usher'd Caesar into Rome had hee returned onely with Conquest over the Gauls and the North ut vincula Rheno Oceanóque daret celsos ut Gallia currus Nobilis flavis sequeretur mista Britannis What Stories had hee brought how the vast Main And Rhine hee by his Conquests did restrain The noble Gauls and yellow Britains tread Behind his loftie Chariot beeing led But for all that our Sea was not as yet subdued by the Romans Julius Caesar onely shewed the Island rather then deliver'd it into the hands of Posteritie neither was any part of it reduced under the Roman power before the Emperor Claudius his time nor the Soveraigntie of the Sea transferr'd into the hands of any other And although in Augustus his time Drusus Germanicus sailed through that part of the Sea which lie's betwixt the entrance of the River Rhine and Denmark and subdued the Friâ—slanders nevertheless not any part of the Sea was added by that Victorie to the Roman Empire for the Britains held it all in possession they beeing not yet fully subdued Nor is it unworthie observation here that C. Caligula beeing near Britain and coming out of Germanie to the Coasts on the other side of our Sea as if saith Dio hee intended to make war in Britain and having drawn up his Armie made readie all his slings and other warlick Engines and given the signal or word for Battel no man knowing or imagining what his intent was hee on a sudden commanded them to fall a gathering of Cockles and fill their Laps and Helmets Then saying these Spoils of the Sea belong'd to the Capitol and Mount Palatin hee vaunted as if hee had subdued the Ocean it self At last for a token or Trophie of this mock-victorie hee rear'd a very lofty Tower hard by out of which as if it had been another Pharos Lights were hung forth by night for the direction of Sea men in their Courses the ruins whereof beeing not yet wholly demolished but for the most part overwhelm'd with water near Cattwiick and very seldom discover'd it is called by the Hollanders that dwell near it Britenhuis and L'Huis te Briten that is the British Hous or the British Tower Certain it is out of Suetonius that a Tower was raised by Caligula in that place yea and it is mainteined by divers learned men as Hadrianus Junius the Hollander William Camden our Countriman and Richardus Vitus that these were the ruins of the same Tower though others denie it as Ortelius Gotzius and Cluverius And they make a doubt both about the Original of the name and also its signification concerning which wee dispute not But am extremely mis-taken if Caligula by this Action of his did not so much neglect the conquest of Britain it self which hee hoped or at least thought of as seem to sport himself with the conceit of having found out so compendious a way of Victorie Hee carried the matter as if hee had had an intent to subdue Britain and supposed those Cockles which hee called Spoils of the Sea to bee Tokens of Sea-Dominion and as a most sure pledg of the British Empire Moreover it is upon good ground to bee conceived that there was one entire Territorie of the British Empire made up of the Land or continent of great Britain with the Isles lying about it and the Seas flowing between in their respective Channels which may bee collected both from that one single name of British comprehending an entire Bodie of such a kinde of Territorie as was shewn you before and also from hence that the very Sea it self is by Albategnius and som others described by the name of Britain in the same manner as the Island when as hee placeth Thule an Isle of the Sea in Britain That is to
also his Sea-men to keep all relief of Victual from going to the Enemie by Sea Hee used the word Pirats in this place as others of that age have don not for Robbers as 't is commonly taken but for such as beeing skill'd in Sea-affairs were appointed to set upon the Enemie's Fleets and defend the Dominion by Sea Touching the derivation of the word the old Scholiast upon Sophocles his Aiax saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is Pira in the Attick Tongue signifie's craft or art and hence it is that they are called Pirats which infest the Sea But when the English-Saxons and Danes in the time of K. Alfred were ever and anon strugling for the Soveraigntie in England for Gurmundus or Guthrunus King of the Danes was at that time setled in Northumberland as a Fiduciarie Client or Vassal to Alfred and had very large Territories in the east-East-part of England their Fights were mostly by Sea as if they had both been of opinion that hee which could get the Dominion of the British Sea would by necessarie consequence becom Lord also of the Land or of that part of the Isle which lie's before it For this caus also it was that the Danes growing strong at Sea K. Alfred mightily augmented his Naval Forces by building ships twice as long as the Danish ships deeper nimbler and less rocking or rolling and so much more convenient for Sea-Fights Florentius the Monk saith In the same year that is to say the year of our Lord MCCCXCVII the Forces of the Pagans residing in East-England and Northumberland using Piracie upon the Sea-Coasts did grievously infest the West-Saxon's Countrie with very long and nimble ships which they had built divers years before Against whom ships were built by the Command of K. Alfred twice as long deeper nimbler and less waving or rolling by whose force hee might subdue the aforesaid ships of the Enemie It is related also in the same words by Roger Hoveden But Henrie of Huntingdon speaking expresly of the number of Oars that served for the rowing of these ships of Alfred saith King Alfred caused long ships to bee made readie to wit of 40 Oars or more against the Danish ships But there are Chronicles written in the Saxon Tongue that speak of ships of 60 Oars and larger built by him at that time out of which these Writers above-mentioned and others of the like sort have compiled theirs The words of the Chronicles are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say King Alfred gave command for the building of long ships to encounter the Danish But they were twice as long as these whereof som had sixtie Oars som more They were also more nimble less rolling and deeper then the other Not built after the Frisian or Danish manner but such as hee conceived most convenient for fighting So that there is no doubt but the business of shipping was mightily advanced in his Reign among the English-Saxons in order to the defence and maintenance of their Dominion by Sea And wee very often finde that those Sea fights managed by Alfred and his son Edward with various success against the Danes and Normans were undertaken not without great numbers of Shipping But in the time of King Athelstan who was very strong at Sea upon the Irish Nation saith Huntingdon and those that dwelt in ships there fell a fatal destruction The English-Saxon words in the antient Chronicles from whence Huntingdon translated those and which agree w th these are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which fully signifie the same thing For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Scotish Nation and Scots are by the Antients often taken for the Irish. Hee also saith the same Autor led an huge Armie by Land and Sea into Northumberland and Scotland and in regard there was none appear'd to make any opposition bee marched up and down the Countrie and wasting it at pleasure returned with Triumph whereupon saith a Poët of that time Jam cubat in terris fera barbaries Aquilonis Jam jacet in campo pelago pirata relicto Illicitas torvásque minas Analavus anhelans Now is the wilde and barb'rous North brought down Now Analave the Pirat is o'rethrown Who having left the Sea on Land doth lie And spightful threats breath's out against the Skie This Analavus was King of the Irish and of many Islands who invading the Coasts of Athelstan with a Fleet of DCXV ships at the mouth of the River Humber received a great overthrow and was put to a most shameful Flight But King Edgar as saith Florentius of Worcester sailing about the North of Britain with a great Navie arrived at Chester where his eight pettie Kings met him as hee had given order who sware fealtie to him and that they would assist him both by Sea and Land Or as Huntingdon saith of the same thing they all did homage to him declaring themselvs readie at his command to serv him by Sea and Land Among these pettie Kings there was one Maccusius whom Hoveden and Florentius call a King of very many Islands and Florilegus a King of Man and very many Islands William of Malmsburie call's him an Arch Pirat Moreover the same King Edgar as if hee intended to set forth the splendor magnificence and as it were an Epitome of his whole Empire in Sea-affairs and Shipping did as say Florentius and Hoveden during his abode at Chester enter into a Boat wherein hee was rowed by those pettie Kings himself holding the Stern and steering it about the River Dee and beeing attended by all his Dukes and Peers in such another Vessel bee sailed from the Palace to the Monasterie of S. John Baptist where an Oration beeing made to him hee returned in the same pomp unto the Palace In the very Entrie whereof hee is reported to have said to his Lords that then his Successors might boast themselvs Kings of England when they should bee thus attended by so many Kings and enjoy the state and glory of such honors or as Malmsburie write's of the same thing when they should enjoy so great a Prerogative of honors So many Kings as Vassals to bee readie alwaies to assist with their Forces whensoëver they should bee required both by Sea and Land There is also a notable testimonie in the same Florentius and the Monk of Malmsburie how that this King sailed round about his Sea every year and secured it with a constant Guard and Forces Every Summer saith Malmsburie immediately after Easter bee commanded his ships upon every shore to bee brought into a Bodie sailing usually with the Eastern Fleet to the West part of the Island and then sending it back hee sail'd with the Western Fleet unto the Northern and thence with the Northern hee returned to the Eastern beeing indeed very diligent to prevent the Incursions of Pirats that is behaving himself in this manfully as say Florentius also and Hoveden for the
much of it as concern's this title The words are these Altitonantis Dei largifluâ clementia qui est Rex Regum Ego Edgarus Anglorum Basileus omniúmque Regum insularum Oceanique Britanniani circumjacentis so John Dee a man very well seen in most parts of Learning did read it a good while since save onely that in stead of Britannian hee hath Britanniani while others reade Insularum Oceani quae Britanniam circumjacent cunctarúmque nationum quae infra eam includuntur Imperator Dominus gratias ago ipsi Deo omnipotenti Regimeo qui meum imperium sic ampliavit exaltavit super regnum patrum mâ—orum qui licèt Monarchiam totius Angliae adepti sint à tempore Athelstani qui primus regnum Anglorum omnes nationes quae Britanniam incolunt sibi armis subegit nullus tamen illâ—rum ultra ejus fines imperium suum dilatare aggressus est Mihi autem concessit propitia divinitas cum Anglorum imperio omnia regna Insularum Oceani cum suis ferocissimis regibus usque Norwegiam maximámque partem Hiberniae cum suâ nobilissimâ civitate Dublinia Anglorum regno subjugare Quos etiam omnes meis imperiis colla subdere Dei favente gratiâ coëgi By the abundant goodness of Almightie God who is the King of Kings I Edgar King of England and of all the Kings of the Islands and of the Ocean lying round about Britain and of all the Nations that are included within the circuit thereof Supreme Lord and Governor Do render thanks to the same Almightie God my King who hath enlarged my Empire thus and exalted it above the Royal Estate of my Progenitors who although they arrived to the Monarchie of all England ever since the time of Athelstane who was the first that by force of Arms subdued the English and all the Nations that inhabite Britain yet none of them ever attempted to promote their Empire beyond the bounds thereof But the divine goodness hath favored mee so far as beside the English Empire to enable mee to subdue all the Kingdoms of the Ilands in the Ocean with their most stout and mightie Kings even as far as Norway and the greatest part of Irland together with their most famous Citie of Dublin All which by God's grace and assistance I have subdued and made their necks to stoop under the yoke of my command Whereas hee saith that none of his Progenitors had attempted to enlarge their Empire beyond the bounds of Britain it must bee so understood that it bee taken for the Northern and Western bounds of the British Empire as sufficiently appear's by the mention of Irland and Norway So that then more Islands than the name of Britain did comprehend or than the Isles of that Sea together with the Sea it self were brought under his Dominion But King Canutus or Cnute hath left a testimonie also whereby hee most expressly asserts the Sea to bee a part of his Dominion Hee placing himself on a seat by the Sea side as it flowed upon Southampton Shore having a minde to demonstrate to his flatterers that Kings themselvs are but men is reported to have made trial of the obedience of the Sea it beeing flood after this manner Thou O Sea art under my dominion as the Land also upon which I sit is mine And there never was any that disobeied my Command without punishment Therefore I command thee not to ascend up upon my Land nor do thou presume to wet the feet or garments of thy Sovereign But the Tide saith Huntington and Florilegus who relate this storie swelling as at other times did very unmannerly wet not onely the feet but legs of his Majestie Whereupon the King leaping up proclaimed with his own mouth none to bee worthy the name of King but him alone who command 's both the Sea and land and they obey And from that time hee refused to wear his Crown of Gold consecrating it to a Crucifix In the mean time hee here openly professed himself to bee the Soveraign of the Sea as well as of the land Hereunto may bee added som testimonies of other Writers which although they are of a later date than the Kingdom of the English-Saxons yet they are transmitted to posteritie by the hands of such as were perfectly acquainted with the English Historie and by the Tradition of their Ancestors well infouned of the most authentick Opinions and Resolvs concerning the English Dominion over the Sea Geofâ—rie Chaucer who was not onely the most famous Poêt of his time but as Learning went in those daies a very well accomplisht Scholar in one of his Canterburie Tales bring 's in his Man of Law telling a storie which hee would have relate to the time of Alla King of Northumberland who reigned thirtie years and his Reign began in the year of our Lord DLIX In this Tale there is brought in a Ladie called Constantia the Daughter of I know not what Roman Emperor married to the King of Syria driven shee was by weather to a place which lay under the command of a Fortress upon the Shore of Northumberland and there the Ship ran aground shee was a Christian banished for her Religion and there taken Prisoner by the Commander of that Fortress In this Relation of the sad adventures of Constantia hee saith what indeed is true that Christian Religion was not received into any part of that Territorie but that Pagans had over-run and did hold those Northern Countries under their Dominion as well by Sea as Land His words to this purpose are these In all that lond dursten non Christen rout All Christen folk been fled from the Countre Through Paynims that conquer'd all about The plagues of Northumberland by land See Hee said discreetly that the neighboring Sea fell to the Conquerers of this Isle as well as the Land knowing what was the resolution and generally received opinion of his Ancestors concerning that matter Hee lived two hundred and thirtie years ago in the time of Richard the Second Nor is it any prejudice to this autoritie that the other things there related are fabulous For wee know that out of the Fables of Heliodorus Achilles Tatius Theodorus Prodromus Eustathius and such others whether of an amorous or any other strain somtimes many useful observations may bee gathered concerning the customs manners and received opinions as well of the men among whom they are feigned to bee acted as of the times to which they are related John Harding also who in the time of Edward the Fourth wrote an Historie of the affairs of England in vers when hee reckons up those Princes that sware fealtie to King Canutus for the Lands which they held of him hee adds So did the Kings of Wales of high parage And all the North-west Ocean For their kingdoms and for their lands than That is to say the same was don at that time by the greatest Kings of Wales and of all the North-western
of Excester And in those daies it was usual to procure King's Letters commonly called in the language of the Law Protections whereby Privilege and exemption from all suits was granted to those that were emploied in this kinde of Guard or Defence of the Sea or that spent their time super salvâ custodiâ defensione Maris For the safeguarding and defence of the Sea as the form of the words hath it which wee frequently finde in the Archives Moreover in the Acts of Parlament of the same King's Reign mention is made of the safeguarding of the Sea or de la saufegard de la mier as of a thing commonly known and for which it was the Custom of the English to make as diligent provision as for the Government of any Province or Countrie And in the twentieth year of the same King the Commons preferr'd a Bill that a strong and well accomplished Navie might bee provided for the defence of the Sea becaus It is thought fit be all the Commens of this Land that it is necessarie the See be kept Verie many other passages there are to the same purpose Geoffrie Chaucer who lived in the time of Richard the Second and was a man verie knowing in the affairs of his Countrie among other most elegant and lively characters of several sorts of men written in the English Tongue describe's the humor of an English Merchant of that time how that his desire above all things is that the Sea bee well guarded never left destitute of such protection as may keep it safe and quiet Which hee speak's to set out the whole generation of Merchants in that age whose custom it was to bee sollicitous for traffick above all things and consequently about the Sea it self which would not afford them safe Voyages did not the Kings of England as Sovereigns thereof according to their Right and Custom provide for the securitie of this as a Province under their Protection The words of Chaucer are these His reasons spake hee full solemnely Shewing alway the encreas of his winning Hee would the See were kept for any thing Betwixe Middleborough and Orewel Orewel is an Haven upon the Coasts in Suffolk Middleborough is in Zealand The whole Sea that floweth between Britain and Zealand the English Merchants would have secured this they were wont solemnly and unanimously to pray for knowing that the Sea was part of the Kingdom and the Protection of them part of the dutie of the Kings of England For as concerning any Protection herein by any forrein Princes any farther then in their own Harbors or at the most within the winding Creeks between those Islands which they possessed upon the Coasts of Germanie or Gallia Belgica there is nothing as far as wee can finde to bee gathered from any Testimonies of former Ages In the succeeding Ages likewise there is frequent mention of this kinde of Guard Defence and Government of the same Sea as will hereafter more fully appear when wee com to speak of Tributes and of the tenor and varietie of the Commissions given to our Admirals But now it is to bee observed that both the name and nature of this Guard is very well known not onely by the use of the word both in the Imperial and Canon Law wherein it denotes that the Guardian ought to take a diligent care of that thing whereof hee is owner who doth either lend it or commit it to his over-sight but also by the common and obvious use which the English make of the same word in other Offices or Governments For in those daies of old when the title of Guardians or Wardens of the Sea was more usual there were appointed Wardens of the Ports even as at this day there are Wardens of the Counties who are those Commanders of Counties called Sheriffs and in the usual form and tenor of their Writ have custodiam comitatûs the Guard or Defence of the Countie committed to their charge Wardens or Keepers of the Marches or Borders Keepers of Towers or Castles Parks Houses and the like Yea and the Lord Lievtenant of Ireland was especially in the time of King John and Henrie the Third styled usually Warden or Keeper of Ireland and his Office or dignitie commonly called the Keepership of Ireland after the same manner as John Duke of Bedford and Humphrey Duke of Glocester whom Henry the fift during the time of his absence in France deputed to govern the Kingdom of England by turns were called Custodes Angliae Keepers of England as wee very often finde both in Histories and Records So Arthur Prince of Wales was made Keeper of England while Henry the seventh was beyond the Seas So Piers Gaveston was keeper of England while Edward the second remained in France So were others also in like manner The Governors also of the Islands of Jarsey and Garnesey and the rest that are situated in this Sea who now are styled Governors Keepers or Captains were in antient times called onely by the name of Guardians or Keepers This then beeing so what reason have wee to think that our Ancestors did not use the same Notion of Guardian or Keeper and of guarding or keeping in the name of the Guardian and the Guard of the Sea which they were wont to use in the Guard and keeping of the Island and in the other dignities or offices before mentioned Doubtless in all these the peculiar Dominion and Soveraigntie of him that conferr'd the Dignities is so clearly signified and included that his Dominion or Ownership of the thing to bee kept and guarded as well as Autoritie over the person dignified is plainly implied in this Title Nor is it to bee omitted that in antient times before the autoritie of the high Admirals of England was sufficiently established by our Kings and setled so distinct that the Command and Government of the Sea did belong onely to them the Governors or Keepers of the Provinces whom wee call Sheriffs of the Counties by virtue of their Office had also som Custodie or Command of part of that Sea which adjoined to their respective Provinces as of a part of the Kingdom of England Which truly to let pass other proofs is sufficiently evident by this that many times in those daies they who by the Common Law of the Land were wont as at this day to put in execution the Commands of the King in those places onely that were committed severally to their charge and custodie did do the same also in the Sea it self as well as in any Land-Province belonging to him from whom they received their autoritie For by virtue of their ordinarie power derived from the King and such as was founded upon the very same right by which they held the Government of the Countie or Province they did oftentimes remove the King's Ships and Fleets from one Port to another by Sea as through the Territorie of the Province that was committed to their
to the Royal Patrimonie of England to the end that no man might question whether the Sea belong'd to his King by the Right of the Kingdom of England or of the Dutchie of Normandie or of any other Province in France Another also who wrote in the time of Henrie the Eighth saith it hath been received by antient custom that it is a dutie lying upon the King of England as Lord of the British Sea to scour the Sea of Pirates and to render the use thereof as of a publick Road or Thorow-fare whose soil is within his Patrimonie safe for Shipping For hee expresseth himself in English thus The King of the ould Custome of the Realme as the Lord of the narrow Sea is bound as it is said to scoure the Sea of the Pirates and petit robbers of the Sea So much also as to what concern's Dominion is without controversie admitted by our Lawyers of later time And it appear's by publick Records conteining divers main points touching which the Judges were to bee consulted for the good of the Common-weal in the time of King Edward the Third that the King's Sea-Dominion which they called the antient superioritie of the Sea was a matter out of question among our Lawyers of that Age. But consultation was had for the more convenient guarding of it For the whole Bench of Judges were advised with to the end so wee read it in the Records and that is especially to bee observed which wee finde here about the first beginning of the Naval Laws of the Isle of Oleron seated in the Creek of Aquitain at the mouth of the River Charente that the form of proceeding heretofore ordained and begun by Edward the first grandfather of our Lord the King and his Council at the prosecution of his Subjects may bee resumed and continued for the reteining and conserving of the antient superioritie of the Sea of England and the Autoritie of the Office of Admiraltie in the same as to the correcting expounding declaring and conserving the Laws and Statutes long since made by his Predecessors Kings of England for the mainteining of Peace and Justice among all people of what Nation soëver passing through the Sea of England and to take cognisance of all attempt to the contrarie in the same and to punish Offenders and award satisfaction to such as suffer wrong and damage Which Laws and Statutes were by the Lord Richard heretofore King of England at his return from the holy Land interpreted declared and published in the Isle of Oleron and named in French le ley Olyroun Here you have it declared as a thing most received and certain that the King of England hath by antient right been Lord of the Sea of the same name or that which flow's about it But that whereof the Bench of Judges were to consult was onely about the orderly maintenance of this right Nor is it truly a small sign of this Dominion that Richard the First King of England beeing in the Isle of Oleron which hee possessed as seated in his own Sea not so much for that hee was Duke of Aquitain as King of England whereof wee have alreadie spoken did as sole Ruler and Moderator of Sea-affairs first publish those Naval or Sea-Laws in that his Island which hold in force to this day and from that time gave them so large and perpetual an Autoritie by that name that as the Rhodian Naval Laws as the case stand's do prove that the Rhodians in antient time were Lords of the Grecian Sea so the Laws of Oleron having obteined such a kinde of Autoritie by Sea from their first Institution must ever declare the King of England as the Autor to bee Lord of the neighboring Sea round about But som printed Copies of these Laws make them about sixtie years later than the Reign of that Richard by what autoritie I cannot tell For they relate them to have been made in the year MCCLXVI which is the fiftieth year of our Henrie the third Also in the Law of the Land it is reckoned among the Privileges of such as are absent that they who shall bee out of the Realm of England at the levying of a Fine of any Land and making Proclamations thereupon are not so bound either by a yearly prescription as heretofore or by a five years prescription as is usual of later time but that their Right remain's entire to them upon their return home if they make their claim within the like spaces of time But intra regnum within the Kingdom is by the same Law taken and that in the usual phrase for that which is intra or as it is wont to bee barbarously render'd infra Quatuor Maria within the four Seas to wit the Southern Western Eastern and that Northen Sea which washeth both the sides of that neck of Land whereby Scotland is united to England That is to say within the outmost bounds of the English Empire in those four Seas or within the opposite Shores of the Eastern and Southern Sea or Ports belonging to other Princes and within the bounds of the Northern and Western Sea which indeed are to bee bounded after another manner but yet to bee bounded that is accordirng to the extent of possession West-ward beyond the Western Shores of Ireland and by the first beginning of that Sea which is of the Scotish name and jurisdiction But that which is opposed to this Particle intra quatuor maria within the four seas is that extra quatuor Maria without the four seas or to bee in the parts so beyond the Seas that they bee beyond the bounds of the Sea-Dominion of the King of England from whence wee are to determine of the bounds or exterior limit of the Seas And although the Land of England bee somtimes used for that which is the whole Realm or English Empire as signifying the same a more ordinarie and indeed more brief expression beeing applied as is usual in stead of a more large yet it certainly appear's that extra quatuor maria without the four seas and extra Regnum without the Realm do in our Law-Books signifie the very same thing that is to say so far as the extent and latitude of the whole English Empire is comprehended in the name of Realm not as the Realm of England is now and then distinguished in our Law from Ireland which also is a distinct Dominion of the same Empire or from the other Islands which are reckoned in the Roial patrimonie of the Kings of England For it is usual in the Language of the Law so to describe him who in that sens shall bee out of the Realm And whereas in the Reign of Richard the second to an objection made against one that would avoid the yearly prescription as not bound by it for that hee was not in England it was excepted that hee was in Scotland and so within the four Seas It was thereupon answer'd and rul'd
Sea That the Kings of England never had prohibited Navigation and Fishing in the Irish Sea between England and Ireland as if they would have had it proved from thence that the Dane ought not to bee prohibited Fishing or Navigation between Island and Norway becaus neither were Lords of the Sea but had possessed the Shores onely on both sides by an equal Right There were other particulars also no less rashly spoken touching a communitie of the Sea as wee observed before Concerning Navigation and Fishing in the Norwegian Sea I shall add more by and by But as it was ill don of those Commissioners in that Treatie to make use of an Argument drawn from a necessarie communitie of the Sea so there is no truth in that which they let fall concerning the Irish Sea For wee know that not onely those pettie Potentates bordering near the Sea heretofore that were in Rebellion and had usurped the Kings Right in many places of Ireland did exact grievous Tributes of Foreiners for the very libertie of Fishing but also it was expressly provided by Act of Parlament that no Foreiner should Fish in the Irish Sea without leav first obteined to this purpose from the Lord Lievtenant or som other lawsul Deputie or Officer of the King of England yea and that all Foreiners should pay yearly for every Fisher-boat of XII Tons or upward thirteen shillings and four pence and for everie lesser Vessel two shillings upon pain of forfeiting their Vessels Furniture and all Goods whatsoëver if so they refused this kinde of paiment or did not acknowledg this Soveraignite of the Lord of the Sea But I shall insert the whole Act touching this business that wee may understand what was the most received Opinion of all the Estates of Ireland touching this Right here of the King Item at the requeste of the Commons that where divers vessels of other landes fro one daie to other goynge to fish amongst the kings Irish enemies in divers partes of this sayd land by which the kings said enemies bee greatlye advanced and strengthened aswell in vitualles harneys armor as dyvers others necessaries also great tributes of money given by every of the said vessells to the said enemies from day to day to the great augmentation of their power and force against the King's honor and wealth and utter distruction of this said land thereupon the premisses considered it is enacted and ordeined by aucthoritie of the said Parliament that no manner vessell of other landes shall bee no time nor season of the yeere from henceforth from the feast of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christs next comming go in no part of the said land betwixt the said Irish enemies to no manner fishing without one special licence of the Lieutenant his deputy or Justice of the land for the time being or licence of another person having the kings power to grant such licence upon paine of forfaiture of the shippe and goods to the king And that whatsoever person or persons that find or impeche any of the said vessells rumpants or forfaites against this act by the auctoritie of the same it bee lawfull to them so making any claime in behalfe of the King and approving the said forfaytures by any of the said vessels to be made that the king shall have th' one moitye of the said forfeyture and the said person or persons shall have th' other without anye impechment and that all manner vessells of other lands comming in the said land of Ireland a fishing being of the burden of twelue tunnes or lesse haveing one Drover or boate everye of them to paye for the maintenance of the Kings warres there xiii s. iiii d. by the yeer And all other small vessells as scarfes or boates not haveing Drover nor lighter being within the said burden of twelve runnes every of them shall paye twoe shillings goings a fishing in the like manner Provided alwayes that no vessell fyshing in the North parte of Wicklo be charged by reason of this art and that the Lieutenant his deputy or Justice of the land for the time being shall have the foresaid summes and duties of mony so paid to be imployed in the Kings warres for the defente of the said land and that the Customers and Collectors of the same summes shall accoumpt before the said Justice Lieutenant or Deputy for the time being or such Auditors that shall be for the same appointed by the king or them and not before the Barons of th'exchequer in the said lande and that none of the saide vessels so comming from other parts in the saide lande shall not depart out of the saide lande till every of them pay their said duties upon pain of forfeiture of the vessels and goods to the King There are som also who affirm that the King of Spain obteined leav by request from our Queen Marie for XXI years to fish in the more Northerly part of the Irish Sea and that thereupon a Revenue of one thousand pounds per annum was advanced to the Exchequer in Ireland A Proclamation also was set forth by James King of great Britain prohibiting any foreiner without leav first obteined to fish in this Irish Sea But as to what concern's that Controversie about the Isle of Man although it bee remember'd by Giraldus who wrote in the Reign of Henrie the Second nevertheless it is to bee conceived that it arose in the more antient times of the English-Saxons when all that lie's betwixt England and Ireland was in subjection either to the Kings of Ireland or Britain that is when both of them had in this Sea distinct Territories of their own whose Bounds were in question Certain it is as Beda write's that Edwin the most potent King of the Nortbumbrians or rather of all the English-Saxons subdued the Mevanian Isles to the Dominion of England about the year DCXXX That is to say both that Mevanian which wee call Anglesey the other also which is Man whereof wee discoursed But in the later time of the Anglo-Saxon Empire the Norwegians or Danes who exceedingly infested both this and the North-east Sea with very frequent Robberies at length seized both this Isle and the Hebrides and held them almost two hundred years So that in the mean time this of Man could not in a Civil sens bee ascribed either to Ireland or Britain But that the Kings thereof were at that time Lords as well of the neighboring Sea as of the Isles may bee collected out of their Annals where we find that Godred whose sirname was Crovan King of Man in the year of our Lord MLXVI brought Dublin and a great part of Laynster under his subjection And so throughly subdued the Scots that no man who built a Ship durst drive in more than three Nails So that hee gave both limitation and Law to the Shipping of his Neighbors which is all one as to enjoy the very Dominion of the Sea as I have shewn in
