Traditionally, the reputation of the early modern English Civil lawyers has to a large extent been based on their supposed expertise in international law. At an academic level, writings by Gentili, Zouch and others are presented as pre- and post-Grotian ‘classics’. Much in the same way as on the European continent, jurists trained in ius civile at law faculties were usually called upon for diplomatic missions. Their role, however, was mostly a subordinate one. In the new literary genre on ambassadors and embassies which flourished from the last two decades of the sixteenth century onwards, the ‘perfect ambassador’ was deemed to be well-versed in history, but much less in law. Apart from diplomatic service, the practice of the High Court of Admiralty, a preserve for members of Doctors' Commons, provided the Civil lawyers with the aura of a specialism in international law. Litigation at the Court of Admiralty, fostered by privateering or more peaceful foreign trade, reflected the world-wide commercial interests of late Elizabethan England and, consequently, the need to settle international disputes according to universally accepted legal standards among European nations. This need was acknowledged at the paramount level of government, as evidenced in a notorious (and often-quoted) speech by James I in 1610: