The Sovereignty of the Sea / An Historical Account of the Claims of England to the Dominion of the British Seas, and of the Evolution of the Territorial Waters

by Thomas Wemyss Fulton

[621] Not improbably James had Mare Liberum in view in the following sentence in his Proclamation of 1609: “Finding that our connivance therein hath not only given occasion of over great encroachment upon our regalities, or rather questioning for our right.” That it was believed in England that Grotius had James in view is shown by the following précis contained in the volume of official records prepared for the ambassadors to the Congress at Cologne in 1673: “K. James coming in, the Dutch put out Mare Liberum, made as if aimed at mortifying the Spaniards’ usurpation in the W. and E. Indyes, but indeed at England. K. James resents it, bids his Amb^r S^r D. Carleton complaine of it.” State Papers, Dom., cccxxxix. p. 99. Chas. II., 1673-75.

[622] Cap. v. p. 29. “In hoc autem Oceano non de sinu aut fretu, nec de omni quidem eo quod e littore conspici potest controversia est. Vindicant sibi Lusitani quicquid duos Orbes interjacet.”

[623] Cap. vii.

[624] Hvgonis Grotii De Ivre Belli ac Pacis, Libri Tres.

[625] Lib. ii. cap. ii. s. iii. 1, 2.

[626] Lib. ii. cap. iii. s. viii. “Ad hoc exemplum videtur et mare occupari potuisse ab eo qui terras ad latus utrumque possideat, etiamsi aut supra pateat ut sinus, aut supra et infra ut fretum, dummodo non ita magna sit pars maris ut non cum terris comparata portio earum videri possit. Et quod uni populo aut Regi licet, idem licere videtur et duobus aut tribus, si pariter mare intersitum occupare voluerint, nam sic flumina quæ duos populos interluunt ab utroque occupata sunt, ac deinde divisa.”

[627] Lib. ii. cap. iii. ss. ix.-xii.

[628] Lib. ii. cap. iii. s. xiii. 2. “Videtur autem imperium in maris portionem eadem ratione acquiri qua imperia alia, id est, ut supra diximus, ratione personarum et ratione territorii. Ratione personarum, ut si classis, qui maritimus est exercitus, aliquo in loco maris se habeat: ratione territorii, quatenus ex terra cogi possunt qui in proxima maris parte versantur, nec minus quam si in ipsa terra reperirentur.”

[629] Calvo, Le Droit Internat., i. 348; Ortolan, Règles Internationales et Diplomatie de la Mer, i. c. v. [See p. 156] referring to a State Paper of 1610, which seems to be misdated “August 1609.”

[630] Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, vol. V. ii. p. 99. The treaty was signed on (30 March)/(9 April) 1609.