eminent Limit like a Mound But any kinde of imaginarie Line by streight Lines crooked windings and Turnings and Angles hath taken place in the designation of private Dominions or in the shutting or inclosing of a thing possessed in a civil acception as it was usual among the Antients in those Fields which were termed Agri Occupatorii and Arcifinii as well as any eminent and continued Limit or Mound whatsoëver From whence it came to pass that in the Assignations of Colonies they called those places Clausa and Extraclusa whose Limits â—ere divided onely by such kinde of Lines Julius Frontinus saith That Field my bee called Ager extraclusus which lie's within the bordering Line and the Centuries and therefore extraclusus becaus it is closed with the bordering line beyond the limits So the Territories assigned as well in the Colonies at this day carried into America as in that prodigious gift of Pope Alexander VI in the former Age which is bounded by an imaginarie Line from the Artic to the Antarctic Pole are closed by Lines of Longitude and Latitude drawn through the degrees of Heaven that they may bee possessed in a private manner So the Greek Sea which is within the Cyanean and Chelidonian Islands was by Agreement shut and prohibited by the Athenians to the Persian Emperor So the Sea flowing about is shut or closed within the compass of the Royal Patrimonie of the British Empire Other passages there are every where of the same kinde But I enlarge my self too much in a thing so manifest Therefore I forbear to light a Candle to the Sun Farewel Reader From the Inner Temple IV November MDCXXXV The Contents of the first BOOK according to the several Chapters CHAP. I. THe Division of the Work and the Method of the first Book Pag. 1 CHAP. II. What Occurrences seem to oppose the Dominion of the Sea and what Arguments are wont to bee made against it pag. 3 CHAP. III. What is meant by the word SEA in the question Also a division of the Law in order to the Discours pag. 11 CHAP. IV. Of Dominion both common to all and Private Also its Original either by Distribution or Primarie Occupation pag. 16 CHAP. V. The Effects of private Dominion And what regard hath been had of the SEA in the more antient Distributions and Divisions of things pag. 24 CHAP. VI. That the Law of God or the Divine Oracles of holy Scripture do allow a private Dominion of the Sea And that the wide Ocean also which washeth the Western Coast of the holie Land or at least a considerable part of it was according to the Opinion of such as were learned in the Jewish Law annexed to the Land of Israël by the Assignation or appointment of God himself pag. 27 CHAP. VII That the Natural-Permissive Law whereof any use may bee in this place is to bee derived out of the Customs and Constitutions of the more civilized and more noble Nations both antient and modern pag. 42 CHAP. VIII The manner whereby the Law Permissive touching private Dominion of the Sea may bee drawn out of the Customs of many Ages and Nations That there were Testimonies hereof manifest enough in the Fabulous Age. Also a word by the way touching the Mediterranean Sea in possession of the Romanes when the command thereof was committed to Cneius Pompeius pag. 46 CHAP. IX The first Dominion of the Sea among the Greeks in the Historical Age that is the Dominion of King Minos or the Cretan pag. 53 CHAP. X. That after Minos of Crete seventeen Nations of renown in the East succeeding each other did for very many years even without intermission enjoy a Dominion of the Syrian Egyptian Pamphylian Lydian and AEgean Sea no otherwise than of the Continent or Islands pag. 56 CHAP. XI Touching the Sea-Dominions of the Lâ—â—â—demonians and Athenians Moreoâ—er also that it was acknowledged not onely by the Greeks but also by the Persians in a Treatie of Peace pag. 65 CHAP. XII Other Testimonies which are found scattered up and down touching the Dominion of the Sea in the Customs of the Eastern Nations pag. 69 CHAP. XIII Of the Spinetans Tuscans Carthaginians and other Lords of the Sea in the West pag. 74 CHAP. XIV The Sea-Dominion of the people of Rome and of such as followed their Customs in the Eastern Empire pag. 77 CHAP. XV. The Dominion of the Sea as it belonged to private persons under the Roman Empire together with that Sanction established in the Eastern Empire whereby the perpetual communitie of the Sea which was pretended to by som beeing utterly abolished as a thing unjust the Dominion even of private persons therein is asserted pag. 89 CHAP. XVI Touching the Dominion of the SEA according to the Customs of such Nations as are now in beeing First of the Adriatick Sea belonging to the Venetians the Ligustick to the Genoêses the Tyrrhen to the Tuscans and lastly of the Sea belonging to the Church or Pope of Rome pag. 99 CHAP. XVII Concerning the received Customs of the Portugals and Spaniards about the Dominion of the Sea pag. 107 CHAP. XVIII How far private Dominion over the Sea is admitted according to the Customs or opinion of the French pag 111 CHAP. XIX The private Dominion of the Sea according to the received Customs of the Danes the people of Norway the Sweds Polanders and Turks pag. 118 CHAP. XX. An Answer to the objection concerning Freedom of Passage to Merchants Strangers and Sea-men pag. 123 CHAP. XXI An Answer to that Objection concerning the uncertain fluid nature of the Sea and its continual Alteration It is proved that Rivers also and the adjoining Aër which are more fluid and uncertain may becom appropriate pag. 127 CHAP. XXII An Answer to the Objections touching the defect of Bounds and Limits in the Sea as also concerning its magnitude and inexhaustible abundance pag. 135 CHAP. XXIII An Answer to such Testimonies as have faln from Writers treating of other subjects and which are usually alleged against Dominion of the Sea pag. 145 CHAP. XXIV An Answer to the Objections taken out of Antient Lawyers pag. 150 CHAP. XXV Touching the Emperor Antoninus his Answer that himself was Soveraign of the world but the Law as 't is commonly translated of the Sea in L. Deprecatio ff tit de lege Rhodiâ The true meaning of the said Answer and a new but genuine Exposition of it Also that it comprehend's nothing which may in any wise oppose a Dominion of the Sea pag. 157 CHAP. XXVI An Answer to the Opinions of modern Lawyers so far as they oppose a Dominion of the Sea especially of Fernannandus Vasquius and Hugo Grotius pag. 168 The Contents of the second BOOK CHAP. I. THe order or Method of those things that are to bee handled in this Book The British Ocean divided into four parts pag. 181 CHAP. II. That the antient Britains did enjoy and possess the SEA of the same name especially
the Southern and Eastern part of it as Lords thereof together with the Island before they were brought under the Roman power p. 188 CHAP. III. That the Britains were Lords of the Northern Sea before they were subdued by the Romanes And that the Sea and the Land made one entire Bodie of the British Empire pag. 201 CHAP. IV. That the Dominion of the British Sea followed the Conquest of great Britain it self under the Emperors Claudius and Domitian pag. 205 CHAP. V. Touching the Dominion of the Romanes in the British Sea as an appendant of the Island from the time of Domitian to the Emperor Constantius Chlorus or Diocletian pag. 211 CHAP. VI. Touching the Dominion of the Southern and Eastern Sea as an appendant of the British Empire from the time of Constantine the Great till the Romanes quitted the Island That it was all under the Command of the Count of the Saxon Shore throughout Britain Also concerning the British Navie under the Romanes pag. 217 CHAP. VII An Examination of the Opinion of som learned men who would have the Saxon Shore from whence that Count or Commander of the Sea throughout Britain had his Title to bee the British Shore on this side of the Sea which is plainly proved to bee fals pag. 231 CHAP. VIII Som Evidences concerning the Soveraigntie and inseparable Dominion of the Isle of Britain and the Sea belonging thereto out of Claudian and certain Coins of the Emperor Antoninus Pius pag. 242 CHAP. IX Touching the Dominion of the British Sea after that the Inhabitants had freed themselvs from the Romane power pag. 247 CHAP. X. It is proved both from the very beginning of the Saxon's Reign as also from their Forces and Victories by Sea that the English-Saxons and Danes who ruled the South part of Britain had Dominion over the Sea pag. 251 CHAP. XI The Sea-Dominion of the English-Saxons and Danes during their Reigns in Britain observed in like manner from such Tributes and Duties of their Fiduciarie Clients or Vassals as concerned the maintenance of the Navie Also concerning the Tribute or Paiment called Danegeld which was wont to beelevied for the Guard of the Sea pag. 259 CHAP. XII The Testimonies of Edgar and Canutus Kings of England with others expressly declaring the Dominion which they and their predecessors had over the Sea Together with an observation touching the Nations which in that Age were seated upon the opposite Shore pag. 273 CHAP. XIII Several Testimonies concerning the Sea-Dominion of the Kings of England since the Norman Conquests set forth in general heads pag. 284 CHAP. XIV That the Kings of England since the coming in of the Normans have perpetually enjoied the Dominion of the Sea flowing about them is in the first place proved from the Guard or Government thereof as of a Province or Territorie that is to say from the verie Law of the English Admiraltie pag. 287 CHAP. XV. The Dominion of the English Sea asserted from those Tributes or Customs that were wont to bee imposed paid and demanded for the Guard or Protection thereof after the Norman Conquest pag. 295 CHAP. XVI Observations touching the Dominion of the English and Irish Sea from the tenor and varietie of those Letters Patents or Commission Roial whereby the Admirals of England were wont to bee put in Autoritie pag. 305 CHAP. XVII It is proved by words plain enough in the form of the Commissions for the Government or command of the high Admiral of England from antient to the present time that the Sea for whose guard or defence hee was appointed by the King of England as Lord and Soveraign was ever bounded towards the South by the shore of Aquitain Normandie and Picardie pag. 312 CHAP. XVIII Touching the Admirals of the Kingdom of France or those constituted upon the opposite Shore their Original nature and varietie That the Sea it self flowing between Britain and France is not conteined in that command of his as of one that is Governor of a Territorie or Province nor is there any thing in it that may oppose the Dominion of the King of England by Sea pag. 321. CHAP. XIX That in the Dominion of those Islands lying before the shore of France which hath ever been enjoied by the Kings of England it appear's that the possession of the Sea wherein they are situate is derived from their Predecessors pag. 333 CHAP. XX. The Dominion and possession of the Sea asserted on the behalf of the Kings of England from that leav of preter-Navigation or passage which hath been usually either granted by them to Foreiners or desired from them pag. 344 CHAP. XXI That Licence hath been usually granted to Foreiners by the Kings of England to fish in the Sea Also that the Protection given to Fisher-men by them as in their own Territorie is an antient and manifest Evidence of their Dominion by Sea pag. 355 CHAP. XXII The Dominion of England made evident from the Laws and Limits usually set by our Kings in the Sea to such Foreiners as were at enmitie with each other but in amitie with the English And concerning the King's Closets or Chambers in the Sea Also touching that singular privelege of perpetual truce or exemption from hostilitie in the Sea about those Isles which lie before the shore of Normandie pag. 363 CHAP. XXIII Certain publick Records wherein of old the Dominion of the Sea is by the way asscribed to the Kings of England both by the King himself and also by the Estates of Parlament debating of other matters and that in express words and with verie great deliberation as a known and most undoubted Right pag. 375 CHAP. XXIV Of divers Testimonies in our own Law-books and the most received Customs whereby the Sea-Dominion of the King of England is either asserted or admitted pag. 382 CHAP. XXV Son antient Testimonies of less account touching the Sea-Dominion whereof wee treat pag. 394 CHAP. XXVI That the Sea-Dominion of the Kings of England is acknowledged by Foreiners whom it most concerns by their usual striking of Sails according to antient Custom Also concerning two Edicts or Ordinances that were set forth about this thing by the Kings of France pag. 398 CHAP. XXVII A Recognition or Acknowledgment of the Sea-Dominion of the King of England made by very many of the Neighbor-Nations round about in an antient Libel publickly exhibited or in a Bill of Complaint instituted by them together with the English against Reyner Grimbald Governor of the French Navie Also touching a Recognition of this kinde implied in his defence pag. 403 CHAP. XXVIII A Copie or Transcript of the Libel or Bill of Complaint mentioned in the former Chapter pag. 415. CHAP. XXIX A Recognition or acknowledgment of the Sea-Dominion of the Kings of England made by the Flemings in an Ambassy to Edward the Second pag. 429 CHAP. XXX Of the Dominion of the King of Great Britain in the Irish and Western Sea considered singly and apart by it self pag. 433.
therefore from thence they seem to hold that a Dominion over the Sea cannot bee atteined by any antient usage custom or prescription nor under any other pretence or title whatsoëver for faie they no Plea or Barr is to bee allowed against nature Nor as Papinian saith is a Prescription of long possession wont to bee admitted for the holding of such places as are publick and common by the Law of Nations And these antient Lawyers here mentioned are followed by no small Train of Interpreters though nevertheless there are not a few even of them who restrain and qualifie that antient opinion more waies then one touching the necessitie of a common Intercours and freedom at Sea as wee shall shew hereafter But of our modern Lawyers those that have appeared most forward in opposing a Right of Dominion over the Sea are onely two both indeed very eminent men but of unequal learning and elegancie of wit by name Fernandus Vasquius the Spaniard and Hugo Grotius the Hollander the former an honorable Counsellor to King Philip the 3. of Spain in his high Court of Exchequer The later was heretofore Advocate Fiscal of Holland Zeland and West-Friesland and most deservedly adorned with divers other honors in his own Countrie a man of an acute judgment and for his excellencie in all kinds of learning incomparable But Vasquius in his discours both of the Law of Nature and Nations as also concerning the Rights of Dominion Prescription and other things of that nature speak's to this effect From hence saith hee it appear's how little esteem is to bee had of their opinion who suppose that the Genoëses or Venetians may without injurie forbid others to sail through the Gulph in their respective Seas as if they could have laid claim to those Seas by Prescription which is not onely contrarie to the Imperial Laws above mentioned but also against the Primitive Law of nature and nations which cannot bee alter'd And that it is against this Law is evident becaus by the same Law not onely the Seas but all other immovable things whatsoëver were common And although in after-time that Law came to bee abolish't in part so far as concern's the Dominion and Proprietie of Lands which beeing enjoied in common according to the Law of nature were afterwards distinguish't divided and so separated from that common use yet it hath been otherwise and is still as to the Dominion of the Sea which from the beginning of the world to this present daie is and ever hath been in common without the least alteration as 't is generally known And though I hear many of the Portugals are of this opinion that their King hath had such an antient Title by Prescription in that vast Ocean of the West-Indies so that other Nations have no right to sail through those Seas and also that the ordinarie sort of our own Nation of Spain seem to bee of the same opinion that no people whatsoëver but Spaniards have any right to sail through that immens and most spatious Sea to those Indian Countries that have been subdued by the most mightie Kings of Spain as if they onely had a right by Prescription thereto yet all these men's opinions are no less vain and foolish then theirs who use to dream the same things of the Genoeses and Venetians The follie of which opinions appear's the more clearly even in this respect becaus neither of those Nations singly consider'd can prescribe ought against themselvs that is to saie neither the Republick of Venice against it self nor that of Genoa against it self nor the Kingdom of Spain against it self nor that of Portugal against it self for there ought ever to bee a difference between the Agent and Patient Much less can they prescribe ought to the prejudice of other Nations becaus the Law of Prescriptions is purely Civil Therefore such a Law can bee of no force in deciding Controversies that happen betwixt Princes or people that acknowledg no Superior For the peculiar Civil Laws of every Countrie are of no more value as to Forrain Countries and Nations or their people then if such a Law were not in Beeing or never had been â—nd therefore in Controversies of that nature recours must bee had unto the common Law of Nations Original or Secondarie which Law certainly did never admit of such a Prescription or usurpation of Title over the Sea Other matters hee hath of the same kinde beeing a very confident opposer of any peculiar Dominion over the Sea But in the year MD CIX it beeing the year after that large Treatie held at the Hage betwixt the Spaniard and the Hollander about freedom of Trade and Navigation to the East-Indies there was published that Book of Hugo Grotius entituled MARE LIBERUM or a discours concerning that Right which the Hollanders have to Trade in the Indies Wherein hee endeavor's first to prove that by the Law of Nations there ought to bee such a freedom of Navigation for all men whatsoëver which waie they pleas so that they cannot without injurie bee molested at Sea Next that the Atlantick and Southern Ocean or the Right of Navigation to the Indies is not nor indeed can bee any peculiar of the Portugalls forasmuch as the Sea saith hee according to the Laws and reasons already mentioned can in no wise becom the Proprietie of any one becaus nature not onely permit's but require's it should bee common Several other passages hee hath about this matter in his excellent Book De Jure Belli pacis of which more hereafter Thus much in brief concerning those arguments that are usually brought against the Dominion or Ownership of the Sea The next thing therefore is to explain the sens of the Question and its terms What is meant by the word SEA in the Question Also a division of the LAVV in order to the discours CHAP. III. AS to what concern's the present Question Whether the Sea bee capable of private Dominion wee take the word CAPABLE in the same sens as it was used by the Emperor Traian in an Epistle of his to his beloved Plinie Solum peregrinae civitatis capax non esse dedicationis quae fit jure nostro The soil of a strange Citie is not capable of such a dedication as is made by our Law Moreover wee shall explain what is meant by the SEA as also by those Terms of LAW and DOMINION By the SEA wee understand the whole Sea as well the main Ocean or Out-land Seas as those which are within-land such as the Mediterranean Adriatick AEgean or Levant British and Baltick Seas or any other of that kinde which differ no otherwise from the main then as Homogeneous or Similary parts of the same bodie do from the whole But the Law as it is the rule measure and pointing out of things lawful or unlawful fall's under a twofold consideration Fither as it is Obligatorie which is called also Preceptive or as it is Permissive
and restrained but when this Reason wholy ceaseth then what the Proprietor possesseth is so his own that it cannot lawfully in any wise without his consent becom another man's And all these things are derived from the alteration of that Universal or Natural Law of nations which is Permissive For thence came in private Dominion or Possession to wit from the Positive Law But in the mean while it is established by the Universal Obligatorie Law which provide's for the due observation of Compacts and Covenants These things beeing thus premised wee shall next see what respect hath been had unto the Sea either in the very first or any more antient Distribution or Division of things For if it appear that the Sea also hath been assigned over with Lands it must certainly bee confessed that from the same original there spring's a private Dominion of the Sea as well as the Land and so that it is equally capable of the same with this And truly in the distribution of Land which was renewed after the flood so far as wee are able to collect by Tradition from the Antients wee finde no express mention made of any Sea as a part assigned But yet somtimes the Sea is added as a bound to a part assigned As where the part first assigned unto the Sons of Cham is extended from the Borders of Egypt through Africa as far as Hercules's Pillars or unto the Western and African Sea And the Portion of the Canaanits situate within the Territorie of the Sons of Cham is twice so described in the Samaritan Pentateuch that it is expressly said to reach from the River of Egypt or Nilus to the great River that is the River Euphrates and unto the utmost Sea or the remotest which is the great or Western Sea Which last words are used in the laying out of that Portion which the Sacred Scripture mention's in Deuteronomie Somtimes also som Seas may seem to bee so comprehended in the part assigned that they appear to bee no less assigned then the Land For unto the Sons of Japhet were assigned those Countries which extend from Media towards the North and the West as far as Cadiz and the Islands of Britain Wee see also that certain Seas are included within the compass of Assignments as the AEgean Mediterranean Adriatick and British Seas whether by Donation or not wee cannot say But in that antient apportioning of the holy Land whereof God himself was Autor the Sea seem's rather to have been accounted a boundarie then any part of the Territorie allotted Concerning the South-Quarter the words are these The Bounds of it shall bee the outmost Coast of the salt Sea Eastward And a little after The Border shall fetch a Compass from Azmon unto the River of Egypt and the goings out of it shall bee at the Sea Also concerning the West-Quarter its Border shall begin at Sea ipso fine claudetur and by it it shall bee bounded as it is in the vulgar Translation to which â—ens agreeth also the modern But concerning this place and the rest here quoted wee shall speak more in the next Chapter Then it follow 's according to the true sens of the Hebrew And this shall bee your North-border From the great Sea you shall point out for you Mount Hor. And a little farther speaking of the East-Quarter Its Border shall descend and shall reach unto the side of the Sea of Chinnereth Eastward And the Border shall go down again to Jordan and the goings out of it shall bee at the salt Sea This shall bee your Land with the Coasts thereof round about Which is repeated almost word for word in the distribution that was made by Joshua And in another place of holy Scripture the bounds of the Dominion is said to bee from Sea to Sea But suppose at last it were granted that the Seas came not into those more antient distributions of Territories then it remain's next to bee consider'd whether they might not lawfully bee acquired afterwards by Title of occupation as things vacant and derelict that is either by the Natural or Divine universal Law which is Permissive or by the Law of divers Nations Common or Civil which in judging matters of this nature is the best Interpreter of the natural Law which is Permissive For if in the Permissive which is Universal nothing bee repugnant thereto or which is in a manner all one if by the Positive Law of Nations such a Dominion of the Sea as wee intend hath been introduced and admitted by the consent of the more famous Ages and Nations then I suppose it will not bee doubted but that the Seas are by all manner of Law every way capable of private Dominion as is the Land That the Law of God or the Divine Oracles of holy Scripture do allow a private Dominion of the Sea And that the wide Ocean also which washeth the Western Coast of the holy Land or at least a considerable part of it was according to the Opinion of such as were learned in the Jewish Law annexed to the Land of Israël by the Assignation or appointment of God himself CHAP. VI. AS to what concern's here the Law of God wee finde very plain passages therein which do not a little favor a Dominion of the Sea In that first and most antient Donation of things after the Flood whereby God invested Noah and his Posteritie in the Dominion of the whole Earth of which Globe the Seas themselvs are a part and of the conterminous Aër seem's to bee no otherwise granted then as mention iâ— made of the living Creatures the Earth and the Fowls of the Aër That is by an express grant of the free use and benefit of the thing the thing it self was granted or conferred Nor is the Dominion of the Sea otherwise granted there where it is said The fear of you and the dread of you which are Tearms signifying Dominion shall bee also all the Fishes of the Sea Little different from this is that which was spoken to our first Parents Replenish the Earth and subdue it and have Dominion over the Fish of the Sea and over the Fowl of the Aër and over everie living thing that moveth upon the Earth So here also the grant of the thing it self is signified by its use and enjoiment 'T is confess 't that these words were not meant of private Dominion or that which was not common to all men But yet it appear's thereby the Earth and Sea did so pass together at first and after the same manner into the common enjoiment of mankinde that from this Donation or Grant of God wee may well conclude that their condition as beeing both but one Globe must needs bee alike at the pleasure of men in the future distribution of Things or the introducing of private Dominion therein Neither is the Proprietie nor the Communitie of either appointed but both seem equally permitted by the very
unto them by God and therefore that those Precepts are to bee observed in that vast Ocean as in the Territorie of Israël The chief Autor of this opinion was an antient and very famous Interpreter of the Law by name Rabbi Jehuda who also from the express words of the Holie Law above-mentioned conclud's that the western Ocean thus bounded on both sides was assigned His Doctrine is deliver'd after this manner as wee finde it in the most antient Digests of the Jewish Law Whatsoëver lie's directly opposite to the Land of Israël it is of the same account with the Land of Israël according as it is written As for your West-Border let your Border bee or you shall have the great Sea Also let this bee a Border to you or your Border To wit the Border of the Sea or of the West Also the Collateral Islands situate on both sides in the same direct line fall under the same accompt with the sides themselvs So that if a line were drawn from Cephaloria through the Isles to the main Ocean and from the River of Egypt to the Ocean then that which is within the line is to bee taken for the Territorie of Israël and that which lie's without the line to bee out of the Dominion of Israël The line drawn from Cephaloria was directed by the Promontorie of mount Hor or Amanus as is said before For that Citie was seated on the top of that mountain which is here the North-east Border as it is observed in the Gloss upon the place alleged and in many other There also this opinion is thus explained According to this opinion of Rabbi Jehuda all that Sea which lie's opposite to the length of the Land of Israël even to the main Ocean West-ward where the world it 's self is bounded is to bee reckon'd within the Territorie or Dominion of Israël even as it is written the great Sea and your Border the whole place wee gave you a little before out of Numbers where and your Border is added the more fully and plainly to intimate that the great and wide Sea is contained also within it's Border And it follow 's there thus Between those little Cords or Lines directed as wee said on both sides to the main Sea there are Islands belonging to the Territorie of Israël the Islands and waters have both the same Law c. Hence also the ordinarie Jewish Gloss upon those words in Numbers And you shall have the great Sea saith The Isles that are in the middâ—st of the Sea even they also are part of the bound or Border But the Jewish Paraphrase is more plain there And let your Border bee the great Sea that is the main Ocean and it's Isles and Cities and Ships with the principal waters that are in it Nor was it upon any other ground that Rabbi Aben-Ezra Rabbi Bâ—chai and others conceived so great a part of the Sea did belong to the Israëlites by this assignation that they interpret the great Sea also to reach through the Sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Spanish Sea distant so many miles Westward from the Continent of Israël In both the forenamed places the words are The great Sea to wit the Spanish And your Border as if it had been said The great Sea shall bee your possession which of it self also is your Border But in the mean while it is to bee consider'd that the whole western Ocean as far as the narrow channel of Cadiz is by the Arabians and so by the modern Jews who were their Disciples indifferently called the Romane Sea mare Al-shem or the Sea of Damascus that is the Syrian Sea mare Al-Andalús or the Spanish and lastly the mediterranean Sea the whole beeing denominated from the Coasts of som particular Countries As it may bee clearly collected both out of the Nubian Geographie as also out of the Geographical Abridgment of Abu Elchasen Hali an Arabian But this is most certain that the name of the Spanish Sea hath been used here by the Rabbins not from such a promiscuous or common denomination of the Sea but according to the explanation of such an antient Assignation of the Dominion of Israël as wee have mentioned And so this first opinion would have the whole Western Ocean as far as the streights of Cadiz which the Antients thought the utmost bound of the world to bee reckoned for that part of the Territorie of Israël which is included within the lines drawn from the Promontorie of mount Hor or Amanus and the entrance of Pelusium into the West But by the other opinion which seem's much more agreeable to reason it is determined that the Divine Assignation of the Territorie of Israël is comprehended indeed within more narrow Bounds of this Sea but yet Sea-room large enough so that according to this opinion the North and South-Borders do end at the very shore or at the utmost point of the said Promontorie North-East and at the entrance of Pelusium towards the South not stretching any farther into the West But indeed the Autors of this opinion would have a streight line drawn from that Promontorie to the entrance of Pelusium to wit from the North-East into the South thereby to limit and bound the Western part of the Dominion of Israël so that what portion soëver either of the Sea or the Isles should bee comprehended within such a line or lie on the East side of it the whole were to bee reckoned a part of the Territorie of Israël as well as any Coast upon the Continent or main Land And so after this manner the aforesaid line included within the nooks and windings of the shore of that Territorie possessed by the Tribes of Asher Ephraim Dan Zabulon and Simeon was situate before very large spaces of of the Sea for above two hundred miles and supposed to bee of the same accompt with the shore it self In the Digests of the Jewish Law this opinion is explained thus That it may bee known what com's under the name of the Territorie of Israël and what is to bee reckoned out of that Territorie as to the North-East and Western bounds whatsoëver is stretcht forth on this side and within Mount Amanus is the Territorie of Israël And that which is placed beyond that Mountain is without this Territorie And so by the same reason it is to bee determined touching the Isles of the Sea that are seated over against that Mountain Let a small Cord or Line bee drawn over those Islands from Mount Amanus to the river of Egypt that is conteined within the Line is the Territorie of Israël but that which lie's without the Line is no part of that Territorie With this agree's that of Ezekiel concerning the Sea-Coast of the holy Land after hee had described the South part which is near the Sea The West side also shall bee the great Sea from the border till a man com over against Hamath This is the West
or Sea-side or Coast. The vulgar read's it thus The great Sea also shall bee its Sea-border strait along from the border till you com to Emath This is the Sea-side Which the Greeks render thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This part is South and South-west according to the translation of the fore-going words Then according to what hath been alleged out of the Hebrew it follow 's in the Greek This is part or this divide's part of the great Sea untill a man com over against the entrance which lead's to Hemath even to the entrance thereof These are they which lie near the Sea of Hemath So that every Translation speak's to the same purpose But that which wee have added to the Hebrew agree's both with the Chaldee Paraphrase and the Exposition of the Spanish Jews Moreover Solomon Jarchius expound's it there after this manner according to the doctrine of the Antients From the South-Corner for so hee interpret's this word from the Border which is the river of Egypt till a man com over against the entrance which lead's to Hamath that is to the Corner situated under the Northwest which is the very Mount Hor over against the entrance unto Hamath For Hamath was seated on the North-west side near Mount Hor. And so that which is cut off here by the Border in a strait line as the vulgar hath it drawn from the entrance of Nilus to the Promontorie of Mount Hor contein's no small portion of the Sea as assigned unto Israël And this later Opinion is the better received whereby onely the nearer Parts of the Sea are by God's appointment conceived to bee in the very same condition with the continent as appear's not onely out of the more antient Digests or both Volums of the Talmud but also by the Testimonie of those most learned Rabbins Moses Maimonides and Moses Cotzensis besides others of a less account who in express terms imbrace it Also according to both these Opinions that is in the mean time of sufficient Autoritie which is deliver'd in general terms touching the beyond-Sea Provinces by Solomon Jarchius Rabbenu Nissim Obadiah Bartenorius and others to wit That whatsoëver lie's without the Territorie of Israël that whole Province or Citie is often comprised under the Notion of the Sea except Babylon After the example of the Sea-Provinces situated afar off in the West without the Lines drawn according to this or the other Opinion the Mediterranean Provinces and Cities also which were â—eated in other remote Parts without the Borders of Israël have in stead of beeing called a strange Land been termed the Provinces or Cities of the Sea Which point is very well handled by Rabbenu Nissim in the former place But as these which were seated without their Territorie in the continent were onely by the said Custom of speech called Cities of the Sea so also it is clear by what wee have shewn you that according to the same way of speaking it is granted that other Cities also within their Territorie were seated in the verie Sea And so at length from both the Opinions here recited wee have sufficiently proved that such an Exposition of the divine Assignation was received by the antient Interpreters of the Jewish Law to whom that Assignation was made that they made no doubt but the Sea was every jot as capable of private Dominion as the Land and so reckoned those Islands placed in the neighboring Sea as belonging to the Territorie of Israël becaus of their Dominion over the Sea that did flow between them Nor doth it hinder at all that in their Assignations or Distributions wee so often finde this Particle usque ad Mare unto the Sea as appear's in the former Chapter or that the Sea was their Border For the word usque until or unto is not onely often inclusive but also the Borders or Limits themselves are many times all one with the thing limited after the same manner as all Bounds that are bounded Touching which Particular both the Canonists and Civilians are very Copious as also the Jews in those other Particulars alreadie mention'd And therefore wee conclude out of the Premisses that neither the Divine Law which is universal nor the Positive as it appear's in Scripture to bee Imperative or to have a command over som certain Nations for there is a true picture of the Imperative Law in the aforesaid distribution of Bounds doth oppose a private Dominion of the Sea but that both of them do sufficiently allow it and afford also very clear examples of such a Dominion if wee may believ the Jews themselvs In the next place then let us consider what is yet behinde of the Law natural and of Nations That the natural-Permissive Law whereof any use may bee in this place is to bee derived out of the Customs and Constitutions of the more civilized and more noble Nations both antient and modern CHAP. VII AS to what concern's here the Law Natural as one head of the universal or Primitive Law of Nations in our former Division of the Law commonly derived from a right and discreet use of Reason that it doth in no wise gainsay a private Dominion of the Sea but plainly permit it wee shall prove hereby becaus by the positive Law of Nations of every kind which is humane for wee have alreadie spoken of the Divine to wit as well by the Law Civil or Domestick of divers Nations as the Common Law of divers Nations whether it bee Intervenient or Imperative that is to say by the Customs of almost all and the more noble Nations that are known to us such a Dominion of the Sea is every where admitted It is not indeed to bee denied that a right use of humane Reason which usually serv's as an Index of the natural Law cannot well bee gather'd from the Customs of several Nations about things Divine or such as relate unto Divine Worship Nor are the Points either of the Obligatorie or Permissive kinde of natural Law relating thereunto to bee thence determined For it hath been the common Custom of men in all Ages and throughout all parts of the known World to conclude of such maters either without exact and convenient examination or els for the serving of their own Interests or els to suit with the humor and disposition of the people whom they are to rule and keep in order as do the Pagans Mahometans and others of that sort as well modern as antient And therefore Antisthenes of old taught well and boldly at Athens as many other Philosophers have don Populares Deos esse multos sed naturalem unum esse That there are many National Gods and but one Natural contrarie to what the most usual practice of men and Custom had introduced among the ordinarie sort of People So that as of old in the Jewish Church so also in the Christian the use of humane Reason among the vulgar though free in other things yet
