[46] Rotuli Scotiæ, i. 442, “Nos advertentes quod progenitores nostri reges Angliæ Domini Maris Anglicani circumquaque et etiam defensores contra hostium invasiones ante hæc tempora extiterint,” &c. Part of the language of this mandate was copied by Charles I. in his ship-money writs. [See p. 211].
[47] Fœdera, iv. 722. “Consideratio etiam quod progenitores nostri, Reges Angliæ, in hujusmodi turbationibus, inter ipsos et alios terrarum exterarum dominos motis, domini maris et transmarini passagii, totis præteritis temporibus, extiterunt,” &c.
[48] Nicolas, op. cit., ii. 49, 106.
[49] Political Poems, ii. 157. The author states that it was coined after Edward captured Calais, when
“The see was kepte, and thereof he was lorde,
Thus made he nobles coigned of recorde.”
But Edward did not take Calais till 1347, while the noble was issued in July 1344. Nicolas, loc. cit.
[50] Oppenheim, A History of the Administration of the Royal Navy, i. 7.
[51] Cunningham, op. cit., 361. In the Libelle it is asked—
“Wher ben our shippes, wher ben our swerdes become?
Our enmyes bid for the ship set a sheep”;
and the rubric of an anonymous commentator states that the advice quoted was owing to the fact that while in the time of Edward III. the English were lords of the sea, they were now in these days mad (vecordes), vanquished, and for waging war and guarding the sea, like sheep. The jest is also alluded to by Capgrave, Liber de Illustribus Henricis, 135.