Debating the Free Sea in London, Paris, The Hague and Venice
The publication of John Selden’s Mare Clausum (1635) and its diplomatic repercussions in Western Europe
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11348015 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Martine Julia Van Ittersum (0000-0003-2320-1879, University of Dundee, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Pages | 1193-1210 |
| Publication date | 2021-11-17 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History of European Ideas (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0191-6599 • E-ISSN: 1873-541X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01916599.2021.1871930 |
| OpenAlex | W3124554556 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 28 |
Politics, religion and legal argumentation were inextricably intertwined in the reception of John Selden’s Mare Clausum/The Closed Sea (1635). The work’s writing and printing history is closely tied to Stuart foreign policy, particularly James I’s and Charles I’s attempts to tax the Dutch herring fisheries. Mare Clausum’s immediate impact on European international relations has received little attention from historians so far. It is clear, however, that government authorities in London, The Hague and Venice expected an official reply from Hugo Grotius, author of Mare Liberum/The Free Sea (1609) and Swedish ambassador in Paris. Yet the latter declined to assist the Dutch authorities in this matter, blaming them for his imprisonment in 1618–1621 and his second banishment from Holland in 1632. The antipathy was mutual. The Dutch authorities abhorred Grotius’ pleas for religious tolerance and commissioned his Calvinist kinsman Dirk Graswinckel to respond to Selden instead. Graswinckel had already published Libertas Veneta/Venetian Liberty (1634), a learned defense of the Republic of Venice’s political interests. In ‘Vindiciae maris liberi’/Vindication of the Free Sea (written 1636–1637), he tried –but arguably failed – to reconcile Dutch claims to freedom of navigation, trade and fishing with Venetian claims to the Adriatic. It never appeared in print
Antipathy · Imprisonment · Political science · Politics · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Classics · History · Law
The Hebrew Republic
Natural Rights Theories
John Selden
The Dutch Republic
Philosophy and Government 1572–1651
Printing Anglo-Saxon in Holland and John Selden's Mare Clausum seu de Dominio Maris
John Selden's Response to Hugo Grotius
The long goodbye
The Praelium Nuportanum by Isaac Dorislaus
Venetian State Papers and English Civic Pageantry, 1558-1642
Mare Liberum vs. Mare Clausum
Tyranny Denied
The House of Orange and the House of Stuart, 1639–1650
The Ship Money Case, The Case of Shipmony , and the Development of Henry Parker's Parliamentary Absolutism
Knowledge Production in the Dutch Republic
The Spanish Faction at the Court of Charles I, 1630-8
The Embassy Chapel Question, 1625-1660
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |