_First Dutch War (1652-53)._--Though political causes were at work, the
main incentive to hostility between the peoples was commercial rivalry.
It was therefore natural that their first encounters should have taken
place between fleets engaged in convoying trade, or in endeavouring to
intercept the trade of their enemy. Blows were exchanged before war was
formally declared. On the 12th of May 1652 an English officer, Captain
Young, stopped a Dutch convoy near the Start in order to enforce the
salute to the English flag, which England then demanded from all who
used the seas round her coast. The demand was resisted, and was only
yielded to after a sharp conflict. Though the Dutch were still
endeavouring to negotiate a peace with the Council of State which
governed in the British Isles after the execution Of King Charles I.,
they made ready for war. In May forty sail of their war-ships appeared
off Dover under command of Martin Harpertzoon Tromp--then the best known
of their admirals. There were then 8 British ships in Dover under
Rear-Admiral Nicholas Bourne, and 15 near Rye under Robert Blake, a
member of parliament, and soldier who had gained a great reputation in
the Civil War. Blake came into the Straits of Dover with his ships, and
on the 19th of May a sharp collision took place between him and Tromp.
Bourne joined his countryman after the action began. The encounter,
which the Dutch attributed to the English, and the English to the Dutch,
made war inevitable, even if the relations of the two powers had allowed
of the maintenance of peace. The first operations on both sides took the
form of attacks on trade. Sir George Ayscue, who had lately returned
from the West Indies, whither he had been sent to subdue the Royalist
party in Barbados, had a sharp encounter with a Dutch convoy while on
his way up Channel to the Downs, and had captured several prizes. The
Council of State, being mainly anxious to destroy the Dutch trade and
fisheries, began by reinforcing Blake, and sending him north to scatter
the Dutch herring fleet. He had with him 60 vessels. Ayscue remained in
the Downs with 16. Soon after Blake had gone, Tromp appeared in the
Downs with a stronger force and threatened an attack on Ayscue. Want of
wind prevented the operation. Tromp was also most intent on collecting
the home-coming Dutch convoys, and seeing them safe into port. He
therefore also sailed north to meet the Baltic trade. No meeting,
however, took place between him and Blake, while bad weather scattered
the Dutch. Their herring fishery was ruined for the year, and the outcry
against Tromp was loud. He was notoriously no friend to the Loevenstein
party then prevalent in Holland, and was displaced, his place being
taken by Cornelius de Witt and Michiel Adriaanzoon de Ruyter. De Ruyter
was sent into the Channel to convoy the outward-bound convoys, and meet
the home-coming trade. On the 16th of August he had an encounter off
Plymouth with Ayscue, whom he worsted, and then cruised at the Land's
End. The failure of Ayscue, who was not employed again in this war,
induced the Council of State to send Blake, who had now returned from
the north, into the Channel. He was not, however, more successful. His
fleet was allowed to become scattered, and the Dutchman brought his
convoy back safe after a partial action with Penn, Blake's subordinate,
on the 16th of August.
So far the operations had been confined to commerce destroying, or to
the protection of trade by convoy. The next moves were more purely
warlike. In the 27th of September the Dutch appeared in force off the
mouth of the Thames, and Blake, whose fleet was collected in the Downs,
stood to sea. On the 28th of September the first real battle of the war
was fought off the Kentish Knock, a shoal opposite the coast of Essex.
The English fleet standing to the north passed to west of the Dutch, and
then turned. In the close engagement which followed, the Dutch were
defeated. They did not fight well, and their failure was attributed in
part to the discontent of their seamen with the removal of Tromp, and
the unpopularity of de Witt. The states-general found it necessary to
replace Tromp, who was at once sent to sea, again with the charge of
seeing the outward-bound trade down Channel, and waiting for the
homeward-bound. Blake had not remained on the coast of Holland, for the
Council of State was still almost as intent as the Dutch on convoying
trade or molesting the enemy's. It brought its fleet back, and then
divided the ships, sending some to the north with Penn, and keeping the
others, 40 in all, with Blake in the Downs. Thus when Tromp appeared "at
the back of the Goodwins" with a fleet of 80 war-ships and a crowd of
merchant vessels on the 29th of November, Blake was not in a position to
engage him with any assured prospect of success. But he made the
attempt, and a hot engagement took place off Dungeness on the 30th. Two
English vessels were taken, and the loss would have been greater if some
of the English captains had not shown themselves backward. Many of the
ships were merchant vessels pressed or hired, and commanded by their own
skippers, who displayed little military spirit. Blake, who offered to
resign, complained of the conduct of many of them, and some were
punished. The Council of State saw the necessity for making a strong
effort against Tromp, who ranged the Channel unopposed. Penn was
recalled from the north, Richard Deane and George Monk were united with
Blake as "admirals and generals at sea," and a competent force was
collected by the middle of February. The legend (for it is nothing more)
that Tromp hoisted a broom at his mainmast-head to announce his
intention to sweep the English off the sea, refers to this period.
On the 18th of February 1653 the Dutch admiral, who had now collected
the homeward-bound convoys, was off Plymouth on his way back to Holland,
and was attacked by the English fleet. The encounter, which lasted from
the 18th to the 20th of February and ranged from Plymouth to Calais, is
commonly named the "Three Days' Battle" and was described by Clarendon
as "stupendous." The Dutch admiral brought his charge of merchant ships
up Channel between him and the French shore. His war-ships were arranged
in what was called a half-moon, and was in fact an obtuse angle with his
flagship, the "Brederode," at the apex. During the 18th and 19th, the
attacks of the English though fierce were partial, and met with no great
success. Tromp had to complain of the conduct of several of his
captains. On the 20th his line was broken and some 60 of his merchant
ships were captured. He anchored in some confusion in Calais roads. Yet
by taking advantage of the dark, and the turn of the tide, he succeeded
in carrying the great majority of his merchant ships home. The English
fleet had suffered severely, Blake himself was seriously wounded, and
his colleague Deane was also hurt. Blake's wound disabled him greatly
through the remainder of the war.
The Three Days' Battle was followed by a pause in the war. On the
English side much damage had to be repaired. The administration of the
navy, called upon as it was to deal with a war of unprecedented
magnitude, was overtaxed by the obligation to refit ships, raise crews,
and provide for the numerous sick or wounded. The close approach of the
great political crisis in which Cromwell expelled the Long Parliament
and established the Protectorate (17th of April 1653), may have had some
influence. The fleet adhered to the new government on the 22nd of April.
On the Dutch side much damage had to be repaired, and their complicated
administration, by five independent admiralty boards, rendered rapid
work impossible. They had also begun to realize that the quality of
their ships was inferior. Reflection had further shown them that to
hamper their fleets by imposing the direct protection of a great flock
of merchant ships on them was not even an effectual way to protect
commerce. When, therefore, Tromp was next sent to sea, it was with an
unhampered fleet of war-ships, and for the purpose of bringing the
English fleet to battle.
