Naval Expeditions, &c. of the English, Book X

some A uthors, consisted of twelve Hun- as the Heptarchy , and the Contentiondred Sail. Florence of Worcester tells between rhe E'nglist and Danes-, But itus: " That in the Year 937. King will be seen, that whenever the Domi-" Edgar sailing about Britain with a nion of this Isiand was fettled, that of" mighty Navy, and arriving at Chef- the Sea was always an Appendant to it,

" ter, was there met by eight petty as I have observed above. Thus it was" Kings, who according to his Com- in the Time of Edward, the Confessor,

" mand, were come to do him Horn- who having learned Wisdom by the fa-“ mage, which they did, and promised tal Experience of others, applied him-" to be always ready to obey his Or- self particularly to the En crease of his" ders, and serve him both by Sea and Navy, and thereby kept his Kingdom" Land. Among these (fays the fame in Peace, notwithstanding the Efforts of" Author and Hove den) was one Macu- the Danes and Irijh to infest it. And" fus, a King of many Isiands. The thus it continued ’till the Conquest, by" Author of the Columna roftrata men- William, Duke of Normandy, to whom" tions Kenneth , King of Scotland, Mai- this Right, of Course, devolved, and" colm, King of Cumberland, Maccufe, from him passed on to his Successors.

" King of the Isies andfive Welsh Kings. Since the Norman Invasion the Kings<c At this Meeting it was that this Mo- of England have defended their Sove-“ narch was rowed down the Dee by reignty against all Foreign Powers, andthose Kings, himself steering theBoat; their Dominion at Sea has been asierted" and being attended by all his Nobles, and acknowledged, without any remark-€T in another Boat: A Marine Tri- able Interruption, from the Year 1066.

<c umph, which is not to be paralleled to the present Times. Sir Walter Ra-" in the Histories of Europe .” In this leighis the only Englijh Author of anyKing’s Reign, the British Seas, with all Note, that I have met with, who seemstheir Islands, were entirely brought un- to contradict this Truth. England, faysder the Dominion of the Englist, whose he, is a Land, which can never be con-Naval Power was, at that Time, the quer’d whilst the Kings thereof keep thegreatest in the known World. Dominion of the Seas, which Dominion,

Ethelred II. (fay M. Paris and I do not find, that it was ever absolute,Huntingdon ) when he was invaded by ’till the Time of Henry VIII. (the Con-Swain, King of Denmark, taxed every text stews how this is to be understood')three Hundred and ten Hides of Land, But continues he, we fought sometimeswith the Charge of building a Ship. with good, and sometimes with ill Suc-These Ships all rendezvous’d at Sand- cess. It would be superfluous to give In-wich, and together made the largest stances inEvidence of thisFact here; Be-Navy this Island had ever seen. We cause, as I have already done hitherto,find in our ancient Historians more In- so I shall continue to give them occasio-stances of this King’s raising large Sums nally, in every Reign, as I go. Whatfor the Maintenance of his Fleets. remains is that I give someAccount what

The same Care was taken to support engaged me to enter upon this Argumentthis Right, in the Time of the Danes, here, rather than in any other Place.

Knute (or Canute) was sollicitous to The Norman Kings , being Lordspreserve the Seas of the Kingdom in of both the Shoars ot the Channel, forthe State he found them, without fus- about a Century and a half • none couldfering any of the neighbouring Princes pretend to any Share of the Sovereign-to exercise any Dominion in them ; And ty of that Part of the Britist Seas.his Successors, of the Danist Race, They did not, however, ground theirHarold and Hardiknute, trod in the Sovereignty on that Circumstance, butfame Steps. Thus the Kingdom of possessed it as a Jewel inseparable fromEngland preserved this Right, without the Crown of England, and enjoyed itany considerable Interruption, as an in- only by Reason, and in Right of theseparable Appendant unto the Crown, Kingdom. This is what I have yet toon whosoever Head it was set, and to prove, and this being the properestwhatever Changes the Form of Govern- Time, since the Conquest, to discussment was liable. It cannot, indeed, be this Argument, induced me to placeexpected, that the Sovereignty of the the whole here.

Britist Seas should be maintained with- Edward I. as we have seen in theout any Intervals of Invasion, by Fo- foregoing Chapter, was not possessed ofreign Powers, in such confused Times onefoot of Ground mNormandy, and yet

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