Anglo-Dutch Rivalry during the First Half of the Seventeenth Century

From the nature of the land, Holland and Zeeland were always the home of fisher-folk. The herring fishery off the coast of Great Britain was from early times an industry pursued by many Hollanders and Zeelanders, but it was comparatively limited, until the invention of 'curing' made by Willem Beukelsz of Biervliet in the latter part of the fourteenth century (he probably died in 1397) converted a perishable article of food into a commercial commodity. The method of Beukelsz, which remained practically unchanged for some five centuries, without going into minute particulars, consisted in the following processes. Immediately after the hauling in of the nets the guts were in a particular manner removed from the fish, which were then packed in layers in barrels with salt between the layers. In the brine or pickle that was formed they were allowed to lie some time, fresh salt being added every fortnight. At first the Zeelanders were the chief herring fishers, but afterwards the towns on the Zuyder Zee and on the Maas became the head-quarters of the industry. During the Burgundian period many laws were enacted regulating the herring fisheries, but the edict[49 - 'Placaet ende Ordonnantie op 't stuk van den Haring-Vaert, 't branden van de tonnen en 't soorten van den Haringh.' Derde Memoriael boek 's Hof v. Holland.] of Charles V, May 18, 1519, which extended and codified all previous enactments, remained the permanent basis of future legislation on the subject. The chief regulations concerned the branding of the barrels, the sorting of the fish, and the date of the beginning of the fishing. This date was originally August 24 (St. Bartholomew), but was afterwards changed first to July 25 (St. James), and finally to June 24 (St. John the Baptist). It is possible that some change in the habits of the herring shoals may have led to this considerable shifting of the date. After 1519 there were many fresh enactments made, referring particularly to matters concerning convoys and their cost, the duties levied, and many details in regard to the boats, tackle, and crews, and again a codification of all laws was carried out by a series of edicts in 1580, 1582, and 1584. These edicts of 1580 and 1582 (Groot Placaetboek van Holland en West Vriesland, tom i., 684-691, 696-707, 715-727, 748-751), continued to regulate the fisheries during the period with which these lectures deal; i.e. the first half of the seventeenth century. Especial attention was given in these regulations to the branding of the barrels in which the herrings were packed. Each fishing town had its official inspectors, who themselves branded the barrels with the mark of the cooper and that of the town, and no others were allowed to be used. The kind of salt for the curing was rigorously prescribed, and careful precautions taken that no other kind or damaged salt was smuggled on board. Not less minute were the regulations to ensure that the quality of the fish which came to the market should be guaranteed. All fish had to be sorted. Such as were caught before July 25 (St. James), being not fully developed, had to be kept apart. Such as were caught after July 25 had to be divided according to technical categories, 'full and sweet', 'empty', 'undersized or damaged'; and the skipper was enjoined under oath to place his own mark upon each barrel and to be personally responsible for the quality assigned, and not only so, the fisherman who packed the fish in the barrel was required to place his mark upon it. The most stringent rules were laid down as the correct method of curing. In fact, everything was done to show the importance of the industry, and the necessity of securing that the market was supplied with no counterfeit article, but only with herrings prepared in Dutch fashion by Dutch hands. In order to keep a fast hold upon the monopoly, the fishermen were forbidden under heavy penalties to sell their fish in foreign ports. In the seventeenth century, the interests of those engaged in this profitable trade were vigilantly looked after by a body known as the 'College of the Great Fishery', which met at Delft. The College consisted of five deputies from the towns of Enkhuysen, Schiedam, Delft, Rotterdam, and Brill, and so exclusive were they that during the period with which we are concerned other towns, even such important places as Amsterdam, Dordrecht, and Hoorn, were refused admission. One of the chief tasks of the College was to enforce the carrying out of the regulations.

During the reigns of the two first Stuarts, the Dutch fishing fleet was accustomed to sail out for the Scottish waters between the Shetlands and Cape Buchan Ness in the middle of June, so as to begin their fishing operations on St. John's Day, June 24. From June 24 to July 25, the fishing was wholly in the north; from July 25 to September 14 to the south of Buchan Ness, but still along the Scottish coast; from September 25 to November 25 in the neighbourhood of Yarmouth; from November 25 to January 31 off the mouth of the Thames and the Kentish coast. The fleet sailed out twice only, in June and again in the autumn, the task of conveying the barrels of fish from the fishing 'busses' to the Dutch harbours being carried out by a number of light vessels called 'ventjagers.' The herring fleet was always accompanied by an armed convoy, to the upkeep of which the State contributed 20,000 florins annually. In war time a small naval squadron was also detached to keep watch and ward against the attacks of Spanish cruisers and Dunkirk pirates.

