Battle
Prior to the battle, Oliver Cromwell had issued an ordinance requiring all foreign warships in the North Sea or English Channel to lower their flag in salute when encountering ships of the English navy. Combined with Ayscue's seizure of the Dutch merchantmen trading with Barbados, this led to a rapid deterioration in Anglo-Dutch relations. Tromp was subsequently given orders to protect Dutch commerce while keeping watch over the English navy. On 19 May 1652, Tromp was cruising in the English Channel with a fleet of forty ships between Nieuport and the mouth of the Meuse River. General at Sea Robert Blake was lying in Dover Roads with fifteen warships, with eight others were anchored in Bourne in the Downs. [1]
While on patrol, Tromp received orders from a dispatch ketch to attack Blake's fleet, and had not struck his flag in salute. Blake, aboard his flagship James, assumed Tromp had received orders to commence battle and fired two warning shots. A defiant Tromp hoisted a red battle flag, [2] which prompted James to fire a third shot, hitting Tromp's ship Brederode and wounding a number of its crew. This was followed with Tromp returning fire with a warning broadside from Brederode. James in turn fired a broadside and a battle that would last five hours ensued. [3] Tromp immediately engaged Blake's flag ship where the two ships exchanged broadsides as they passed one another.
While tacking to turn and fire another broadside, Brederode came into violent contact with Bonaventure, which grappled with the Brederode and began boarding it. During the fierce melee that followed, Tromp's crew forced the attackers back on to their own ship. At this time, the English ship Garland came along to the other side of Brederode, placing it between Bonaventure and Garland. Johan Evertsen, now aware of Tromp's plight, quickly came to assist, placing his ship directly alongside Bonavture and firing broadsides which severed all her masts, after which Evertsen's crew boarded her and engaged in hand-to-hand fighting before being beaten back. [4] The fighting continued until nightfall, where both sides withdrew, the battle having no distinct victor. [5] The ships of Tromp and Evertsen divided their prisoners between them and sailed back toward Texel, with Blake, with his flagship in tow making his way to Dover. [5] [6] [7]
Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp or Maarten van Tromp was an army general and admiral in the Dutch navy during much of the Eighty Years' War and throughout the First Anglo-Dutch War. Son of a ship's captain, Tromp spent much of his childhood at sea, during which time he was captured by pirates and enslaved by Barbary corsairs. In adult life, he became a renowned ship captain and naval commander, successfully leading Dutch forces fighting for independence in the Eighty Years' War, and then against England in the First Anglo-Dutch War, proving an innovative tactician and enabling the newly independent Dutch nation to become a major sea power. He was killed in battle by a sharpshooter from an English ship. Several ships of the Royal Netherlands Navy have carried the name HNLMS Tromp after him and/or his son Cornelis, also a Dutch admiral of some renown.
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 Scheveningen was the final naval battle of the First Anglo-Dutch War. It took place on 31 July 1653 between the fleets of the Commonwealth of England and the Dutch Republic. The Dutch fleet suffered heavy losses.
The naval Battle of Texel or Battle of Kijkduin took place off the western coast of the island of Texel on 21 August 1673 between the Dutch and the combined English and French fleets. It was the last major battle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War, which was itself part of the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678), during which Louis XIV of France invaded the Republic and sought to establish control over the Spanish Netherlands. English involvement came about because of the Treaty of Dover, secretly concluded by Charles II of England, and which was highly unpopular with the English Parliament.
Robert Blake was an English naval officer who served as general at sea and the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports from 1656 to 1657. Blake served under Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil War and Anglo-Spanish War, and as the commanding Admiral of the State's Navy during the First Anglo-Dutch War. Blake is recognized as the "chief founder of England's naval supremacy", a dominance subsequently inherited by the British Royal Navy well into the early 20th century. Despite this, due to deliberate attempts to expunge the Parliamentarians from historical records following the Stuart Restoration, Blake's achievements tend to remain relatively unrecognized. Blake's successes, however, are considered to have "never been excelled, not even by Nelson" according to one biographer, while Blake is often compared with Nelson by others.