those Trifles whereby the vulgar suffered themselvs with patience to bee cozen'd touching the Heaven or Skie the kingdom of Hell or of the dead and of the whole Earth's beeing common after this division to all the Brothers som of the Antients have taught that the Truth it self which lay couched in this Fable was quite another Thing They say these were not gods but men Also that Jupiter was not King of Heaven but of the Eastern part from whence the Light first dawn's upon mortal men by which means also it seemed the higher part and therefore was called Heaven And that Pluto was King of the West which point's at the Sun 's setting and Night from whence it was said to bee lower and Hell Lastly that Neptune was Lord of the Sea and the Isles scatter'd therein Thus it appear's here that a private Dominion of the Sea no otherwise then of the Land arose from Humane distribution And that the case stood thus it was affirmed long since by Euhemerus Messenius an old Autor in his Historie of the Affairs of those men who were supposed gods recorded and translated by Ennius For Lactantius saith thus Concerning the lot or share of Neptune it is manifest I say that his Kingdom was such as was that unlimited command of Cneius Pompeius who by decree of the Senate had Autoritie given him over all the Sea-Coast for suppressing Pirats and scouring the whole Sea Thus all things belonging to the Sea with its Islands fell by lot unto Neptune But how may it bee proved To wit by antient Histories Euhemerus an old Autor who was of the Citie of Messina hath collected the Affairs and Atchievments of Jupiter and others that are reputed gods and compiled a Historie of thâ—se sacred Titles and Inscriptions that were found in the most antient Temples and especially in the Temple of Jupiter of Triphylia where a golden Pillar was placed by Jupiter himself as appeared by the Inscription Upon which Pillar hee wrote his own Actions that it might remain a Monument of his Affairs unto Posteritie This Historie Ennius did both translate and follow whose words are these Jupiter grant's the Dominion of the Sea unto Neptune that hee might reign over all the Islands and all Places near the Sea But both the Translation of Ennius and the Commentaries themselvs of Euhemerus are utterly lost nor is it to bee thought that they were lost without the knowledg and design of the chief Priests of Jupiter and other Deities For doubtless whatsoever had been written touching the Originals of the gods was so much the more odious by how much the more it did lay them open and discover that those great Names which were magnified in their Chappels and Temples were taken out of the List either of great Kings or Heroes and obtruded upon the credulous vulgar For from hence it was that Euhemerus with Diagoras and som others was branded an Atheist who is used as a singular Autor not onely by Lactantius but also by Clemens Alexandrinus Eusebius Augustin Arnobius and others to whom wee know very great credit is given in those Arguments that are pieced together against the vain Theologie of the Heathen It is I suppose the same man that is called by Plutarch Tegeata when hee is ranked in the same form with Diagoras But hee is by the same Autor called Messenius when as beeing very obstinate in the superstition of his Ancestors hee brand's him as a great Patron of Impostures and beeing induced it seem's by hatred against Euhemerus hee conceit 's there never were any such Nation as the Triphylians or Panchaeans whereas Panchaea is an Island situate about Arabia in the more Southern Ocean wherein Euhemerus placeth the Temple of Jupiter Triphylius from whence that Storie touching the Dominion of the Sea was taken Truly Diodorus useth him also as a grave Autor A late Lawyer also make 's use of that Neptune in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But of those things which were distributed by lot I have taken the Sea for my share that I might dwell therein for ever so hee translate's it that hee may with the more confidence take the whole matter related concerning the three Deities as meant of Noah's three sons His words are these Id proculdubio ex partitione terrarum inter tres filios Noachi ex quibus Japheto Insulae obvenerunt causam traxit It may without question bee proved from that partition of Lands which was made verwixt Noah's three sons whereby the Isles of the Sea fell to Japhet So that in that fable hee would have the Dominion not onely of the Isles but also of the Sea to bee assigned unto Japhet But that which Lactantius saith touching the unlimited Command of Pompey as parallel to the example of Neptune's Dominion it is so to bee understood that regard bee had also as well of those that gave the Command to Pompey as of him to whom the Command was given As for instance the Cilicians had infested the Seas as Florus saith and having spoiled commerce behaving themselvs like enemies of mankinde they shut up the Sea with warr as it were a tempest Therefore the Romans haveing a special eye to their provision of Corn did by a decree of the Senate procured by Gabinius send out Pompey to free the Sea from Pirats And there was granted unto him by that decree a Command of the Sea which lie's within Hercules's pillars and also of the continent about 400 furlongs from the Sea Hereupon beeing master of a huge Navie and having disposed divers Lievtenants through all parts of his Command Hee so scoured the whole Sea from the straits of Cadiz to the Cilician shore that none was able to stand before him either by Sea or Land Certainely Pompey had a Commission onely as Admiral of the People of Rome as Paterculus saith Mark Antony had the like about two years before But that people which intrusted him was Lord of this Sea as the Romane Territorie as well as of those 400 furlongs of the Continent which were joined alike with the Sea in the Grant of that Commission though no more lyable to Dominion then the Sea it self Florus saith also that Tiberius Nero who was one of Pompey'es Lievtenants blockt up the streights of Cadiz at the first entrance of our Sea Hee beeing a Romane rightly call's it our Sea as also Salust doth more then once becaus it was so wholy subdued under the Romane power And Dio Cassius Hee scoured the whole Sea which was under the Romane obedience And saith Mela of the Mediteranean Sea all that Sea whencesoëver it flow's or whithersoëver it spread's it self is called by one name Our Sea So it is called likewise by others And Mela useth the name our Sea very often afterwards But more of this hereafter where wee treat more largely concerning the Dominion of the Romanes by Sea Nor did Pompey's commission extend onely
against those Pirats as enemies of humane society after the same manner as wee see Commissions daily granted against Pirats that rob and spoil in any Sea not yet possessed but that very Sea-Territorie which the Cilicians had invaded was recover'd by Arms. From whence Manilius break 's forth in a Poetical rapture Quis te Niliaco peritarum littore Magne Post victas Mithridatis Opes pelagúsque receptum Crederet Who would have thought great Pompey when for Rome Thou Mithridates forces had'st o'recom And did'st from Pirats hands the Sea restore Thou shouldst have perish'ton th' Egyptian shore Therefore Lactantius ought not so much to have resembled Neptune to Pompey as to the People of Rome in beeing Lord of the Sea Other matters there are in the fabulous time which beeing spoken of the Gods may seem to shew what opinion the Antients were of touching the right and custom of men in this particular For when they cloth their Gods with the persons of men they commonly speak such things of them as belong unto men From whence Hâ—siod sayeth Jupiter granted unto Hecate that shee should possess part of the Sea as well as the Land Hereunto also belong's that of Oppianus concerning Amphitrite's beeing made Queen of the Sea by Neptune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee constituted Her Queen of the Sea Also Nonnus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beroë had the Empire or Dominion of the Sea Instances of this kinde are innumerable And therefore thus much concerning the fabulous time The first Dominion of the Sea among the Greeks in the Historical age that is the Dominion of King Minos or the Cretan CHAP. IX THe former part of the Historical time or that which comprehend's Kingdoms and Commonweals which expired som ages since wee begin from the Empire of the Cretans at Sea Afterwards wee trace a catalogue not onely of very many People of old Greece and other nations famous heretofore in the East of like Command and Dominion in the Syrian Egyptian Pamphilian Lydian and AEgean Seas and the several changes thereof but also wee shew that the Dominion both of the Romans and Carthaginians in their adjoyning Seas as the upper the lower the more Easterly Sea also and others of that kinde in the West hath been received into Custom as a thing very usual and agreeable to Law I. MInos the son of Lycastus said to bee the son of Jupiter King of Crete possessed the Cretan Sea on every side and a great part of the AEgean as Lord and Sovereign So sayeth Thucydides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Minos held the greatest part of the Greek Sea as Lord thereof So truly the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to bee construed both here and in the following instances Nor is it any wise to bee imagined that so to have Command as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commonly signifie's can bee otherwise meant than very plainly thus that any one who is Lord or at least doth Act as Deputy or by permission of him who is Lord may prescribe Rules and Laws to the number of other men's ships and passage Tolls or Tributes throughout the several limits of the Sea after the same manner as when hee withold's or permit's the use of his Land to husbandmen according to his own will and pleasure Which in this case is all one Howsoêver wee are not ignorant that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 somtimes signifie's only to bee strong and powerfull in shipping In like manner Diodorus Siculus Nicolaus Damascenus Strabo Cedrenus Suidas and others speak expresly And Phaedra likewise in Seneca O magna vasti Creta Dominatrix freti Cujus per omne littus innumerae rates Tenuere pontum quicquid Assyriâ tenus Tellure Nereus pervium rostris secat O mighty Creet thou Mistress of the main Whose many ships have fil'd both Sea and shores As farr as Nereus doth to Ashur's Land Plow out a passage with his stemm's and oars And the first Dominion of the Sea that is the first possession of that part of it which was not yet possessed but remained vacant from whence this kind of Dominion doth arise they attribute for the most part unto Minos But there is an error touching this matter in Jerom's Traslation of the Chronicle of Eusebius nor is it to bee passed by unless wee will carelesly neglect that which in plain terms may seem to oppose the most eminent Soveraigntie of the Sea among the Grecians The Translation run's thus Minos Mare obtinuit Cretensibus Leges dedit ut Paradius memorat quod Plato falsum esse convincit Minos possessed the Sea and gave Laws to the Cretans as Paradius recordeth which Plato prove's to bee fals What then Doth Plato prove it to bee fals that Minos gave Laws to the Cretans and held the command of the Sea or that either of Them is fals The place is plainly fals and very much corrupted both in the fained name of Paradius an Autor never heard of in any other place as also in the very Translation of the Greek words of Eusebius Paradius I know not by what negligence for I would not believ it of Jerom a pious and most learned man but perhaps of som smatterer in learning who presumed to enlarge those brief summarie discourses of his in that Chronicle did arise even from Para Dios that is ex Jove from Jupiter which is found in the Greek words of Eusebius For there Eusebius saith Minos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 possessed the Sea and gave Laws unto the Cretans which hee brought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Jupiter out of the Cave where hee had retired himself for nine years Touching those Laws received from Minos which expired not before Crete was subdued by Caecilius Metellus also concerning his Cave in Mount Ida and the nine years the matter appear's very plain out of Homer Plato Porphyrie and others But in the Greek of Eusebius it immediately follow 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which certainly here signifie's id quod Plato in Legibus adprobat seu confirmat that which Plato in his Laws approve's or confirm's For Minos his receiving of of such Laws is the very foundation of Plato's Books concerning Laws So little reason is there it should have been translated Quod Plato falsum esse convincit aut quod Plato refellit which Plato prove's to bee fals which Plato disprove's whereas notwithstanding that eminent man Joseph Scaliger using far less diligence here then was meet or then hee hath been wont to do would have the latter to bee added in that place For howsoêver according to the meaning and more common usage of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may seem rightly translated yet the matter it self and the other signification of the word doth manifestly prove our trans-action to bee true But wee read the very same too according to Jerom's Translation as copied out by Marianus Scotus and Florentius of
the word appear's sufficiently ridiculous whil'st they derive a Syrian or Phenician name from the Greek fountain But the very thing which I suppose they would have is this That Atergatis was Queen or Sovereign Lady not only of Syria or Phenicia which is the Sea-cost of Syria but also of the Sea lying before it in such a manner that it was not lawful for any one to fish freely therein at least not to enjoy the benefit of fishing without her consent From whence it was a Custom to consecâ—aâ—e fishes of Gold and Silver to her after shee was placed among â—he Deities IX NInthly after the Phenicians the AEgyptians possessed the Sea under their Kings Psamnitis and Bocchoris who lived immediately before the beginnings of the Olympiads Mention is made of them also in Marianus and Florentius X. IN the tenth place the Milesians were Lords of the Sea The books of Eusebius do not shew the number of years But both in Marianus and Florentius wee read that the Milesians possessed the Sea XVIII years Stephanus concerning Cities saith Naucratis a Citie of AEgypt was built by the Milesians then possessing the Sea And Eusebius also mention's the building of that Citie together with their Dominion at Sea about the time of Romulus In like manner they built Sinope seated by the Euxine Sea which as Strabo saith commanded that Sea which flow's within the Cyanean Islands XI ELeventhly the Carians possessed the Sea Their Sea Dominion is remembred by Diodorus Siculus It was about the time of Hezekiah XII TWelfthly and next to the Carians the Lesbians held the Sea in possession LXIX years So it is in the Latine of Eusebius But Marianus rendreth it LVIII years XIII THirtenthly the Phoceans possessed the Sea about the Captivitie of Babylon Their Dominion lasted XLIV years So saith the Greek of Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Phoceans were Lords of the Sea XLIV years Before which words the number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or of twelve is prefixed whereby it is signified that they were the twelfth after the Lydians and the thirteenth from Minos XIV FOurteenthly the Corinthians were Lords of the Sea I do not finde that they were thus ranked But it appear's clearly out of Thucydides that they were very potent ar Sea and did so repress Piracies by their strength in shipping that they gained themselvs a very large command by Sea as well as by land The same autor also mention's their extraordinary industry in restoring the affairs of Navigation Nor doth time gainsay but that wee may well place them here as also the Iönians next But wee do not as yet finde that these fourteenth and the fifteenth are received by writers into the Catalogue of those who have thus held the Sea in possession XV. FIfteenthly the Iönians were neighboring Lords of the Sea Concerning them Thucydides saith A good while after to wit after the power of the Corinthians by Sea the power and interest of Navigation was in the hand of the Iönians in the time of Cyrus the first King of the Persians and of his son Cambyses And contending also with Cyrus they injoyed their own Sea for som time where the old Scholiast add's by way of observation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the neighboring Sea but not all XVI SIxteenthly the Naxians were Lords of the Sea Eusebius saith In the fifteenth place the Naxians possessed the Sea ten years About the time of Cambyses It is spoken of the Naxians named from the Island Naxos which is one of the Cyclades or Isles in the Archipelago XVII SEventeenthly the Eretrians succeeded into this Sea-Dominion Eusebius when hee speak's of the Naxians saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And after them the Eretrians in the seventeenth place held it VII years Eretria was heretofore a famous and wealthy Citie in the Island of Euboea XVIII And lastly the last or eighteenth Lords of the Sea in this Catalogue were the People of AEgina The Latine of Eusebius saith the People of AEgina possessed the Sea XX years even until Xerxes his passage which is noted in the fourth year of the sixtie seventh Olympiad But Xerxes made his passage in the seventy fift Olympiad and in first year thereof Therefore there passed XXVIII years between But truly Joseph Scaliger observe's here from this carelesness in counting of years that those are meer triflings which are found in the Latine And hee saith they are s discovered by the Greek wherein wee read onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The people of AEgina held possession of the Sea X years Which truly wee finde as well in the former Chronicle of Eusebius as in his Canon nor is it otherwise placed then in the Latine Also Strabo and AElianus make mention of their Sea-Dominion Touching the Sea-Dominion of the Lacedemonians and Athenians Moreover also that it was acknowledged not onely by the Greeks but also by the Persians in a Treatie of Peace CHAP. XI NOr are those Particulars which are to bee applied hither out of the East found onely in the Customs and Sea-Dominion of so many famous Nations thus continued one after another the years of whose Empires have usually been reckoned from their subduing the Sea but in the Customs of others also who truly were more famous though they bee not registered any where in such a kinde of Catalogue It is written of Polycrates that renowned King of the Samians who about the beginning of the Persian Empire vanquished the Lesbians and Mâ—lesians in a Sea fight that hee so earnestly aspired after a Soveraigntie of the Sea that it was manifestly acknowledged to bee capable of Dominion Herodotuâ— saith Polycrates is the first of those that wee have known who had an intent to acquire the Dominion of the Sea unto himself except Minos of Crete and if there were any other that enjoyed the Sea before him Hee speak's I suppose of Kings For those Greeks in whose hands the Dominion of the Sea was as wee before have shewn you so often changed were commonly govern'd either by a Popular or an Aristocratical form of Government Nor could Herodotus I think bee more ignorant of their Dominion then of King Minos For hee lived after the fore-mentioned Dominion of the People of AEgina was ended or about the eightieth Olympiad Therefore either hee spake onely of Kings or was extremely mistaken About the eightieth Olympiad and the times following unto the Grecian Monarchie those most renowned People of Greece not onely the Athenians but the Lacedemonians also did somtime enjoy a Dominion of the Sea flowing about them Demosthenes saith of the Lacedemonians They had Dominion over the Sea and the whole Land Others also have testified as much Concerning the Athenians either the same man or Hegisippus in that Oration touching Halonesos making mention of Philip K. of Macedon's affecting a Dominion of the Sea speak's thus De Praedonibus aequum esse aït Philippus
had without leav of the Lord or Possessor There was also a very antient Custom used in the Fast that when great Kings having designs to bring any Nations under their power commanded the pledges of Empire and Dominion to bee deliver'd to them they were wont to demand Water and Earth together That is to say there quired them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bring earth and water and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to prepare Earth and Water They conceived that their Dominion of the Sea as well as the Land was signified by such a kinde of pledg or token Thus Darius demanded Earth and Water from Indathyrsus King of the Scythians Thus Xerxes from the Lacedemonians and thus both of them from the People of Coos which is witnessed by the Coans themselvs in a publick Decree or Epistle in answer to Artaxerxes his most imperious demand that Hippocrates should bee rendred up to him wherein the Coans slighting the threats of that great King decreed that what hazzard soêver they might seem to run Hippocrates should by no means bee rendred They added also to that Decree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. How that when his Predecessors Darius and Xerxes had by their Letters demanded Earth and Water the people of Coos did in no wise yield it forasmuch as they were satisfied that those who had sent unto them were mortal as well as other men And in the Greek Copies of the Historie of Judith Nabuchodonosor beeing about to denounce War against the neighbor-Nations saith expresly the form of submission which hee expected was that they should provide for him Earth and Water Unless they conceiv themselvs to bee Lords of the Waters as well as the Land I do not well see wherefore they should demand Earth and Water as tokens of universal Dominion Moreover also Achmes Ben Seirim an Arabian writing of the Sea saith that according to the Doctrine of the Indians Persians and Egyptians in expounding of dreams If any one in a dream seem to himself to bee made Lord of the Sea hee shall bee heir of the whole Kingdom and shall reign Add hereunto that Oracle of Delos concerning the Sea-Dominion of the Athenians The men of Athens offering sacrifice in Delos a Boy that drew water to wash their hands poured Fish out of the pot together with the water Hereupon this Oracle was delivered by the Priests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they should becom Lords of the Sea The Autor is one Semus an antient Writer in Athenaeus where Phylarchus also relate's how that when Patroclus a Captain of Ptolomie the son of Lagus had sent fish and fresh figs together unto King Antigonus and those that stood by were in doubt what was meant by that present Antigonus said hee himself very well apprehended what might bee the meaning of Patroclus For saith hee either Patroclus mean's That wee must get the Soveraignty or Dominion of the Sea or els gnaw figs. Or that hee must seem slothful and effeminate or becom Lord of the Sea Therefore hee made no doubt touching private Dominion of the Sea And there also the Glutton in Antiphanes the Comedian saith it is neither profitable for life nor to bee endured That som of you should claim the Sea as peculiar to themselvs and spend much monie upon it but no victual for Navigation not so much as a bit Add also that of Theocritus touching the Dominion of Ptolomeus Philadelphus King of Egypt over the Sea as well as the Land 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee is Lord of much Land and also of much Sea And a little after hee speak's of the Pamphilian Lycian and the inner part of the remaining Sea that the whole Sea and Land and Rivers were subject to King Ptolomie Also Philo Judeus saith let not Princes glory in that they have conquer'd many Nations or that they have brought all the rivers and Seas so exceeding vast both in Number and magnitude under their power Moreover though Isocrates in his Oration concerning Peace seem's to hint that the Sea-Dominion and Soveraignty which the Athenians endevored to maintain brought many mischiefs upon them and also that it somtimes occasioned them to use Tyrannie against the Neighbor-Cities of Greece yet hee dispute's it as a thing that may com into examination under the account of profitable and unprofitable and by accident of unjust but hee doth not in anie wise endeavor to prove it unjust from the nature of the thing it self Yea in another place hee sufficiently commend's that Dominion though not all things in preserving it And the same Autor saith expresly of both Cities the Lacedemonian and Athenian It hapned that both Cities did enjoy a Command of the Sea which when either of them held they had most of the other Cities obedient thereto Wee read also a dispute in Aristotle concerning a Communion or common enjoyment of the Sea to wit whether it may bee convenient or not for a well order'd City whether it were better it should remain common to all men so that no man might in any wise bee denied passage traffick merchandise and fishing Or that the use of it may bee so restrained that it might bee received into the Dominion of any Citie so as to exclude forreiners Hee dispute's this point whether it bee profitable or unprofitable but question 's it not at all as unjust having been abundantly instructed out of the Customs of the Nations round about touching a propriety of the Sea as well as the Land Also his Scholar Alexander the Macedonian beeing victorious in the East prepared for an expedition against Europe that Hee might becom Lord of the whole Land and Sea as saith the Emperor Julian And truly among the People of Greece especialy such as border'd upon the Sea and others of that nature in the East to hold supreme power and Soveraigntie above others and to enjoy a Soveraigntie of the Sea were acoounted almost one and the same thing Nor did they conceiv that could bee obteined without this From whence arose that Council of Themistocles which Pompey the great also followed at Rome Qui mare teneat eum necesse esse rerum potiri c. Hee which can possess the Sea must need 's have Command of all So also saith Jsaac Casaubon upon Polybius To have Dominion of the Sea which is expressed by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is wholly and ever hath been a great strengthning and as it were a pledg of extraordinarie power Therefore the old writers of Chronicles among the Grecians seeing before the institution of the Olympiads there was no Sovereign power of any People of Greece in beeing upon whose actions a knowledg of times might bee grounded therefore among the other times that they made use of for the computing of times they omitted not that particular but carefully kept an accompt of those People who had once enjoyed a Dominion of the Sea and
of Citizens for the conveniencie of larger Fish-ponds bringing the Sea into their grounds made it their own and became Masters thereof with as good a Title as they had to their adjacent Land There beeing saith Varro two kindes of Fish-ponds one of Fresh the other of salt water the former sort are ordinarie and little worth such as our Countrie Fish-ponds that are supplied with water by little streames but those saltwater-Ponds are to bee found in the possessions of Noblemen and are supplied by the Sea as well with Fish as water yet they yield more delight then profit the filling of those Ponds beeing commonly the draining of the Owners purs Now what was this but to becom proprietaries of the Sea so far forth as it was derived or inclosed in their possessions And Columella who lived in the time of Claudius relate's that the Romanes in antient times for the most part used none but in-land Fish-ponds storing them with Spawners of the larger size presently adding Not long after that good husbandrie was laid aside when the wealth and luxurie of the succeeding age made inclosures of the Ocean and Seas themselvs And the yearly Revenue of such Demains which bordered upon the Sea was advanced by those Ponds or Inclosures of the Sea as well as by any Lands Lakes or Vineyards appertaining thereunto The same Columella discoursing hereupon hath this passage But seeing the custom of the times hath so far prevailed that these things are not onely in use but have gotten the reputation of magnificent and noble contrivances wee also least wee should seem morose and importune reprovers of so long and settled a practice will show what profit may redound from them to the Lord of the Manor how hee may rais an incom by the Sea if having made a purchase of Islands or Lands bordering upon the Sea hee cannot reap the fruits of the Earth by reason of that barrenness of the soil which usually is near the Shore So that wee see the Revenues of a Manor were improved by managing the Sea as well as Land and the Possessor was counted Lord of the one no more then of the other This usual right of Dominion over the Sea is mentioned also by S t Ambrose For the serving of their prodigious luxurie saith hee the Earth by digging of channels is forced to admit the Ocean for the making of artificial Islands and bringing litle Seas into their own possessions They challenge to themselvs large portions of the Sea by right and boast that the Fishes like so many bond-slaves have lost their former libertie and are subjected to their service This Creek of the Sea saith one belong's to mee that to another Thus great men divide the Elements among themselvs For Examples there are the Fish-ponds of Lucullus famous for his expensiveness in this kinde Hee having made way through a Mountain near Naples inclosed the Sea and became master of those water-courses which Plutarch call's Sea-Courses and Chases for the breeding of Fish Whereupon Pompey the Great in merriment saith Paterculus was wont to call Lucullus the gowned Xerxes in regard that by damming up of Chanels and digging down Mountains â—ee took the Sea into the Land The same Lucullus saith Plinie digging down a Mountain near Naples at greater charge then hee built his Villa took an arm of the Sea into his Manor which gave occasion to Pompey the Great to call him the gowned Xerxes The same conceit in Plutarch is attributed to Tubero the Stoick That concerning Xerxes is very famous Hoc terrae fiat hâc Mare dixit eat Here run the Sea hee said There let firm Land bee made When hee commanded the Sea to bee brought round about the Mountain Athos And Valerius saith of Caius Sergius Orata That hee might not have the serving of his palate depend upon the pleasure of Neptune hee contrived Seas of his own intercepting the waves with his trenches and so inclosing divers sholes of Fishes with dams that what tempestuous weather soëver happened Orata's Table was never unfurnished with varietie of Dishes The same libertie was used upon the Formian shore by Apollinaris of whose Fish-pond Martial speak's Si quando Nereus sentit AEoli regnum Ridet procellas tuta de suo Mensa Piscina Rhombum pascit Lupos vernas When winds do Lord it o're the Sea fright The Fisher his Table laugh's at their spight By its own private store secur'd from need While captiv'd Pikes and Turbot's Fish-ponds breed All the varietie of Fish which the wider Sea afforded Apollinaris had readie at hand in his Fish-pond which was nothing els but the Sea let in from the shore into his possession Contracta pisces AEquora sentiunt Jactis in altum molibus Such dams are cast into the main The Fish for want of room complain So saith Horace and in another place Caementis licèt occupes Tyrrhenum omne tuis Mare Ponticum though thou thy walls do rais Through all the Tuscan and the Pontick Seas And saith Salust To what purpose should I relate those things which cannot seem credible to any but those who have been eie-witnesses how Mountains have been removed by severall private persons and Seas brought into their places Of this sort were the Fish-ponds of Philippus Hortensius and others all made by taking in the Sea Moreover wee finde that Soveraigntie and Dominion over the Sea hath been somtimes conferred by the Patents of Princes The Emperor Trajan when hee endowed the Citie of Tharsus with Immunities and Privileges besides the Territorie of Land lying about added also a grant of Jurisdiction and Dominion over the river Cydnus and the adjacent Sea as may bee seen in Dion Chrysostom And it is very probable that the Maritimate rights of Neocesarea which Theodorus Balsamon saies were compiled by the Metropolitan of that Citie had respect unto the like Original as also those privileges in the Sea which the Emperor Comnenus granted to a great number of Monasteries according to the same Author The ancient Lawyers also are not silent as touching the Dominion of particular persons in the Sea Paulus one of greatest note among them declare's himself expresly thus Verily whensoëver a proprietie in som part of the Sea belong's to any person that person may sue out an interdict of uti possidetis in case hee bee â—indred from the exercise and enjoyment of his right becaus this matter concern's a private not a publick caus seeing the suit is commenced for the enjoying of a right which ariseth not from a publick but private Title For interdicts are proper to bee used in private cases not in publick Nothing could have been more plainly spoken to show that beyond all controversie hee admit's a private Dominion in the Sea even of single persons Yea Ulpian himself who was so fondly inclined to favor the opinion of a perpetual communitie of the Sea doth sufficiently
