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CHAPTER IV.

REIGN OF JAMES THE FIRST SIR WILLIAM

MONSON-QUARRELS

WITH THE DUTCH-SIR WALTER RALEIGH-REIGN OF CHARLES THE FIRST-SIR ROBERT MANSEL.

WHEN James the Sixth of Scotland succeeded to the throne of England, he was in the thirty-sixth year of his age. The melancholy circumstances of his childhood and education had impressed upon his mind characters of feebleness, which never were effaced, even by the career of prosperity which his accession to the crown of England opened up to him. Never had any monarch a nobler opportunity of distinction at the commencement of a reign. Never was such an opportunity so thrown away. Received as the head of the Protestant interest by one party, his claim was held valid by the Catholic party as the legitimate heir, and had he with a manly dignity upheld the Protestant faith, while at the same time he sternly rebuked the intolerance shown towards his Catholic subjects, he might have taken his place as the head of men of free thoughts and free actions, and have earned for himself a name of immortal renown.James was not equal to this. He shrunk from asserting the only claim he had to the throne, namely, the right of a free people to think for themselves, and took refuge under the unintelligible doctrine of

The right divine of kings to govern wrong.

It is surprising that, under all circumstances, he contrived to pass through a long reign so peaceably; but the consequences of his policy fell fatally upon his more criminal

successor.

It is with reference to maritime affairs alone, however, that we require to treat of the reign of James. It may appear singular that Scotland, having the same insular situation, and having the example of England, should have been insignificant as a maritime power. Yet so it was, and James does not appear to have paid much attention person

ally to the affairs of his navy. His reign, indeed, was not a warlike one, and our account is necessarily brief.

The house of Austria was glad to avail itself of James's peaceful disposition, to put an end to the war which had proved so injurious to its interests and glory. The terms of the treaty of peace have been severely animadverted upon, by politicians of these and subsequent times, as disadvantageous to England, but there was probably an undue degree of national animosity at the bottom of these complaints.

But if this treaty gave some dissatisfaction at home, it raised no less discontent abroad. The Hollanders, who were left to shift for themselves, and who had reaped great advantages from the favour of Elizabeth, were exasperated at a step so much to their disadvantage. But as they found themselves still strong enough not only to cope with the Spaniards, but also to make a greater figure than most other nations at sea, they lost that respect which was due to the English flag, and began to assume to themselves a kind of equality even in the narrow seas. This was represented to the king as an indignity not to be borne, and he directed a fleet to be fitted out, the command of which was given to Sir William Monson, with instructions to maintain the honour of the English flag, and the superiority of the British seas. This fleet put to sea in the spring of 1604, and was continued annually under the same admiral, who was a man of spirit and experience. He tells us in his

memoirs that he served in the first ship of war fitted out in the reign of queen Elizabeth, and was an admiral in the last fleet she ever sent to sea. Yet he found it a very difficult matter to execute his commission; the Dutch, whenever he conferred with any of their chief officers, gave him fine language and fair promises, but they minded them very little, taking our ships on very frivolous pretences, and treating those they found on board them with great severity, till such time as it appeared the admiral would not bear such usage, and began to make reprisals, threatening to hang as pirates people who showed themselves very little better in their actions. There were also high contests about the flag, which began through some accidental civilities shown to the Hollanders in the late reign, when they sailed under the command of English admirals, upon joint expeditions, and were on that account treated as if they had been her Majesty's own subjects, which favours they now pretended to claim as prerogatives due to them in quality of an independent state.

It will not be amiss to give the reader an account, in Sir W. Monson's own words, of the spirit with which he insisted on satisfaction from the Dutch on this head, whereby the right of the English flag, which has been so much stood upon since, was established with regard to this republic; the rather, because there are many who will scarce believe that matters of this nature were carried so far, under so pacific a prince. "In my return from Calais," says Sir William, "the first of July, 1605, with the emperor's ambassador, as I approached near Dover road, I perceived an increase of six ships to those I left there three days before, one of them being the admiral; their coming in show was to beleaguer the Spaniards who were then at Dover.

"As I drew near them the admiral struck his flag thrice, and advanced it again. His coming from the other coast at such a time, caused me to make another construction than he pretended; and indeed it so fell out, for I conceived his arrival at that time was for no other end than to show the ambassador, who he knew would spread it abroad throughout all Europe, as also the Spaniards, that they might have the less esteem of his Majesty's prerogative in the narrow seas, that by their wearing their flag, they might be reputed kings of the sea as well as his Majesty. I hastened the ambassador ashore, and despatched a gentleman to the admiral, to entreat his company the next day to dinner, which he willingly promised."

"The gentleman told him I required him to take in his flag, as a duty due to his Majesty's ships: he answered, that he had struck it thrice, which he thought to be a very sufficient acknowledgment, and it was more than former admirals of the narrow seas had required at his hands.

"The gentleman replied, that he expected such an answer from him, and therefore he was prepared with what to say to that point. He told him the times were altered, for when no more but striking the flag was required, England and Holland were both of them in hostility with Spain, which caused her Majesty to tolerate divers things in them, as, for instance, the admiral's wearing his flag in the expedition to Cadiz and the islands, where the Lord-Admiral of England and the Lord of Essex went as generals, and that courtesy they could not challenge by right, but by permission; and the wars being now ceased, his Majesty did require by me, his minister, such rights and duties as have formerly belonged to his progenitors.

"The admiral refused to obey my commands, saying he expected more favour from me than from other admirals, in respect of our long and loving acquaintance; but he was answered that all obligations of private friendship must be laid aside, when the honour of one's king and country is at stake. The gentleman advised him in a friendly manner to yield to my demand, if not, he had commission to tell him, I meant to weigh anchor and come near him, and that the force of our ships should determine the question, for rather than I would suffer his flag to be worn in view of so many nations as were to behold it, I resolved to bury myself in the

sea.

"The admiral, it seems, upon better advice, took in his flag, and stood immediately off to sea, firing a gun for the rest of the fleet to follow him. And thus I lost my guest the next day to dinner, as he had promised.

"This passage betwixt the admiral and me was observed from the shore, people beholding us to see the event. Upon my landing I met with Sciriago, the general of the Spaniards, who in the time of queen Elizabeth was employed under Mendoza, the ambassador of Spain. He told me that if the Hollanders had worn their flag, times had been strangely altered in England since his old master, king Philip the Second, was shot at by the Lord-Admiral of England, for wearing his flag in the narrow seas, when he came to marry queen Mary."

These disputes continued for many years, and though, through the vigilance of admiral Monson, the Dutch were defeated in all their pretensions, and the prerogatives of the British sovereignty at sea were thoroughly maintained, yet the republic of Holland still kept up a spirit of resentment, which broke out in such acts of violence, as would not have been passed by in the days of queen Elizabeth; yet our admiral does not seem to charge the king or his ministry in general with want of inclination to do themselves justice, but lays it expressly at the door of Secretary Cecil, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, who thought it, he says, good policy to overlook such kind of offences, but he does not report any reasons upon which that kind of policy was grounded; yet it did not absolutely or constantly prevail, even in the councils of king James, for upon some surmises that foreigners took unreasonable liberties in fishing in our seas, a proclamation was published in the year 1608, distinctly asserting the king's sovereignty in that point, and

prohibiting all foreign nations to fish on the British coast. This, though general in appearance, had yet a more particular relation to the Dutch, who found themselves so far affected thereby, especially when the king appointed commissioners at London for granting licenses to such foreigners as would fish on the English coast, and at Edinburgh, for granting licenses of the like nature to such as would fish in the northern sea; and to these regulations, though with great reluctance, they submitted for the present, the reason of which seems to be, their having then affairs of great moment to arrange with the court of Great Britain. In these important concerns, notwithstanding all that had passed, they succeeded, and two treaties were concluded on the twenty-sixth of June, 1608, between the crown of Great Britain and the States-General, the one of peace and alliance, the other for stating and settling the debt due to king James. One would have imagined that the advantages obtained by these treaties should have brought the republic to a better temper in respect to other matters, but it did not, for within a short time after, they disputed paying the assize-herring in Scotland, and the license-money in England; and to protect their subjects from the penalties which might attend such a refusal, they sent ships of force to escort their herring busses. These facts, as they are incontestible, I think myself obliged to relate, though without the least prejudice against the Dutch, who are a people certainly to be commended for all such instances of their public spirit, as appear to be consistent with the right of their neighbours, and the law of nations. But at this time of day, ministers were too much afraid of parliaments to run the hazard of losing any of the nation's rights for want of insisting upon them, and therefore they prevailed upon the king to republish his proclamation.

There were also some struggles in this reign with the French, about the same rights of fishery, and the sovereignty of the sea, in which, through the vigorous measures taken by Sir William Monson, the nation prevailed, and the French were obliged to desist from their practices of disturbing our fishermen, and otherwise injuring our navigation. In 1614, the same admiral was sent to scour the Scottish and Irish seas, which were much infested with pirates. We need not wonder at this, if we consider that, till king James's accession to the throne of England, there was little, indeed scarcely any naval strength in his own

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