In spite of their heavy losses and their awkward administration, the
Dutch were at sea before the end of May, and were close to the mouth of
the Thames. The English fleet was not all ready. Part was in the river
fitting out under Blake, who had not fully recovered from his wound. The
bulk of it was, however, ready for service, and Blake's colleagues, Monk
and Deane, attacked Tromp on the 2nd of June. Changes of wind made the
battle somewhat confused. At first the English were to windward and they
bore down with Rear-Admiral John Lawson in command of the van. Tromp,
conscious that his ships were weaker in build, at first drew away,
firing at the spars of the English ships in order to cripple them. A
shift of the wind having given him the weather-gage, he concentrated a
vigorous attack on Lawson. But the wind changed again and transferred
the weather-gage to the English. Monk and Deane brought on a general
action, in which the Dutch were outmatched, and forced to retreat to
their own coast. Deane was slain by a cannon-shot by the side of his
colleague Monk, who threw his cloak over the mangled body. Blake,
informed by the sound of the cannon, which was audible on the Thames,
that an action was in progress, hurried to sea and joined Monk in the
pursuit of the Dutch on the 3rd of June. Tromp was driven into port and
told the states-general that they must build better ships if they wished
to beat the English at sea. Blake was forced by his still unhealed wound
to go ashore, and the sole command was left to Monk, who remained
cruising on the coast of Holland. The states-general now sought for
peace, but Cromwell's demands were excessive, and could not be accepted
without a surrender of the independence of Holland. A last effort was
therefore made to regain the command of the sea. A great fleet was
fitted out, partly at Flushing, partly in the Texel. Between the 26th
and the 30th of July Tromp, by a series of skilful manoeuvres, united
the divided Dutch squadrons in the face of Monk's fleet, and on the 30th
he stood out to sea with the wind in his favour, and gave battle. More
than a hundred vessels were engaged on either side. The Dutch admiral
manoeuvred to keep, and Monk to gain, the weather-gage. The fleets
passed on opposite tacks, and the Dutch tried to destroy their enemy
with fire-ships without success. At last the weatherly qualities of the
ships enabled Monk to break through the Dutch line, cutting some of
their ships off from the others. The vessels thus cut off fled to the
Maas, and Tromp with the others retired to the Texel. He was shot dead
by a musket bullet in the retreat. The loss of life had been heavy on
both sides. Six captains of Monk's fleet were slain. The Dutch now
sought peace, and Cromwell offered better terms. During the fighting in
the North Sea the Mediterranean trade of England had suffered severely.
A squadron of trading ships and a few war vessels were blocked in
Italian ports till some of them were taken and others forced to flee in
March 1653 off Leghorn. The battle of the 31st of July was the last
serious operation of the war, though peace was not formally made till
some months later.
_Second Dutch War (1663-67)._--Although the formal declaration of war
was not made by the government of King Charles II. till March 1665, the
operations of the second Dutch War began in October 1663. The king and
his brother the duke of York (James II.), who were largely interested in
the slave-trading Guinea Company, were eager to remove the Dutch ports
from the slave coast. They knew that war with the Republic, which had
recovered very rapidly from the disasters of the war of 1652-53, would
be popular with the trading classes in England. They relied also on the
known reluctance of the Dutch government to go to war. In October 1663,
therefore, a squadron was sent out under command of Sir Robert Holmes to
attack the Dutch in Gambia and America. Their posts on the African coast
were captured and New Amsterdam (now New York) taken. The states-general
under the skilful management of the Grand Pensionary, John de Witt,
retaliated by sending de Ruyter from the Mediterranean, where he was
cruising against the Barbary pirates, to follow Holmes. De Ruyter
re-established the Dutch posts in Gambia, and, though he failed to
retake New Amsterdam, did much injury to English trade before he
returned to Holland. It may be pointed out that all colonial settlements
belonged at that time exclusively to England, and the war was made
entirely by her, and in her interest, Scotland and Ireland having no
share. Numbers of Scotch sailors and of English deserters served in the
Dutch fleet in this war--the bad administration of the navy and the
constant ill-treatment of the crews having caused bitter discontent.
Other attacks were made on Dutch trade during 1664, but the great
operations of war did not begin till May 1665. In that month the duke of
York was on the east coast of England with a fleet of 80 to 90 sail,
composed, according to the custom of the time, of vessels of all sizes.
A Dutch fleet of corresponding strength was sent to sea, under command
of Baron Opdam van Wassenaer. In this war we do not find that the
movements of fleets were subordinated to the work of providing convoy.
They were sent to sea for the much more intelligent purpose of seeking
out the enemy and driving him off. It was understood that the trade of
the victor would be secure.
