|
Battle
of Scheveningen.
(Ter Heide.)
31 July 1653. On 24 July 1653, Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten
Tromp's fleet of 100 warships set sail in an attempt to lift the
English blockade of the Dutch coast. Tromp's first objective was the
island of Texel, where a squadron of 27 warships and 10 fireships
under the command of Vice-Admiral de Witte
de With was blockaded by 120 English ships commanded by
General-at-Sea George
Monck.
(English)
Monck
(Dutch) On
29 July, the English sighted Tromp's fleet and sailed to attack. A
partial engagement took place a few hours later off Katwijk, but Tromp
wanted to avoid a battle until he could join forces with de With. With
Monck lured away from Texel, de With's squadron escaped into the open
sea. Tromp and de With met off Scheveningen during the
afternoon of 30 July. At 7 a.m. the following day, they sighted
Monck's fleet. Having the advantage of the wind, the Dutch moved in to
engage the English. The battle was watched by hundreds of spectators
on the beaches as the two fleets met in a fierce fight of the line. In
the early stages of the battle, Tromp was killed by a musket shot as
his flagship the "Brederode" led the Dutch attack. De
Ruyter, who was consulted by Tromp's flagcaptain, urged to keep
Tromp's death a secret for many hours to avoid undermining Dutch
morale while himself took upon him the duties of the deceased CiC..
The battle raged all through the morning and afternoon of 31 July with
the two lines passing one another several times. Gradually the smaller
and more lightly-armed Dutch ships were overwhelmed. With around 10
ships sunk and many badly damaged, the Dutch retreated to the safety
of the Texel at about 8 p.m. The commanders de With, de Ruyter and
Cornelis Evertsen (the old) formed a rearguard to avoid a repetition of the
chaos that had ensued during Tromp's retreat from the battle of North
Foreland. After the battle, the English also had to return to port to
refit and so were unable to maintain the blockade. Tromp's death was a severe blow not only to the Dutch navy
but also to the Orangist political faction, which wanted to defeat the
Commonwealth and restore the Stuarts in England. Republican influence
grew stronger in the United Provinces after the battle of Scheveningen
and peace negotiations began in earnest. The Treaty of Westminster
ended the First
Anglo-Dutch War (English)
in April 1654.
|