Closing the Sea - Map of China: Decoding the Secrets of a Vanished Cartographer - page 32

The reason for his release from probation in 1635, and possibly for his earlier
releasefromprison,was The Closed Sea .WhileSeldenhadbeenoutofcirculation,
Charles I had been ramping up his campaign to assert his sovereignty over
everything he could claim, including, once again, the North Sea. The Dutch had
effectively monopolised the herring fishery, and Charles wanted to push them out.
This required a stronger navy, and so Charles, like his father, demanded a new tax
to build naval vessels, called ship money. He also needed legal justification. As
early as 1632 he was asking for 'some public writing' that would affirm his sea
rights. Apparently through the mediation of the newly appointed Archbishop of
Canterbury, William Laud, who was always ready to fix whatever he could for his
king, Selden was approached with a deal. In return for publishing The Closed Sea ,
he would be given his freedom. Argue for enclosure, and his own enclosure would
end. He took the offer.
Selden had already been working on his treatise off and on through the latter
partofthe1620s.BythetimehisbailwasrescindedinFebruary1635,itwasmore
or less finished. Word of its imminent release got round quickly. De Groot heard
about it in May, the Pope in June. The final version was in the king's hands by
August, and in November it was out, and in the most expensive edition of any of
Selden's topics. It may have been a deal with the devil, and the fact that the sole
survivingcopyoftheorderforhisreleasefrombailintheStatePapersisinhisown
hand hints at just how deep the deal ran. But Selden had been pressing hard for his
releaseevenbeforethedealwasstruck.Inhisowneyesitwaslongoverdue.Inany
case, while he was devoted to the principles of liberty and justice, Selden accepted
the value of mixing principle and practice. As he once said in another context, 'In
a troubled state we must do as in foul weather upon the Thames, not think to cut
directly through, so the boat may be quickly full of water' - there was only one
bridgeacrosstheThamesinSelden'sday,obligingmostpeopletobeferriedacross
in small skiffs - 'but rise and fall as the waves do, give as much as conveniently
we can'.
He didn't altogether convince friends or enemies that he had not prostituted his
legalscholarshipforthe'convenience'ofbuyinghisfreedom.Butthesewerediffi-
cult times in a troubled state. The certainties of the Elizabethan world, held togeth-
er by fixed moral values and a good dose of state surveillance, had given way to
doubt, disorder and their bastard offspring: a revolutionary zeal in matters of reli-
gionandpoliticsequally.Seldenpreferredslowrevisiontosuddenchange.Forcing
change 'is dangerous, because we know not where it will stay; it is like a millstone