his Successor in that Citie within whose Territorie of Jurisdiction hee died If the Pope die upon the Sea the Election is to bee made in that Citie or place which is next to the Sea This intimation is given by the gloss and acknowledged by others But notwithstanding this the Citizens of Rome were allowed the privilege of Fishing in the Sea of the Church as they call it or of the Pope as the Inhabitants of a Village bordering upon a pasture-ground may by virtue of som compact usage or custom put in their Cattel to grase there though perhaps it bee in the possession of som particular person This is a Statute of the Citie of Rome Everie Citizen of Rome and Inhabitant of the Citie and within the liberties thereof shall have libertie to Fish at any time and with any instruments whatsoëver in the stream both of Tiber Anien and in the Sea so far as the Banks of the Rivers and the Sea shore do reach And no person ought to prohibit or forcibly take any thing away from them so long as they forbear to trespass upon any Lands Houses and Fish-ponds which belong to private Owners or to com upon the Banks of the Coast of Arenula namely of S t Severia and Paul in which places it is not lawful for any to Fish without warrant from the State 's Advocate And such a kinde of privilege as this qualified either by grant or covenant or custom is verie often found in such places as enjoy a Dominion of the Sea Concerning the received Customs of the Portugals and Spaniards about the Dominion of the Sea CHAP. XVII THat Dominion over the Sea is acknowledged in the Customs of the Portugals is apparent to any man that will but observ the usual Title of their Kings King Emmanuel in his preface to the Laws of Portugal style 's himself Dom Manuel per grace de Deos Rey c. Senhor de Guinee da conquista Navagaçam commercio d' Ethiopia Arabia Persia da India à todos c. which elswhere is rendred in Barbarous Latine thus Emanuel Dei gratiâ Rex c. Dominus Guineae conquistae Navigationis ac commercii AEthiopiae Arabiae Persiae c. Emmanuel by the grace of God King c. Lord of Guinee and by Conquest of the Navigation and Commerce of Ethiopia Arabia Persia where conquista in the language of Spain and Portugal signifieth that which is acquired by War The same Title is often found in the Letters Patent and Commissions of the ancient Kings of Portugal whereupon Jacobus Vâ—ldesius write's that they are and are acknowledged to bee Lords and Masters of Commerce Traffick and Navigation But for any person to bee Lord of Navigation and Traffick by Sea without Dominion over that Sea is all one as to use and enjoy a piece of Land to have right to prohibit all other from doing the like and yet not to bee owner thereof But among the Laws of Portugal there are yet clearer evidences for private Dominion over the Sea even of the Atlantick or Ocean it self For therein it is forbidden that any person either Forraigner or Native the words of the Law are Assi Naral commo estrangeiro in any shipping whatsoëver to pass ditas partees mares de Guinee Indias qualsquer outras terras mares lugares de nossa conquista tratar resgatar nem guerrear sem nossa licenca autoridade sob pena que fazendo â—o contrario moura por ello morte natural por esso mesmo seito percapera nos todos seus beens moveis de rays that is to say to the said countries lands and Seas of Guinee and the Indies or any other Lands Seas and places under our Dominion for Commerce or Traâ—â—iâ—k or making of Wâ—r without our Licence and Autoritie under pain of death and total confiscation of estate to bee inflicted upon any that shall presume to do the contrarie And for the execution hereof the Commanders of those Fleets who had leav from the King to sail thither had Commission given them to call to account all whom they found in any kinde transgressing this Law So that wee see the Nation of Portugal also made no question but that Dominion might bee justly acquired over the Ocean it self And this Law in the extent of at reached as well to forraigners as to the King's subjects Although forraigners do not acknowledg that Portugal hath acquired any such right However that in the Law of Nature which is obligatorie there is nothing to hinder but that such a right may bee acquired is I suppose acknowledg'd by all the Nations in Europe except som perhaps who are not yet in fair and lawful possession of any Sea if so bee at least a man may rightly gather their acknowledgments from their received customs And truly about the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign there was a hot dispute between her and Sebastian King of Portugal touching the Dominion of the Atlantick and South-Sea that open's the way to the East-Indies which was claimed by the Portugals But the question in that dispute was not whether or no Sebastian could bee Lord of that Navigation or Sea but whether hee had made any lawful acquisition of such a Dominion But in the Common Law of Spain or Castile although it bee true that the use of the Sea is most free and that in such a manner almost as if no positive Law had ever laid any restraint upon the natural Communitie thereof yet the Spanish Lawyers and those not of the meanest account do in most express terms declare it capable of Dominion yea and that it was acquired by the King The Prince saith Gregorius Lopez may grant any man a priviledg to fish in a certain part of the Sea And the Sea saith Joannes Garcias a Spaniard belong's to him who is Lord of the adjoyning land This hee speak's of som particular Sea belonging to Spain for to speak it of the sea in general were idle There are other also as Didacus Couvaruvias Joannes de Hevia who are plainly for the Dominion of the Prince as well for a controlling the libertie of Navigation as restraining the common use of Fishing And how frequent this Opinion is among the Lawyers of Spain and Portugal is acknowledged by Fernandus Vasquius though hee himself do extremely oppose it as appear's by those words of his alreadie cited in the second Chapter Moreover it is sufficiently manifest out of Rodericus Suarius that such rights priviledges were exercised by private persons grounded either upon custom or som grant of the Prince which demonstrate a dominion over the Sea among the Spaniards although that Autor taking the measure of Law rather from the Dictates of the Schools then the received Customs of Nations is the more earnest for that antient opinion of a perpetual communitie Yea the verie title of the King of Spain hath
XXII THe Objection touching the defect of Limits and and Bounds follow 's next And truly where Dominions are distinguished nothing can bee more desirable then known and certain Bounds in every place Nor was it without caus that Terminus the God of Bounds was received heretofore among the Romanes for the God of Justice But the nature of Bounds is to bee consider'd either upon the Shores or in the open Sea And why Shores should not bee called and reputed lawful Bounds whereon to ground a distinction of Dominion in the Sea as well as Ditches Hedges Meers rows of Trees Mounds and other things used by Surveyors in the bounding of Lands I cannot fully understand Nor is Sylvanus any whit more a Guardian of Bounds then Neptune But yet a very learned man saith there is a Reason in nature why the Sea under the aforesaid consideration cannot bee possessed or made appropriate becaus possession is of no force unless it bee in a thing that is bounded So that Thucydides call s a Land unpossessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unbounded and Isocrates the Land possessed by the Athenians a Land bounded with Limits But liquid things becaus of themselvs they are not bounded cannot bee possessed save onely as they are conteined in som other thing after which manner Lakes and Ponds are possessed and Rivers also becaus they are conteined within Banks But the Sea is not conteined by the Earth it beeing of equal bigness or bigger then the Earth so that the Antients have affirmed the Earth to bee conteined by the Sea And then hee bring 's divers Testimonies of the Antients whereby it is affirmed more then once that the Sea is the girdle or Bond of this Globe of Earth and that fetching a compass it incloseth all the Parts thereof together and it is very often said by the Antients that the Land is conteined and bounded by the water or Sea as if the whole Earth made as it were one Island beeing surrounded by the Sea But admit it were to bee granted which I suppose neither that learned man nor any other will grant yet I do not well see why the thing conteining should not in truth bee bounded by the thing conteined as well as this by that May not a lesser bodie that is spherical or of any other form beeing conteined by a greater which is every way contiguous to it bee said to bound and limit the Concave of the greater Bodie as well as this to limit the Convex of the lesser But Julius Scaliger saith very well of the Sea and Land That the one is not so conteined by the other but that it may also contein Nor are they so disjoyned from each other but that they may both encroach upon each other and retire by Turns The Sea and Land mutually imbrace one another with crooked windings and turnings this with Peninsula's and Promontories butting forth and Creeks bending inward that working up its waves about all the Passages of its vast Bodie Thus it is evident that the one indifferently set's Bounds to the other no otherwise than Banks and Lakes or Rivers which also appear's more evident in the Caspian Sea that is encompassed with Land And in like manner in the Mediterranean before that Hercules or as the Arabians say Alexander the great did by cutting the Mountains let in the Atlantick Ocean through the streights of Cadiz And thereby it is made up one single Globe wherein divers Seas are bounded as well as the Isles or main Land as it is more clearly proved out of holy Scripture There the waters are gathered together and limited by their Places and Bounds And saith the Lord himself of the Sea I encompassed it with my Bounds and set Bars and Doors and said hitherto shalt thou com but no farther And in another place Hee gave unto the Sea his Bounds his Decree unto the waters that they should not pass their Bounds So that it cannot bee doubted every Sea hath its Bounds on the Shore as the Land it self Nor had I made mention of this Particular had I not found it impugned by so eminent a person And truly there is but a very little more difficultie to finde out Limits and Bounds in the main Sea for distinguishing of private Dominions Wee have high Rocks Shelvs Promontories opposite to each other and Islands dispersed up and down from whence as well direct Lines as crooked windings and turnings and angles may bee made use of for the bounding of a Territorie in the Sea Mille jacent mediae diffusa per aequora terrae Innumeri surgunt Scopuli montésque per altum A thousand Lands within the main do lie Rocks numberless and Mountains rise on high Throughout the deep The antient Cosmographers also reckon up the Seas of the world no otherwise then Towns Rivers Islands and Mountains as beeing no less distinguished from each other by their respective Bounds AEthicus saith Every Globe of Land hath XXX Seas CCCLXX Towns LXXII Islands LVII Rivers and XL Mountains c. After this also hee reckon's the Seas of the Eastern Western Northen and Southern Ocean one after another after the same manner as hee doth the Provinces and their Isles How truly I dispute not but in the mean time hee made no question but that the Seas are sufficiently distinguished by their Names and Bounds Add hereunto that useful invention of the sea-man's Compass and the help of Celestial degrees either of Longitude or Latitude together with the doctrine of Triangles arising therefrom Also in those Plantations that in our time have been carried out of Europe into America the degrees of Latitude and Longitude do serv the Proprietors in stead of Bounds which with as little difficultie are found in the Sea In like manner som would have had the Tropick of Cancer and the Equinoctial Line to have been the Bounds in the Sea for the limiting of that Agreement which was to have been made in the year MDCVIII between the States of the United Provinces and the Hous of Austria And in the late Agreement betwixt the Kings of Great Britain and Spain the Equinoctial Line is the bound appointed in the Sea Other Instances there are of the same nature Eor Sarpedon and Calycadnus two Promontories of Cilicia were designed as Bounds for distinguishing the Dominion of the Sea in that League made betwixt the Romanes and Antiochus King of Syria Also by Decree of the Emperor Leo of which wee have alreadie spoken the Fishing Epoches or Fish-pens that were by men placed in the Sea lying over against their Lands were limited to certain number of Cubits The case was the same likewise touching the Cyanean and Chelidonian Islands in the League made by the Athenians with the King of Persia which hath been mentioned also before Moreover Pope Alexander VI and his Cardinals or the King of Spain's Agents made no scruple touching Bounds of this
Romane Empire was in its prime that Caesar is Lord of the whole world Thus Ovid according to the Romane custom saith Gentibus est aliis tellus data limite certo Romanae spatium est urbis orbis idem All other States have Limits to their Ground Rome and the world have but one common bound The Sea I suppose is not more inexhaustible then the whole world That is very much inferior to this as a part is to the whole in greatness and plenty And therefore a Dominion of the Sea is not to bee opposed upon this accompt unless also wee in like manner affirm that not onely that saying of the Emperor's Dominion over the world is manifestly fals as it must bee but also contrary to natural reason it self becaus of the worlds extraordinary greatness and abundance Therefore they are more justifiable in their Opinion who as they say that the Roman Emperor according to the antient Law is Lord of the World or Land that is to say a large part of it so also they would have him to bee Lord of the Sea Nor is there any difficulty in that expression of the Emperor Antoninus wherein hee call's himself Lord of the World but the Law as 't is commonly understood Lady of the Sea which if it were granted that his Answer ought so to bee understood doth signifie no other thing then that the Rhodian Laws where they did not thwart the Romane were so far in force about Sea-affairs that however hee were Moderator and Lord of both hee would by no means determin ought contrary to those Laws by any Rescript of his own Alcialus and other very Learned men also make almost the same interpretation But concerning that Answer of Antoninus I shall add more by and by So that it seem's the Antients in that so often repeated speech concerning universal Dominion conceived the Romane Empire to bee no less or narrower then it is represented by Petronius Arbiter who set's forth the matter in these words Orbem jam totum victor Romanus habebat Quà Mare quà Terrae quà Sidus currit utrumque The Romane Conqu'rer then the world Both Sea and Land did sway Wheresoe're the Moon travel's by night Or the bright Sun by day And the Ancient Inscription in honor of Augustus Caesar was ORBE MARI ET TERRA PACATO IANO CLUSO c. Peace beeing restored to the world by Sea and Land hee shut up the Temple of Janus according to which sens it is recorded also by Historians that hee shut Janus his Temple three times having settled Peace by Sea and Land whereby they would have us to understand the verie same thing which wee have proved more fully before that the Seas were comprehended as well as the Land within the huge Bodie of the Romane Empire An Answer to such Testimonies as have faln from Writers treating of other subjects and which are usually alleged against Dominion of the Sea CHAP. XXIII IT remain's in the next place that wee consider of what validitie the contrarie Opinions of Writers are whereof wee formerly made mention As to what concern's those Passages of the Poêts Plautus and Phaenicides it is clear in Plautus that the lewd slave Trachalio was but in jest with Gripus the Fisherman Hee saith in general that the Sea is common to all which signifieth a Sea that never was possessed as well as that which is necessarily and naturally common and in that place that rather then this Wherefore it may bee understood that Fishing was common or not yet appropriated that is that the people either of Rome or Greece had such a Dominion over any kinde of Sea for by what hath been alreadie mentioned it appear's both of them had a Dominion over som Sea before Plautus his time that either of them might use their respective Seas at their own pleasure in hindling others from sailing through them and removing such impediments of Trade and Commerce as should happen therein And yet that hitherto they had prohibited no man from fishing in that Sea mentioned by Plautus and Phaenicides in such a manner but that the use of it might remain common either to Natives or Neighbors as the use of a ground for feeding of Cattel though there may indeed bee a particular Owner in possession reserving the other Commodities of it to himself as it often come's to pass But afterwards also especially in the Eastern Empire or among the Greeks it is clear out of what wee have alreadie shewn you that a peculiar Right of Sea-fishing hath passed into the hands of private persons as well as of Princes So that such Expressions as these beeing applied against private Dominion of the Sea soon vanish and com to nothing As to that passage out of Ovid Quid prohibetis aquas Why do yee forbid water c. then which nothing is more usual in Disputes about this matter it is not so much an Assertion of the communitie of waters as a vehement and hyperbolical reproof of the inhumanitie of that rustick Rout in Lycia Latona beeing thirstie and wearie asked for a draught of water and that out of a Lake The barbarous people denie her and therefore shee most deservedly reprove's them But shee doth it not more earnestly then Ampelisca in Plautus did merrily to Sceparnio a slave that denied her water Cur iu inquit Ampelisca aquam gravare amabò quam hostis hosti commodat Why saith Ampelisca art thou so loth to let mee have water which one stranger afford's another For whatsoëver may bee afforded or communicated without prejudice of the Owner hee is concerned many times in humanitie to impact it to a meer stranger that asketh him For the word Hostis in that place signifie's a Stranger as wee often finde among the Antients And it appear's also by the question of Sceparnio whereby hee jeer's the wench Cur tu ait ille operam gravare mihi quam civis civi commodat Why saith hee dost thou denie mee that help one Citizen afford's another Here hee opposeth Citizen to Stranger From the same Office of humanitie those particulars are derived as not to denie running Water to suffer one Fire or one Candle to light another and other things of that nature which are profitable to the Receiver and not troublesom to him that give 's or permit's the Favor And upon this Rule of Moralitie onely which is the Rule of Charitie are those demands both of Latona and Ampelisca grounded They denie not the private Dominion of waters Neither Latona of the Lake whose private Dominion is confess 't by all nor Ampelisca of the Well from whence shee demanded water for the Priest of Venus Moreover those words of Latona are spoken concerning a Lake of little water as Ovid sheweth in that place Fortè lacum mediocris aquae prospexit in imis Vallibus By chance a little Lake shee did espie Which in the Uallies far beneath did
the whole world was said to bee possessed at first by antient Princes it might even as well pass into the Dominion or Ownership of him that should enter upon it first by occupation Howsoêver there have been som others who by the same Rule distinguish in like manner the inner and neighboring Seas from the open Sea or main Ocean But it is by no means to bee omitted that they for whose sakes Hugo Grotius wrote that Book that is to say the Stateâ— of Holland did not unwillingly but rather as it seem's according to their own hearts desire give ear to the condemnation of that Opinion especially becaus it was owned by Grotius concerning a Communitie of the Sea and freedom of Fishing therein according to the Law natural and of Nations by the Embassador of James King of great Britain in a speech of his deliver'd openly in Holland and that others were gravely admonished from his misfortune not to maintein the like Of vvhich thing Grotius himself bear's vvitness I have labored saith hee as much as any to maintein the Right of Navigation to the Indies and for the preservation of Clothdressing in our Countrie But for the freedom of Fishing at Sea so much that Carleton the King of great Britain's Embassador beeing incited by my enemies to speak somwhat in publick against mee beeing at that time in Prison hee had no â—ing els to say but that I had begun to make som Discourses in defence of that freedom as a thing grounded upon the Law of Nations and Custom time out of minde whereas notwithstanding nothing had been said or written by mee upon that subject different from those things which the State 's Embassadors had mainteined in Britain in the year MDCX and our Ancestors before even for som Ages past And yet that Embassador said that others ought to bee terrified by the example of my misfortune from defending that Opinion It is true indeed that persons in power usually take a libertie to aspers men as they pleas when they are in question But these things were not spoken so much against Hugo Grotius as against that natural Right of Communitie at Sea injuriously pretended to which many men have defended more expressly and plainly then himself but none with so much learning and ingenuitie Nor did that Speech of the Embassador for ought wee know as things then stood displeas the States of Holland But in his Books de Jure Belli Pacis having indeed set down the reason of the original of private Dominion to bee upon this ground that those places which became peculiarly assigned were not sufficient for the maintenance of all men hee conclude's that the Sea becaus of its bigness and inexhaustible abundance beeing sufficient for all cannot bee appropriated to any Hee add's other things also touching the nature of the Seas not beeing distinguishable by Bounds of both which wee have said enough alreadie But at length hee betake's himself to the received Customs of Nations and speak's more then once concerning the proprietie or private Dominion of the Sea as of a thing somtimes to bee yielded without Controversie The Land saith hee and Rivers and any part of the Sea in case it com under the proprietie of som Nation ought to bee open for such as have need of passage upon just and necessarie occasions Afterwards also speaking of the proprietie of Rivers After this example saith hee it seem's that even the Sea may bee possessed by him that is Owner of the Land on both sides although it lie open either above as a Creek or above and below too as a streight or narrow Sea So that it bee not so great a part of the Sea that beeing compared with the Lands it cannot seem to bee any portion of them And that which is lawful for one Prince or People the same seem's lawful also for two or three if in the like manner they pleas to enter upon the Sea flowing between For so Rivers that flow between two Nations have been entred upon by both and then divided Hee allegeth other things also touching the Right of primarie occupation by Sea but so that for the most part hee contein's himself within Creeks and streights Hee saith that not by any natural Right or Reason but by Custom it came to pass that the Sea was not appropriated or that it could not lawfully bee entred upon by Right of Occupation And that the Custom beeing changed if there were any in the antient Law that might hinder a private Dominion of the Sea the reason of Communitie must bee changed also But that it hath been sufficiently changed appear's abundantly if I bee not deceived out of what wee have hitherto shewn you Yea the very Laws as well Civil as Intervenient of most Nations make abundantly to this purpose as it hath been proved Moreover that nothing may bee wanting to weigh down the Ballance therefore besides the opinions of the Civil Lawyers before alleged out of France Spain and Italie for a private Dominion of the Sea let this over and above bee added which is taken out of that sort of Lawyers also discoursing in general terms about the Sea I here give it you as it was composed by a Lawyer none of the meanest in the Roman-German Empire by name Regenerus Sixtinus who was indeed against private Dominion of the Sea The matter in question saith hee concerning the Sea and its Shore is whether as Rivers that are navigable and by which others are made navigable they may bee reckoned inter Regalia among the Prince's Roialties for whatsoëver is reputed a part of those Regalia or Roialties is as private or peculiar to Princes as that is to subjects which is their own for which caus the Revenues of the Exchequer are private after the same manner so also whether the Sea it self and its Shore bee comprised within those Regalia Cacheranus Decis 155. n. 81. Ferrarius Montanus de Feud lib. 5. c. 7. reckon's the regulation and the very dominion also of the Sea among the Regalia nor doth hee make any difference betwixt the Sea and a publick River Mynsingerus also Resp. 1. nu 162. Decad. 11. saith that the proprietie of the Sea is a part of those Regalia But Sixtinus himself discoursing upon this matter just as they do that are more addicted than they ought to the words of Ulpian and numbring up those Autors that are of the contrarie opinion conclude's thus But more true it is that a proprietie of the Sea and Shore is not by the Common Law to bee reckoned among the Regalia But upon due consideration of all those particulars which hitherto have been produced out of the Customs of so many Ages and Nations and as well out of the Civil as the Common or Intervenient Law of most Nations no man I suppose will question but that there remain's not either in the nature of the Sea it self or in the Law either
Divine Natural or of Nations any thing which may so oppose the private Dominion thereof that it cannot bee admitted by every kinde of Law even the most approved and so that any kinde of Sea whatsoëver may by any sort of Law whatsoëver bee capable of private Dominion which was the thing I intended to prove The End of the first Book Touching the DOMINION OR Ownership of the Sea BOOK II. The order or Method of those things that are to bee handled in this Book The British Ocean divided into four parts CHAP. I. HAving made it evident in the former Book that the Sea is capable of private Dominion as well as the Land and that by all kindes of Law whether wee seriously consider the Divine or Natural or any Law of Nations whatsoëver it remain's next that wee discours touching the Dominion of great Britain in the Sea encompassing it about and of those large Testimonies whereby it is asserted and mainteined Wherein this Method is observed that in the first place wee premise both the distribution and various appellation of the Sea flowing about it in order to the Discours Then it shall bee shewn from all Antiquitie down to our times without interruption that those who by reason of so frequent alterations of the state of Affairs have reigned here whether Britains Romans Saxons Danes and Normans and so the following Kings each one according to the various latitude of his Empire have enjoied the Dominion of that Sea by perpetual occupation that is to say by using and enjoying it as their own after a peculiar manner as an undoubted portion either of the whole bodie of the estate of the British Empire or of som part thereof according to the state and condition of such as have ruled it or as an inseparable appendant of this Land Lastly that the Kings of Great Britain have had a peculiar Dominion or proprietie over the Sea flowing about it as a bound not bounding their Empire but to borrow the Terms used by Surveiors of Land as bounded by it in the same manner as over the Island it self and the other neighboring Isles which they possess about it The Sea encompassing great Britain which in general wee term the British Sea is divided into four parts according to the four Quarters of the World On the West lie's the Vergivian Sea which also take's the name of the Deucaledonian where it washeth the Coast of Scotland And of this Vergivian wherein Ireland is situate the Irish Sea is reckoned to bee a part called in antient time the Scythian Vale but now the Channel of S t George So that as well that which washeth the Western Coast of Ireland as that which flowe's between great Britain and Ireland is to bee called the British Sea For not onely this which of old was called great Britain and somtimes simply the Great Island but also the Isle of Ireland with the other adjacent Isles were termed Britanniae So that many times Albion and Ireland are equally called British Isles and Britannides as you may see in Strabo Ptolomie Marcianus Heracleötes Plinie Eustathius upon Dionysius Afer and others Moreover Ireland is called by Ptolomie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 little Britain And saith Ethelward an antient Writer They go to Ireland called heretofore Britannides by the great Julius Caesar. Perhaps hee had a more perfect Copie of Julius Caesar's Book For in none of his Commentaries which wee use is Ireland called by that name And it hath been observed by learned men that that book hath been maimed and alter'd by one Julius Celsus whose name wee finde now and then in the Manuscript Copies Towards the North this Sea is named the Northern Caledonian and Deucaledonian Sea wherein lie scatter'd the Orcades Islands Thule and others which beeing called the British or Albionian Isles yea and Britannides gave name to the neighboring Sea And indeed Thule which som would have to bee Island others and that with most reason do conceiv it to bee the biggest of the Shetland or Zetland Isles called â—hilensel by the Seamen and som there are again that think otherwise was of old not onely termed a British Isle but also by som expresly placed in Britain it self Mahumedes Acharranides an Arabian called likewise Aracensis and Albategnius a famous Mathematician who lived above nine hundred years ago saith Som observing the breadth of the Earth from the Equinoctial Line towards the North have found it to bee determined by the Isle Thule which is in Britain where the longest day is XX â—ours that is to say Ptolomie and his â—ollowers who by drawing a Line on the Northside of Thule or the Shetland Isles through 63 degrees and a quarter of Northern Latitude have set it down for the utmost bound of the habitable world Yea and som have used the name of Thule for Britain it self or England In times past the Emperor of Constantinople was wont to have trustie Guards called Barrangi constantly attending his person who were taken out of England as appear's out of Nicetas Choniates and Codinus also who was keeper of the Palace write's that they were wont to salute the Emperor with a loud voice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the English Tongue But in the Storie of Anna Comnena the Daughter of Alexius it is said expressly that they came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Island of Thule In like manner all the Islands either known or heard of in this Northern Sea were at length called by the name of British the utmost Bounds whereof as also of Thule it self som of the Antients would have to reach unto 67 degrees of Latitude or thereabout And Albategnius speaking of the Sea as it look's toward Spain saith There are XII British Isles in it towards the North and beyond these it is not habitable and how far it stretcheth is unknown Having made this preparation then wee treat first concerning the Sea-Dominion of the Britains before they were reduced under the Roman power Next touching a Dominion of that kinde belonging to the Romans while they ruled here continually and necessarily accompanying the Soveraigntie of the Island Afterwards it is made evident by such Testimonies as are found among the Antients that the English Saxons and others who enjoied the supreme Power in Britain before the Norman's Invasion had such a kinde of Dominion Lastly according to the fourfold division of the British Sea wee set forth the antient Occupation together with the long and continued possession of every Sea in particular since the Norman's time whereby the true and lawful Dominion and Customs of the Sea which are the subject of our Discours may bee drawn down as it were by a twin'd thred until our own times Moreover seeing both the Northern and Western Ocean do stretch to a very great Latitude this to America that not onely to Island and the Shores of Groenland but to parts utterly unknown and
so it cannot all bee called the British Seas yet becaus the Nation of great Britain have very large Rights and Privileges of their own in both those Seas even beyond the bounds of the British name therefore it was thought fit to touch a little upon these Particulars That the antient Britains did enjoy and possess the SEA of the same name especially the Southern and Eastern part of it as Lords thereof together with the Island before they were brought under the Roman power CHAP. II. IT is true indeed which an eminent man saith That the Sea hath been enjoyed by Occupation not for this reason onely becaus men had so enjoied the Land nor is the Act or intent of the minde sufficient thereto but that there is a necessitie of som external Act from whence this Occupation may bee understood Therefore Arguments are not to bee derived altogether from a bare Occupation or Dominion of Countries whose Shores are washed by the Sea But from such a private or peculiar use or enjoiment of the Sea as consist's in a setting forth Ships to Sea either to defend or make good the Dominion in prescribing Rules of Navigation to such as pass through it in receiving such Profits and Commodities as are peculiar to every kinde of Sea Dominion whatsoêver and which is the principal either in admitting or excluding others at pleasure Touching which particular wee shall make diligent inquirie into those things which concern the Isle of Britain through the Ages past down to the present time It is upon good ground concluded that the most antient Historie whereto any credit ought to bee given about the affair's of Britain is not elder then the time of Caius Julius Caesar the Ages before him beeing too obscured with Fables But at his coming wee finde clear passages of the Britain's Ownership and Dominion of the Sea flowing about them especially of the South and East part of it as a perpetual Appendant of the Soveraigntie of the Island For they not onely used the Sea as their own at that time for Navigation and Fishing but also permitted none besides Merchants to sail unto the Island without their leav nor any man at all to view or sound the Ports and Sea-Coast And that the Case stood certainly thus it is no slight Argument which wee shall insert here out of Caesar himself But allowance must bee given ever to Arguments and Conjectures touching times so long since past and gon especially when there is a concurrence in the Customs and Testimonies of following times And as things beeing placed at too remote a distance so that they cannot bee certainly discerned by the eie are wont to bee more surely discover'd by the help of a triangle at hand So what uncertainty soêver may bee in those proofs that are to bee brought out of so remote Antiquitie I question not but it will bee made sufficiently manifest by the continued and more certain usage and Custom of later times as shall bee abundantly made evident in the following Discours As to what concern's the Britains particular use of Navigation in that antient time without which an Occupation of this kinde cannot bee had notwithstanding that at Caesar's first arival they were terrified with the sight of that unusal kinde of long Ships and though at his second coming with a multitude of Vessels of all kindes beeing re-inforced to the number of eight hundred or as som would have it to a thousand they fled in a great fright from the Shore not beeing sufficiently provided for such a Sea-fight as was then at hand and which they had never been acquainted with nevertheless it is most certain that they had Vessels of their own wherein they used to coast about the neighboring Sea and so entred upon it corporally by Occupation Mention is made indeed by Writers of som of their Vessels more notable then the rest which they frequently used beeing framed with twigs as the fashion hath been in the more antient Nations and cover'd with Ox-hides after their usual manner Moreover Festus Avienus speaking of the antient Inhabitants of the OEstrymnides or the Islands called the Sillyes with the rest lying about thus expresseth himself rei ad miraculum Navigia junctis semper aptant pellibus Corióque vastum saepe percurrunt Salum T is strange There Ships they frame with Oxes-hide And scout in Leather through the Ocean wide And what hee saith of their continual care of Traffick and Custom of Navigation concern's others as well that were under the British Government Yet it is not to bee conceived that these twig and Leathern Vessels of the Britains were all of them unfit for making war by Sea according to the manner of that Age and of the neighboring Nations nor that they were less fit for long journies at that time seeing Plinie write's expressly that somtimes they sailed through the Sea in the space of six daies In like manner wee read in the British Historie that about Caesar's time Lud King of Britain seized upon many Islands of the Sea in a way of war which denote's that hee had a very considerable strength at Sea and a well accomplished Navie It is true indeed that there were small Vessels among these as they are no where without them which doubtless were unfit to bear the brunt of a Fight or Tempest that is to say such as Caesar made to transport his Souldiers over the River when hee was streightned by Asranius his Armie as hee had been taught they are his own words som years before by the Custom of Britain The Keels and Ribs were first made of slight matter The rest of the bulk of their Vessels beeing wrought together with Twigs was cover'd with Hides which wee finde mentioned also by Lucan Primùm cana salix madâ—facto vimine parvam Texitur in puppim â—aesóque inducta juvenco Vectoris patiens tumidum cireumnatat amnem Sic Venetus stagnante Pado fusóque Britannus Navigat Oceano Of twigs and willow Boord They made small Boats cover'd with Bullocks Hide In which they reach't the river's farther side So sail the Veneâ—â— if 〈◊〉 flow The Britains sail on their calm Ocean so Others there are also that write of these small Vessels But they are not I suppose at least in that Age to bee called small Ships which sailed through the Sea in six daies space nor such as Caesar made onely to transport his Souldiers and conveied them by Cart above XXII miles according to his own Relation It cannot bee doubted therefore but that the Britains had Vessels made even of the aforesaid matter big enough and very fit for service at Sea Moreover there will bee very good ground to conceiv out of what wee shall deliver by and by about the excluding of their Neigbors from the adjacent Sea that they were wont to build and set forth Ships of war of a far more commodious and solid substance for the guarding of