The first battle took place from 30 to 40 m. S.E. of Lowestoft, on the
3rd of June 1665. By the bad conduct of some of the captains in the
centre of the Dutch line, the English, who fought with much spirit, were
able to win a considerable victory. Opdam's flagship was blown up and he
perished. But the pursuit of the English fleet was feeble, and the
retreat of the Dutch was ably covered by Cornelius van Tromp, son of
Martin Tromp. Much scandal was caused by the mysterious circumstances in
which an order to shorten sail was given in the English flagship, and
doubts were expressed of the courage of the duke of York. He withdrew,
or was withdrawn, from the active command at sea, and was replaced by
the earl of Sandwich. On the Dutch side vigorous measures were taken to
enforce good discipline. Four of the captains who had misbehaved on the
3rd of June were shot for cowardice, and others were dismissed. De
Ruyter was named commander-in-chief, and John de Witt, or later his
brother Cornelius, accompanied the admiral as delegate of the
states-general to support his authority. The earl of Sandwich did
nothing becoming a capable commander. Under his command the fleet made
no attempt to blockade the Dutch coast, but was turned from its proper
work to engage in a prize-hunting plot with the king of Denmark. The
object was to plunder a Dutch convoy which had taken refuge at Bergen in
Norway, then united to Denmark. The mutual interest of the associates
led to the failure of the plot. Sir Thomas Teddeman, who was sent by
Sandwich to attack the Dutch at Bergen, was suspected by the Danish
governor of intending to play false, was fired on by the batteries, and
was beaten off. De Ruyter covered the return of the trade to Holland.
Sandwich, who had taken some prizes, unlawfully seized part of their
cargoes for the benefit of himself and the other flag officers. A loud
outcry was raised in the fleet and the country. Sandwich was displaced,
and his command was transferred to Monk, with whom was associated the
king's cousin, Prince Rupert. The war had so far been unsuccessful for
England. The victory of the 3rd of June was barren. Great injury was
inflicted on English trade by Dutch cruisers, while the wasteful
administration of his officers reduced the king's treasury to much
embarrassment. Winter suspended the movements of the fleets.
The year 1666 (called the _annus mirabilis_, for it included the plague
and the fire of London) was marked by fierce fighting and changes of
fortune. The French, who had signed a treaty with Holland in 1662, were
reluctantly induced to intervene in the war as the enemies of England.
By May a Dutch fleet of some eighty sail was at sea, preparing to watch
the English, and unite with the French. Monk and Rupert were fitting out
a fleet of nearly the same strength in the Thames. Under the influence
of their fear of a French naval force King Charles's ministers committed
a great blunder. They detached Prince Rupert into the Channel with 20
ships, leaving Monk with only 57 to face the Dutch. The English
commander put to sea, and found the enemy anchored on the coast of
Flanders, in three divisions. He boldly attacked the van, hoping to
cripple it before it could be helped by the centre and rear. This daring
and well-judged move brought on the Four Days' Battle of the 1st, 2nd,
3rd and 4th of June (O.S.). On the 1st the Dutch van, under Cornelius
van Tromp, bore the brunt of the English attack. The fighting was very
fierce. One English admiral, Sir William Berkeley, was slain, and
another, Sir John Harman, was in great danger. Monk drew off at night
without doing all the harm he had wished to the Dutch. During the 2nd of
June the fleets engaged again, and on this day the self-will of Van
Tromp, who commanded the rear in the battle, and the misconduct of some
of the ships in the van, prevented De Ruyter from making full use of his
numbers. Yet Monk was clearly overtaxed, and on the 3rd he prepared to
retreat to the Thames. During this movement the "Prince" (100) carrying
the flag of Admiral Sir Robert Ayscue, ran on the Galloper Sand, and was
lost. In the evening Prince Rupert returned, and by hugging the coast of
Kent to the south of the fleets, was able to rejoin his colleague. Monk
and Rupert renewed the battle on the 4th. It was fought with extreme
fury, and terminated in the retreat of the English to the Thames with a
loss of 20 ships and 6000 men.
