Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	king_n	reign_n	statute_n	3,612	5	8.2794	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33599	His Majesties propriety, and dominion on the Brittish seas asserted together with a true account of the Neatherlanders insupportable insolencies, and injuries, they have committed; and the inestimable benefits they have gained in their fishing on the English seas. As also their prodigious and horrid cruelties in the East and West-Indies, and other places. To which is added an exact mapp, containing the isles of Great Britain, and Ireland, with the several coastings, and the adjacent parts of our neighbours: by an experienced hand.	Codrington, Robert, 1601-1665.; Clavell, Robert, d. 1711, attributed name.	1672 (1672)	Wing C4876B; ESTC R219456	66,598	191

though Enemies to one another should securely sayle to and fro as it were under the wings of an Arbitrator or Moderatour of the Sea and also freely should use the Sea according to such spaces and limits as they were pleased at first to appoint which without doubt is a clear Evidence of Dominion In this next place I shall cite some of the Publick Records which are kept in the Tower of London in which the Dominion of the Sea is expresly Asserted as belonging to the Kings of England We Read that Edward the Third in his Commissions given to Geoffery de Say Rot. Scotia 10. ●dvar● Governour or Commander of the Western and Southern Seas and to John de Norwich of the Northern expresseth himself in these following words We calling to mind that our Progenitors the Kings of England having before these times been Lords of the English Sea on every side yea and Defendors thereof against the Invasions of Enemies do strictly Require and Charge you by the Duty and Allegiance wherein you stand bound that you set forth to Sea with the Ships of the Ports and the other Ships that are ready and that you Arrest the other ships under our Command and that with all Diligence you make search after the Gallies and Ships of War that are abroad against Us and that stoutly and manfully you set upon them if they shall presume to bend their Course towards any part of our Dominions or the Coasts of Scotland c. Then followeth a Power to Press Seamen and other matters of that kind We read also in the Reign of the said King in the preferring of a certain Bill in Parliament which is the voice of the Estates of the Realm that he was usually accounted King or Sovereign of the Seas by all Nations The words in French are to this sence in English Rot. Parli 46. Edv. 3. The Nation of the English were ever in the Ages past Renowned for Sea-Affairs in all Countries near the Seas and they had also so numerous a Navy that the People of all Countries Esteemed and called the K. of Engl. the K. or Sovereign of the Sea Another Testimony to the same Effect we read in the Parliamentary Records of Henry the Fifth where the Tenour of the Bill runs after this manner The Commons do pray that seeing our Sovereign Lord the King and his Illustrious Progenitors have ever been Lords of the Sea Rot. Parli 8. Hen. 5. and now seeing through Gods Grace it is so come to pass that our Lord the King is Lord of the Shores on both sides of the Sea such a Tribute may be imposed upon all Strangers passing through the said Sea for the Benefit and Advantage of our said Lord the King as may seem agreeable to reason for the safegard of the said Sea The Answer subscribed to the said Bill was Soit a vise par le Roy which is Let the King Himself be advised of it For the King at that time Resided in France being Lord of that Country as well by Conquest as Inheritance And Humphrey Duke of Glocester was then President of the Parliament and Leivtenant of England by whom as the Kings Deputy that Answer was given to the said Bill but when the King was present in person Le Roy S' advisera the King will Advise was the Answer from the Antient down to our present times in such Bills as were to be passed into Acts Many other Testimonies in this Nature may be produced which for brevities sake are purposely omitted Neither hath the High Court of Parliament onely given this Attestation to our Kings as Supream and Sovereign of the Seas But to confirme it we shall produce the Testimonies of Robert Belknap Rich. 2. Fitz Herbert Tit. protection 46. an Eminent Judge in the Time of Richard the Second who affirmeth that the Sea is Subject to the King as a part of his Kingdom or of the Patrimony of the Crown And it appeareth by Publick Records containing diverse main points touching which the Judges of the Land were to be consulted