The Herring or Great Fishery was compulsorily closed on January 31. During the spring months the fishermen occupied themselves with fishing by hook on the Dogger Bank, for cod, soles, and other fish. This was named 'The Small Fishery'.

B. The Narrow Seas

The expression 'the Narrow Sea', or 'the Narrow Seas', which so often appears in seventeenth-century diplomatic dispatches and controversial writings, is a term upon whose exact signification geographically there has been much dispute. The English kings from ancient times claimed 'sovereignty' —dominium maris– in the 'narrow seas' or mare britannicum. Evidence is fairly conclusive that the term under the Tudors and until the friction with the Dutch arose on the questions of free fishery and the striking of the flag in the reign of James I, was confined to the Channel, the narrow sea between England and France. Lord Salisbury, as late as 1609, writing to Sir R. Winwood at the Hague (Winwood, Mem. iii, p. 50), speaks of 'his Majesty's narrow seas between England and France, where the whole appertayneth to him in right, and hath been possessed tyme out of mind by his progenitors.' It soon, however, became the accepted interpretation of English statesmen, jurists, and writers that the 'narrow seas' meant the two seas between England and France, and England and the Netherlands; thus Rapin (Hist. d'Angleterre vii, p. 454), 'la domination des deux Mers, c'est-à-dire, des deux bras de Mer qui se trouvent entre l'Angleterre et la France et entre l'Allemagne et la Grande-Bretagne.' This extension of the term was vigorously contested by the Dutch. In the peace negotiations at Cologne in 1673 the Dutch protested that no treaty between England and any other power 'n'ait meslé la Mer Britannique avec celle du septentrion' (Verbaal der Amb. 1673/74). The English popular view of the question appears clearly in an anonymous pamphlet, The Dutch Drawn to the Life, published in 1664, just before the outbreak of the Second Dutch War. The writer speaks of 'the command of the Narrow Sea, the Dutch coast and ours' (p. 53); and again, referring to the action taken by King Charles I in 1640 (p. 148), 'When our neighbours the Dutchmen minded their interest and were almost Masters at Sea in the Northern Fishing … upon our Fishmongers' complaint the King encouraged several overtures and projects concerning Busses for our own Coasts service, the prevention of strangers, and the improvement of the Narrow Seas, &c.'

C. The Jülich-Cleves Succession Question

The death of John William (March 9, 1609), the mad Duke of Jülich-Cleves, without issue, raised the important question of the succession to his territory, which lay astride the Rhine on the eastern frontier of the United Provinces. It was felt to be essential for the protection of Protestant interests in Germany and the Netherlands that the Duchies should not fall into the hands of a partisan of the house of Habsburg. Duke John William had four sisters, but only the claims of the descendants of the two eldest really counted. Maria Eleanora had married Duke Albert Frederick of Prussia. All her sons, however, had died young, but it was held that her claims had passed to the son of her daughter Anna, who had married John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg. This was disputed by the Count Palatine, Philip Lewis of Neuburg, who had married the second sister of the deceased duke, also named Anna. Eventually the Elector and the Count Palatine agreed to occupy the disputed territory jointly, and were known as 'the Possessors'. The Dutch recognized the title of 'the Possessors', but the Emperor Rudolph refused to do so, and with his sanction the Archduke Leopold, Bishop of Passau, at the head of an armed force, made his way into the Duchies and seized the fortress of Jülich. Henry IV of France, who had been meditating an expedition for the overthrow of the Habsburg power, seized the opportunity for planning a great alliance with the Dutch, James I of England, and the Protestant princes of Germany for the expulsion of the Archduke and the recovering of Jülich. His assassination, May 14, 1610, put an end to his ambitious schemes, but though deprived of the help of a great French army, Maurice of Nassau, at the head of a considerable force of Dutch and English troops, entered the Duchies and was joined by the troops of the 'Possessing' princes. On September 1, Jülich surrendered, and Archduke Leopold left the territory. The troubles were not, however, yet over. The 'Possessors', as perhaps might have been expected, quarrelled. John Sigismund of Brandenburg became a Calvinist, Wolfgang William of Neuburg married the sister of the Duke of Bavaria, and announced his conversion to Catholicism. In September, 1614, Maurice of Nassau, with Dutch troops, and Spinola at the head of a Spanish force, both entered the Duchies, and a hostile encounter seemed inevitable. Hostilities were, however, avoided, and by the treaty of Xanten (November 12) the two rivals agreed to a partition of the territory.

