[887] “A Draft made by Sir Leoline Jenkins about the King’s Sovereignty in the British Seas.” Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 30,221, fol. 46b. Undated, but probably referring to this case.
[888] Sir William Temple to Sir John Temple, 14th Sept. 1671. Works, iii. 501. Pontalis, John de Witt, 126, 127. Hume, Hist. of England, cap. lxv. State Papers, Dom., 1671, ccxcii. 45, 77, 78, 81, 215. Evelyn’s Diary (ed. 1850), ii. 69. Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 30,221.
[889] Pontalis, op. cit., ii. 130, 134. Hume, op. cit., cap. xlv. Sir William Temple to his brother, 23rd May 1672. Works, iii. 505. Clarendon’s Memoirs, ii. 289. England’s Appeal, p. 22. State Papers, Entry Book, 24, fol. 54. Ibid., Dom., 1671, ccxciv. 127; 1672, cccii. 55, 112, 233; ccciii. 206. Entry Book, 34, f. 147. It was in connection with the offers of the Dutch on this occasion or a little later in the year that Sir Leoline Jenkins made the following pronouncement as to the king’s rights to the dominion of the seas. He was asked by Secretary Coventry “what his Majesty, his heirs and successors, Kings of England, may reasonably pretend to be signified by these words, en la pleine et entiere joüissance du droit de pavillon”? Jenkins replied (1) that the King of England for the time being was Lord of these seas, where he had the right of his flag acknowledged, and that these seas were, as much as that watery element is capable of being so in its nature, no less a domain of the Crown than the Honour of Greenwich or the Manor of Eltham; (2) that the droits souveraines of the king in his seas against strangers had all the legal requisites of a prescription beyond the memory of man, and did not consist in one individual point, as for instance in having the flag struck to, or in having the liberty of fishing acknowledged by yearly sums of money; but in all the several rights, honours, and perquisites that a sovereignty is capable of producing, and have been enjoyed by former kings of England, with this difference from all seigneuries that move from a mesne Lord, or Lord Paramount, that our kings hold this as they do their crown, from God alone, and by their sword. Life, ii. 697.
[890] The account was brought to Court by Lieutenant Churchill, afterwards the great Duke of Marlborough, who was serving under Lord Ossory.
[891] Pontalis, op. cit., ii. 239. Hume, loc. cit. State Papers, Dom., Entry Book, 24, f. 57; ibid., 34, f. 164; cccii. 130; ccciii. 26, 72, 211-218; ccciv. 9, 11, 20, 21, 25, 36; cccvii. 169; Foreign Entry Book, 21, ff. 1, 9.
[892] Hume, loc. cit. Pontalis, loc. cit. Temple’s Works, i. 175; iii. 505. Parl. Hist., iv. 512. Hollantsche Mercurius, 1672, p. 50. Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, VII. i. 163. State Papers, Dom., cccii. 210; ccciv. 21, 22; cccvi. 27; Entry Book, 31, f. 90. Ibid., 34, f. 157.
[893] Mahan, op. cit. Colomb, op. cit.
[894] 9/19 March, 5/15 Sept. 1672. Groot Placaet-Boeck, iii. 292, 298. The embargo was renewed in the next year.
[895] State Papers, Dom., cccxv. 108, &c.; cccxvi. 43.
[896] Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, VII. i. 206. Hume, op. cit., c. lxv. In State Papers, Foreign, Treaty Papers (Breda), 1667, Bdl. 73 (as at present arranged), are a number of papers belonging to these negotiations and the later ones at Cologne in 1673, consisting mostly of draft articles, with copious notes by the plenipotentiaries. In one, marked “1st project as framed,” Art. xiv. refers to the flag as follows, the words in brackets being inserted here from a second copy: “That the ships and vessells of the United Provinces, as well men-of-war as others, be they single ships or in Fleets how great soever, meeting in any part within ye Brittish seas, with any one of ye ships of war (yachts) or other vessells w’soever of ye said K. of Gr. Brittain, or in his service and wearing his flagg, colours (or Jack) shall strike their flaggs and lower their Topsailes untill they be passed by, as a Ancient and undoubted Right belonging to the said K., and which hath been payd and performed to his Rll progenitors in all times.” The fishery article (xxiv.) was as follows, the words within brackets being taken from another copy, to fill up a blank: “And the said States acknowledging his said Majts ancient and undoubted Right in the Brittish Seas, as they do hereby own and acknowledge ye same, Doe further promise and agree, that they and their successors will from henceforth pay to his said Maj. his Heirs and successors, for euer, at the Receipt of his Exchequer, a yearly sum̄ of ... (10mte—as likewise ye yearly summe of 2mt sterling by ye yeare at ye Receipt of his Matys Treasury of his Kingdom of Scotland) ... sterling by the year, in consideration of his Majts license and permission to them and their subjts to fish in the said seas and upon his Matys coasts.” Another article (xxv.) provided for the payment of £1,000,000 for the charges of the war, £400,000 in the following October, and the remainder later.