for the good of the Common-Wealth that the Kings Sea-Dominion Edw. Cook part 5. fol. 108. in Com. ad Littleton Sect 439. fol. 260. which they called The Antient Superiority of the Sea was a matter out of Question amongst all Lawyers of that Age and Asserted by the Determinations and Customes of the Law of the Land and by the express words of the Writs and Forms of the Actions themselves Neither is this Truth confirmed only by our Laws but by our Medals There hath been a piece of Gold very often Coyned by our Kings called a Rose-Noble which was stamped on the one side of it with a Ship floting in the Sea and a King Armed with a Sword and Shield sitting in the Ship it self as in a Throne to set forth a Representation of the English K. by Sea The first Authour hereof was Edward the Third when he Guarded his own Seas with a Numerous Navy consisting of Eleven Hundred ships at which time as at others he marched victoriously through France But what need we labour to produce so many Testimonies at home from our Records in the Tower and other places from our High Courts of Parliament from our Laws from our Coyns from our Histories to prove this Truth since it is acknowledged even by Forreigners themselves whom it most concerneth by their usual striking of sayles according to the antient Custom by every ship of any Forreign Nation whatsoever if they sayle near the Kings Navy or any ship belonging to it at Sea which is done not onely in Honour to the English King but also in acknowledgement of His Sovereignty and Dominion at Seas The Antiquity of this Custome and that it hath been in use for above these Four Hundred years may appear by this following testimony At Hastings a Town scituate upon the Shore of Sussex it was Decreed by K. John in the Second Year of His Reign with the Assent of His Peers That if the Governour or Commander of the Kings Navy in His Naval Expeditions shall meet with any Ships whatsoever by Sea either Laden or Empty Mr. Commentar de Rebus Admiral fol. 28. that shall refuse to strike their sayles at the Command of the Kings Governour or Admiral or his Lievtenant but make resistance against any who belong unto his Fleet that then they are to be reputed Enemies and if they be taken their Ships and Goods to be Confiscated as the Goods of Enemies And that although the Masters or Owners of the Ships shall Alledge afterwards that the same Ships and Goods do belong to the Friends and Allies of our Lord the King yet the persons who shall be found in these Ships are to be punished with Imprisonment at discretion for their Rebellion It was accounted Treason saith Master Selden If any ship whatsoever had not acknowledged the Dominion of the King of England in His own Sea by striking

sayle and they were not to be protected upon the Account of Amity who should in any wise presume to do the contrary Penalties were also appointed by the Kings of England in the same manner as if mention were made concerning a Crime committed in some Territory of his Land But above all that as yet hath been said there can hardly be alledged a more convincing Argument to prove the Truth of all that hath hitherto been spoken then the Acknowledgement of the Sea-Dominion of the King of England by very many of our Neighbouring Nations At what time the Agreement was made by Edward the First of England and Philip the Fair of France Reyner Grimbald Governour of the French Navy Intercepted and Spoyled on the English Seas the Goods of many Merchants that were going to Flanders Rot. Parl. 31 Edw. 1. Membran 16. as well English as Others and not contented with the Depredation of their Goods He Imprisoned also their Persons and delivered them up to the Officers of the King of France and in a very insolent manner justified his Actions in Writing as done by Authority of the King his Masters Commission This being alledged to be done to the great Damage and Prejudice of the King of England the Prelats Peers and the rest of the Nation a Bill against Reyner Grimbald was exhibited and managed by Procurators on the behalf of the Prelates Peers and of the Cities and Towns throughout England and lastly of the whole English Nation by an Authority as I believe of the Estates Assembled in Parliament with these were joyned the Procurators of most Nations bordering upon the Sea throughout Europe Viz. The Genoeses The Catalonians The Spaniards The Almayns The Zealanders The Hollanders The Freislanders The Danes The Noruegians The Hamburghers c. All these instituted a Complaint against Reyner Grimbald who was Governour of the French Navy Ibidem ut Supra in the time of the War of