D. The Origin and Early History of the Fellowship of the Merchant Adventurers

The Fellowship of Merchant Adventurers has the distinction of holding the first place, not only in England, but in Western and Central Europe, as the pioneer of great trading corporations. The Gilds of the Middle Ages were municipal and local institutions. The Hansa League in Germany was a bond, not between merchants dealing in particular wares, but between a group of towns.

England in the fourteenth century had no manufactures. Her only industries were cattle-breeding and agriculture; her exports were raw materials, chiefly wool. English wool was famed for its quality, and was much sought after by the cloth weavers of the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy. The trade was almost entirely in the hands of the Hansa and of Italians, who sent over agents to England to buy up the wool and export it to the Continent. In England itself, before a.d. 1300, the sale of the best wool, that of the royal flocks and of the great landowners, was conducted under the royal licence by an official body or group of merchants, known as 'Merchants of the Staple'. A Staple (stabile emporium) was a place set apart for the export and import of certain articles; and there were ten or a dozen English towns, known as Staple Towns – among them Newcastle, York, Norwich, Westminster, and Bristol – where alone the wool traffic could be carried on. Also on the Continent there was a Staple Town, which was the recognized centre of the foreign trade, having exclusive rights. No wool could legally be shipped from England to any other port. During almost the whole of the fourteenth century the Staple was at Bruges. The institution by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, of the famous Order of the Golden Fleece, at Bruges in 1430, had a direct reference to the English wool, which had so much contributed to the town's prosperity. By that date, however, a change had already taken place in England. Flemish refugees had, during the troubled times of the Arteveldes, fled across the Channel, taking with them their skill in the textile industries. Many of them settled at Norwich, then one of the Staple towns, and introduced the art of cloth-weaving. Only the coarser fabrics, rough white cloths, baize, and kersey, were produced, and these were sent over to Ghent, Bruges, Ypres, and other places, to be finished and dyed. To a monopoly of this trade the Staple Company, which had in 1359 removed from Bruges to Calais, had no claim, and the exporting of cloth fell into other hands. Enterprising English traders, under the name of Merchant Adventurers, had already begun to visit foreign countries with their wares, the pioneers of a commerce which was one day to encircle the world. Their first official recognition came from the Kings of the house of Lancaster. By a letter patent of Henry IV, 1407, they were granted the privilege of appointing a governor or consul to represent them in certain towns, where they traded. Their consolidation into an organized society appears to have been a gradual process, and little is known of the actual steps by which the court or central governing body of the Merchant Adventurers came into being, but in the middle of the fifteenth century it was in existence, and at the same time Antwerp became the port to which exclusively their goods were sent and from which they were distributed to other parts of the continent – in other words, their Staple. At Antwerp a wharf, warehouse, and dwellings were erected for their use, and extensive privileges granted to them, including a certain autonomous jurisdiction.

The Charter which constituted them into an organized corporation was granted by Henry VI in 1462. By this Charter the Fellowship obtained the monopoly of the trade in woollen goods, at least all traders who were not members of the Fellowship had to pay a tax for their privilege, low at first, but which at the end of the century had risen so high as to be practically prohibitive. By this Charter the right of jurisdiction at Antwerp was confirmed and placed in the hands of a court consisting of a governor and twelve assistants, the governor being appointed by the King, the assistants elected by the members. Shortly after the granting of this Charter the activity of the Adventurers at Antwerp aroused the hostility of the Flemish weavers, and Duke Philip the Good was induced by their complaints to forbid in 1464 the importation of English woollen goods into his dominion. They had therefore for awhile to withdraw to Utrecht. On Philip's death in 1467 the interdict was removed, and Antwerp again became the Staple of the Adventurers, and was to be their home for wellnigh two centuries.