say just as Sicily Corsica Sardinia and other Isles in the Tyrrhen Sea have in Law been reckoned parts of Italie yea and continent thereto For Sicily after that the Romans became Lords of the adjoining Sea flowing between was called Regio Suburbana as if it had been part of the Suburbs of Rome and all these together with Italie and the Sea it self made one Bodie or Province so all the British Isles before mentioned with great Britain and the Seas flowing about it might well bee termed one Bodie of Britain or of the British Empire forasmuch as the Seas as well as the Isles passed alwaies into the Dominion of them that have born Rule within this Nation From whence perhaps it hapned that the Romans conceived the British Empire consider'd apart by it self to bee of so great a bigness that Britain did not seem to bee comprehended by the Sea but to comprehend the Sea it self as it is express't by that Panegyrist That the Dominion of the British Sea followed the Conquest of great Britain it self under the Emperors Claudius and Domitian CHAP. IV. AFter that the more Southerly part of Britain had been brought into subjection by the Emperor Claudius and the Isle of Wight taken in by surrender the British Sea as of necessitie following the fate of the Island was together with it annexed to the Roman Empire at least so far as it was stretched before that part of the Isle which was subdued Whereupon a Poët of that Age write's thus to the Emperor Claudius touching the Conquest of Britain Ausoniis nunquam tellus violata triumphis Icta tuo Caesar fulmine procubuit Oceanúsque tuas ultra se respicit aras Qui finis mundo est non erat Imperio That Land where Roman Triumphs ne're appear'd Struck by thy lightning Caesar down is hurl'd Since thou beyond the Sea hast Altars rear'd Thy Empire 's bound is larger then the world And then hee goe's on Euphrates Ortus Rhenus recluserat Arctos Oceanus medium venit in Imperium Euphrates Eastward did thy Empire bound And on the North the Rhene The Ocean in the middle beeing plac't Did lie as part between Here hee saith that the Sea it self was with Britain subdued to the Roman Empire as afterward also hee speak's more expressly At nunc Oceanus geminos interluit Orbes Pars est Imperii Terminus antè fuit But now the Sea betwixt two worlds doth flow The Empirs part which was its bound till now The British Sea was the bound of the Roman Empire between France and Germanie But immediately after the Conquest of Britain it became a part of the Empire Hee proceed's again thus Oceanus jam terga dedit nec pervius ulli Caesareos fasces imperiúmque tulit The Sea 's subdu'd and though it were till now Open to none to Caesar's Sword doth Bow And then Illa procul nostro semota exclusáque caelo Alluitur nostrâ victa Britannis aquâ Though conquer'd Britain far from us do lie The water 's ours that on the shore flow's by Hee call's the Sea Our water beeing no less conquer'd than the Island it self From whence also hee write's that the Roman Empire was begirt with the Roman Sea to wit after Britain was subdued Quam pater invictis Nereus vallaverat undis Which the Sea had fortified with unconquer'd waters The Empire of the waters ever followed the Dominion of the Island And Seneca concerning the same Emperor and this Sea saith paruit liber diu Oceanus recepit invitus rates En qui Britannis primus imposuit jugum Ignota tantis classibus texit freta The long unconquer'd Sea obedience gave And though unwilling did his ships receiv Hee first the Britains to the yoke brought down And with huge Navies cover'd Seas unknown Moreover the same Author in Apocolocynthosi Jussit ipsum Nova Romanae Jura Securis Tremere Oceanum Hee gave new Laws unto the Sea as Lord And made it treamble at the Roman Sword This is plainly to bee understood of the British Sea And Hegisippus an old Autor representing the person of King Agrippa speaking to the Emperor Claudius saith It was more to have passed over the Sea to the Britains then to have triumphed over the Britains themselvs But what could they do when the Elements were once subdued to the Roman Empire The Sea taught them to bear the yoke of servitude after that it self had upon the arrival of the Roman Shipping acknowledg'd an unusual subjection Hence it was also as Suetonius saith that in honor of the Prince the resemblance of a Ship was fixed upon the top of the imperial Palace But these particulars relate onely to the more Southerly part of the Sea Claudius never had any Navie sail to the North For his Conquest reached not so far But the Romans sail'd about the Island first in the daies of Domitian and then it was that they first discover'd and subdued that remotest part of the Sea Tacitus in the life of Agricola who was Lievtenant in the Province of Britain saith the Roman Navie sailing then the first time under Domitian about the Island affirmed this Coast of the remotest Caledonian Sea to bee the Isle of Britain and hee discover'd and subdued also those Isles called the Orcades which had been unknown till that time To the same purpose also speak's Juvenal arma quidem ultra Littora Juvernae promovimus modò captas Orcadas W' have born our Arms beyond the Irish Main And th' Orcad's Islands which were lately ta'ne Lately taken hee saith that is in the time of Domitian And therefore it is a manifest error in Eusebius Hieronymianus who saith That Claudius added the Orcades Isles to the Roman Empire yet hee is followed by Orosius Cassiodorus Eutropius Bede Nennius Ethelwerdus and others But the contrarie is sufficiently proved out of Tacitus alone a very grave Autor and one that lived at the same time But as to those passages found in Valerius Flaccus Silius Italicus Statius and others touching the Caledonians and Thule's beeing subdued before the daies of Domitian they are so to bee understood onely that wee are to conceiv either after the manner of the Poêts that the name of the more Northerly Britains is by the figure Synecdoche used for all whatsoêver and Thule it self for any part of Britain or els that the Caledonians generally among the Romans signified those Britains that were but a little removed from the Southern Shore For even Florus write's that Julius Caesar pursued the Southern Britains into the Caledonian Woods That is plainly into the Woods of the more Southerly part of Britain But when Julius Agricola had in Domitian's time reduced the Isle by force of Arms both by Sea and Land and sailing round about with a Navie had discover'd the Caledonian Sea properly so named on every side which the Britains as hath been observed alreadie called the secret part or Closet of their Sea
two different Opinions Som would have the Shore of Britain it self or that which is on this side the Sea to bee called onely the Saxon in the naming of this Dignitie or Command Others would have it to bee both the Shore of Britain and all that Shore also which â—etche's a compass like a half Moon from the Western part of Denmark as far as the West of France and lie's over against Britain But truly they are both extremely mistaken The Autor of the former opinion is Guidus Pancirollus who write's that the Shore or Limit within the Island was so denominated from those Saxons who were called in hither by Vortigern King of the South part of Britain to his assistance The Saxons saith hee possessed part of the Island from whence a limit or bound that was rear'd over against them by one that was made Count was called Saxon. Then which nothing could have been more ignorantly spoken if you reflect either upon the thing it self or the cours of times For omitting this that in the Breviarie of Dignities it self no mention is made at all of a Saxon bound or Limit but of a Shore notwithstanding that Pancirollus in the Inscription of his Commentarie entitle's the Commander that wee speak of Count of the Saxon Limit throughout Britain the Breviarie was written in the Reign of Theodosius the yonger or in the year CCCCX as learned men do commonly agree That is to say of that time the frame of the whole Government of the Empire both in the East and West having been over-grown long before was with very great diligence digested as it were into one entire Book of Offices and Dignities But the Saxons as most of the Antients tell us came first into Britain in the year of our Lord CCCCXLIX But suppose what upon better consideration may perhaps bee allowed that their arrival ought to bee reckoned in the year CCCCXXVIII that is in the XXI year of the Reign of Theodosius the yonger yet in the mean time this is most certain which is here in the first place to bee observed that Britain was utterly abandoned by the Roman Governors before they were called in Doubtless they were as Gildas write's brought in by King Vortigern to drive back the Northern Nations the Picts and Scots not the Romans who had bidden farwel to the Island Neither had tho Romans or their Dukes or Counts any thing at all to do within the Isle with the Saxons So that it must needs bee gross ignorance in Histories and in the Calculation of time to set down any Saxon Limit or Saxon Shore in the Island it self whilst the Roman Empire flourished or had any kinde of Autoritie in this Countrie Nothing therefore is more evident then that the Shore lying on the other side of the Sea over against the South and Eastern Coast of Britain as wee described it before was called the Saxon in that Dignitie or Command Moreover also that Count of the Saxon Shore throughout Britain was far more antient and known by an addition thereto of the Sea Coast or of that Sea which was comprehended in the Roman jurisdiction throughout Britain or in the bodie of the British Province For Nectaridius was invested with this Dignitie in the time of Valentinian the first or about the year of our Lord CCCLXX as is testified by Ammianus Marcellinus where hee saith information was given by a Messenger that Britain was reduced to an extreme low condition by a barbarous Conspiracie and that Nectaridius Count of the Sea-Coast and Buchobaudes the Duke were surprized unawares by the craft of the Enemy Nor is any difference to bee imagined between the Dignitie of the Count of the Saxon Shore in this sens throughout Britain and that which the fore-named C. Carausius received at Boloigne in France to scour the Sea along the Coast of Belgica and Bretaigne which as Eutropius and Orosius say was infested by the French and Saxons For that even hee also had places of strength and Mansion-houses belonging to his Government in Britain appear's sufficiently upon this ground that when Maximianus had given order to put him to death hee immediately usurp't in Britain and reigned after for the space of seven years So the Governor here or Count of the Sea-Coast and the Count of the Saxon Shore beeing ever accounted the same held the sole Government of Britain and the Sea belonging thereto To whom also wee may add as differing onely in name not really the Prefect or Admiral of the British Navie under the Romans mentioned in the former chapter Wee confess indeed that the Duke of Belgica secunda and the Duke of the Countrie of Aremorica before-mentioned was by the verie nature of his place to afford supplies for the guarding the Sea and this Shore beyond Sea For they also as hath been observed had Garrisons seated upon this Saxon Shore But it is chiefly to bee observed here that these beyond-Sea-Dukes were according to the nature of their Dignitie or Office to take care not so much of the Shore or Sea as the Continent and that from thence as you see they took their names This from the Tract of Aremorica and Ebroicae which beeing extended through five Provinces Aquitania prima and secunda Senonia Lugdunensis secunda and Tertia which comprehend's the lesser Britain and Normandie conteined almost all that which was commonly called by the name of Gallia But the other had its name from Belgica secunda Nor was there one Count or Duke of the Midland Countrie and another of the Shore or Sea-Coast in Gaul But in Britain the Counts or Dukes of the midland parts and the Count of the Sea-Coast or Saxon Shore had distinct charges distinct Forces and the signal Ornaments of their Offices wholly distinct Just as if the Roman Emperors would have it signified by this very thing that as the Sea it self did by particular Right alwaies belong unto the Empire of the Island so the Sea-affairs and their protection to the British Command and Jurisdiction of the Saxon Shore or that beyond-Sea but that both the Dukes of the Continent or main Land of Gaul lying right before it were bound so to send relief as occasion should require against the Saxon Invasions that in the mean time the sole care of the sea it self as a particular Province given in charge lay upon him that was made Count of the Saxon shore throughout Britain And if any Duke or Count either of Aremorica or Belgica secunda was called by the name of Duke or Count of the Saxon shore as som would have it was don doutless upon this ground becaus the Saxon shore lying over against us on the other side of the sea did bound their Land-Government as it did also the Sea-Jurisdiction of the aforesaid Count throughout Britain Nor indeed is that other Opinion any more to bee admitted which saith That our British shore was at that time called Saxon
progress I may make during thy Reign Some late examples tell us since the Main The Saxon beeing tam'd is grown more sure And Britain from the conquer'd Picts secure The Protection of the Sea is in this place plainly conjoined with that of the Island The same Poët also to Manlius Theodorus the Consul saith Hispana tibi Germanáque Tethys Paruit nostro diducta Britannia mundo Spanish and German Seas both yield to thee And Britain sever'd from our world by Sea There was the same Dominion the same Victorie and the same Guardianship or Protection alwaies both of the British Tethys or Sea and the Isle it self For the German Tethys in this place is that part of the British Sea which flow's between Belgium Holland Frisland the Jutae and Britain A little before there hee set's forth the hair of Spain with leavs of the Palm-tree and her mantle imbroider'd with the River Tagus And Africa with ears of Corn and Ivorie after the same manner as it was stampt in the Coins of Antoninus Pius Both these are washed and almost encompassed by the Sea But the Poët then understood that the Dominion of the adjacent Sea belong'd to neither of them as it did to Britain But as the Palms and the River Tagus were peculiar to Spain as the ears of Corn and Ivorie to Africa so hee would have it understood that the Province of Britain had the Sea of the same name peculiar thereunto But yet it is to bee conceived that the Dominion of the Romans was so limited in this Sea according to their possession of the shore that they had little power in that part of the British Sea which border'd upon the shores of those British Nations who were not under their obedience This is to bee taken chiefly of the Irish Sea and the rest that lie's North-west For when the Romane Empire began to decline not onely Ireland but the Isle of Man also and the other Isles of the Western Sea and a great portion of the more Northerly part of Britain was possessed by the Scots and Picts so that wee have sufficient ground to conceiv that they also had an antient Dominion of their own in the neighboring Sea And so let this serv to have been spoken concerning the Empire or Dominion of the British Sea in the time of the Romans as that which by antient Right no less belong'd to the Isle and the Empire thereof then either a Wall or Suburbs unto a Citie Now wee pass on to the times of their Successors Touching the Dominion of the British Sea after that the Inhabitants had freed themselvs from the Romane power CHAP. IX WHen the Romane Empire was declining under the Emperors Theoâ—osâ—us the yonger and Honorius and Valentinian the third insomuch that they had not Forces sufficient to guard the Citie it self then the Britains freed themselvs wholly from their Power about CCCCLXXX years after the arrival of Julius Caesar or in the year of our Lord CCCCXXX That is to say as Zosimus write's They cast off the Roman Government and settled a Common weal after their own liking Then the Dominion of the Sea as well as of that part of the Isle which was possest before by the Romans returned unto the Natives In the mean time the Saxons inhabiting the shore over against us hanker'd after it who beeing a people extremely given to Piracie the Romans were wont to appoint an Officer to drive them away called the Count of the Saxon shore throughout Britain as hath been shewn at large alreadie Nevertheless beeing sent for by the Southern Britains destitute of all manner of succor from the Romans to assist them against the Scots and Picts they at length got the whole Power here into their own hands And so in that famous Heptarchie of theirs the Kingdom was ever accounted of in such a manner that even before the time of King Egbert it was under the Power of som one King which all the rest acknowledged as Supreme These were driven out by the Danes but questionless they both had a Dominion by Sea conjoined with that upon Land For it is not to bee imagined that they who were so accustomed to the Sea and to whom before that time pelle salum sulcare Britannum Ludus assuto glaucum mare findere lembo It was a sport to cut the British Main In Leathern Barks and plow the azure plain And whose Rowers or Mariners had you beheld you would have thought you had seen so many Arch-Pirats as Sidonius Apoâ—tinaris saith of the Saxons And who did not onely know but were familiarly acquainted with the dangers of the Sea The very same thing is to bee said of the Danes also and Normans for these names beeing promâ—scuously used do very often signifie the same Nation as is sufficiently attested by Regino Dudo the Monk of Malmsburie Abbo Gemiticensis and others It is not I say to bee imagined that these people having gotten possession either of the Isle or shore to which the Soveraigntie of the Sea did so neerly appertein should not in like manner have possessed the Sea also lying before it by right of Dominion Nor is it perhaps altogether unworthie to bee considered that these Saxons had so great so singular and admirable an acquaintance with the Sea and Sea-affairs that by an exquisite observation of the Tides and Ebbings of the Sea they were wont to reckon their months and years yea and to frame Computations of years thereby A thing not to bee parallel'd by any example And as the more antient Husbandmen used to reckon daies and hours by the time of yoking their Oxen and as most other Nations measured years and daies by the cours of the Sun and Moon as things most to bee regarded before others in the improvement and various use of those Lands that they possessed so these alone distinguished their yearly and monthly periods by the meer reciprocal motion of the Sea which they were so well acquainted with and by its various beating upon the shore in Ebbing and Flowing as that whereof special notice was to bee taken in that kinde of life Moreover as they say the Egyptians derived their skill in Geometrie from the measuring of their Fields after the Inundation of their River Nilus so it is not to bee doubted but that our Saxons derived this strange artifice never heard of in any other Countrie from a very frequent use and perpetual observation of the Sea Concerning which hee that would know more may peruse our venerable Bede first and after him Joseph Scaliger Dionysius Petavius and Olaus Wormius But that the whole Nation was very much accustomed to Sea-affairs and not onely those that border'd upon the Sea may bee collected from thence that otherwise it would hardly bee believed that the Nation it self could have kept an accompt of Times and Seasons by the various cours of the Sea For it could not possibly bee but that
defence of his Kingdom against Foreiners and the training up of himself and his people for warlike emploiments Thus the Guardianship or maintenance of the Dominion by Sea is evident But as concerning the Fleets aforementioned they each of them consisted of MCC ships and these as Writers say expressly very stout ones so that in the time of his Reign the British Navie consisted of such ships to the number of Three thousand six hundred Sail as Florentius and Hoveden speak expressly But others write that these Fleets amounted to Four thousand ships as John Bramton Abbot of Jorvaux others adding to these Three a Fourth Fleet whereby the number is increased to Four Thousand Eight hundred Sail as you may see in Florilegus So as Florentius also saith Hee by the help of God governed and secured the bounds of his Kingdom with Prudence Fortitude Justice and Temperance as long as hee lived and having the courage of a fierce Lion hee kept all the Princes and Lords of the Isles in aw Wee read also in Ordericus Vitalis of King Harold or Herald that hee so guarded the Sea with a force of soldierie and shipping that none of his Enemies could without a sore conflict invade the Kingdom So that wee cannot otherwise conceiv but that these Naval Forces were at that time disposed and the Sea-Fights undertaken for the defence and guard of the Sea as an Appendant of the English-Saxon Dominion in this Island Especially if wee duly compare these things alreadie manifest with those which are added by and by to this particular touching the same age The Sea-Dominion of the English-Saxons and Danes during their Reigns in Britain observed in like manner from such Tributes and Duties of their Fiduciarie Clients or Vassals as concerned the maintenance of the Navie Also concerning the Tribute or Paiment called Danegeld which was wont to bee levied for the Guard of the Sea CHAP. XI HEre follow next the Tributes and Duties of Vassals concerning the maintenance of the Navie or Guard of the Sea which are evidences also of that Sea-Dominion which was in the time of the English-Saxons I call those Tributes which were wont to bee levied for the re-inforcing of the Navie and for provision of Victuals for the Sea-men Of which kinde were those that were levied according to the value of men's estates in Land for the setting forth of ships in the time of King Ethelred For at that time whosoever possessed CCCX Cassatos or Hides of Land was charged with the building of one ship And they were all rated proportionably after this manner who were owners of more or less Hides or of part of an Hide as Marianus Scotus Hoveden and Florentius do all tell us in the very same words Ethelred King of England say they gave strict command that one Gallie should bee charged upon CCCX Cassati but a Coat of Armor and an Helmet upon nine and that ships should bee built throughout all England which beeing made readie hee victualled and manned them with choice souldiers and appointed their Rendezvous at the Port of Sandwich to secure the Bounds of his Kingdom from the irruptions of Foreiners But Henrie of Huntingdon as also Matthew Paris and Florilegus speaking of the same thing say The King charged one ship upon three hundred and ten Hides of Land through all England also a Coat-Armor and Helmet upon eight Hides Then Huntingdon tell 's what an Hide doth signifie But an Hide in English saith hee is so much Land as a man can till with one Plow for a year Others there are that determine otherwise touching the quantitie of an Hide And most certain it is that it was very various according to the different Custom of Countries but the same with Cassata and Carucata Indeed the English-Saxon Chronicles of the Abbie of Abingdon do likewise mention Hides here expressly In the year MVIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hund 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tynumaenne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 helm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say the King gave command for the building of Ships carefully throughout all England to wit that one Gallie should bee charged upon CCCX Hides of Land but a Coat-Armor and Helmet upon eight Hides And it was usual according to the Laws of that Age that the richer sort should bee taxed by the number of Hides as wee see also throughout that Breviarie of England or the Book of Rates called Domesday which was first written in the time of King William Huntingdon add's also that there never had been so great a number of Ships in the time of any one in Britain which is testified in like manner by the Saxon Chronicles before cited So that that most numerous Navie of King Edgar mentioned in the former chapter was not to bee compared with this But yet that most learned man and great Light of our Island M r Camden hath so cast up the number of Hides throughout England out of the antient Records of that Age that they do not exceed 243600. If this had been so then they could have set forth no more then 785 Ships by this Tribute which is a lesser number then that of King Edgar by som thousands So that som other account is to bee made concerning Hides which is not to bee handled in this place Hereunto belong's that of Huntingdon touching King Canutus and his Son Harald In the daies of Harald saith hee as also in the time of his Father eight Marks were paid by everie Port for XVI Ships In the like manner Hoveden saith there was a Tax imposed which was paid for the maintenance of the Navie when King Canutus and King Edmond made an agreement in an Isle in the midst of Severn called Oleney Moreover Huntingdon write's that 11048 pounds were raised by Hardecanute King of England before hee had reigned two years for thirtie two Ships that is to say for the building of two and thirtie Ships Hee gave Command also as Matthew Westminster saith that eight marks should bee paid to everie Rower of his Navie and ten marks to each Commander out of all England Hee saith again also of the same King that hee appointed Officers through all parts of the Kingdom to collect the Tax imposed without favouring any and therewith to provide all things necessarie for his Forces at Sea And Florentius saith Hee gave command for the paying of eight marks to every Rower of his Navie and twelve so wee read it in that Autor to everie Commander out of all England a Tax indeed so grievous that scarce any man was able to pay it But these things spoken of Canutus his son Harald and Hardecanute relate perhaps unto that Tribute or Tax called Danegeld which was paid yearly for the maintenance of the Navie and guarding the Territorie or Dominion by
Sea Among the old Laws of England it appear's that the paiment of Danegeld was first imposed becaus of Pirates either Robbers or others invading the Sea For they infesting the Countrie wasted it as far as they were able Therefore for the repressing of their insolence it was determined that an yearly paiment should bee made of Danegeld that is to say twelve pence upon every hide through the whole Land for the pay of those that should bee imploied to hinder the eruption of Pirates So wee read it in som Copies others render it Irruption But the other reading seem's to signifie that this Tax was imposed for the raising and mainteining of Naval Forces so to guard the Sea that Pirates or Enemies might not bee able to make any eruption from the Shore on the other side of the Sea Nor can the word Eruption otherwise bee well put in that place So that even that antient Dignitie of the Count of the Saxon shore whereof wee have alreadie spoken is therefore not obscurely represented by him who commanded as Admiral over the Fleets of that Age. This Tribute or Tax had its beginning under King Ethelred For hee beeing brought into miserable streights by Swane King of Denmark beeing forced to buy a Peace of him hired XLV Danish Ships also by Agreement for the guarding and securing of his Dominion in the Sea who were to receiv their pay yearly out of this Tribute for their maintenance For the right understanding whereof it is to bee observed out of the English Saxon Storie that the Tribute or Tax usually paid at that time to the Danes was of more kindes then one There was one Tribute or sum of Monie wherewith the English-Saxons were forced somtimes to buy Peace of such as grievously infested the Island But another was levied to pay the Danish Navie which was hired to guard the Sea and defend the Sea-Coasts The first kinde of Tribute appear's by that of Florentius and Hoveden in the year MVII Ethelred King of England by the advice of his Lords sending Embassadors to the Danes gave them Commission to declare that hee was willing to defray their Charges and pay them a Tribute upon this condition that they would desist from rapine and establish a firm Peace with him To which demand of his they yielded And from that time their charge was defraied by all England and a Tribute paid which amounted to 36000 pounds That is hee effected this onely for the present that hee obteined a peace for a time by monie which hee could not by Arms as Florilegus saith well Four years after also all the great Lords of England of both Orders met together at London before Easter and there they staid so long till paiment was made of the Tribute promised to the Danes amounting to fourtie eight thousand pounds which wee reade of likewise both in Florentius and Hoveden But this was paid to the intent that all Danes which were in the Kingdom should in every place dwell peaceably by the English and that both People should have as it were one heart and one soul as it is expressed by Florilegus Other passages of the same kinde there are in the storie of that Age yea and som of an elder date Yet this first kinde of Tribute was not wont to bee paid yearly but levied now and then as occasion required Notwithstanding it may bee true perhaps which som write that Ethelred in the aforesaid agreement of the year MVII yielded to pay every year a Tribute of Thirtie six Thousand pounds to the Danes for a longer continuation of the peace Wee read here that hee yielded or granted but no where likewise that hee paid it But as for the second kinde of Tribute which was to bee paid as wee have told you for hire of the Danish Navie it was a yearly Tribute and levied at the same time at least in the same year to wit of our Lord MXII wherein these fourtie eight thousand pounds were paid to procure a peace Nor was it limited by any set-summe of monie but so much as would serv for victualling and clothing the Forces at Sea Florentius and Hoveden in the aforesaid year say After these things upon paiment of the Tribute meaning that of fourtie eight thousand pounds and a confirmation of the peace by Oaths the Danish Navie which was before in a Bodie was disposed and dispersed abroad afar off But XLV ships remained with the King and sware fidelitie to him and promised to bee readie to defend England against Foreiners upon condition that hee would provide them Victuals and Clothing This is related likewise in the English-Saxon Chronicles of the Abbie of Abingdon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is the Tribute beeing paid and Oaths of Amitie taken the Armie or Navie which was before in a Bodie was dispersed abroad But fourtie five ships of that Navie remained with the King and promised upon Oath to be readie for the defence of this Land upon condition the King did finde them Victuals and Cloathing Swane was at that time King of Denmark with whom Ethelred made this agreement But both the kindes of paiment aforementioned were called Danegelo Danegeld or Danageld that is to say Danish Tribute The first kinde is expressly intimated by this name in Joannes Sarisburiensis where hee saith Swane wasted and spoiled the Island of Britain the greatest part whereof hee had in his possession and afflicted the Members of Christ with many persecutions by an imposition of Tribute which in the English Tongue they call Danageld But the second kinde which was paid for the maintenance of the Forces by Sea was called likewise by the same name both becaus it was occasioned by the agreement with the Danes as also becaus it was wont to bee paid to the Danish Fleet that was hired to guard the Territorie by Sea For which caus also it reteined the same name not onely under these Danish Kings Canutus Harold the first and Hardecanutus but also under the English-Saxon or English And that this which wee have spoken was the Original hereof is affirm'd also by Ingulphus the Abbot of Crowland a witness beyond all exception who lived at that time Hee speaking of the affairs of Edward the Confessor saith In the year MLI which was the tenth of King Edward in regard the Earth did not bring forth its Fruits in such plentie as it was wont but devoured very many people by famine insomuch that many Thousands of men died through the scarcitie of Corn and want of Bread therefore the most pious King Edward beeing moved with compassion towards the people released that most grievous Tribute called Danigeld to all England for ever It is reported by som that this most Religious King beeing brought by his Officers into the Exchequer to see the Danigeld that was collected and to take a view of so vast an heap of treasure stood amazed at the first sight
of the Abbie of Abingdon say of the same year 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The King commanded that 21000 should bee paid to his Armie For so that Fleet is called every where in English Saxon which rode at Grenewich Here you see is no small difference in the number of pounds But howsoever if it bee to bee conceived of the yearly Tax or Tribute then it was far less this year then it is reckoned by those Monks who speak of thirtie eight thousand pounds Four years after in the Reign of King Canutus who was a Dane a far greater summe of Monie was raised for the maintenance of this Fleet. That Florentius whom wee have often cited saith In this year that is MXVIII Seventie two thousand pounds out of all England and one thousand and fiftie pounds out of London were paid to the Danish Fleet and there remained fourtie ships with K. Canutus But the rest were returned to Denmark Of which year Hoveden speak's thus Out of all England seventie two and out of London 410 pounds were paid to the Danish Armie or Fleet. And there remained c. They differ about the Summe not the Thing wherein they agree with the English-Saxon Chronicles before mentioned Yet these altogether speak contrarie to that accompt of the certain summes as it is set down by the aforesaid Monks But Matthew Paris and Matthew Westminster say of the same Time that Cnute sent home the Danish Fleet and Stipendarie Souldiers except fourtie ships as appear's by what hath been said alreadie having paid them out of all England eightie two thousand pounds in silver Also in the second year of King Hardeâ—nute a Tax was levied for the Danish Armie or Fleet amounting to 21000 pounds and 89 pounds as Huntingdon tell 's us All which particulars do I suppose sufficiently demonstrate that the Danish Tribute here mentioned was not fixed to any certain summe of yearly paiment and also that an huge summe of monie was wont to bee paid yearly at that time to the Kings of England for the Guard of the Sea for to what purpose els was that Fleet alwaies kept and so great Taxes levied every year for the maintenance thereof But in the Reign of King Henrie the second the name of Danegeld grew out of use Tributes or Taxes beeing usually paid still notwithstanding by other names that are very well known for the Guarding of the Sea as wee shall shew by and by But they are extremely mistaken even they who agree either with John Bramton the Abbot of Jorvaux or som other Autor out of whom hee wrote it or any others of that kinde in deriving the Original of that yearly Danegeld so often mentioned every where from the former kinde of Tribute which was paid to the Danes for the procuring of a peace and they also who would have the Warr to have been undertaken by the Danes and Saxons against the Britains becaus they denied them a freedom of Navigation and that the end thereof was that this Tribute was upon that accompt imposed upon the Nation when it was subdued Now as concerning the Duties of Fiduciarie Clients or Vassals wont to bee paid in that Age for Naval Expeditions and the Guard of the Sea wee have set them down among those particulars which were spoken of King Edgar in the former Chapter The Pettie Kings or Lords of the neighboring Isles were bound to him by Oath to bee readie at his command to serv him by Sea and Land And in that famous Breviarie or Register of England called Domesday conteining very many Customs in use among the English-Saxons besides the assessment of the Provinces and written in the time of William the first wee read thus It is a Custom at Warwick if the King went by Sea against his Enemies to send him either IV. Batsueins Sea-souldiers or Rowers or els IV. pounds in monie And at Excester when hee made any Expedition by Land or by Sea this Citie served after the rate of V Hides of Land Barnestaple Lydeford and Totenais served as far as that Citie That is these three Towns paid as much as Excester alone Moreover Clocester yielded XXXVI Dicres of Iron and C iron Rods fitted to make nails for the King's ships Leicester also if the King went against his Enemies by Sea sent him four horses from that Town to London to carrie Arms or other necessaries Concerning Lewes also a chief Town in Sussex there K. Edward the Confessor had CXXVII Burgers at his service Their Custom was if the King went not himself in person but sent others to guard the Sea then they collected XX Shillings of every man of what Countrie soëver hee were and provided men who were to look to the Arms on shipboard Here very express mention is made of the defence or Guardianship of the Sea it self And in Colchester an eminent Town of Essex wee finde it was the Custom of that Age to pay out of every hous six pence a year that was able to pay it for maintenance of the King's souldiers upon an Expedition by Land or Sea c. And this ought to bee the rate if the King shall entertain souldiers or make any Expedition All these particulars are in that Register And others there are in it of the same kinde But an Expedition by Sea signified in these testimonies not a Warr to bee undertaken for subduing the Dominions of their neighbors lands but most clearly a preparation and enterprise of Warr for the guarding scouring and keeping the Sea as a part of the Empire of Britain As it sufficiently appear's out of the Histories of that time For wee do not reade that our English-Saxons or Danes had any other quarrel at that time with any of their Neighbors whatsoëver unless it concerned either the British Islands or the Sea belonging thereunto Which also is especially to bee consider'd The Testimonies of Edgar and Canutus Kings of England with others expressly declaring the Dominion which they and their predecessors had over the Sea together with an observation touching the Nations which in that age were seated upon the opposite Shore CHAP. XII THat wee may at length set an end to that fourfold distribution which wee made of the Testimonies of that Age let us in the last place add the express determinations of King Edgar and Canutus concerning their own Dominion over the Sea As for Edgar the title which hee commonly used ran thus I Edgar Soveraign Lord of all Albion and of the Maritim or Insular Kings inhabiting round about So hee make's the bodie of the British Empire to comprehend all the Maritim Kingdoms that lay about that is to say all that are Situate in the British Sea And this hee more plainly declare's in the Charter or Deed by which hee setled revenues on the Cathedral Church of Worcester in the year DCCCCLXIV if so bee the copie were rightly rendred by those who many years since printed so