Philip King of France and Guy Earle of Flanders And all these Complainants in their Bill do joyntly affirm that the King of England and his Predecessors have time out of minde and without Controversie Enjoyed the Soveraignty and Dominion of the English Seas and the Isles belonging to the same by Right of their Realm of England that is to say by Prescribing Laws Statutes and Prohibitions of Armes and of Ships otherwise furnished then with such necessaries and Commodities as belong to Merchants and by demanding Security and affording protection in all places where need should require and ordering all other things necessary for the conservation of Peace Right and Equity between all sorts of People passing through that Sea as well Strangers as others in Subjection to the Crown of England Also that they have had and have the Soveraign Guard thereof with all manner of Cognisance and Jurisdiction in doing Right and Justice according to the said Laws Ordinances and Prohibitions and in all other matters which may concern the Exercise of Soveraign Dominion in the said places This is the Declaration of the Nations above named manifestly acknowledging the Sovereignty and Dominion of our Kings over the Seas and thereupon demanding protection for themselves Tilius in Recueil destraictes fol. 4. But more particularly we do finde an acknowledgment of the Sea-Dominions of the Kings of England made by the Flemmings themselves in the Parliament of England in the Reign of Edward the Second the Records of the Parliament speak it thus In the Fourteenth Year of the Reign of Edward the Second Rot. Parl. 14. Edvar 2. Membran 26. there appeared certain Ambassadours of the Earl of Flanders to Treat about the Reformation of some Injuries they received and as soon as the said Ambassadours had been admitted by our Lord the King to Treat of the said Injuries amongst other particulars they required that the said Lord the King would at his own Suit by Vertue of his Royal Authority cause Enquiry to be made and do Justice about a Depredation by the Subjects of England upon the English Seas taking Wines and other sort of Merchandizes belonging to certain Merchants of Flanders towards the parts of Crauden within the Territory and Jurisdiction of the King of England Alledging that the said Wines and other Merchandizes taken from the Flemmings were brought within the Realm and Jurisdiction of the King and that it belonged to the King to see Justice done in Regard that HE IS LORD OF THE SEA and the aforesaid Depredation was made upon the said Sea within his Territory and Jurisdiction c. This we have Cited out of the Parliament Records which may Declare an Acknowledgement of the Sea-Dominion of our Kings made by those Foreign and Neighbour-Nations who were most concerned in the Business Having given you thus besides the Attestation of our own Writers the acknowledgment of Foreign Nations that the King of England hath the Dominion of the Seas we shall now come to give you an Account of those Northern Seas which came unto the Subjection of the Kings of England at what time King James of Blessed Memory by reducing the two Nations into one Great Brittanie United the Crown of Scotland to the Crown of England Odericus in his Ecclesiastical History informs us that the Orcades was subject heretofore to the King o● Norway and that the people of the Orcades do speak the Gothish Language to this day these Isles are Numerous and onely Twenty Eight of them are at this day Inhabited Above One Hundred Miles beyond the Orcades towards Norway are the Shetland Isles in Number Eighteen which are at this day Inhabited and in subjection to the King of Scotland Cambd. in Insul Britan p. 849. concerning which there hath been a great Quarrel in former Ages between the Scots and Danes but the Dane kept the Possession All these Islands did Christiern King of Denmark peaceably Surrender together with his Daughter in Marriage to James King of Scots until that either he himself or his Posterity paid to the Scottish King or his Successors the sum of Fifty Thousand Rhenish Florens which were never discharged to this day But afterwards when the Queen had been delivered of Her Eldest Son the Danish King being willing to Congratulate his Daughters good Delivery did for ever Surrender his Right in the Islands of the Orcades Shetland the rest unto the Scottish King This was in the days of James the Third of Scotland in the Year 1468. A Claim was afterwards laid to Iseland by Q. Elizabeth And her Successor K. James the Sixth of Scotland Cambden Annal. Elizab. and first of England hath a Dominion in the Sea which lieth farr more Northerly then Iseland which is that of Greenland For that Sea having never been entred by Occupation nor used in the Art and Exercise of Fishery was first of all rendered very gainful through a peculiar Fishing for Whales by those English Merchants of the Muscovie Company who first Sailed that way The use of a Sea

Timber All which they have not onely in competent proportion for their use but are likewise able from their several Magazines to supply their Neighbour-Countries The premises considered it maketh much to the ignominy and shame of our English Nation that God and Nature offering us so great a Treasure even at our own doors we do notwithstanding neglect the benefit thereof and by paying Money to Strangers for the Fish of our own Seas impoverish our selves to make them Rich. Insomuch that for want of industry and care in this particular two hundred twenty five Fisher-Towns are decayed and reduced to extream poverty whereas on the contrary by diligent endevouring to make use of so great a blessing we might in short time repair these decayed Towns of the Kingdom and add both honour strength and riches to our King and Country which how easily it may be done will appear by some few observations following By erecting Two Hundred and fifty Busses of reasonable strength and bigness there will be employment made for a Thousand Ships and for at least Ten Thousand Fisher-men and Mariners at Sea and consequently for as many Tradesmen and Labourers at Land The Herrings taken by the Busses will afford His Majesty two hundred thousand pound yearly custom outward and for commodities returned inward thirty thousand pound and above We have Timber sufficient and at reasonable rates growing in our own Kingdom for the building of Busses every Shire affordeth hardy and able men fit for such employment who now live poorly and idle at home We have Victuals in great plenty sold at easie rates without payment of Excises or Impost Our shores and harbours are near the places where the Fish do haunt For drink or nets salting and packing our Fish and for succour in stress of weather we may bring our Fish to Land salt and pack it and from some part of His Majesties Dominions be at our Markets in France Spain or Italy before the Hollanders can arrive in Holland We have means to transport our Fishing into some Northern Countries where the Hollanders seldome or never come And though we had as many Busses as the Hollanders yet is there vent for all or more for in the East and Northern Countries and in many other places Herrings are every days meat Winter and Summer as well to draw on drink as to satisfie hunger and in most places the greatest part of the year they be scarce to be had for presently after Michaelmas the Sound and Rivers are frozen up so as no Herrings can be transported into twenty several Kingdoms and free States until July which is for thirty weeks space together so that when Lent comes there are few to be bought for money Lastly since by care and industry we gained from the Flemmings doubtless so by the means we may as easily grow expert in the Art of Fishing and in time make it a staple-commodity of our own But this we shall the better and sooner do if we consider and endeavour to reform certain wants and abuses which hitherto have hindred us from effecting that good and great work whereof these that follow are none of the least 1. General liberty of eating Flesh contrary to old custom and the Statute-Laws provided for observing Fish-day from whence our scarcity and dearth of Fish proceedeth for where Flesh is ordinarily spent Fish will not be bought and want of sale decayeth all Trade gain being the Nurse of Industry 2. Want of order and discretion in our Fishing every man being left to himself and permitted to Fish as best liketh him whereas amongst the Hollanders two of the best experienced Fisher-men are appointed to guide the rest of the Fleet all others being bound to follow them and to cast their lines according to their direction 3. The Hollanders and other Nations set forth with their Busses in June to finde the shole of Fish and having found it dwell amongst it till November whereas we stay till the Herring come home to our Rode-steads and somtimes suffer them to pass by ere we look out our Herring-Fishing conteining onely seven weeks at the most and their 's twenty 4. The Hollanders Busses are great and strong and able to brook foul weather whereas our Cobles Crayers and Boats being small and thin sided are easily swallowed by a rough Sea not daring to adventure far in fair weather by reason of their weaknesse