The period of the greatest prosperity of the Fellowship was the sixteenth century, the period of the Tudors. This prosperity was built up on the privileges and monopoly granted to them by the Charter of Henry VII in 1501, which was extended in 1505 and remained in force until the reign of James I. The governing body consisted of a governor and twenty-four assistants, elected by the 'General Court', as the whole assembly of members was styled. This governing body had extensive powers, legislative, executive, and judicial. Their jurisdiction over the members was not confined to civil actions, but they had the power of inflicting heavy fines and even imprisonment for criminal offences. To become a member – 'a free and sworn brother' – of the Fellowship an apprenticeship of not less than eight years had to be served, except in the case of sons of members; and proof had to be given of English birth and parentage. A 'brother' who married a foreigner or acquired foreign property was disqualified.

Four times a year the ships of the Fellowship gathered at London and sailed to Antwerp, carrying a cargo of half-finished white cloths, kerseys, and baize. The merchants themselves had to accompany their goods, for it was prescribed 'that every one must sell his own wares'. These sales could only take place in the Court-house, and only three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The carrying out of these regulations and jurisdiction within the Staple was entrusted to a secondary governing body or court consisting, like the head body in London, of an elected governor and assistants. The great rival of the Adventurers had been the Staple Company and the Hansa League, but both these bodies became in the sixteenth century decadent, and with the capture of Calais in 1558 the Staple Company ceased to exist. But though the loss of Calais made Antwerp more than ever the centre of the English continental trade, troubles were in store for the Merchant Adventurers.

With the accession of Elizabeth disputes arose between the English and Spanish Governments about the interpretation of the treaty of commerce, known as the Magnus Intercursus, concluded in 1496 between Henry VII and Philip the Fair. Margaret of Parma, the Governor of the Netherlands, took in 1563 the strong step of forbidding the entrance of English goods into the Netherlands. Elizabeth replied by closing the English harbours to ships from the Netherlands. For about a year this state of things spelt ruin to the Adventurers, but no less so to Antwerp. In 1564, accordingly, an understanding was reached, and the Court once more returned to its old quarters on the Scheldt. But for a brief space only. The outbreak of the Revolt led to the banishment of the Adventurers from the Netherlands, and at the end of 1564 they left Antwerp finally.

Shut out from the Netherlands, the Fellowship now tried to set up their Staple further north in the region dominated by their chief rivals the Hansa League. At first they found a resting-place at Emden, but in 1567 they were tempted by an invitation from Hamburg to set up their Court in that great seaport, from whence by the Elbe they had access to the German market. Hamburg thus played for its own profit the part of traitor to the League, of which it was one of the foremost members. The residence at Hamburg lasted ten years, but the bitter opposition of the Hansa to their presence proved too strong, and by an Imperial decree of Rudolph II they were in 1577 banished from German soil. The energies of the Adventurers were now diverted into different channels, small factories being placed at Stade, Emden, and even at Elbing near Dantzic. A more important move was the attempt to re-enter the Netherlands by the erection of a subsidiary court at Middelburg in 1582. Holland and Zeeland had now practically freed themselves from Spanish rule, and Middelburg, on the island of Walcheren, was the capital of Zeeland, and at that time a flourishing port. With the growth of the United Provinces in power and wealth, it was clearly the best policy of the Fellowship to establish its chief Staple and Court within the boundaries of the Republic. There were many claimants, among them Groningen, Delft, and Rotterdam. But after many negotiations, an influential deputation sent by Middelburg in January, 1598, to London, decided the choice of the English Government and of the General Court of the Adventurers in favour of making this town their sole Staple upon the Continent, and the seat of their Great Court. Many points concerning the rights and privileges to be enjoyed, together with the restrictions imposed, were the subject of much discussion before the terms of the agreement was finally settled between the town of Middelburg, the States of Zeeland, and the States-General on the one hand, and the English Privy Council and the governing body of the Fellowship on the other. The principal conditions were that the Adventurers should carry on their entire business within the Republic at the one Staple-town, and all English subjects were forbidden to bring woollen goods to any other port of the United Provinces. Their later history is told in the lectures that precede. The Staple and Court remained at Middelburg from 1598 to 1621; at Delft from 1621 to 1634; at Rotterdam from 1634 to 1656; at Dordrecht from 1656 to 1665. After the close of the Second English War the States-General in 1668 refused to grant the Adventurers their old privileges, and the long connexion with the Netherlands ceased.