Cornelis Maartenszoon Tromp, Count of Sølvesborg was a Dutch naval officer who served as lieutenant-admiral general in the Dutch Navy, and briefly as a general admiral in the Royal Danish-Norwegian Navy. Tromp is one of the most celebrated and controversial figures in Dutch naval history due to his actions in the Anglo-Dutch Wars and the Scanian War. His father was the renowned Lieutenant Admiral Maarten Tromp.
The line of battle is a tactic in naval warfare in which a fleet of ships forms a line end to end. The first example of its use as a tactic is disputed—it has been variously claimed for dates ranging from 1502 to 1652. Line-of-battle tactics were in widespread use by 1675.
Witte Corneliszoon de With was a Dutch States Navy officer who served during the Eighty Years' War and the First Anglo-Dutch War.
The Battle of the Kentish Knock was a naval battle between the fleets of the Dutch Republic and England, fought on 28 September 1652, during the First Anglo-Dutch War near the shoal called the Kentish Knock in the North Sea about thirty kilometres east of the mouth of the river Thames. The Dutch fleet, internally divided on political, regional and personal grounds, proved incapable of making a determined effort and was soon forced to withdraw, losing two ships and many casualties. In Dutch the action is called the Slag bij de Hoofden.
The naval Battle of Leghorn took place on 4 March 1653 , during the First Anglo-Dutch War, near Leghorn (Livorno), Italy. It was a victory of a Dutch squadron under Commodore Johan van Galen over an English squadron under Captain Henry Appleton. Afterwards, another English squadron under Captain Richard Badiley, which Appleton had been trying to join up with, reached the scene in time to observe the capture of the last ships of Appleton's squadron, but was outnumbered and forced to return to Porto Longone.
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 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 a British fleet of equal size commanded by James, Duke of York, forty miles east of the port of Lowestoft in Suffolk.
The Battle of the Downs took place on 21 October 1639, during the Eighty Years' War. A Spanish fleet, commanded by Admiral Antonio de Oquendo, was decisively defeated by a Dutch force under Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp. Victory ended Spanish efforts to re-assert naval control over the English Channel and confirmed Dutch dominance of the sea lanes, while it is also alleged to be the first major action to feature line of battle tactics.
Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam was a Dutch States Navy officer and nobleman who became lieutenant admiral, and supreme commander of the Dutch navy. The name Obdam was then also spelled as Opdam. Contemporary English sources typically refer to him as Admiral Opdam or Lord Obdam because it was not until 1657 that he bought the Wassenaar Estate from relatives and thus acquired its title. Modern Dutch sources sometimes less correctly insert a second "van" between "Wassenaer" and "Obdam" or use the modern spelling "Wassenaar".
The naval Battle of Elba was a naval battle which took place on 28 August 1652 during the First Anglo-Dutch war, between a Dutch squadron under Johan van Galen and an English squadron under Captain Richard Badiley.
Cornelis Corneliszoon Jol, nicknamed Houtebeen ("pegleg"), was a 17th-century Dutch corsair and admiral in the Dutch West India Company during the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch Republic. He was one of several early buccaneers to attack Campeche, looting the settlement in 1633, and was active against the Spanish in the Spanish Main and throughout the Caribbean during the 1630s and 40s.
Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest was a Dutch States Navy officer from Vlissingen who served as Lieutenant Admiral of Zeeland and Supreme Commander of the 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.
Johan Evertsen was a Dutch admiral who was born in the 17th century.
Brederode was a ship of the line of the Maas Admiralty, part of the navy of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and the flagship of the Dutch fleet in the First Anglo-Dutch War. Throughout her career, she carried from 49 to 59 guns. She was named after Johan Wolfert van Brederode, the brother-in-law of stadtholder Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange.
Dutch Republic 
Commonwealth of England