for fear of Storms 5. The Hollanders are industrious and no sooner are discharged of their lading but presently put forth for more and seek for Markets abroad as well as at home whereas our English after they have been once at Sea do commonly never return again untill all the money taken for their Fish be spent and they in debt seeking onely to serve the next Market 6. The Hollanders have certain Merchants who during the Herring-season do onely come to the places where the Busses arrive and joyning together in several companies do presently agree for the lading of thirty or forty Busses at once and so being discharged they may speedily return to their former shipping whereas our Fisher-men are uncertain of their Chap-men and forced to spend much time in putting off their Fish by parcels These and other effects would carefully be taken into consideration and certain orders made to make our Fishing prosperous and succesful especially considering the fearful mischiefs the neglects hereof hath brought to the King and Kingdom in general and to many good Towns and Corporations in particular as by Authority even of Parliament it self in the Statute of 33. Hen. the eight is plainly testified which I have summarily here set down to avoid the prolixity of the original Because the English Fisher-men dwelling on the Sea-Coasts did leave off their Trade of Fishing in our Seas and went the half-Seas over and thereupon they did buy Fish of Pickards Flemmings Normans and Zelanders by reason whereof many incommodities did grow to the Realm viz. the decay of the wealth and prosperity as well of the Cinque-Ports and Members of the same as of other Coast-Towns by the Sea-side which were builded and inhabited by great multitudes of people by reason of using and exercising the craft and feat of Fishing Secondly the decay of a great number of Boats and Ships And thirdly the decay of many good Marriners both able in body by their diligence labour and continual exercise of Fishing and expert by reason thereof in the knowledge of the Sea-Coasts as well within this Realm as in other parts beyond the Seas It was therefore enacted that no manner of Persons English Denizens or strangers at that time or any time after dwelling in England should buy any Fish of any strangers in the said Ports of Flanders Zealand Picardie France or upon the Sea between shoare and shoare c. This Act by many continuances was continued from Parliament to Parliament until the first of Queen Marie and from thence to the end of the next Parliament and then

These Saxons being sent for by the Brittains to Assist them against the Scots and Picts did get at length the whole Power into their own hand Bede De Natura Rerum cap. 28 These Saxons being Arch Pirats did not only know but were familiarly acquainted with the Dangers of the Sea The same may be said of the Danes and Normans for these names being promiscuously used do often signifie the same Nation as is sufficiently attested by Regino Dudo the Monk of Malmesbury and others And these People had so great and so admirable a Knowledge of the Sea and Sea Affairs that by an exquisite observation of the Tides and Ebbings of the Sea they were accustomed to reckon their Months and Years yea and to frame Computations of years thereby In Antient Records diverse particulars are to be seen which most plainly show that both the Saxons and Danes had a Dominion over the Sea whilest they Reigned in Brittain Mt. In Bibleothecâ Cottonianâ In the Reign of the English Saxons we read in Asserius Bishop of Sherburn that Hengist being invited into England by the Perswasions of Vortigern there came presently afterwards to recruit him Octa and Ebissa who putting Pirates aboard his ships he charged them to Guard the passages of the Sea You are to understand that the word Pirate was not then taken as now commonly it is for Robbers or Rovers but for such who being the most skilfull in Sea-Affairs were judged to be the fittest Men to Encounter with their Enemies The word sayes my Authour doth seem to be deriv'd from the Greek for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Pira in the Greek Tongue signifieth Craft or Art and from this Art in Maritine Discipline they are now called Pirates which infest the Seas But amongst these Kings none was more Potent then King Edgar who possessing an Absolute Dominion of the Seas sayled round about it every Year and secured it with a constant Guard It is Recorded that these ships being very stout ones Hunting lib. 5. were in number One Thousand Two Hundred Other Writers affirm that they were Foure Thousand the Abbot of Jorvaux John Bramton by name doth number them to be Four Thousand and Eight Hundred sayle And what Dominion King Edgar had as Absolute Lord of the Sea appears in these words I Edgar King of England Guil. Malmesb lib. 2. cap. 8. and of all the Kings of the Islands and of the Ocean lying round about Brittain and of all the Nations that are Included within the Circuit thereof Supream Lord and Governour do render my thanks to Almighty GOD My KING who hath Enlarged my Empire and Exalted it above the Royal Estate of my Prog●nitors who although they Arrived to the Monarchy of all England ever since Athelstan yet the Divine Goodness hath favoured me to Subdue all the Kingdomes of the Island in the Ocean with their most Stout and Mighty Kings even as far as Norway and the greatest part of Ireland together with their most Famous City of Dublin After him King Canutus left a Testimony whereby he most expresly Asserteth the Sea to be a part of his Dominion For placing himself by the Sea side in the time of a High Tide upon Southampton shoare he is reported to have made tryal of the Obedience of the Sea in this manner Thou O Sea art under my Dominion as the Land also which I sit upon is mine And there was never any that disobeyed my Command without Punishment Therefore I command thee not to ascend upon my Land nor do thou presume to wet the Feet or Garments of Thy Sovereign But although the Event did not answer his Expectation yet most plain it is that here he openly professed himself to be Sovereign of the Seas as well as of the Land From the Testimonies of the Saxons and Danes we shall Descend to the Government of the Normans where by many Notable and Cleer Proofs we shall finde That 1. The Custody Government or Admiralty of the English Sea did belong unto the King together with the Dominion of the Adjacent Islands 2. That the Leave of Passage through this Sea was granted unto Forreigners upon Request 3. That the Liberty of Fishing was upon Courtesie Allowed to Forreigners and Neighbours and Protection given to the Fisher-men 4. That Laws and Limits were Prescribed to Forreigners who being in Hostility the one with the other but both in Amity with the English made Prize of each other on the Sea 5. The Records whereby this Dominion is expressely Asserted as a most Undoubted Right and that not onely by the Kings but by the Parliaments of England As for the First There is nothing more Cleer than that the Kings of England have been Accustomed to Constitute Governours or Commanders who had a Charge to Guard the English Seas and these were called Custodes Navium or Custodes Maritimi These were the Officers that were called Butsecarli as may be gathered out of that Breviary of England called Doomes Day Rot. Pat. 48. Hen. 3. In this Number was Thomas de Moleton who is Stiled Captain and Guardian of the Sea and Hugh de Cerquen Afterwards the Title of Guardians was changed into that of Admiral as is alleaged by Thomas Walsingham 22. Edw. 1. in the days of Edward the First We finde that in the days of Edward the third The Principal End of Calling that Parliament was concerning the Preservation of Peace both by Land and Sea giving us to understand that the Land and Sea together made one entire Body of the Kingdome of England In the time of Richard the Second 2. Rich. 2. Hugh Calverley was made Admiral of the Sea saith the same Author and the Universal Custody of the Sea was committed by our Kings to the High Admirals of England And that the Dominion of the Seas is properly in the Power and Jurisdiction of the King may appear by those Tributes and Customes that were Imposed and Payed for the Guard and Protection of them The Tribute called the Danegeld was paid in the Time of the English Saxons which amounted to four shillings upon every Hide of Land for the defending of the Dominion by Sea Roger Houerden affirmeth Annal. 1. part page 276. that this was paid until the Time of King Stephen Afterwards Subsidies have been demanded of the People in Parliament upon the same Account and in the Parliament-Records of King Richard the Second it is Observable That a Custome was imposed upon every Ship that passed through the Northern Admiralty that is from the Thames along the Eastern Shoare of England towards the North-East for the Maintenance of a Guard for the Seas Neither was this Imposed onely upon the English but also upon the Ships of Forreigners payment was made at the Rate of six pence a Tun upon every Vessell that passed by such Ships only excepted that brought Merchandize out of Flanders into London If a Vessel were imployed to Fish for Herrings it