E. The Interlopers

This name for the smugglers who, despite the exclusive rights of the Merchant Adventurers, carried English woollen goods to other Dutch ports than the privileged Staple, was derived from the Dutch term inter- or entre-loopers, i. e. 'runners-in'. During the whole time that the Court and Staple were at Middelburg, the port of Flushing, only a few miles distant on the same island of Walcheren, was in English hands, being one of the so-called 'cautionary' towns, which were a pledge to Queen Elizabeth for the repayment of her loans, and were garrisoned by English troops. Flushing was during this period a centre of smuggling, and the Flushing 'interlopers' a great annoyance to the Adventurers. The smuggling went on, however, with activity after the retrocession of Flushing in 1616, especially to the port of Amsterdam. The powerful Amsterdam merchants, who profited by the illicit trade, did their utmost to encourage the 'interlopers', and to protect them in spite of the angry protests of the Adventurers, and of the corporations of the interested Staple-towns.

The word 'interlopers' was soon universally applied to all private traders who trespassed against the privileges of a Chartered Company, more especially in the East Indies.

F. The English and Scottish Regiments in the Dutch Service

Bodies of English volunteers were to be found fighting under the Prince of Orange against the Spaniards from the very beginning of the Dutch War of Independence. In 1572 a force of 1,500 men under Sir Humphrey Gilbert landed at Flushing, with the connivance of Queen Elizabeth, and from this time forward English troops took part in all the fiercest fighting. In 1571 there were four English regiments in the field, commanded by Colonels Norris, Cavendish, Cotton, and Morgan. During the time of Leicester's Governor-Generalship, 1585-7, the number of the English army in the Netherlands amounted to 8,000 men, horse and foot. After his departure, a considerable though reduced force was left under the command of Lord Willoughby. In 1589 he was succeeded in this post by the famous Sir Francis Vere, the hero of the battle of Nieuport, 1600, and of the siege of Ostend, 1601-4, and many another desperate struggle. It was during the time of his command that in 1595 an arrangement was made between the States-General and Queen Elizabeth, by the terms of which the English troops were henceforth to enter the service of the States and receive Dutch pay. The English Government allowed them to be recruited in England, and they were to wear distinctive English uniforms, carry English colours, and have their own national march and beat of the drum, but were to take during their service an oath of allegiance to the States-General from whom the officers received their commissions. The number was fixed at 4,000.

Sir Francis Vere was followed in the command by his younger brother Sir Horace Vere, afterwards Lord Vere of Tilbury, in 1608. During the twelve years' truce, 1609-21, the English regiments were retained in the service of the States, and in 1610 under Sir Edward Cecil, afterwards Lord Wimbledon, distinguished themselves at the siege of Jülich. From the outbreak of the war again in 1621 to the peace of Munster in 1648, the English regiments took part in all the campaigns of Maurice (died 1625) and of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. In 1622 the names of the four Colonels were Edward Vere, Edward Cecil, Charles Morgan, and Edward Harwood. On them and the Scottish Brigade always fell the brunt of the fighting. They particularly distinguished themselves in the defence of Bergen-op-zoom (1622), and in the capture of Hertogenbosch (1622), of Maestricht (1632), and of Breda (1637). In 1626, the army of Frederick Henry included 14,500 English troops and 5,000 Scottish. At Hertogenbosch, Colonel Sir Edward Vere was killed; at Maestricht, Colonel Sir Edward Harwood and the Earl of Oxford; at Breda, Colonels Sir Charles Morgan and Goring were wounded. In 1644, the names of the four Colonels were Craven, Cromwell, Herbert, and Goring.

After the peace of Munster (1648), followed in 1650 by the death of the Stadholder William II, the republican party in the States, now predominant, resolved to reduce the number of their standing army, but the English regiments were retained until the outbreak of the war with the Commonwealth, when they were all disbanded. In 1656, however, when peace had been restored, a single regiment was recruited from the veterans, who had remained in Holland, chiefly royalist refugees, and it was henceforth known as the Holland regiment. The command was conferred on Colonel John Cromwell, a cousin of the Protector, but a stanch loyalist.