The Dutch remained masters of the approach to the Thames till the 21st
of July. They menaced the coast of Essex, and could easily have covered
an invasion of England by a French army if Louis XIV. had been disposed
to send one. Danger stimulated the English government to active
exertions, and by the 21st of July Monk and Rupert were enabled by a
happy combination of wind and tide to set to sea through the passage
called the Swin. A storm which scattered both fleets delayed their
meeting till the 25th of July. On that and the two succeeding days the
Dutch were again defeated and driven into port. The English fleet then
burnt the Dutch East India Company's dockyard at Terschelting,
inflicting great loss. But the fruits of the victory were less than they
would have been if it had been properly followed up. The British fleet
withdrew to its own coast and within a month De Ruyter was at sea again,
hoping to effect a junction with a French squadron. The French failed to
keep tryst, and De Ruyter was watched by Rupert, who was now in sole
command, Monk having been recalled to London to take command amid the
confusion caused by the fire and the plague. Nor did the failure of King
Charles's government to press the war with vigour end here. Embarrassed
by want of money, on bad terms with his parliament, and secretly intent
on schemes incompatible with a policy which could earn the approval of
his subjects, the king preferred to spend what money he could command on
raising troops, and neglected his fleet. Peace negotiations were begun
with the Dutch, and the line-of-battle ships were put out of commission.
A light squadron was, however, kept at sea to injure the Dutch trade,
and as no armistice was arranged the Republic was free to continue
warlike operations. The Dutch, being well aware of the disarmed
condition of the English coast, sent out a powerful fleet again under
the command of De Ruyter in June. It entered the Thames, forced the
entrance of the Medway, and burnt both the dockyard at Chatham and a
number of the finest ships in the navy which were lying in the river. A
terrible panic prevailed in London, where an attack was expected. The
Dutch were content with the injury they had done at Chatham, and dropped
down the river. De Ruyter remained cruising in the Channel till the
peace of Breda was signed in July. During the last months of the war Sir
John Harman had fought a successful campaign in the West Indies against
the French on whom he inflicted a severe defeat at Martinique ~~ on the
24th of June. By the terms of the peace England retained possession of
New York, but the war, though it contained some passages glorious to her
arms, was very disastrous to her commerce.
_Third Dutch War (1672-74)._--This war differed very materially in its
inception and conduct from the first and second. They had been popular
in England, and even the second gave Englishmen not a little to be proud
of. The third was undertaken by the king in pursuit of a policy arranged
between him and his cousin Louis XIV. Their avowed object was a
partition of Holland, but there was a secret understanding that King
Charles II. was to establish Roman Catholicism, and to make himself
despotic in England, with the help of the French king. This hidden
purpose was suspected, and the war became intensely unpopular with the
English parliament and nation. Parliament would grant the king no
supplies, and he could find the means of fitting out a fleet only by
defrauding his creditors. The English fleets were, therefore,
comparatively small, were ill-provided and had to co-operate with French
squadrons which in the then raw state of King Louis' young navy, proved
inefficient allies.
In this as in former wars, attacks on Dutch commerce preceded a formal
declaration of hostilities. On the 13th of March 1672 Sir Robert Holmes
fell upon a Dutch convoy under the command of Van Ness in the Channel.
In the penury of the dockyards Holmes could not be provided with the
force he was promised, and the enterprise was but partially successful.
It was characteristic of the morality of his time and the spirit of the
English navy as it had been shaped by the corrupt government of Charles
II., that the officers concerned quarrelled violently and accused one
another of fraud. A fleet of 60 sail was with difficulty got together
under the duke of York, who now went to sea for the second time. The
duke was joined in May, and at Portsmouth, by 40 French ships under the
comte d'Estrees, a soldier and noble who had been made an admiral late
in life. The allies entered the North Sea but did not take the offensive
against the Dutch. The English were ill supplied, and were compelled to
anchor at Southwold Bay on the coast of Suffolk in order to obtain water
and provisions. The Dutch, who had to contend with an overwhelming
French invasion on shore, nevertheless fitted out a fleet of 70 to 80
sail of the line and the command was given to De Ruyter. On the 28th of
May 1672 he fell upon the allies in a N.W. wind. D'Estrees, who was
stationed with his squadron at the south end of the line, went to sea on
the port tack, heading to the S.E. The English, who constituted the
centre and rear, stood out on the starboard tack. Thus the allies were
at once divided into two widely separated bodies, and the Dutch admiral
was able to concentrate nearly his whole force on the centre division,
which suffered severely. The flagship of the duke of York, the "Prince"
(100), was so shattered that he was compelled to leave her, and go to
the "St Michael." The "Royal James" (100), the flagship of his second in
command, the earl of Sandwich, after being much shattered by the Dutch
artillery, was set alight by a fire-ship, and destroyed with enormous
loss of life. The earl himself perished. His body was picked up three
days afterwards, so disfigured that it was only recognized by the star
on his coat. The ships at the head of the English line at last tacked to
the support of the centre, and at evening De Ruyter drew off. A foolish
attempt was made to claim his retreat as a victory, but the allies were
too severely damaged to attempt an attack on the Dutch during the rest
of the year. The Republic was so hard pressed by the French invasion
that it had to land the gunpowder from its ships for the service of its
army.