Sea for their respective Kingdoms and Territories Thus Canutus was King of the Kings of that Sea which hee himself also sufficiently declares when hee expressly affirms in what was before related that the Sea it self was under his Dominion And so much for testimonies to prove that the British Sea hath been possessed not onely by the Britains after they had cast off the Roman yoke but also by the English-Saxon and Danish Kings Moreover it seem's they did use to take a kinde of cours for the strengthning and preservation of their Dominion both by Sea and Land as the antient Germans of whom both Danes and Saxons are a part were wont to do for the defence of their midland Cities Among them saith Caesar it was the highest glory to make very large depopulations and lay all the Countrie round about them waste measuring their honor by their distance from any neighbor and accounting it the onely token of valor when none durst plant themselvs within their reach and besides they thought by this means to render themselvs more secure by removing the fear of any sudden incursion So it hath been the manner of those that at any time have made themselvs Masters of the Kingdom of Britain to extend their Dominion in the circumambient Sea to the largest Circuit scouring the Seas about and keeping other Nations at a distance as it were from the Wall or Precinct of the Island Nor were those German Cities more Masters of that waste part of the Countrie that lay about them then the King 's of Britain were over the Sea of the same name But as wee observed before of the Scots and Picts in the time of the Romans so here also it is to bee noted of the Norwegians or Normans for many times they are to bee taken for one and the same people and other Northern Nations That those British Isles which are situated in the West and Northern Sea were somtimes so possessed by the Scots and Picts as also by the Norwegians and such others as infested the Northern Sea and invaded the Isles lying between them and Britain that it is not to bee doubted but they also according to the various alteration of their Dominions by Land succeeded one another for that interval of time in the possession of a proportionable part of the Sea also as an Appendant to every one of the shores of Britain The Scots saith an unknown Autor speaking of the year DCCCXLVI for many years became Tributaries to the Normans who without any resistance entred and settled themselvs in the Isles lying round about And as touching the Naval affairs of the Normans in our Sea there are many passages to bee seen in Regino the Abbat Aimoinus and other Writers of that Age. But in the mean time it is sufficiently manifest that as by reason of the tumultuarie unsetled posture of affairs in those daies the Dominion of the Island it self was very often tossed to and fro so also the Dominion of the Sea was in like manner attempted disturbed invaded recovered and defended as that which did inseparably follow the Dominion and Soveraigntie of the Island Wee are not ignorant that in the French Histories there are now and then som passages that speak of their Naval power in this Age which are collected by Popelinerius But there is nothing to bee gathered from them that may set forth the least sign or shadow of a Soveraigntie or Dominion over the Sea Very few indeed are to bee found and such as either concern onely the defending the mouths of their Rivers against the Normans and Danes then roving up and down our Sea or the subduing of the Friezlanders and som of the Neighbor-Nations Whereunto also som other passages relate which wee shall mention by and by when wee com to speak of the Admirals of France Several Testimonies concerning the Sea-Dominion of the Kings of England since the Norman Conquest set forth in General Heads CHAP. XIII FOllowing the Order and Method of our Enquirie in the next place wee treat of the Sea-Dominion of the Britains since the coming of the Normans into England And in the first place our Discours shall bee of the Dominion of the English Sea or that which flow's between England and the opposite shores or Havens of the Neighbor-Nations Now whereas it is confessed on all hands that all Dominion is chiefly founded upon just possession or occupation and its continuance and that possession is not supposed to bee had by the act either of the minde or bodie singly and apart as Paulus long since hath well determined but is most firmly gotten and retained by the joint concurrence of minde and bodie whereupon it is distinguished into Civil that is where there is a right or title by Law and Natural or Corporal and it is requisite that this Dominion receiv a signal confirmation by a long continued assent a free and publick confession or acknowledgment of such neighbors whom it most concern's First then as concerning the Corporal or Natural possession of this Sea as well as that which is Civil or by Law and is retained by the act of the minde wee shall give you very ample Testimonies since the time of the coming in of the Normans And in the next place wee will shew how this Dominion of the Kings of England hath been acknowledged by those Foreign or Neighbor-Nations whom it most concern's But forasmuch as what wee shall thus speak of the English Sea in general will chiefly relate to the Southern and Eastern or that which hath the English shore on one side and France and Germanie on the other wee will therefore discours severally of that which lie's to the West of England and also of the Scotish Sea or that which lie's more Northerly As concerning the possession of the English Sea both Corporal and Mental or Civil continued for that space of time which wee now speak of with the like Dominion arising and retained thereupon there are divers notable and very clear testimonies thereof which for Methods sake wee divide into eight heads whereof I The Custodie Government or Admiraltie of the English Sea as a Territorie or Province belonging to the King II The Dominion of those Islands that lie before the French shore III The Leav of passage through this Sea granted to Foreiners upon request IV The Libertie of Fishing therein allowed upon courtesie to Foreiners and Neighbors and the Protection given to Fisher-men V Prescribing of Laws and Limits to Foreiners who beeing in Hostilitie one with another but both in amitie with the English made Prize of each other in this Sea VI The Records whereby this Dominion is expressly asserted by the By as a most undoubted right and that noâ— onely by the King but by the Parlaments of England when they debated of other matters VII The Commentaries of the Law of the Land and common customs of the Nation which do either assert or at
least allow such a Dominion VIII Som antient Testimonies of inferior note All the testimonies almost that are comprehended in this Division are indeed domestick but so publick and of so approved credit that hardly any thing can bee imagined which might give a clearer proof of possession whether Civil as they call it consisting in the act and intention of the minde or Natural which require's the presence of the Bodie As it will appear to any man that pleas to make enquirie Especially if hee add hereunto the judgment or acknowledgment of such Forein Nations whom it chiefly concerned whereof wee shall treat also by and by But of these things severally and in order That the Kings of England since the coming in of the Normans have perpetually enjoied the Dominion of the Sea flowing about them is in the first place proved from the Guard or Government thereof as of a Province or Territorie that is to say from the very Law of the English Admiraltie CHAP. XIV AS concerning the Guard or Government of this Sea there are three things therein that deserv special consideration 1. The bare mention and nature of the Guard of the Sea and of the Guardians or Admirals thereof in publick Records and Histories 2. The Tributes and Customs imposed demanded or accustomed to bee paid for and in consideration of the said custodie And lastly the tenor and varietie of Commissions belonging to this Guard and English Admiraltie or Government by Sea Since the coming in of the Normans there is frequent mention of a Guard or Government instituted for the defence and guarding of the Sea Here call to minde those observations touching this kinde of Guard which have been alreadie gathered out of that Record or Breviarie of England called Doomesday And King Henrie the first saith Florentius of Worcester gave order to his Butsecarli to guard the Sea and take care that no person from the parts of Normandie approach the English Coasts The same saith Roger Hoveden in the very same words almost save onely that the printed Copies err in putting Buzsecarlis for Butsecarlis These Butsecarli or Butescarles in the old English Language are Officers belonging to the Navie or Sea-souldiers as Hutesecarli were Domestick Servants or Officers in Court And that to guard the Sea here signified to secure the Sea it self not to defend the Sea-Coasts as somtimes though seldom it did with Land-forces plainly appear's out of Henrie of Huntingdon in whom it is clear that the persons who thus guarded the Sea were emploied by the King to make Warr by Sea against Robert Duke of Normandie who was then preparing an Expedition against England Now those publick Records are lost wherein the Roial Commissions for the delegation of this Command or Government were wont to bee registred all that space of time betwixt the coming in of the Normans and the Reign of K. John But from thence through all the succeeding ages unto this present time it is as clear as day that the Kings of England have been wont to constitute Governors or Commanders who had the charge of guarding the English Sea and were the Guardians or Governors thereof in the same manner as if it had been som Province upon Land First of all there were intrusted with the Government of the Sea or the Maritimae and Marinae the Maritime and Marine part of the Empire understanding by those words not onely som Countrie lying upon the Sea-Coasts but comprehending the British Sea it self though I confess it was not alwaies so such as were to guard and keep it under the title somtimes of Custodes Navium Guardians of the ships but more frequently Custodes Maritimae or Marinae in the sens aforesaid And in the time of Henrie the third Thomas de Moleton is styled Captain and Guardian of the Sea and hath autoritie given him to guard the Sea and the Maritim parts of the Eastern Shore In the same King's Reign also the Inhabitants of the Cinque-Ports are said to guard the Coast of England and the Sea So Hugh de Crequeur was Warden of the Cinque-ports and of the Sea in those parts Afterward the title of Guardians or Wardens very often changed into that of Admirals Edward the First saith Thomas of Walsingham for the keeping of the Sea divided his Shipping into three Fleets setting over them three Admirals namely over the Ships at Yarmouth and the road thereabout John de Botetort over those at Portsmouth William de Leyburn and over the Western and Irish Ships a certain Irish Knight Moreover also that John de Butetort is in the Records of that time styled custos Maritimae as were others also After this in the Reign of Edward the Second three Admirals of the three several Coasts of England saith Walsingham had the guarding of the Sea namely Sir John Oturvin Sir Nicolas Kyriel Sir John Felton Wee finde moreover in our publike Records that the principal end of calling a Parlament in the fourteenth year of Edward the Third was De Treter sur la gard de la pees de la terre de la Marche d'Escoce de la Meer i. e. That consultation might bee had concerning keeping the peace of the Land also of the Borders of Scotland and of the Sea The same regard they had to the defence of the Sea as of the Island or Land-Province giving us to understand that the Land and Sea together made one entire bodie of the Kingdom of England Other evidences of the same nature wee finde in the Records of Parlament of the same King's time or in the consultations of the estates of the Realm had about this matter that whilst they Treat indifferently De la saufegard de la terre concerning the safeguard or defence of the Land or Island and de la saufeguard de la Mere the safeguard of the Sea they seem sufficiently to declare beeing well inform'd by their Ancestors that the Dominion of this as well as of that did belong unto the Crown of England For the business debated by them was not onely how to provide a Navie to make resistance against their Enemies by Sea but for the guarding the Sea it self as well as the securing of the Isle and so for the maintaining the antient right of their King in both In the time of Richard the Second Hugh Calverlee was made Admiral of the Sea saith Walsingham and M r Thomas Percie joined in Commission with him to scour the Roades of the Sea for one year And in the Reign of the same King and likewise of the two succeeding Henries the Fourth and the Fifth debate was had in Parlament about the Guard of the Sea In the Reign of Henrie the Sixth the Guard of the Sea was with a numerous Navie Committed to Richard Earl of Salisburie John Earl of Shrewsburie John Earl of Worcester and James Earl of Wilts to whom was added Baron Sturton and afterward to John Duke
charge Which indeed is a thing wee hear not of in later times but that so it was in the Reigns of King Henrie the third and Edward the first the Records of those times do testifie But afterwards the Universal Custodie of the Sea excepting onely what was extraordinarie was committed by our Kings to the high Admirals of England and to them alone or their Deputies and apperteineth unto them now by an unquestionable right But when any person is intrusted with that Guardianship or Custodie the possession and dominion of the King who intrust's or give 's him the Autoritie is comprehended in that Government or Command which also is confirmed by words most express and home to the business in hand that are to bee seen in a Libel or Bill of Complaint hereafter mentioned which was exhibited by a great number of the neighbor-Nations to the Commissioners of our Edward the first and Philip the fair King of France The Dominion of the English Sea asserted from those Tributes or Customs that were wont to bee imposed paid and demanded for the Guard or Protection thereof after the Norman Conquest CHAP. XV. COncerning the Tributes or Customs that were wont to bee imposed paid and demanded for the Guard of the English Sea there are very ample antient Testimonies all along since the Reign of the Normans And those things which have been alreadie mentioned touching the Guard of the Sea do not a little confirm it It is manifest that the Tribute imposed in the time of the English-Saxons for the Guard of the Sea which was called Danegeld of whose Original and use wee have alreadie spoken was wont now and then to bee paid heretofore under the Norman Kings After the words there cited out of the antient Dialogue touching the Exchequer about the paiment thereof before the Norman Conquest it immediately follow 's thus in the same Dialogue In his Reign that is to say the â—â—igâ— of William the first the Danes as well as other Robbert of Land and Sea restrained the Invasions of Enemies knowing this to bee true which is written When a strong man armed keep 's his hous hee possesseth his goods in peace For they were not ignorant that resolute and valiaâ—â— men would not let injuries pass unrevenged Therefore whereas the Laâ—d had paid it along time in the same King's Reign they were unwilling to pay that every year which had been exacted upon urgent necessitie in time of warr But yet they would not have it wholly cashiered becaus of sudden occasions Therefore it was seldom paid in his Reign or the Reign of his Successors that is onely then when they either had or suspected a warr with Foreiners And among the old Laws of England wee finde that William Rufus requiring aid of the Barons for the regaining of Normandie out of the hands of his brother Robert sirnamed Cortehole who was upon a Voiage to the Holy Land Danegeld was granted to him not established nor confirmed by a Law that is to say four shillings upon every Hide of Land which were paid for defending the Dominion by Sea For that was the intent and end of Danegeld according to its nature and original Moreover Roger Hoveden saith expresly that it was usually paid until the time of King Stephen Hee speaking of the promisses which hee made at the time of his Coronation saith Thirdly hee promissed that hee would remit Danegeld for ever that is two shillings upon an Hide which his Predecessors were went to take every year The same also is affirmed by Matthew Paris and Roger of Wendover out of whom the Chronicles set forth by Matthew until the nineteenth year of Henry the third or the year of our Lord MCCXXXV were wholly taken They say of King Stephen Tertiò vovit quòd Danegeld id est qualibet ydâ terrae duos solidos quos Antecessores ejus consueverant accipere in aeternum annis singulis condonaret So indeed wee read it in the Manuscript Books of this Matthew whereby the Printed ones are to bee amended who render it onely thus Tertiò vovit quòd Antecessores ejus accipere consueverant in aeternum annis singulis condonaret But this also is added by Hoveden These especially and divers other things hee promissed before God but kept none of them as wee are told likewise by Paris and Wendover So that this Tribute was wont to bee paid in the Reigns of William the first and the second Henrie the first and King Stephen also for the guard of the Sea And it appear's by the accompâ—s of the Exchequer that it was paid somtimes in the time of Henrie the second And after that it grew out of date another cours was wont to bee taken very frequently and used as the Custom of the Land that Pay and Provisions might not bee wholly wanting to maintain the Dominion of the Kingdom of England by Sea Mention is made touching this particular in the Court-Rolls of Edward the first Terrarum ad Custodiâ—â— Maris agistatarum that is of such Lands as were charged with a Paiment or Tribute for the guard of the Sea Wee know indeed also that it was in the same manner collected at that time under pretence of the Sea for the pay and maintenance of Land-Forces neer the Shore But certain it is that the Sea it self was guarded then with Naval-Forces as well as the Shore by Land-Forces and so that that Paiment belong'd either to the Sea it self or els to the Shore as well as the Sea Moreover Subsidies have been demanded of the people in Parlament Pour la salvation du Royalme de euâ— Mesines auxint de la Meer de la March dâ— Escoce de Gascoign des Isles that is for defence of the Kingdom the Sea belonging thereunto the Scotish Border Gasooign and the Isles Thus the Sea and its defence and Dominion is reckoned in an equal right and condition with that of the Kingdom the Borders and the Isles Several other instances there are of that kinde But that especially is to bee observed in this place which wee finde in the Parlamentarie Records of King Richard the second concerning a Tribute or Custom that was imposed upon every ship that passed through the Northern Admiraltie that is in the Sea which stretcheth it self from the Thames mouth along the Eastern shore of England towards the North-East for the pay and maintenance of the Guard or Protection of the Sea Nor was it imposed onely upon the ships of such Merchants and Fisher-men as were English but also by the same right in a manner upon those of any Foreiners whatsoëver no otherwise than if a man that is owner of a Field should impose a yearly Revenue or Rent for the libertie of Thorow-fare or driving of Cattel or Cart through his Field Paiment was made at the rate of six pence a Ton upon every Vessel that passed by except such ships onely as
the saufegard of the Seas for the entercourse of Marchandise safely to come into and to pass out of the same which is the usual form of words That is to say these words are part of the Preface or Preamble which was usually placed in the beginning of any Law or Statute whereby that most known Custom or Impost of Tonnage and Powndage was wont to bee imposed For the keeping and sure defending of the Seas against all persons entending or that shall extend the disturbance of us your said Commons in the intercourse and the invading of this your Realm So that the King of England hath ever been so accounted the Arbitrator and Lord of Commerce throughout these Seas that it could not lawfully bee hindred without his Commission Which truly is a manifest evidence of that Dominion or Ownership whereof wee treat And here you see also that the defence of the Realm that is of the Island for somtimes the Isle alone and somtimes the Sea also as I shall shew by and by is comprehended in that name and of the Sea as of those things which are held and possessed by one and the same Right is joined together The Tribute or Custom afore-mentioned which was wont to bee imposed and the usual form of the same Imposition may bee seen compleat in the printed Acts of Parlament of K. Kdward the Sixt and others following But it appear's most certain by the Rolls that the Predecessors also of this Edward whose Records are yet extant did enjoy the same or the like according to the various Custom of the Times Observations touching the Dominion of the English and Irish Sea from the tenor and varietie of those Letters Patents or Commissions Roial whereby the Admirals of England were wont to bee put in Autoritie CHAP. XVI THe usual form of Commission whereby the High Admiral of England is wont to bee invested with Autoritie for the Guard of the Sea run's thus at this day as it hath don also for very manie years past Wee 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 Normandie Gascoigne and Aquitain And wee have made appointed and ordained and by these Presents Wee make appoint and Ordain him 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 Normandie Gascoign and Aquitain as also general Governor over all our Fleets and Seas of our said Kingdoms of England and Ireland our Dominions and Islands belonging to the same And know yee further that Wee of â—uâ— especial grace and upon certain knowledg c. Do give and grant to the said N. our great Admiral of England and Governor general over our Fleets and Seas aforesaid all manner of Jurisdictions Autorities Liberties Offices Fees Profits Duties Emoluments Wrecks of the Sea Ejectments Regards Advantages Commodities Preheminences and Privileges Whatsoëver to the said Office our great Admiral of England and Ireland and of the other Places and dominions aforesaid in any manner whatsoëver belonging and appertaining And afterwards there follow verie many other particulars in the King's Commission setting forth that most ample Command and Jurisdiction In former times as hath been alreadie shewn you this kinde of Commanders were called Custodes Maris Guardians or Keepers of the Sea who afterward began to bee invested with the name of Admirals in the Reign of Edward the First But their Commands were usually restrained to certain Limits of Coasts So that particular Commanders were somtimes set over each of the Three Western Southern and Northern Coasts but for the most part over the Western and Northern Seldom was one set over both before that the Title of Admiral of England Ireland and Aquitain was put into the Commissions of which more by and by But as the name of Guardian of the Sea was taken from the Sea it self whereof hee was Governor as of a Province so that of Admirals a word whose Original is very uncertain but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Amiralius was used of old for a Commander of a Fleet or Navie not onely in the West but also in the Eastern Empire derived its name of Dignitie either from the Fleet wherewith hee defended his Jurisdiction at Sea as it was usual heretofore or els from the Land either bordering upon that Jurisdiction or joined therewith as it hath been in the later Form of Commissions Whereupon from the time of Edward the first unto Henrie the Fourth about one hundred and Fiftie years they were in solemn manner created Admirals of the Fleet or Navis of our Ships towards the Northern Parts or towards the Western Parts or the Southern or as it â—â—ll out somtimes of both together For the Southern and Western Coast did as appear's by the thing it self signifie one and the same That is to say the Coast stretched here and there along the Shore from the North of the Thames But as the Dignitie of those Officers called Comes and Magister Equitum of the West Magister Equitum throughout Gallia Magister Militum throughout the East Magister Militum throughout Thrace and others of that kinde in the Imperial Offices did no less denote the Autoritie and Jurisdiction of them that commanded in these Provinces who before were Lords of the Provinces than if they had been called Comes and Magister of the West Magister throughout Gallia throughout the East and throughout Thrace so it is evident that the Admirals of the Fleets and Navies whereby the Sea is guarded after the same manner as the Land is possessed by Land-Forces did no less set forth the Command and Dominion and civil possession of those that had autoritie over the Sea who before were Lords of the Sea then if they had been styled Guardians of the Sea Commanders or Admirals in their Commissions And such as were so constituted Admirals of both Coasts or of the whole English Navie were somtimes by a general name called Admirals of England over the Sea before that form of words was put into the Royal Commissions And of this sort of Admirals you have a Catalogue set down by that eminent man Sir Henrie Spelman in his Glossarie where there are others also that follow But such a change hapned in the Form of the Commissions in the time of Henrie the Fourth that there was one man appointed Admiral not onely of the fleets or Navies but of England and Ireland over whose Fleet of Ships or Navie for Defence of the Irish Sea somtimes a particular person was made Admiral as was Thomas Percie Earl of Worcester yea and in express words also Admiral of Aquitain and Picardie As was Thomas Beaufort who also was Duke of Excester under Henrie the Fifth in the thirteenth year of Henrie the Fourth after hee had surrendred the Commission whereby hee had
oppose the Dominion of the King of England by Sea CHAP. XVIII THat there were Admirals also constituted by the French King upon the opposit Shore of France is known to everie man And as there is an Admiral appointed in Gallia Narbonensis to over-see maritim Affairs there so also on the opposite Shore there are distinct Offices of the Admiral of Aquitain Bretaign and Normandie and the adjoining Coasts But the French Lawyers of late are wont to call their Admiral in Latine Praefectus Maris Governor of the Sea as if the Sea were subject to him also as a Governor whereas notwithstanding if the thing bee rightly consider'd that Government of the Sea by what name soëver it bee called doth not signifie as among the English any Dominion of one having command in any nearer part of the Sea for wee speak not of the Sea of Marseille which hath no relation hereunto but onely of their Naval Forces in any Sea whatsoëver together with the Government of the Sea-men and Jurisdiction over their persons and moveables which may fall under the determination of a Judg pour raison ou occasion as they say de faict de la mer that is by reason or upon occasion of any suit or controversie arising about Sea-Affairs For the more plain understanding whereof wee must make farther enquirie In the more antient times there were indeed Admirals or Governors of Sea affairs among the French yet so that their Writers do not a little differ about the original of the dignitie They for the most part say that Rotlandus is found to have been Governor of the Sea of Aremorica or Bretaign under Charlemaign whom they fetch out of Eginhartus who wrote the life of Charls at that time But in Eginhartus he is expressly called Governor not of the British Sea but onely of the Shore of Britaign as wee told you in the former Book In which name there is a description not of one that govern's the Sea as a Province but who command 's the Shore as the limit of his dignitie That is to say of the same kinde as those Counts or officers were who were deputed in that Age to guard the Sea Coast and secure it from the incursions of enemies by Sea There is also a nameless Autor of a Chronicle belonging to a Monasterie called Monasterium Besuense who write's that this guarding of the Shores under the Caroline Kings was given over a little after the time of Charlemaign But in the following Ages the Kingdom of France beeing divided as it wereby piece-meals into several principalites that which a long retained this name of the Kingdom of France was reduced into so narrow a compass that the Province of Narbon was held by Sovereign Earls of its own Aquitain or the Western Shore which lie's more Southerly with Normandie by the English Bretaign either by Kings or Dukes of the same aud Flanders by Earls So that whilst the whole Sea-Coast except Picardie remained separate from that Kingdom there was Sea little enough lying before it Yea and the Naval Forces were small enough of which before the accession of a larger Sea-Coast to the French Kingdom there was most use in the expedition of the holy War Nor was any other Governor wont to bee appointed there by the name of Admiral then hee who as occasion required was put in Command over the Navie and Militarie Affairs by Sea yea and was borrowed from som Nation bordering upon the Sea as the Genoeses or others of that kinde But the Kings themselvs had at that time no Command over the Sea as it is expressly written by Johannes Tilius a Clark of the Parlament of Paris His words are these After that the Kingdom of France was lessen'd by divisions and the Kings confined to more narrow Dominions becaus they had potent Vassals who enjoied Feuds with absolute Soveraigntie if you except their homage for the King of England held the Dutchies of Normandie and Aquitain Britain had a Duke of its own and slanders Tholouse and Provence had their Earls the Kings of France for a long time had no command over the Sea and therefore had no need of Admirals until they undertook the Expedition for the holy Land at which time they made use of Genoeses whom they hired with Spaniards or other of their neighbors that were well skill'd in Sea-affairs to under-take the care of transportation having no office appointed for that purpose and by this means they had many Admirals in one single Expedition But after that the English had quitted Normandie and the Kingdom of France had gotten ground upon the Sea-Coast the use of Sea-Affairs also was somwhat augmented That is to say about the times of John and Henrie the third Kings of England So that the first Admiral that they reckon in the Catalogue of French dignities of whom any memorie is left to posteritie was Enguerandus Coucaeus in the time of Philip the Bold King of France or about the year 1280 as it is related by Joannes Feronius And what kinde of dignitie his was appear's sufficiently thence that his next Successors Matthew Momorancie and John Harcourt were onely upon a particular occasion put in command over the Sea-Forces by Philip the fair as wee understand by their Commission Yea and they are mentioned by William de Nangis by the title of Admirals as others also are by Joannes de Beka in the time of Philip the fair Although Joannes Tilius reckon's Amaurius Viscount of Narbonne to bee the first that bare the dignitie of Admiral in France as a constant setled Office over the Affairs of the Sea to wit in the time of John and Charls the fift Kings of France that is about the year 1300 whilest others are too busie in summing up divers other particulars touching the Antiquitie of this command among the French Afterwards Aquitain was added to the Dominion of the King of France in the year 1453. Henrie the sixt of England beeing driven out But in the year 1481. the Province of Narbonne in the year 1491. the Dutchie of Bretaign and lastly in the space of som years all that the English held in Picardie was added also So all the Sea-Coast except Belgium returned into the Patrimonie of the Kingdom of France Hereupon it came to pass that four Sea-Governments or Admiralships were afterwards in use therein notwithstanding that somtimes one and the same person held several together But of these the Government that belong's to the shore of Normandie and Picardie is at this day usually called the Admiralship of France becaus before that the Province of Narbonne Aquitain and Bretaigne were annexed to the patrimonie of the Crown the onely Maritim Government in the Realm of France was that of Picardie whereto Normandie was added afterward as the next Province the other three beeing denominated from their respective Provinces The whole matter is very well set forth by Renatus Choppinus
