Claim to the sovereignty of the sea and the salute continued--Instructions to naval officers essentially the same--Encounter with Swedish squadron--Action approved by Admiralty committee--Council of State instruct Blake to preserve the dominion of the seas--The Dutch strike willingly--Strained relations between the Parliament and the United Provinces--Political revolution in Holland--Mission of St John and Strickland to The Hague--Propositions for fusion and alliance--The _Intercursus Magnus_ taken as basis for treaty--St John’s seven Articles--The thirty-six Articles of the Dutch--Failure of negotiations--Feeling in England--English letters of reprisal--Embassy of Cats, Schaep, and Van de Perre--Dutch fleet increased--Discussion of thirty-six Articles--Fresh instructions from Holland--The negotiations suddenly interrupted--Blake’s encounter with Tromp in the Straits of Dover regarding the striking of the flag--Its antecedents--Tromp’s defective instructions as to striking--Account of the fight--Indignation in London--Embassy of the Grand Pensionary, Adrian Pauw--First Dutch war--Blake and the herring-busses--Tromp’s broom--The Parliament asserts the right of the Commonwealth to the sovereignty of the seas and the fishery--Selden’s _Mare Clausum_ translated and published by order of the Council of State--Controversy between Selden and Graswinckel 378 CHAPTER XI. THE PARLIAMENT, THE COMMONWEALTH, AND THE PROTECTORATE--_continued._ THE PEACE NEGOTIATIONS. The negotiations for peace--Mission of Beverning, Nieuport, Van de Perre, and Jongestal--The attitude of Cromwell--Proposals for fusion abandoned--Cromwell’s twelve Articles--The sovereignty of the sea and the fishery put in the foreground--The twenty-seven Articles proposed by the Council of State--Claim to the fishery, the salute, the right of search, the exclusive guard of the British seas, &c.--The strong objections of the Dutch--Cromwell acts as spokesman of the Council--Discussion on the flag and the herring fishery--The negotiations come to a standstill--The Dutch ambassadors ask for their passports--Cromwell becomes Lord Protector--Negotiations continued--Dutch proposals regarding the salute--Cromwell withdraws the fishery article and the declaration respecting the sovereignty of the sea--The terms British Seas and Narrow Seas--Dutch propose to strike the flag all over the world--The ambassadors return to Holland--They come back again--Cromwell suddenly reopens the question as to the British seas--Conclusion of treaty of peace--Diplomatic success of the Dutch regarding the claim to the sovereignty of the sea--The article on the striking of the flag--Enforcing the salute--Complaints of English fishermen 414 CHAPTER XII. CHARLES II. THE SECOND DUTCH WAR.