Privilegie de Visscherie

Present Grand Hotel Casselbergh Brugge,
was the Court building for Charles Stuart
during his exile 1659 to 1600.
Commemorative plaque on side of hotel.

An interesting tiny subset of the Brexit negotiations reveals a link back to the days of Charles 11, before he became King of England. In 1651 he was driven from Britain by Oliver Cromwell and initially 

Charles in exile, 1653, painted  by
Peter Lely.

sought refuge in Paris and then Cologne but when he attempted to reach Brussels, he was barred by Philip of Spain who wished to avoid war with Cromwell. However, Charles and Philip secretly agreed to collaborate to win back Charles’s throne and Charles was allowed to settle in Bruges ‘anonymously’. During his three years in Brugge, Charles became an active member of civil society and a member of the Sint Joris Guild through which he was able to make useful strategic friendships. After Cromwell’s death with his son Richard as Protector, Charles was able to regain his throne, returning in June 1660. In 1666 Charles’s guide and friend while he lived in Bruges, the aristocrat, Arrazola de Onate, was appointed exceptional ambassador to Charles by Philip of Spain with the intention of negotiating a trade treaty. The treaty itself has disappeared but the City of Brugge still retains an associated charter granting “eternal rights” to the fishermen of Bruges to fish in the coastal waters of Britain. In fact, there are two Privilegie, one of England and one for Scotland.

Jan d'Hondt, Chief Archivist of Bruges,
holding a Privilegie, Oct. 13th 2020

Sylvain Van de Weyer 

The charter was never really tested until 1851. In 1849 Britain initiated the first negotiation with the newly-founded Kingdom of Belgium. The aim for Britain was to keep exclusive fishing rights fos-a-vis its fishermen for up to three nautical miles from the coast. Belgium sent ex-prime minister Sylvain Van de Weyer as special envoy to London with the aim of preserving Belgium’s status quo vis-a-vis the Privilegie. The strength of the Belgian case was reinforced by the head of the Bruges Chamber of Commerce who introduced to London the Fisheries Privilege of 1666, the existence of which the British Government had been totally unaware. H.J.Temple, the British Foreign Minister replied suggesting that the Belgian Government pursue a legal route in the Law Courts of England and Scotland [ there being, in fact, two documents conferring the privileges on each of the two countries’ fishermen.] The Belgian Government decided not to take matters to the British courts but prioritised a fishing convention covering all Belgian fishermen and proceeded with establishing a treaty with the U.K. [March 1852] but making clear that the Fishing Privilege of 1666 was not affected by any subsequent treaty.

“ ..[la convention] attribue aux pecheurs des deux Etats le traitement de la nation la plus favorisee pour l’exercise de la peche sur les cotes de chaque pays, sans prejudice de droits que les pecheurs belge pourraient tirer des chartes du roi Charles 11.”

Victor dePaepe 1963 [centre]

It looks likely that no firm conclusion was reached and the matter lay dormant until 1963 when a Belgian owner of a fishing fleet, Victor dePaepe, wrote to Harold MacMillan the Prime Minister, and to the Queen, saying that he wished to avail himself of the rights conferred under the 1666 Charter. He informed them of his sailing date so that he could be arrested at sea and thus, he believed, empowered to press his claim in the British courts. He was duly arrested on his re-named boat, King Charles the Second, on July 8^th, by the Royal Navy off the coast of East Sussex, near Seaford. The case never came to court but it was revealed in papers released in 1993 that the British legal team had advised the Agriculture Minister to avoid a court case because if was possible that the Charter was still legally 

enforceable.

Hilde Crevits, Minister of Economy
and Agriculture.

This year, 2020, under the never-ending Brexit negotiations, the Belgian Ambassador Extraordinaire to the E.U. Willem Van De Voorde cited the treaty and the Privilegie during a discussion of the future access of E.U. fishing fleets to British coastal waters. The Minister of Economy and Agriculture, Hilde Crevits, confirmed during a Radio One interview that a legal team was looking into the treaty as a back-up plan although the E..U. would prefer an agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union.

This is a most entertaining story which shows how a 1666 comet can have a Very Long Tail. Let us hope that the generosity of Charles 11 can be seen to be effective for the Belgians today during Brexit negotiations.

Post Script

Below is a current announcement of a lecture by Paul dePaepe, son of Victor:

Lectures are currently free. Reservation and wearing of a mouth mask is mandatory. Best to arrive 15 minutes earlier. The entrance for the lecture is on the playground of GBS Het Anker. 

Lecture on Sunday November 22, 2020 by Paul Depaepe

Unfortunately the 10 o'clock lecture is fully booked.

A second session was organized at 1.30 pm on the same day. Reservation is mandatory, reserve your place on 050 530 730.

AND here is the man who effectively started this whole saga.

The famous 1653 portrait of Oliver Cromwell
by Peter Lely who was instructed by the sitter
to paint a true likeness, "warts and all".