On the declaration of war between England and the United Provinces in 1665, the Holland regiment was summoned home. It became the 4th Regiment of Foot, but still retained its old name, the Holland Regiment, until 1689. In that year William III changed its title to 'Prince George of Denmark's Regiment', and it became the 3rd Foot. On the death of Prince George in 1708, their style was once more altered, and this time, from the colour of their waistcoats, breeches, and stockings, they were styled 'the Buffs,' a name they were to retain until our own day. They are now the East Kent Regiment.

Not less interesting, and even more prolonged, is the story of the Scottish regiments in the Netherlands. The first record of Scottish volunteers is in 1573. From 1603 to 1628 there were two regiments. After 1628 there were three, except during the reign of William III, when their number was increased. The group of regiments was always known as the Scots Brigade, and it was continuously in the Dutch service receiving Dutch pay for more than two centuries, except the decade 1688-98, when, under the Dutch King of Great Britain, they received British pay. Even during the Anglo-Dutch wars of 1653, 1665, and 1672 they were not disbanded, but were converted for the time into Dutch regiments, and in consequence of this their composition during this period became considerably leavened with an admixture of foreigners. Of the Scots who remained, it must always be remembered that a number of them had been settled in the Netherlands for two or three generations. After 1674 their thoroughly Scottish character was restored. From that date until 1781 the Scots Brigade remained in Holland. But when Great Britain declared war against the United Provinces in that year, the question of the position of the Scottish regiments was raised, and the States-General resolved that they should be completely denationalized and the officers be required to take an oath abjuring allegiance to their own country. The large majority at once threw up their commissions, and the Scots Brigade in the Dutch service ceased to exist. The subsequent history is curious. In 1794 the Scots Brigade was by order of the British Government reformed. In 1803 its strength was reduced, and the 'Brigade' became the 94th Regiment. Until 1809 the 94th wore Highland dress, but this was then discontinued. The regiment, however, retained the green facings which they had inherited from one of the Dutch regiments. Disbanded in 1818, but reconstituted in 1878, the facings remained green, and a diced band round the shako still proclaimed the Scottish connexion. Its last service as the 94th was in the Boer War of 1880, when a part of the regiment when on march in time of peace was suddenly attacked at Bronker's Spruit, and had heavy losses. The army reorganization of 1881 led to the 94th becoming the battalion linked to the 88th, an Irish regiment, probably for no other reason than the green facing. The glorious Scottish tradition therefore of three centuries was henceforth lost, and the regiment which represented the Scots Brigade became the 2nd battalion of the Connaught Rangers, with its head-quarters at Galway.

G. King Charles's Proclamation for the Restraint of Fishing upon His Maiesties Seas and Coasts without Licence (1636)

Whereas our Father of blessed memory King James did in the seuenth yeere of His reigne of Great Brittaine, set forth a Proclamation touching Fishing; whereby for the many important reasons therein expressed, all persons of what Nation or quality soeuer (being not His naturall borne Subjects) were restrained from Fishing vpon any the Coasts and Seas of Great Brittaine, Ireland and the rest of the Isles adjacent, where most vsually heretofore Fishing had been, vntill they had orderly demanded, and obtained Licences from Our said Father or His Commissioners in that behalfe, vpon paine of such chastisement as should be fit to be inflicted vpon such wilfull Offenders: Since which time, albeit neither Our said Father, nor Our Selfe haue made any considerable execution of the said Proclamation, but haue with much patience expected a voluntary conformity of Our Neighbours and Allies to so iust and reasonable Prohibitions and Directions as are contained in the same.

And now finding by experience, that all the inconueniences which occasioned that Proclamation, are rather increased than abated: We being very sensible of the premisses, and well knowing how farre we are obliged in Honour to maintaine the rights of our Crowne, especially of so great consequence, haue thought it necessary, by the aduice of Our priuie Councell, to renew the aforesaid restraint of Fishing vpon Our aforesaid Coasts and Seas, without Licence first obtained from Us, and by these presents to make publique Declaration, that Our resolution is (at times conuenient) to keepe such a competent strength of Shipping vpon Our Seas, as may (by God's blessing) be sufficient, both to hinder such further encroachments vpon Our Regalities, and assist and protect those Our good Friends and Allies, who shall henceforth, by vertue of Our Licences (to be first obtained) endeauour to take the benefit of Fishing vpon Our Coasts and Seas, in the places accustomed.

Giuen at Our Palace of Westminster the tenth day of May, in the twelfth yeere of Our Reigne of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland.

God saue the King

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