to bee presented touching that business unto the King as hee was at that time King of France but onely as King of England that is as Lord of the whole Sea flowing between And it is very improbable and not in reason to bee admitted that they would so upon deliberation for both Lords and Commons use to debate such matters a long time before they pass a Bill that they would I say so upon deliberation require an imposing of Customs by the Act of an English Parlament in a place that was not subject as a part of the Roial patrimonie to the King of England as King of England From hence it was also that our present King Charls did this last year declare that himself and his progenitors the Kings of England have in all times hitherto by an antient and most just title been Lords of this Sea to wit in his Letters Patents sent to the Maritim Counties of England whereby ship-monie was imposed for the defence of his Dominion by Sea Add moreover hereunto that in the agreement made betwixt our Edward the first and Guie Earl of Flanders about the wearing of Colors or Flags in every ship and punishing offendors by Sea William de Leyburn is called Admiral de la mier du dict Roy d Engleterre or Admiral of the Sea of the said King of England Other Testimonies of the same kinde there are in Records touching the Dominion of the Sea as it hath been received and acknowledged according to the Common Law and Custom of our Countrie which I shall discours of in the next place and after that concerning the Testimonie of Foreiners Of divers Testimonies in our own Law-Books and the most received Customs whereby the Sea-Dominion of the King of England is either asserted or admitted CHAP. XXIV THE seventh of those Heads according to the former Division which manifest the aforesaid Dominion of the Kings of England relate's to our Law-Book's and the received Customs therein which prove it from the most antient times There are also in them many Particulars that may relate hereunto which are explained now and then touching the Guard of the Sea the English Admiraltie and other things alreadie handled But in this Chapter wee shall use either the determinations and Commentaries of our own Lawyers or chiefly such Court-Records as explain their opinions I confess indeed in som of the Authors of our Law who wrote above CCCL years ago or thereabout after they had as the manner then was read through the Civil Law also they were so strict in following those determinations word for word which they found concerning the Sea in that Law that when they treated de acquirendo Rerum Dominio of the manner of acquiring the Dominion of things they tranferr'd them into their own writings From thence it is that Henry Bracton who was a very famous Lawyer at the later end of the reign of Henrie the Third saith Naturali jure communia sunt omnia haec aqua Profluens aër Mare litora Maris quasi Maris accessoria By the Law of Nature all these things are common running water the Aër and the Sea and the shores of the Sea as accessories or dependants of the Sea Also aedificia si in mari five in litore posita fuerint aedificantium sunt de Jure gentium If Buildings bee raised in the Sea or upon the shore they becom theirs that build them by the Law of Nations And a little after Jus piscandi omnibus commune est in portu in fluminibus a Right of fishing is common to all in a Haven and in Rivers Which wee finde likewise in som other of our Law-Books of that Age as a passage that fell from som Writers of whom I spake at large in the former Book that were more affected than was meet with the words of Ulpian and Justinian in the general division of things But these very men in other places shewing the Customs of our Countrie do sufficiently admit the King's Dominion by Sea For Bracton himself afterward speak's of them that by the King's grace and favor quieti sint de Theolonio consuetudinibus Dandis per totum regnum Angliae in terrâ mari per totum Regnum tam per terram quà m per mare Were exempted from paying Tolls and Customs throughout the whole Kingdom of England in the Land and in the Sea and throughout the whole Kingdom both by Land and by Sea And in the same King's time a freedom from som paiments was granted to the Citizens of London per totum Regnum tam per mare quà m per terram throughout the whole Kingdom as well by Sea as by Land And so Bracton when hee return's to speak of the Customs of our Countrie acknowledged that the Dominion of the Sea belong'd to his King no less then the Land And hence it came to pass also that inter Capitula Coronae as they call them that is to say those Articles or chief Heads whereof enquirie was to bee made according to the usual custom by Judges delegated throughout England for the conservation of the publick peace wee finde this also de Purpresturis factis super Dominum Regem sive in Terrâ sive in Mari c. Of Pourprestures made upon our Lord the King either on Land or in the Sea or in sweet waters either within the Libertie or without or in any other place whatsoëver And it is placed among the Articles of this kinde recited by Bracton himself and in the Autor of the Book called Fleta But in the language of the Law wee call those things Pourprestures whereby detriment is don to any publick place belonging to the Patrimonie of the Crown as a publick thorow-fare a River and the like So that according to the nature of this ordinarie Article touching Pourprestures in the general form of enquirie the Dominion or Ownership of the Sea is ascribed to the King no less than of the Land or of publick Road or thorow-fare and River agreeable hereto is that Article about any kinde of salt-waters beeing inclosed by any subject or possessed in any other manner which in the antient Records of our Court of Admiraltie is said to bee don to the disherison of the King The words are there Item soit enquis de ceulx qui acrochent à eulx eaves salees en desheretison du Roy. And at this day enquirie is wont to bee made about that business by Autoritie of the high Admiral Robert Belknap also an eminent Judg in the time of Richard the Second saith that the Sea is subject to the King as a part of his English Kingdom or of the Patrimonie of the Crown His words in the Norman tongue run thus Le Mere est del ligeans del Roy come de son corone d' Angleterre Hee added to his words in a remarkable way as belonging to the Crown of England or as belonging
by the Court that the Exception was of no force for that Scotland was not within the Bounds and Limits of England So that within the four Seas and within the Realm signified one and the same thing from whence these terms out of the Realm and without the four Seas becom one and the same also To bee out of the Realm is very often repeated in this â—enâ— also by Littleton the most excellent of all our Law-Writers signifying no other thing than what hee renders it in another place by one who ala oustere le mere crossed the Sea or went beyond sea â—rom thence also it seem's to have proceeded that whereas with us among the several temporal excuses of Defendants who are summoned to appear in Court in our Law wee call them Essoins there are two alleged whereof the one is intitled de ultra Mare the other De Malo veniendi and this latter is allowed to him that is hindred by any kinde of misfortune whatsoever within the Seas or on this side of the more remote bounds of those Seas which belong to England but the former to him who live's without or beyond the Seas belonging to the English Empire From thence it seem's I say to have proceeded that in former times when there was a more frequent use in Court of this kinde of excuses a Defendant beeing absent in Ireland might lawfully make use of the latter form of Essoin but not of the former Nevertheless if through ignorance hee did make use of this it took on the nature of the latter that is wholly quitting all its own nature it depended upon this that the Defendant according to the more vulgar sensâ— or acception lived beyond-Sea For according to received Custom the nature of them both was such that when any one might lawfully use the former hee might also after a while likewise enjoy the benefit of the latter But in the said kinde of Essoins or Excuses the former not beeing lawfully made use of but yet turned into the latter by construction of Law lest it should becom of no use there was no place for the latter to the end it might not bee iterated contrarie to Custom The matter it self was thus decided in the time of K. Henrie the third as it is described by Henrie Bracton after this manner Esto saith hee quòd quis se Essoniaverit de Ibernia quasi de ultra Mare attornatur Essonium illud ad simplex Essonium de Malo veniendi ut coram Martino de Patteshul in Banco anno Regis Henrici Sexto de Gilberto Mariscallo Ceciliâ uxore ejus Allano de Hyda qui vocavit ad Warrantum Willielmum Mariscallum in Comitatu Pembroke qui se essoniavit de Ibernia non fuit allocatum postea fecit de hoc quòd aliud essonium de malo veniendi ad alium diem non fuit allocatum So much wee finde also in the antient Autor of that Book entitled Fleta Doubtless Ireland is no less seated beyond sea than either France or Spain unless you take that decision as relating onely to the Civil notion of this kinde of situation to wit that it is not situate beyond that Sea which is a part and Territorie of the English Empire but placed therein and comprehended under one and the same Supreme Power with England and so that an Excuse or Essoin de ultra mare is not in that kinde to bee admitted In the antient Records also concerning the Customs of our Court of Admiraltie wee read it was an usual Custom in the time of King Henrie the first who died Anno Dom. MCXXXVI and of other Kings both before and after him That if any man accused of a capital crime don by Sea beeing publickly called five times by the voice of the Crier after so many several daies assigned did not make his appearance in the Court of Admiraltie hee was banished out of England de mer appurtenant au Roy d Angleterre or out of the Sea belonging to the King of England for fourtie years more or less according to the pleasure of the Admiral Other particulars there are that relate hereunto about Actions for matters arising in this Sea that were wont to bee entred in express terms heretofore in the ordinarie Courts of our Common Law whoâ—e Jurisdiction was ever esteemed of such a nature that an Action instituted about a matter arising in any other place than within the bounds of the Realm was by the antient strict Law alwaies to bee rejected by them After which manner as it hath been a Custom now for many years that an action ought to bee rejected unless the matter have its rise within the Bodie as they call it of the Countie that is within som Province or Countie of the Island usually given in charge to certain Governors or Officers known to us by the name of Sheriffs So also is it in this Sea-Province belonging by the antient received Custom to the high Admiral or his Deputies not onely so far as concern's its defence and guard but also as to matter of Jurisdiction So that at length it is manifest that the Sea-Dominion of the King of England is without controversie admitted and asserted also both by the Determinations and Customs of the Law of the Land and by the express words of the Writs and Forms of the Actions themselvs Nor is that of any force at all to the contrarie which either our Countrie-man Bracton the Lawyer as hath been said or som others of late as well as antient time that are Followers of him but in too careless a manner while they set down the Institutions of our English Law have unadvisedly utter'd by the way touching that antient communitie of the Sea and of Fishing also in Rivers according to the Books of Justinian as if such a kinde of communitie were admitted in our Law Truly that which they have so let slip is not so much to bee taken as contrarie to the known Law of the Land in this particular for even Bracton himself as I have shewn hath divers other passages that signifie this Dominion of the King as it is to bee reckoned for som of the reliques of Ulpian or of the School of the Imperial Law too slightly and carelesly added by the way in writing And the like may bee said of one or two more of our Writers who after the manner of reasoning received for the most part in the Imperial Law touching the middle of a River and an Island risen therein do by the way but ignorantly make the middle of the Sea flowing between to bee the bound of this Sea-Dominion of our Kings Moreover the same may bee said likewise of the Commissioners of Queen Elisabeth who treating at Bremen with the Commissioners of Christiern the fourth King of Denmark about a freedom of Navigation through the Northern Sea object a perpetual communitie of every kinde of
Sea from the Law of Nations denie a Dominion and wrest other things by way of Argument out of the Writers of the Imperial Law which are clearly contrarie to our English Right as also to the Intervenient Law of Nations which hath continued in force for so many Ages about the Dominion of the Sea Either I say the same must bee said of them or els that they did not so much make choice of Arguments which they thought were true to serv the present occasion as of such that might seem to have the greater force and autoritie among those Civil Lawyers with whom they were in Treatie Nor is it a new thing that Civilians should speak of a natural and perpetual communitie of the Sea even where it is most certain that a Dominion thereof is admitted from all Antiquitie in the very Territorie wherein they themselvs are comprehended as I have formerly declared There are also very many Rights among us belonging either to the Exchequer or to such as enjoy the Right of the Exchequer by Grant from the King which som conceiv to bee grounded upon that Sea-Dominion whereof wee discours As the confiscation of Goods derelict in the Sea and of som of the greater sort of Fish as Wale-Fishes Sturgeons and others And for the most part that of the Satyrist hold's good Quicquid conspicuum pulchrúmque ex aequore toto est Res Fisci est ubicunque natat Goods in the sea of any worth and note Belong to th'Chequer wheresoëre they flote Besides wreckt goods cast out ashore when no living creature belonging to the ship remain's alive But these things do not onely appertain to him that is Lord of the Sea but somtimes also to others in other Nations And they for the most part depend either upon the Law or Custom of som Land as in the case of Goods cast ashore or of such as are found and imported or els upon a Right over such Persons as shall first possess them as in the case of any Goods whatsoâ—ver derelict or found in the Sea and others of that kinde Therefore I thought it not meet to draw those things here into Controversie Som antient Testimonies of less account touching the Sea-Dominion whereof wee Treat CHAP. XXV But his intent is earnestly to perswade the English that it is their main interest diligently to guard the Sea whereof the Kings of England are Lords and to defend it with all their might as the perpetual prop and support of their Empire Hee saith also that the same advice was given by the Emperor Sigismund at his enterview with our Henrie the Fifth for the procuring of on peace betwixt him and Charls the Sixth King of France Give mee leav to set down his words The true processe of English policie Of utterward to keep this region Of our Englond that no man may denie Nor say of sooth but it is one of the best Is this that who seeth South North East and West Cherish merchandise keep the Admiraltie That we be Masters of the narrow See For Sigismund the great Emperour Which yet reigneth when he was in this lond With King Henrie the fift Prince of honour Here much glory as him thought he found A mightie land which had taken in hand To warre in France and make mortalitie And ever well kept round about the See And to the King thus he said My brother When he perceivaed two towns Calys and Dover Of all your towns to chuse of one and other To keep the Sea and soon to com over To werre outwards and your reign to recover Keep these two towns sure and your Maâ—estie As your tweyne eyne so keep the Narrow See For if this See bee kept in time of warre Who can here passe without danger and woâ— Who can escape who may mischief differre What marchandie may for by be agoe For needs hem must take trewes euery foe Flanders and Spaine and other trust to me Or else hindred all for this Narrow See What is conteined more at large in these Rhythmes you have the sens of it contracted above in few words It is not worth while to render the words themselvs The same Versifier also proceeds thus But King Edward made a siege royall And wanne the town and in speciall The Sea was kept and thereof he was Lord Thus made he Nobles comed of Record Wee have also divers other very large Domestick Testimonies of this thing which are added in the next place beeing mingled together with the antient Recognition or acknowledgment of forein Nations concerning the same That the Sea-Dominion of the Kings of England is acknowledged by Foreiners whom it most concern's by their usual striking of Sails according to antient Custom Also concerning two Edicts or Ordinances that were set forth about this Thing by the Kings of France CHAP. XXVI WEe are com now to Foreiners And it is clearly evident by what wee have discoursed before either touching the limits set for Navigation by the King of England or the Licence of passage through this Sea often desired by Petition that som of them have indeed acknowledged this Dominion But there are two Testimonies more notable than the rest which shew if you consider chiefly as you ought their beeing Neighbors and such whom it concerned that they generally did the same The one is the usual striking of the Top-sails by every Ship of any Forein Nation whatsoêver if they sail near the King's Navie or any Ship belonging to the same Navie in the Sea The other is a Libel published of old or a Bill of complaint instituted wherein very many forein Nations heretofore in the time our Edward the First did all together and by common consent with the English acknowledg the Dominion of the Kings of England by Sea Whereto I shall add also a particular declaration of that kinde made by the Flemings in an Ambassie to our Edward the Second But that the striking of Sails is don not onely in honor of the English King but also in acknowledgment of his Soveraigntie and Dominion in this Sea is I suppose a thing out of question Certainly the French cannot doubt of it who by such a kinde of striking would have had themselvs heretofore acknowledged Lords of our Sea but in vain That is to say they were as much over-seen in the former Age in setting forth two Edicts or Ordinances to require and ratifie such a kinde of striking Sail to themselvs by all Foreiners as they were in so rashly vindicating the Sea-Dominion of the King of England Concerning those Edicts wee spake before in the former Book Neither of which was received as valid in any Court of Justice according to a decision made in the supreme Court of Parlament which wee have observed also in that place Yea and here I shall set down the very words used by Ludovicus Servinus Advocate general to the King of France to magnifie the Autoritie of those Edicts or Ordinances at
that is Of the Superioritie or Soveraigntie of the Sea of England and the right of the Office of Admiraltie in the same as it is also in the said agreement between the King and the Earl of Flanders Also in one of the Libels to those words is added retinendis confirmandis All beeing very plainly written in the usual Character of that Age whereunto the matter relate's And there can bee no scruple touching the realitie and truth of them to any one that seeth them who is but a little acquainted with the antient writing and such kinde of Records I gave you the whole sens yea and partly the words before but now have thought fit to set down an entire Copie of the Libel as it was written at that time in the French or Norman Tongue which run's after this manner A vous Seigneurs Auditours Deputez per les Rois d' Engleterre de France a redresser les dammages faits as gentz de lour Roiaulmes des altres terres subgitz a leur seignuries per mier per terre en temps de Pees Trewes monstrent les Procurors des Praelatz et Nobles del Admiral de la mier d' Engleterre des Comminalties des Citties des Villes des Marchaunz Mariners Messagiers Peleringes de tous autres du dit Roiaulme d' Engleterre des autres terres subgits a in segnurie du dit Roy d' Engletterre d' aillours si comme de la Marine de Genue Cateloigne Espaigne Alemaigne Seland Hoyland Frise Denemarch Norway de plusours autres lieux del Empire que come LES ROYES D' ENGLETERRE PAR RAISON DU DIT ROYALME DU TEMPS D' ON T IL NY AD MEMOIRED DU CONTRARIE EUSSENT ESTE EN PAISIBLE POSSESSION DE LA SOVUEREIGNE SEIGNURIE DE LA MIER D' ENGLEIERRE ET DES ISLES ESTEAUNS EN YCELLE par ordinance establisement des lois estatutes defenses d armes des vesseaux autrement garnies que vesseaux de Marchandise et de seurté prendre et savegarde doner en tous cas que mestier serra et par ordinance de tous autres faits necessaries a la garde des pees droiture et equite entre toute manere des gentz taunt d' autre seignurie come leur propre par illeque's passanz et par soveraigne guarde et tote manere de conisance et Justice haute et basse sur les dites lois estatuts ordinances et defenses et par toutz aultres faitz queux à le governement de soveraigne seignurie appertenir purront es lieux avant ditz Et A. de B. Admirall de la dite mire deputez per le Roy de Engleterre et touz les autres Admiralls per meisme celui Roy d' Angleterre et ses Auncestres jadis Rois d' Engleterre eussent este in paisible possession de la dite soverein garde ove la conisance et Justice et toutz les aultres apertenances avantdites forspris en cas d' appell et de querele fait de eux à lour sovereigns Roys d' Engleterre de deffault de droit ou de malvais juggement et especialment par empechement metere et Justice faire seurte prendre de la pees de toute manere des gentz usaunts armes en la dite mier uo menans niefs aultrement apparallez ou garniez que n' appartenoit au nief Marchande et en toutz aultres points en queux home peut aver reasonable cause de suspection vers eaux de robberie ou des autres mesfaits Et come les Maistres des Neifs du dit Royalme d'Engleterre en absence des dits Admiralls eussent este en paisible possession de conustre et jugger des touz faicts en la dite mire entre toute manere des gentz solonâ— les lois estatuts et les defenses et Custumes Et come en le pimier article de l' Alliance nadgairs faite entre les dits Roys en les traitz sur la darrain pees de Paris soient comprises les paroles que â—ensujent en un cedule annexe à yâ—este At non in schedulâ annexâ sed in eâdem membranâ descriptum est quod sequitur unde non tam ipsos libellos qui cognitoribus edebantur quà m sive formulas eorum archetypas sive exemplaria descripta haec esse conjiciendum fortè est utì etiam ex eo quòd Admiralli Angliae nomen aliter ac per A. de B. non inseratur quae prima elementa non sunt nominis alicujus tunc temporis Angliae Admiralli in sacris Scriniis reperti Primierement il est traict accord entre nous les messagers les procurers susdits en nom des dits Roys que iceux Roys serront l'un à l'autre desores enavant bons vrayes loyaux amys eydans contre tout home sauve l' Esglise de Rome en tiele manner que si ascun ou plusieurs quicunques ils fuissent voloient depointier empescher ou troubler les dits royes es franchises es liberties privileges es drois es droitures eu es custumes de eux de leur royalmes q'ils seront bons loyaux amys aydans contre tout home que puisse viure morir à defendre gardir maintenir les franchises les liberties les privileges les droitures et les custumes desusdites Except pur le dit Roy d' Angletterre Monsieur Johan Duâ— de Braban en Brabant et ses heirs dessendans de lui et de la fille le roy d' Angleterre et excepte pur le dite nostre seigneur â—e roy de France l' excellent Prince Monsiur Aubert Roy d' Alemaigne et ces heirs royes d' Alemaine et Monsieur Johan Count de Henau en Henau Et que l'un ne serra en consail ne en aide ou l' autre perde vie membre estate ou honor Monsieur Reyner Grimbaltz Maistre de la Navie du dit Roy de France In English it run's thus To you our Lords Auditors deputed by the Kings of England and France to redress the wrongs don to the People of their Kingdoms and of other Territories subject to their Dominion by Sea and by Land in time of Peace and Truce The Procurators of the Prelates Nobles and of the Admiral of the Sea of England and of the Commonalties of Cities and Towns and of the Merchants Mariners Messengers Inhabitant strangers and all others belonging to the said Realm of England and the other Territories subject to the Dominion of the said King of England and of others under the Iurisdiction of the same As also of divers other Nations Inhabitants of the Sea-Costs of Genoa Catalonia Spain Almaign Zeland Holland Friesland Denmark and Norway and of divers other places of the Empire do declare That whereas THE KINGS OF ENGLAND By Right OF THE SAID KINGDOM FROM TIME TO TIME WHEREOF
what hath been alreadie spoken And from hence perhaps it is that the more antient Arms of the Kings of Man were a Ship with a Sail folded together and this Inscription added Rex Manniae Insularum King of Man of the Isles as M r Camden observ's from their Sails For the three legs of humane shape now every where known are but of later time But afterwards when Ireland was subdued by Henrie the Second and King John and Reginald King of Man brought into the power of King John the English possessing this Sea at that time with a very numerous Navie there is no reason at all to doubt but that the neighboring Sea round about was taken also into the Dominion of the English For in that Age the King of Man was no absolute Prince but beeing subdued hee paid homage to the King of England yielded under his subjection But in a short time after Alexander the Third King of Scots annexed it to the Dominion of Scotland and put in a Governor who was to assist him upon occasion with thirteen Gallies five hundred Seamen Hee recover'd the Hebrides also by driving out the Norwegians transmitted it to his posteritie Then Man returned again to the English who enjoied Ireland a long time together with it that sea-territory But the Kings of the Hebrides and of Scotland enjoied the Northern part of this Western Sea after that they had expell'd the Norwegians who were Lords here of the Sea And from hence it is that as Scotland England this Isle of Man the Hebrides and Ireland with other adjacent Isles so even the Vergivian and Deucaledonian Sea it self washing the West of Scotland and surrounding these Isles with windings and turnings ought now also to bee accounted the antient Patrimonie of the King of great Britain But there is moreover in the more Westerly part of this open and main Sea another Right belonging to the King of Great Britain and that of a verie large extent upon the Shore of America Whenas S r Humfery Gilbert Knight did by Autoritie of Queen Elisabeth transport a Colonie into the New World with design to recover certain Lands in the East parts of the Northern America which of Right belong'd to the English Dominion the Queen was by him as her Procurator put into a possession for ever to bee held by her and her heirs both of the Port called by the name of S t John which is in the Island of Baccalaos and also of the whole Sea as well as Land on every side for the space of six hundred miles Then hee received this new Kingdom of the Queen as her Beneficiarie having a Branch and a Turf deliver'd in his hands according to the usual cerimonie of England in transferring the Ownership of Lands and Possessions Nor truly was it necessarie that hee should otherwise get the Possession from whence this Dominion of the Queen and her Posteritie had its Original For as Paulus saith well there is no necessitie that hee who intend's to take possession of a Field should walk about the whole but t is sufficient if hee enter any part of that Field so long as hee doth it with a minde thought and intent to possess the Field to its utmost extent and bound Which saying may relate to Seas as well as Lands that were never taken into possession So that as Siculus Flaccus Treating of Occupatorie Lands saith Men did not possess so much land as they were able to till but they reserved as much as they were in hope they might bee able to till the like also may bee said of a Sea so taken into possession Look how much was reserved in hope of using and enjoying so much also was bounded But perhaps the first original of the Dominion of this main Sea of America did not proceed from the Possession that was acquired by Gilbert Hee rather restored and inlarged the Right of the Crown here For that Island called Baccalaos was added to the English Empire by Sebastian Chabot in the time of Henrie the Seventh And it is certain that afterwards it grew to be a Custom for the Officers belonging to the High Admiral of England in whose charge are all the Seas subject to the King of England and Ireland as King of England and Ireland to demand Tributes of such as fish't also in this Sea which was I suppose a most evident token of the King's Dominion But it was provided by an Act of Parlament in the Reign of Edward the Sixth that no Tributes of that kinde to the grievance of Fishermen should bee paid any longer How far our English Colonies lately transported into America have possessed themselvs of the Sea there I have as yet made but little enquirie Touching the Dominion of the King of Great Britain in the Scotish Sea especially toward the East and North. CHAP. XXXI THose particulars which were cited before out of the Proclamation of James King of Great Britain about the Prohibition of Fishing relate as well to the Scotish Seas on every side from whence also you must acknowledg their possession hath been reteined together with an antient Sea-Dominion That is to say all Foreiners were prohibited to Fish in these Seas without leav first obteined at Edenburgh And in those Scotish Acts of Parlament they are not so much new Laws made as old ones revived wherby it was ordeined That all manner of Fischeres that occupies the Sea and vtheres persons quhat sumever that happenis to slay Hering or quihte Fish upon the Coast or within the Iles or out with the samen within the Frithes bring them to free Ports c. where they may bee sold to the Inhabitants of the same kingdom quhairby his Maâ—esties Customes bee not defrauded and his Hienes Lieges not frustrat of the Commoditie appointed to them be God under the pain of confiscation and tynsel of the veschelles of them that cumes in the contrair hereof and escheiting of all their movable guddes to our soveraine Lords use So that use and benefit is claimed hence by a special right in that Sea otherwise truly that use and bene fit would of right no more appertein either to the King of Scotland or his Subjects than to any other whomsoêver But the Law was made concerning all Fisher-men as well strangers as Scotch-men as beeing ordeined by all the Estates of that Kingdom who so well understood both the King 's Right and also their own as subordinate to the King's by Tradition from their Ancestors or by long-continued possession and Dominion that there remained not the least ground of scruple touching that business And a Scotish Lawyer speaking about Fishing in the Eastern Sea of Scotland I cannot saith hee omit to tell you that in the past Age after a most bloudie quarrel between the Scots and Hollanders about occasions belonging to the Sea the matter was composed after this manner that in time to
of so great consequence have thought it necessarie by the advice of Our Privie Council to renew the aforesaid restraint of Fishing upon Our aforesaid Coasts and Seas without Licence first obtained from Us and by these presents to make publick Declaration that Our resolution is at times convenient to keep such a competent strength of Shipping upon Our Seas as may by God's blessing bee sufficient both to hinder such further encroachments upon Our Regalities and assist and protect those Our good Friends and Allies who shall henceforth by virtue of Our Licences to bee first obtained endeavor to take the benefit of fishing upon Our Coasts and Seas in the places accustomed Given at Our Palace of VVestminster the tenth day of May in the twelfth year of Our Reign of England Scotland France and Ireland This Proclamation beeing set forth in the year 1636. served to speak the intent of those naval preparations made before in the year 1635. which were so numerous and well-provided that our Netherland-Neighbors beeing touched with the apprehension of som great design in hand for the Interest of England by Sea and of the guilt that lay upon their own Consciences for their bold Encroachments soon betrayed their Jealousies and Fears and in them a sens of their offences before ever the Proclamation was made publick As I might shew at large if it were requisite by certain Papers of a publick Character yet in beeing But there is one Instar omnium which may serv in stead of all and it is an acute Letter of Secretarie Coke's that was written to Sir William Boswel the King 's Resident then at the Hague the Original whereof is still reserved among the publick Papers In which Letter hee set's forth the Grounds and Reasons of preparing that gallant Navie with the King's resolution to maintain the Right derived from his Ancestors in the Dominion of the Seas and therefore I here render a true Copie of it so far as concern's this business as most pertinent to our purpose SIR BY your Letters and otherwise I perceiv many jealousies and discourses are raised upon the preparations of his Majestie 's Fleet which is now in such forwardness that wee doubt not but within this Month it will appear at Sea It is therefore expedient both for your satisfaction and direction to inform you particularly what was the occasion and what is his Majestie 's intention in this work First wee hold it a principle not to bee denied That the King of Great Britain is a Monarch at Land and Sea to the full extent of his Dominions and that it concerneth him as much to maintain his Soveraigntie in all the British Seas as within his three Kingdoms becaus without that these cannot bee kept safe nor hee preserv his honor and due respect with other Nations But commanding the Seas hee may caus his Neighbors and all Countries to stand upon their guard whensoever hee think's fit And this cannot bee doubted that whosoëver will encroach upon him by Sea will do it by Land also when they see their time To such presumption Mare liberum gave the first warning piece which must bee answered with a defence of Mare Clausum not so much by Discourses as by the lowder Language of a powerful Navie to bee better understood when overstrained patience seeth no hope of preserving her Right by other means The Degrees by which his Majestie 's Dominion at Sea hath of later years been first impeached and then questioned are as considerable as notorious First to cherish and as it were to nurs up our unthankful neighbors Wee gave them leav to gather wealth and strength upon our Coasts in our Ports by our Trade and by our People Then they were glad to invite our Merchant's Residence with what privileges they would desire Then they offered to us even the Soveraigntie of their Estates and then they sued for Licence to fish upon the Coasts and obtained it under the Great Seal of Scotland which now they suppress And when thus by leav or by connivence they had possessed themselvs of our Fishings not onely in Scotland but in Ireland and England and by our staple had raised a great stock of Trade by these means they so encreased their shipping and power at Sea that now they endure not to bee kept at any distance Nay they are grown to that confidence to keep guards upon our Seas and then to project an Office and Companie of Assurance for the advancement of Trade and withal prohibit us free commerce even within our Seas and take our ships and goods if wee conform not to their Placarts What insolencies and cruelties they have committed against us heretofore in Ireland in Groâ—nland and in the Indies is too well known to all the world In all which though our sufferings and their wrong may seem forgotten yet the great interest of his Majestie 's honor is still the same and will refresh their Memories as there shall bee caus For though charitie must remit wrongs don to private men yet the reflection upon the publick may make it a greater charitie to do Justice on crying crimes All this notwithstanding you are not to conceiv that the work of this Fleet is either revenge or execution of Justice for these great offences past but chiefly for the future to stop the violent current of that presumption whereby the Men of War and Free-booters of all Nations abusing the favor of his Majestie 's peaceable and gratious Government whereby hee hath permitted all his Friends and Allies to make use of his Seas and Ports in a reasonable and free manner and according to his Treaties have taken upon them the boldness not onely to com confidently at all times into all his Ports and Rivers but to conveie their Merchant's ships as high as his chief Citie and then to cast Anchor close upon his Magazins and to contemn the commands of his Officers when they required a farther distance But which is more intolerable have assaulted and taken one another within his Majestie 's Chamber and within his Rivers to the scorn and contempt of his Dominion and Power and this beeing of late years an ordinarie practice which wee have endeavored in vain to reform by the waies of Justice and Treaties the world I think will now bee satisfied that wee have reason to look about us And no wise man will doubt that it is high time to put our selvs in this Equipage upon the Seas and not to suffer that Stage of action to bee 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 caus require's That his Majestie 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 maintein that happie 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 bee mainteined by the arm of power which onely keep 's down War by keeping up Dominion his Majestie thus provoked finde's it necessarie even for his own defence and safetie to re-assume and keep his antient and undoubted Right in the Dominion of these Seas and to suffer no other Prince or State to encroach upon him thereby assuming to themselvs 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 Hee will also set open and protect the free Trade both of his Subjects and Allies And give them such safe Conduct and Convoie as they shall reasonably require Hee will suffer no other Fleets or Men of VVar to keep any guard upon these Seas or there to offer violence or take prizes or booties or to give interruption to any lawful intercours In a word his Majestie 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 Roial design of this Fleet whereof you may give part as you finde occasion to our good neighbors in those parts that no Umbrage may bee taken of any hostile act or purpose to their prejudice in any kinde So wishing you all health and happiness I rest Your assured friend and Servant JOHN COOK Whitehall 16 April 1635. our style In this Letter you see first how it was held for an undeniable principle that the King was King by Sea as well as by Land That neither the honor nor safetie of this Island and Ireland could bee maintained but by preserving the Dominion by Sea and that it is an argument that they that encroach upon us by Sea will do it also by Land when they see their time Hee declare's also how our unthankful neighbors are risen to this hight and insolence partly by grant partly by connivence but principally through their many injurious abuses of our Patience and Indulgence And lastly you may observ here what resolutions were then taken to prevent the lilâ—e injuries and preserv our English Interest in time to com But how those Resolutions were followed in the succeeding part of his Reign I shall not stand to examine onely it sufficeth here to take notice that the Claim of Sea-Dominion was made by him as well as by his Father and for a time strenuously asserted though afterward hee slackned his hand in the prosecution whereof the Netherlanders taking advantage and of our late commotions which were their Halcyon-daies and time of Harvest are now advanced to such a monstrous pitch of pride malice and ingratitude that they dare bid defiance to those antient Rights which wee have received from all Antiquitie and justifie their actions by a most unjust and bloudie war in the view of all the world What remain's then but that the Parlament and People of England should lay these things to heart with an indignation answerable to so prodigious violations and invasions They have now an opportunitie and strength given them by God O let not hearts bee wanting to make good the Claim and accomplish that work of establishing our Interests by Sea beyond the possibilitie of future impeachments Let it not bee said that England in the state of Monarchie was able to hold the Soveraigntie of the Seas so many hundred years and then lost it in the state of Libertie It is as now established with its Appendants the greatest and most glorious Republick that the Sun ever saw except the Roman God hath made it so by Land and will by Sea for without this the Land is nothing It was ever so apprehended by Kings yea by the last and worst of our Kings And shall the Founders of this famous structure of Government now in beeing who have cashiered Kings and vindicated the Rights and Liberties of this Nation upon his head and his whole posteritie and partie not assert them against perfidious Neighbors It were unpardonable in any to harbor a thought of that nature or to yield that such a blemish should bee brought upon all those glorious actions and atchievements whereby God hath freed and innobled our Land and Nation But that the people of England may bee excited to a valuation maintenance and improvement of their interest by Sea it is necessarie to let them understand what advantages are to bee made thereby and are made by others who of Usufructuaries by permission have in design now to make themselvs absolute Lords of the Fee And therefore it is very convenient here to set down an excellent Discours which was written in the time of the late King and presented by the following Title The inestimable Riches and Commodities of the British Seas THE Coast of Great Britain do yield such a continual Sea-harvest of gain and benefit to all those that with diligence do labor in the same that no time or season in the year passeth away without som apparent means of profitable imploiment especially to such as apply themselvs to Fishing which from the begining of the year unto the latter end continueth upon som part or other upon our Coasts and therein such infinite sholes and multitudes of Fishes are offered to the takers as may justly move admiration not onely to strangers but to those that daily bee imploied amongst them The Summer-Fishing for Herring beginneth about Midâ—ommer and lasteth som part of August The Winter-Fishing for Herring lasteth from September to the mid'st of November both which extend in place from Boughones in Scotland to the Thame's mouth The Fishing for Cod at Alamby Whirlington and White Haven near the Coast of Lancashire from Easter until VVhitsontide The Fishing for Hake at Aberdenie Abveswhich and other places between VVales and Ireland from VVhitsontide to Saint James tide The Fishing of Cod and Ling about Padstow within the Land and of Severn from Christmas to Mid-Lent The Fishing for Cod on the West part of Ireland frequented by those of Biscay Galicia and Portugal from the begining of April until the end of June The Fishing for Cod and Ling on the North and North-East of Ireland from Christmas until Michaëlmas The Fishing for Pilchers on the West coast of England from Saint James-tide until Michaëlmas The Fishing for Cod and Ling upon the North-East of England from Easter until Midsummer The Fishing of great Staple-Ling and many other sorts of Fish lying about the Island of Scotland and in the several parts of the British Seas all the year long In September not many years since upon the Coast of Devonshire near Minigal 500 Ton of Fish were taken in one day And about the same time three thousand pound worth of Fish in one day were taken at S t Ives in Cornwal by small Boats and other poor provisions Our five-men-Boats and cobles adventuring in a calm to launch out amongst the
Holland Busses not far from Robinhood's Bay returned to VVhitbie full fraught with Herrings and reported that they saw som of those Busses take ten twentie twentie four lasts at a draught of Herrings and returned into their own Countrie with fortie fiftie and an hundred Lasts of Herrings in one Buss. Our Fleet of Colliers not many years since returning from New-castle laden with Coals about the Well near Flanborough head and Scarborough met with such multitudes of Cod Ling and Herring that one amongst the rest with certain ship-hooks and other like iustruments drew up as much Cod and Ling in a little space of time as were sold well near for as much as her whole Lading of Cole And many hundred of ships might have been there laden in two daies and two nights Out of which wonderful affluence and abundance of Fish swarming in our Seas that wee may the better perceiv the infinite gain which Forein Nations make I will especially insist upon the Fishing of the Hollanders in our Coasts and thereby shew how by this means principally they have increased 1. In Shipping 2. In Mariners 3. In Trade 4. In Towns and Fortifications 5. In Power extern or abroad 6. In publick Revenue 7. In private wealth 8. In all manner of Provisions and store of things necessarie 1. Encreas of Shipping BEsides 700 Strand-Boats 400 Evars and 400 Sullits Drivers and Tod-boats wherewith the Hollanders fish upon their own Coasts every one of those imploying another Ship to fetch salt and carrie their Fish into other Countries beeing in all 3000 sail maintaining and setting on work at least 4000 persons Fishers Tradesmen Women and Children They have 100 Doyer Boats of 150 Tuns a piece or thereabouts 700 Pinks and Well-Boats from 60 to 100 Tuns a piece which altogether fish upon the Coasts of England and Scotland for Cod and Ling onely And each of these employ another Vessel for providing of salt and transporting of their Fish making in all 1600 ships which maintain and employ persons of all sorts 4000 at least For the Herring-season they have 1600 Busses at the least all of them Fishing onely upon our Coasts from Boughonness in Scotland to the mouth of Thames And every one of these maketh work for three other ships that attend her the one to bring in salt from Forein parts another to carrie the said salt and cask to the Busses and to bring back their Herrings and the third to transport the said Fish into Forein Countries So that the total number of ships and Busses plying the Herring-Fair is 6400 whereby every Buss one with another imployeth fortie men Mariners and Fishers within her own hold and the rest ten men a piece which amounteth to 112000 Fishers and Mariners All which maintain double if not treble so many Tradesmen Women and Children a land Moreover they have 400 other Vessels at least that take Herring at Yarmouth and there sell them for readie monie so that the Hollanders besides 300 ships before-mentioned fishing upon their own shores have at least 4800 ships onely maintained by the Seas of Great Britain by which means principally Holland beeing not so big as one of our shires of England containing not above 28 miles in length and three in breadth have encreased the number of their shipping to at least ten thousand sail beeing more then are in England France Spain Portugal Italy Denmark Poland Sweden and Russia And to this number they add every day although their Countrie it self afford's them neither materials or victual nor merchandise to bee accounted of towards their setting forth Besides these of Holland Lubeck hath 700 great ships Hamborough six hundred Embden fourteen hundred whereunto add the ships of Bremer Biscay Portugal Spain and France which for the most part fish in our Seas and it will appear that ten thousand sail of Forein Vessels and above are employed and mainteined by fishing upon our Coasts So that in Holland there are built a thousand sail at the least to supply shipwracks and augment their store which as the Prince and common Nurserie is the chiefest means onely to encreas their number 2. Encreas of Mariners THE number of ships fishing on our Coasts as beeing aforesaid 8400. If wee allow but twentie persons to every ship one with another the total of Mariners and Fishers amounteth to 168000 out of which number they daily furnish their longer Voiages to all parts of the world for by this means they are not onely enabled to brook the Seas and to know the use of the tackles and compass but are likewise instructed in the principles of Navigation and Pilotage insomuch as from hence their greatest Navigators have had their education and breeding 3. Encreas of Trade BY reason of those multitude of Ships and Mariners they have extended their Trade to all parts of the world exporting for the most part in all their Voiages our Herring and other Fish for the maintenance of the same In exchange whereof they return the several commodities of other Countries From the Southern parts as France Spain and Portugal for our Herrings they return Oils Wines Pruines Honie Wools c. with store of Coin in Specie From the Straits Velvets Sattins and all sorts of Silks Allomes Currans Oils and all Grocerie ware with much monie From the East-Countries for our Herrings and other French and Italian commodities before returned they bring home Corn Wax Flax Hemp Pitch Tar Sope-Ashes Iron Copper Steel Clap-board Wainscot Timber Deal-board Dollers and Hungarie Gilders From Germanie for Herrings and other salt Fish Iron Steel Glass Mil-stones Rhenish wines Button-plate for Armor with other Munition Silks Velvets Rashes Fustians Baratees and such like Franckford commodities with store of Rix-dollers From Brabant they return for the most part readie monie with som Tapestries and Hull-shop Yea som of our Herring are caried as far as Braseil And that which is more strange and greatly to our shame they have four hundred Ships with Fish which our men of Yarmouth within ken almost at land do vent our Herrings amongst us here in England and make us pay for the Fish taken upon our own Coast readie monie wherewith they store their own Countrie 4. Encreas of Towns and Forts BY this their large extent of Trade they are becom as it were Citizens of the whole world whereby they have so enlarged their Towns that most of them within these four hundred years are full as great again as they were before Amsterdam Leyden and Middleburgh having been lately twice enlarged and their streets and buildings so fair and orderly set forth that for beautie and strength they may compare with any other in the world upon which they bestow infinite summes of monies all originally flowing from the bountie of the Sea from whence by their labor and industrie they derive the begining of all that wealth and greatness and particularly for the Havens of the aforesaid Towns whereof som of them cost fortie fiftie or an
or singularitie especially when it is besides most apparant that the King of Denmark doth not onely pretend to the Sovereigntie of the Sound but causeth all such Ships as pass through it to pay what toll hee pleaseth The great Turk prohibit's all Nations saving his own Vassals to enter the black Sea or Pontus Euxinus the like hee doth to the red Sea whch contein's at the least 1200 miles in length beginning from the streits of Babelmandel which give 's entrance thereinto and ending at the Town of Sues which is seated at the bottom thereof The King of Portugal opposeth to the utmost of his power any but his own subjects to sail into the East-Indies affirming those Seas to bee intirely under his dominion as well by Conquest as the Pope's donation insomuch as the smallest vessel even of the natives of those parts cannot sail from Port to Port without the pass-port of the Vice-Roy of Goa or of som other by him deputed thereto styling himself amongst others his Titles to bee King of the Conquest Navigation and Commerce or Traffick of AEthiopia Arabia Persia India c. which hath been hitherto so punctually observed as no Castilian or Spaniard might at any time or for any occasion sail into the East-Indies though both those Nations were for many years together united under one King Secondly if the Dominion of these Seas dotruely and properly belong to the Commonwealth of England as hath been so sufficiently cleared and proved to the whole world by that learned Book entituled Mare Clausum why may not or ought not the People of England by all lawful waies procure that the Dominion of these Seas that so justly appertein's unto them may bee secured from any force violence or opposition how great soever of their most powerful neighbors whenas wee see the Venetians to bee so jealous in preservation of the title they pretend to their Seas as rather then to suffer it to bee in the least sort questioned they do upon all occasions oppose themselvs by force or otherwise against the most potent Princes of Europe and Asia Vale. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dominium Maris OR THE DOMINION OF THE SEA AFter a long peace betwixt the Progenitors of the Emperor Maximilian the first and the Republick of Venice in the year 1508 there began certain slight differences which concluded in a notable and most memorable war insomuch as the Republick for 22 years following were with the said Prince and with his Posteritie for divers respects somtimes in war somtimes in peace and somtimes in truce until in the year 1529 all differences betwixt them were composed and a peace concluded in Bolonia which continued all that Age with the Emperor Charls the Fifth together with his brother Ferdinando King of Hungarie and Archduke of Austria But becaus by the division made betwixt the said brethren seven years before all the Austrian lands which confined with the Venetians were laid by agreement unto the part which belonged unto King Ferdinand the confines of which as they had conjuncture with the lands of the Republick were very intricate and of great difficultie to conclude unto whether partie they did belong as well for the publick reasons of the said Princes as for those of their private subjects To end all which in quiet it was agreed that there should bee an arbitrarie Tribunal erected in Trent for the deciding of these doubts which in the year 1535 pronounced sentence whereby all the differences beeing more then an hundred were definitively concluded Here notwithstanding the difficultie ceased not becaus som did travers the execution of the sentence so as in progress of time new quarrels did arise from both sides each one pretending new wrong◠offered by the advers partie Whereupon to put an end to all these differences there was by the common consent as well of Ferdinando who succeeded in the Empire by the resignation of his brother as of the Republick a convention appointed in Friuli 1563 of five Commissaries one Procurator and three Advocates for each part who should treat of the differences as well old as new and should have power to conclude them under the ratification of the several Princes And this so great a number of Judges was desired by the Emperor the better to give satisfaction to his subjects of several Provinces interessed in the caus Of the Imperial side the Commissaries were Andrew Preghel a Baron of Austria Maximilian Dorimbergh Elenger de Goritia Stephen Sourz and Anthonie Statemberger the Procurator was Giacomo Campana Chancellor of Goritia the Doctors or Advocates were Andrea Rapicio Gervasio Alberto and Giovan Maria Gratia Dei For the Venetians the Commissaries were Sebastian Venier Marino de Cavalli Pietro Sanudo Giovan Baptista Contarini and Augustin Barbarigo The Procurator was Giovan Antonio a secretarie the Advocates Marquardo Susanna Francesco Gratiano and Giacomo Chizzola At this Convention the complaints on both sides were opened which beeing argued and the other publick differences partly composed and partly decided there was taken into consideration a Petition of the Imperial Procurator in this form Ejusdē Majestatis nomine requiritur ut posthac illius subditis atque aliis in sinu Adriatico tutò navigare ac negotiari liceat Item ut damna Tergestinis Mercatoribus atque aliis illata restituantur It is required in the name of his Majestie that hereafter it may bee lawful for his subjects and others to traffick and navigate safely in the Adriatick Gulf. Likewise that recompence bee made for the damages susteined by the merchants of Trieste and others And Rapicio the advocate did accompanie this demand with saying that this was not a caus to bee handled with any subtiltie it beeing a thing most notorious that navigation ought to bee free notwithstanding the subjects of his Majestie had been constrained to go with their ships to Venice and there to pay custom at which his Majestie was aggrieved and made instance that it might bee remedied To this Chizzola Advocate of the Republick made Answer saying that it was a clear case indeed that Navigation ought to bee free but yet those things whereat they were aggrieved were no waies repugnant to this freedom forasmuch as in countries which are most free those who have the dominion thereof receiv custom and order by which way all Merchandise shall pass and therefore no bodie should bee grieved if the Venetians for their own respects did use so to do in the Adriatick Sea which is under their dominion and hee added that if they intended to dispute of the business in question hee was to advertise them that this caus could not by any pretens bee brought into judgment at that convention which was onely instituted for the execution of such things as were formerly sentenced and for righting of such new wrongs which succeeded after the sentence it beeing besides a thing most notorious that the Republick as Lord of the Adriatiok Sea did exercise that dominion at the present
hee allow to them in his own State and if his Imperial Majestie within his own State upon the Land will not yield that the subjects of the Republick shall go which way they list but coustrain's them to pass by such places onely where Custom is to bee paid hee cannot with justice demand that his subjects may pass by or through the Sea of the Republick which way they list but ought to content himself that they go that way onely which shall best stand with the commoditie of those who have the Dominion over it and if his Majestie caus Custom to bee paid upon his Land why may not the Venetians likewise do it upon their Sea Hee demanded of them if by the Capitulation they would have it that the Emperor was restrained or hindred from taking of Custom and if not why would they have the Venetians tied thereunto by a Capitulation which speak's of both Potentates equally with the same words Hee shewed by particular Narration that from the Peace of Venice 152◠until that present the Emperor had increased his Customs to the grievance of the Venetian's subjects in victuals and Merchandise which passed from the one State unto the other insomuch as that which formerly paied but one was now increased in som to 16 and in others to 20. and hee instanced in iron and other commodities which were wont to pay little or nothing were now raised to such an excessive Custom as proved much to the damage of the Venetians besides they were forced to pass onely by such places where they should pay Custom out of which to pass it was Contra banda and their goods confiscated And if his Majestie think 's it lawful to do what it pleaseth within his own estate without breaking of the Capitulations hee cannot think that the Venetians doing but the same should contrarie thereunto any waies offend Hee added that in every Peace established betwixt two Princes after a war it is necessarie that their subjects may live and trade together not to the excluding of Customs although there bee excluded the violences hostilities and other impediments of trade which were formerly used in time of war neither is the autoritie of the one or other Prince thereby taken away or restrained by Sea or by Land At the force and clearness of this discours the Austrians remained as it were in a trance looking one upon another insomuch that Chizzola judging it not to bee necessarie to dwell longer upon this passed to the proof of the presupposed truth viz. That the Republick had the Dominion of the Sea and said that the proportion was most true that the Sea was common and free but yet no otherwise that could bee understood then as it is commonly said The high-waies are common and free by which is meant that they cannot bee usurped by any private person for his sole proper service but remain to the use of everie one not therefore that they are so free as that they should not bee under the protection and government of som Prince and that every one might do therein licentiously all that which it pleased him either by right or wrong forasmuch as such licentiousness or Anarchie is abhorred both of God and nature as well by Sea as by Land That the true libertie of the Sea exclude's it not from the protection and superioritie of such as maintain it in libertie nor from the subjection to the laws of such as have command over it rather necessarily it include's it That no less the Sea then the Land is subject to bee divided amongst men and appropriated to Cities and Potentates which long since was ordained by God from the beginning of mankinde as a thing most natural which was well understood by Aristotle when hee said that unto Sea or maritim Cities the Sea is the Territorie becaus from thence they take their sustenance and defens a thing which cannot possibly bee unless part of it might bee 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 and defend them Bern is not the greatest Citie of Switzerland and yet it hath as large a Territorie as all the rest of the twelv Cantons together And the Citie of Norimberg is very great and yet the Territories thereof hardly exceed the walls And the Citie of Venice for many years was known to bee without any possession at all upon the firm Land Upon the Sea likewise certein Cities of great force and valor have possessed a large quantitie thereof others of little force have been contented with the next waters neither are there wanting Examples of such who notwithstanding they are Maritim yet having fertile Lands lying on the back of them have been contented therewith without ever attempting to gain any Sea-dominion Others who beeing aw'd by their more mightie neighbors have been constrained to forbear any such attempt for which two causes a Citie notwithstanding it bee Maritim may happen to remain without any possession of the Sea Hee added that God did instant Principalities for the maintenance of Justice to the benefit of mankinde which was necessarie to bee executed as well by Sea as by Land That S. Paul said That for this caus there was due to Princes Customs and Contributions that it should bee a great absurditie to prais the well governing regulating and defens of the Land and to condemn that of the Sea that if the Sea in som parts for the ampleness and extreme distance thereof from the Land was not possible to bee governed and protected that proceeded from a disabilitie and defect in mankinde as also there are deserts so great upon the Land as it is impossible to protect them witness the many sandie parts of Africa and the immens vastities of the new world And as it is a gift of God that a Land by the Laws and publick power bee ruled protected and governed so the same happen's to the Sea that those were deceived by a gross equivocation who said that the Land by reason of its stabilitie might bee governed but not the Sea for beeing an unconstant element no more then the aër forasmuch as if by the Sea and the Aër they intend all the parts of those fluent elements it is a most certein thing that they cannot bee governed becaus whilst a man serv's himself with any one part of them the other escape's out of his power but this chanceth also to Rivers which cannot bee reteined But when it is said to rule over a Sea or River it is not understood of the Element but of the site where they are placed The water of the Adriatick Sea continually run's out of it neither can it all bee kept in and yet it is the same Sea as well as the Tiber Po or the Rhine are the same Rivers now which they were 1000 years past And this is that which
is subject to the protection of Princes Hee asked the Austrians if their pretens were that the Sea should bee left without protection so that any one might do therein well or ill robbing spoiling and making of it un-navigable this would bee so absurd as hee durst answer for them no therefore hee concluded that by a necessarie consequence his Majestie would acknowledg that it should bee kept governed and protected by those unto whom it did appertein by divine disposition which if it were so hee desired to know if it seemed to them a just thing that such should do it with the expence of their own pains charges and bloud or rather that such should contribute towards it who did equally enjoy the benefit To this also hee durst answer for them that they would say the doctrine of S t Paul is too clear in the point not to allege matter of Law that all such who are under government and protection are thereby bound to pay Customs and Contributions And thereupon hee concluded that if the Republick were that Prince to whom it did appertein to govern and protect the Adriatick Sea it followed necessarily that whosoëver Navigate's it ought to bee subject to their laws in the same manner as such are who travel through a Countrie upon the Land From thence hee went on to shew that this Dominion over the Sea from time out of minde did belong to the Republick and thereupon caused to bee read out of an Abstract which hee had taken the Opinions of thirtie Lawyers who from the year 1300 until that present time did speak of the Dominion which the Republick had over the Sea as of a thing most notorious and of which even in their times the minde of man knew not the contrarie som of them affirming that the Republick had no less Dominion over the Sea then over the Citie of Venice others saying that the Adriatick Sea is the Territorie and demeasnes of the said Citie making mention of the lawful power which the Venetians had to establish laws over Navigaon and to impose Customs upon such as navigate those Seas and hee added that hee never read any Lawyer which ever said the contrarie And turning himself to Râ—picio hee said that if hee would not believ those Writers which testified that the Sea belonged to the Venetians whereof they had possession from time out of minde before the age wherein the Autors lived although they prove it not yet hee could not denie to receiv them for testimonies of such things which they saw and knew in their times and to hold them as witnesses far above all exception beeing famous men and dead so many years ago as they could not bee any waies interessed in the present differences And becaus more then 250 years were past from the time that the first Autors which hee alleged as witnesses hereof did write to the time of those which hee last cited in that behalf by their attestation it was sufficiently proved that for long time more then so many years the Republick hath commanded the Sea and therefore hee could not denie the immoveable possession thereof to the present Afterwards turning himself to the Judges hee praied them that upon the Autorities alleged they would bee pleased to listen unto a short consideration of his which hee did not doubt but would leav in them a full impression of the Truth And first hee desired them to consider that notwithstanding som of the aforesaid cited Autors speak with general words saying the Sea of the Venetians neither declaring the qualitie nor quantitie thereof yet others do specifie it using the name of the Gulf and others with terms more expressive saying the Adriatick Sea which clearly demonstrate's not onely the site but also the quantitie of the Sea possessed and so shewed that those who speak more expressively ought to clear the passages of those who write more generally according to the common precept that with clear places the more obscure are to bee illustrated Hee considered also that the divers manner of speaking of the same Doctors som deriving the Dominion of the Republick over the Sea from Custom som from prescription others from an induced subjection and others from a privilege did arise all out of this reason becaus as they were most assuredly informed of the possession and jurisdiction of the said Seas which they both saw and heard to belong to the Republick from time out of minde so they writing upon that matter not at the instance of any one but of their own proper motions and by way of Doctrine onely each one of them judged it most convenient to express the title of that jurisdiction som with one term som with another without coming to use the sole and true proper term as they would have don if they had been put to write for the interest of any one in which cases the Counsellors are alwaies conformable receiving from the person interested equally the like instructions Hee added that through the varietie of expressing themselvs the truth of the caus was no waies diminished but rather increased as S t Augustine saith speaking of the diversitie which is observed to bee betwixt the holy Evangelists becaus by the divers manner of expression used by the said Writers every one may rest assured that none of them did write nè pagato nè pregato neither paied nor praied In which cases they are never wont to varie from the single form prescribed unto them by the partie interessed but rather hee that shall well examine it shall see amongst the Doctors a wonderful concord in this one point most true that after the declination of the Constantipolitane Empire the Adriatick Sea was found to bee for many years abandoned as also many Islands and Cities of that State in such manner as it remained unguarded and without the protection and government of any Prince and under the jurisdiction of no bodie until by the Venetians who to receiv their livelyhood thereby were constrained to maintain it in freedom and thereupon taking it into their protection got thereby the government and dominion over it in like manner as by the law of Nature and of Nations the Land the Sea and other things which are not under the Dominion of any other com justly unto those who first get the possession of them by which reason the first Empires were founded as well upon the Land as at Sea and daily there are new ones in the same manner formed when any of them either through age or vice becoming weak wanteth force and sink's of it self The which costodie and government of the Sea so acquired the Republick hath daily advanced by the keeping of potent Fleets and greater Armadoes every day then other with the expence of a great deal of Treasure and the profusion of a world of bloud both of their Citizens and Subjects continuing without interruption in sight of all the world the said begun Dominion and custodie overcoming and removing all
reckoned rather among the Provinces of the Continent The Seas lying between did not hinder but that one continued Territorie might bee made of the continent and the Isles And that also by the Autoritie of Ulpian who notwithstanding useth to say that the Sea is common to all men But of this hereafter in our Answers to the Objections The same Ulpian also in another place saith Si quis me prohibet in mari piscari vel everriculum c. If any man forbid's mee to fish in the Sea or to draw a Drag net which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may I sue him or no at Law upon an action of Trespass Som there are of opinion that I may sue him upon a Trespass So Pomponius and many others say hee is in the same condition with him that hinder's one to wash in a publick Bath or to sit in a publick Theatre or to act sit and convers in any other place or put case there bee any one that permit's mee not to use that which is my own But the Antients allowed an Interdict to him that hired the Sea if so bee hee hired it in a publick manner For force by that Interdict is allowed that hee may enjoy what hee hath hired Therefore the Sea becaus it was possessed by the people was reckoned among publick things that is those things which are proper and peculiar to the people of Rome not common to all men after another manner then publick Baths Theatres and other things of that kinde And what doth to hire in a publick manner signifie in this place but to becom a hirer or Conductor of the Sea as the people was Lord thereof and Letter or Locator I suppose no man doth affirm that any thing may bee let for Rent or hired which may not so belong to one man that can not bee anothers But becaus publick Places by the Civil Law do serv for the uses of private persons therefore Pomponius and others were of opinion that there might have been here an action of Trespass Moreover it was an Edict of the Praetor That you do nothing in a publick place or cast any thing into it whereby it may bee endamaged Hereupon Ulpian saith against that man who hath cast a Dam or Pile into the Sea an Interdict is allowed him who perhaps may bee endamaged thereby But if no man sustain damage hee is to bee defended who build's upon the shore or cast's a Pile into the Sea If any man bee hinder'd from fishing or Navigation by Sea hee shall not have an Interdict nor hee likewise who may hee restrained from playing in the common Field or from washing in a publick Bath or from beeing a spectator in a Theatre But in all these Cases hee must use an Action of Trespass Therefore a Prohibitorie Interdict or Decree was to bee used when dams were cast into the Sea no otherwise then when damage was don to a Theatre Bath Court or any publick place whatsoëver To these things which manifestly belonged to the people of Rome and were not common to all men is the Sea everie way compared even by Ulpian himself There is also the same account made of the shores and Sea by those that speak for a Communitie of the Sea Nor are they said to bee less common by som who treat of them apart as by Neratius and Ulpianus But Celsus saith I think those shores do belong to the people of Rome over which the people of Rome have dominion But that which follow 's there that the use of the Sea is common to all as the Aër and that the Piles cast into it belong to him that cast them is plainly qualified and manifestly restrained to the manner of the Dominion of the people of Rome in the words immediately following where Celsus saith That is not to bee granted in case the use of the shore or Sea may by that means becom the wors Certainly if the former words were meant of such a Community or enjoyment common to all men as would not in any wise permit the Dominion or propriety of a particular person what mean's that then that the use may becom the wors For if a place should becom the proprietie of him that doth possess it in the same manner as that which had before been possessed by no man and no regard should bee had here of the Dominion or Right of another then it would bee no less lawful for him that should possess it to make the use thereof the wors to others for the benefit of himself then for him that shall settle in a Field that never was seized yet in the possession of any Therefore Celsus would have the Shores and Sea so to belong to the people of Rome that the condition of them as serving the uses of all private persons and that as hath been said according to the Civil Law and such qualifications as are added out of the Edicts of the Praetors and the like could not without injury bee made wors to the prejudice of the Commonweal Of the same minde is Scevola That by the Law of Nations men may build upon the shore if the publick concernment do not binder And Aristo quod Mari occupatum est fit publicum that which is possessed in the Sea becom's publick It passeth into the patrimonie of the people of Rome for so the word Publicum Publick doth signifie which the Greek Lawyers term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or that which belong's to the people not equally common to all men by whom also the Sea it self is in that sens called Publick Other Instances there are of the same nature Whereby it is made manifest as well out of the determinations of Lawyers as the Transcripts of Leagues and Treaties and the writings of Historians Orators and Poëts that a Dominion of the Sea was in use among the Romans after the same manner as the Land The Dominion of the Sea as it belonged to private persons under the Roman Empire together with that Sanction established in the Eastern Empire whereby the perpetual community of the Sea which was pretended to by som beeing utterly abolished as a thing unjust the Dominion even of private persons therein is asserted CHAP. XV. WHat hath been delivered in the fore-going Chapter touching the Dominion of the Sea hath relation to the Dominion of the whole bodie of the Romane people that is to say to the publick patrimonie of the State wherein a private Dominion is proved no less then in that of particular persons Moreover there are to bee found among the Romane Customs very ample testimonies to prove that a proprietie in the Sea hath been instated also on particular men such to whom either the people or Emperor of Rome according to the Civil Law and Custom of the Romanes demised rented or made a grant of any part of their Sea within the Empire The rich and more magnificent sort