Qualla: Battle of Texel

Battle of Texel: Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Willem van de Velde the Younger, Public domain. Sir Edward Spragge had publicly sworn to kill or capture Cornelis Tromp. He almost succeeded in killing himself in the attempt. On 21 August 1673, off the western coast of Texel, in what would be the final major battle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War, Spragge shifted his flag three times as English ships shot from under him. The third time, the boat carrying him between flagships went down. He drowned in the brown August sea of the southern North Sea, the obsessive duel between two admirals isolating his squadron from the rest of his fleet and helping a smaller Dutch force win one of the most consequential naval battles of the seventeenth century.

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Image: Willem van de Velde the Younger | Public domain

Battle of Texel: How the War Got Here

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The Third Anglo-Dutch War was a war the English Parliament did not want. Charles II had concluded the Treaty of Dover with Louis XIV in secret, agreeing to attack the Dutch in support of a French invasion of the Spanish Netherlands. The Franco-Dutch War broke out in 1672. The Fre...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Battle of Texel: A Treasure Fleet to Protect

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Yornik Heyl, CC BY-SA 3.0. By August 1673 the Dutch Republic was financially desperate. With French armies on Dutch soil and trade at a standstill, the only thing keeping the war effort solvent was the imminent return of the Spice Fleet from the East Indies, a convoy of Dutch East India Company merchantmen...

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Image: Yornik Heyl | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Texel: Cutting the French Loose

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Willem van de Velde the Younger, Public domain. De Ruyter gained the weather gauge and immediately used it. He sent his van under Adriaen Banckert against the French squadron of Jean d'Estrées, attacking with such ferocity that the French were peeled away from the rest of the Allied fleet and could play no further part in the ...

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Image: Willem van de Velde the Younger | Public domain

Battle of Texel: The Duel That Cost a Battle

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ludolf Bakhuizen, Public domain. The rear divisions clashed for hours. Spragge had vowed to take Tromp. Tromp gave him every opportunity. Each admiral lost two flagships and shifted to a third, the sea around them strewn with splinters and broken rigging and dead and dying men. When Spragge's third flagship was ...

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Image: Ludolf Bakhuizen | Public domain

Battle of Texel: What the Battle Bought

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lars van der Heide, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Spice Fleet came home. Four ships were lost, but the bulk of the cargo arrived safely in port, and the Republic got its financial reprieve. Within months the Netherlands had formed a coalition with Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. The threat of invasion from the south and eas...

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Image: Lars van der Heide | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Texel: De Ruyter's Hour

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Willem van de Velde the Younger, Public domain. The Duke of York, looking back across the seventeenth century, said of De Ruyter that he was the greatest admiral ever to that time in the world. The judgment came from an enemy who knew the man's work intimately. Texel was the highest point of De Ruyter's career, a battle won ag...

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Image: Willem van de Velde the Younger | Public domain