The spirit of the British sailors under the King's new two-crossed Jack was still the same as under the English Jack, and one is reminded of the old pride in the flag by an instance which is narrated as having occurred under James I. One of the ministers of Henry IV. of France had embarked at Calais to cross to England in a French ship wearing the French flag at the main. The commander of the English despatch boat, which had been sent to escort him, on meeting him in the channel, ordered the French ship to lower her flag. "The Duke of Sully, considering that his quality freed him from such an affront, boldly refused, but this refusal was followed by his receiving three cannon shots which pierced his ships. Might forced him to yield what right forbade, and for all the complaints he made he could get no better reply from the English captain than this: '_That just as his duty obliged him to honour the ambassador's rank, so it also obliged him to exact the honour due to the flag of his master as Sovereign of the Seas_.'"[49] [49] Richelieu. The "rufflings" increased in frequency, and the contest went merrily on, as the Dutch, increasing in enterprise and volume of shipping, chafed still more under the domination of the English admirals. In this restlessness they were encouraged by the differences which were raging between King Charles I. and his Parliament. The latter thwarted the King's efforts at sea and refused to contribute to the levy of "ship-money," declaring it to be an "insufferable tax"; while he, without their concurrence, was attempting to strengthen the navy, which he had created to assert the King of England's right to the sovereignty of the seas and for the protection of his shores, by the maintenance of the old Alfred policy. The King's sailors felt keenly the increasing insolence of the passing Dutch ships, as wrote one old salt: "What affront can be greater, or what can make a man valianter, than a dishonour done to prince and country, especially by a people that was wont to know no more than how to catch, pickle, and feed fish."[50] [50] Monson. Notwithstanding the Parliament's objections, an English navy was at one time collected of sufficient strength that, when the Dutch and French fleets joined together in 1635 with the avowed intention of contesting the command of the sea, its simply sailing out to meet them overawed their forces, as reports Monson: "It is to be observed that the greatest threateners are the least fighters; and so it fared with them; for they no sooner heard of our readiness to find them, but they plucked in their horns and quitted our coast, never more repairing to it."