Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter was a Dutch admiral. His achievements with the Dutch Navy during the Anglo-Dutch Wars earned him the reputation as one of the most skilled naval commanders in history.
The naval Battle of Portland, or Three Days' Battle, took place during 18–20 February 1653, during the First Anglo-Dutch War, when the fleet of the Commonwealth of England under General at Sea Robert Blake was attacked by a fleet of the Dutch Republic under Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp escorting merchant shipping through the English Channel.
The Battle of Beachy Head, also known as the Battle of Bévéziers, was a fleet action fought on 10 July 1690 during the Nine Years' War. The battle was the most significant French naval victory over their English and Dutch opponents during the war. The Dutch lost a number of ships of the line and three fireships; their English allies also lost one ship of the line, whereas the French did not lose a vessel. Control of the English Channel temporarily fell into French hands but Vice-Admiral Anne Hilarion de Tourville failed to pursue the Anglo-Dutch fleet with sufficient vigour, allowing it to fall back to the Thames.
The naval Battle of Dungeness took place on 30 November 1652 during the First Anglo-Dutch War near the cape of Dungeness in Kent.
The naval Battle of Solebay took place on 28 May Old Style, 7 June New Style 1672 and was the first naval battle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War.
The Battle of Plymouth was a naval battle in the First Anglo-Dutch War. It took place on 16 August 1652 and was a short battle, but had the unexpected outcome of a Dutch victory over England. General-at-Sea George Ayscue of the Commonwealth of England attacked an outward bound convoy of the Dutch Republic commanded by Vice-Commodore Michiel de Ruyter. The two commanders had been personal friends before the war. The Dutch were able to force Ayscue to break off the engagement, and the Dutch convoy sailed safely to the Atlantic while Ayscue sailed to Plymouth for repairs.
The Battle of Lowestoft took place on 13 June [O.S. 3 June] 1665 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. A fleet of more than a hundred ships of the United Provinces commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer, Lord Obdam, attacked an English fleet of equal size commanded by James, Duke of York, forty miles east of the port of Lowestoft in Suffolk.
Sir Robert Holmes was an English Admiral of the Restoration Navy. He participated in the second and third Anglo-Dutch Wars, both of which he is, by some, credited with having started. He was made Governor of the Isle of Wight, where he is buried in Yarmouth Parish Church.
HMS Dartmouth was a small frigate or fifth-rate ship, one of six ordered by the English Council of State on 28 December 1654, and built in 1655.
Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest was a Dutch naval officer from Vlissingen who served as Lieutenant Admiral of Zeeland and Supreme Commander of the Confederated Dutch Navy. Of a family that included several other naval admirals, including his father, Evertsen is noted for his distinguished service during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, Third Anglo-Dutch War, the Franco-Dutch War, the Glorious Revolution invasion, and the Battle of Beachy Head during the Nine Years' War.
Events from the year 1672 in England.
HMS Ruby was a 40-gun frigate of the Commonwealth of England, built by Peter Pett at Deptford. She took part in actions during all three of the Anglo-Dutch Wars of 1652–1654, 1665–1667 and 1672–1674. She later served in the West Indies, and in 1683 was sent to the Leeward Islands to protect British settlements against Caribbean pirate raids. In 1687, the English pirate Joseph Bannister was captured by the crew of Ruby and brought to Port Royal for trial. She was rebuilt in 1687. She was captured by the French in October 1707.
Sir Thomas Hopsonn or Hopson was an English naval officer and member of parliament. His most famous action was the breaking of the boom during the battle of Vigo Bay in 1702. After retiring from active service, he became a Navy Commissioner and the governor of Greenwich Hospital.
The frigate Gloucester was a Speaker-class third rate, commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Gloucester after the restoration of the English monarchy in 1660. The ship was ordered in December 1652, built at Limehouse in East London, and launched in 1654. The warship was conveying James Stuart, Duke of York to Scotland, when on 6 May 1682 she struck a sandbank off the Norfolk coast, and quickly sank. The Duke was among those saved, but as many as 250 people drowned, including members of the royal party; it is thought that James's intransigence delayed the evacuation of the passengers and crew.
Sir Hugh Cloberry Christian KB was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary Wars.
The Battle off Lizard Point was a naval action which took place on 18 February 1637 off the coast of Cornwall, England, during the Eighty Years' War. The Spanish admiral Miguel de Horna, commander of the Armada of Flanders, intercepted an important Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by six warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them, and returned safely to his base in Dunkirk.
The wreck of the Klein Hollandia was found in 2019, 14 km southeast of Beachy Head, East Sussex, England. The site was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act on 5 July 2019. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.
The Dutch Raid on North America took place from December 1672 to February 1674 during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, a related conflict of the Franco-Dutch War. A naval expedition led by Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest and Jacob Binckes attacked English and French possessions in North America.
The Second Battle of the James River, also known as the Battle of Lynnhaven Bay was a naval battle between a Dutch fleet under joint command of admirals Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest and Jacob Binckes and an improvised English squadron on 12 and 13 July 1673 in the Hampton Roads near the James River, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War.
Klein Hollandia was a Dutch warship owned by the Admiralty of Rotterdam, the military body helping governing the Dutch navy. The ship was involved in multiple key naval battles: the Battle of the Sound off Copenhagen in the Second Northern War on 29 October 1658 and all major naval battles of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The ship was involved in the Action of 12 March 1672 against the English fleet. On the second day, on 24 March 1672 the ship was wrecked and sank. Captain Jan Van Nes and fifty other people died.
England 
Dutch Republic 
Sir Robert Holmes