In 1673 the allies made an effort to invade Holland from the sea coast.
Prince Rupert replaced the duke of York, who as a Roman Catholic was
driven from office by the newly passed Test Act. He was supplied with 54
ships and was joined early in the year by d'Estrees with 27. Soldiers
were embarked, and in May the allied fleet stood over to the Dutch
coast. The distress of the Republic prevented it from equipping more
than 55 ships, but the patriotism of the race was roused to white heat,
and in De Ruyter they possessed an admiral of consummate skill and
heroic character. He took up an anchorage at Schooneveld and stood on
his guard. On the 28th of May Rupert and d'Estrees, believing that De
Ruyter was too much afraid of their superior numbers to venture to sea,
sent in a squadron of light vessels and fire-ships to attack him, but he
took the offensive at once, scattering the light squadron, and falling
with energy on the rest of the fleet, which, not being in expectation of
a vigorous assault, was taken at a disadvantage. On this occasion the
English placed the French in the centre, in order to avoid such a
separation as had taken place in the battle at Southwold Bay. But the
disposition made no difference in the result. De Ruyter concentrated on
the van and centre of the allies, and in spite of his great inferiority
of numbers was able to be superior at the point of attack. The allies
were compelled to retreat, and De Ruyter, satisfied with having averted
the invasion of his country, anchored at West-Kappel.
Seven days later, on the 4th of June, a second encounter took place. The
French were now placed in the rear of the line as it engaged. The Dutch
admiral, who had the advantage of the wind, fell on the English in the
van and centre. His inferiority in numbers did not allow him to push his
attack quite home, but he inflicted so much injury that the allies were
forced to return to the Thames to refit. At the end of July the allies
again appeared off the coast of Holland, bringing four thousand soldiers
in the war-ships and two thousand in transports. De Ruyter's fleet had
been raised to 70 vessels, but the allies had also been reinforced and
were 90 strong. On the 11th of August the Dutch admiral kept in the
shallow waters of the coast looking for a favourable opportunity to
attack. On the 11th of August the wind, which had been westerly, turned
to the S.E., giving him the weather gage. The French division was
leading, and De Ruyter fell furiously upon the English in the centre and
rear. The French were kept in play by a small squadron under Bankert,
while De Ruyter drove Prince Rupert in the centre out of the line, and
in the rear Cornelius van Tromp fought a desperate duel with the English
rear division commanded by Sir E. Spragge. The two admirals engaged in a
species of personal conflict, and each was compelled to shift his flag
to another vessel. While Sir E. Spragge, whose second flagship was
shattered by the Dutch fire, was on his way to a third, his boat was
sunk by a cannon shot and he was drowned.
The defeat of the allies was undeniable, and a violent quarrel broke out
between them. Want of money, and the increasing violence of popular
opposition to the French alliance, compelled the king to withdraw from
the war. Peace was made in the following spring.
In this war, which presented no features of a creditable kind, the loss
to English commerce from Dutch cruisers was so great that it was found
necessary to suspend the clause of the navigation act which forbade the
purchase of foreign-built vessels.
As England withdrew from her alliance with Louis XIV., the other powers
of Europe, frightened by the growth of the aggressive French power,
began to come forward to the support of Holland. The coalition then
formed continued the struggle till 1678. But the war was conducted
mainly on the land. The French king, who knew that his fleet was not as
yet capable of meeting the Dutch single-handed, was content to withdraw
his ships from the North Sea and the ocean. The Dutch, who had to pay
subventions to their German allies, and to support a large army, could
spare little for their fleet. For some time they willingly confined
themselves to efforts to protect their commerce from French privateers.
In 1674 a revolt of the people of Sicily against their Spanish rulers
gave the French king an opportunity of seizing the island. Spain, unable
to defend its possessions single-handed, appealed to the Dutch for naval
help. In September 1675 De Ruyter was sent into the Mediterranean with
18 sail of the line and four fire-ships. The force was inadequate, but
it was all that Holland could spare. The Dutch admiral, who was hampered
rather than helped by his Spanish allies, did his best to make good his
weakness by skilful management. He cruised off Messina to intercept the
supplies which were being brought to the French garrison by a fleet of
20 sail under the command of Abraham Duquesne. Conscious that he must
spare his small force as much as possible, he abstained from such
vigorous attacks as he had made in 1672 and 1673. When Duquesne appeared
on the 7th of January 1676 near the Lipari Islands, De Ruyter allowed
them to get the weather-gage, and on the 8th of January waited passively
for their attack. The French, with more recklessness than was usual with
them in later times, bore down on their enemy courageously but in some
disorder. Their leading ships were severely mauled, and their whole
force so crippled that they could make no pursuit of the Dutch when they
drew off, their injured ships being towed by the Spanish galleys, in the
late afternoon. Duquesne was able to reach Messina and join the French
ships at anchor there. De Ruyter made his way to Palermo, which was in
the hands of the Spaniards. One of his vessels sank on the way and he
was reduced to 17. It is true that his allies provided him with 10 ships
of their own, but the Spanish navy had sunk to abject inefficiency.
Their commander, the marquis of Bayona, arrogantly insisted on occupying
the centre of the line with his worthless squadron instead of allowing
his ships to be scattered among the Dutch for support. When on the 22nd
of April the allies, 27 strong, met the fleet of Duquesne, 29 ships, off
Agosta, they attacked from windward. De Ruyter, who led the van, was
mortally wounded. The Spaniards in the centre behaved very ill, and no
victory was gained. The serious fighting was, in fact, confined to the
vans of the two fleets. After the battle the allies retired to Syracuse,
where De Ruyter died, and where their ships were mostly destroyed by the
French a month later. Reinforcements sent out from Holland were stopped
in the Straits of Gibraltar and blockaded in Cadiz. The French remained
masters of the Mediterranean. In the meantime, however, angry disputes
had arisen between France and England. King Louis XIV. enforced his
belligerent rights at sea with as much disregard of neutral interests as
was shown by England in later times. His naval officers insisted on
making prize of all Dutch-built vessels found under the English flag. In
1678 war seemed imminent between France and England. King Louis then
withdrew his soldiers from Sicily, and made the peace of Nijmwegen.
AUTHORITIES.--For the English side, see _Naval History of England_, by
Thomas Lediard (London, 1735); _Memorials of Sir W. Penn_, by
Grenville Penn (London, 1833); _The First Dutch War, 1652-1654_,
edited by S.R. Gardiner for the Navy Record Society (1899). For the
Dutch side: _Het Leven un Bedryf van den Heere Michiel de Ruiter_, by
Gerard Brandt (Amsterdam, 1687); _Geschiedenis van den Nederlandsche
Zeewegen_, by J.C. de Jongke (Haarlem, 1858); _Annales des
Provinces-Unies_, by J. Basnages de Beauval (The Hague, 1726). For the
French side; _Abraham du Quesne et la marine de son temps_, by A. Jal
(Paris, 1873). For the small Spanish share; _Armada Espanola_, by
Captain Cesareo Fernandez Duro (Madrid, 1895-1901). For critical
studies of these wars the reader may be referred to _Naval Warfare_,
by Rear-admiral P.H. Colomb (London, 1899), and _The Influence of Sea
Power upon History_, by Captain A.T. Mahan. (D. H.)