Qualla: Four Days' Battle https://qualla.com/four-days-battle en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:32 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/k/four-days-battle-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Four Days' Battle https://qualla.com/four-days-battle Four Days' Battle: Introduction https://qualla.com/four-days-battle/ Photo credit Willem van de Velde the Younger, Public domain. On the morning of 11 June 1666, Michiel de Ruyter's Dutch fleet caught the English at anchor with their topgallants struck, riding out a stiff southwesterly off the North Foreland. George Monck had just learned that a French squadron was supposedly bearing down on him from the west and had detached twenty of his best ships under Prince Rupert to deal with it. The signal was a mistake. Rupert was sailing the wrong way, and Monck was now outnumbered eighty-five to fifty-six. Rather than withdraw to safer water he cleared for action, swung his line south, and went straight at de Ruyter. What followed lasted four days and consumed more powder, men, and timber than any naval battle Europeans had ever fought.

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Image: Willem van de Velde the Younger | Public domain

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/k/four-days-battle-wp/u11k-four-days-battle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Four Days' Battle: The Largest Fleets of the Age of Sail https://qualla.com/four-days-battle/ Photo credit nvt, Public domain. Numbers tell part of the story. The Dutch sortied roughly eighty-five sailing warships, including the brand-new 80-gun Zeven Provincien on which de Ruyter had hoisted his flag only weeks before. With Cornelis Tromp commanding the rear and Cornelis Evertsen the van, the fleet carr...

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Image: nvt | Public domain

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/k/four-days-battle-wp/u11k-four-days-battle-the-largest-fleets-of-the-age-of-sail.mp3 0:06 2 full Four Days' Battle: Day One: Monck Bites First https://qualla.com/four-days-battle/ Photo credit Public domain. Monck attacked downwind, his line of fifty-six heavy ships bearing into eighty-five Dutch from the windward side. Cornelis Evertsen the Elder of Zeeland was killed almost immediately. So was Sir William Berkeley, the English vice-admiral of the white, his ship taken after a savag...

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Image: Public domain

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/k/four-days-battle-wp/u11k-four-days-battle-day-one-monck-bites-first.mp3 0:06 3 full Four Days' Battle: Day Two: The Long Retreat https://qualla.com/four-days-battle/ Photo credit Willem van de Velde the Elder, Public domain. On 12 June the wind shifted east, putting de Ruyter to windward. Monck fought a running battle westward, abandoning his most badly damaged vessels and burning what he could not tow. Cornelis Tromp tried to overrun the English rear in a pincer movement, the tactic he loved best. M...

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Image: Willem van de Velde the Elder | Public domain

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/k/four-days-battle-wp/u11k-four-days-battle-day-two-the-long-retreat.mp3 0:06 4 full Four Days' Battle: Day Three: Rupert Returns, the Prince Royal Burns https://qualla.com/four-days-battle/ Photo credit Peter Lely, Public domain. On 13 June, Prince Rupert's squadron reappeared from the west. The English now had something close to numerical parity. Then disaster: the 92-gun Prince Royal, flagship of Vice-admiral George Ayscue, struck the Galloper Bank in mid-action and went aground. Surrounded by Dutch war...

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Image: Peter Lely | Public domain

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/k/four-days-battle-wp/u11k-four-days-battle-day-three-rupert-returns-the-prince-royal-burns.mp3 0:06 5 full Four Days' Battle: Day Four: Verdict in Smoke https://qualla.com/four-days-battle/ Photo credit Sailko, CC BY 3.0. The final day was a confused, exhausted slugging match in poor visibility off the North Foreland. The combined English fleet under Monck and Rupert pushed back, but their losses had become too heavy. Sir Christopher Myngs, vice-admiral of the van, was shot in the cheek and should...

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Image: Sailko | CC BY 3.0

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/k/four-days-battle-wp/u11k-four-days-battle-day-four-verdict-in-smoke.mp3 0:06 6 full Four Days' Battle: A Pyrrhic Sort of Victory https://qualla.com/four-days-battle/ Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author. Photography: D-vorm, Bert en Lilian Mellink, Public domain. The Dutch could not finish what they had started. Less than two months later, on 25 July 1666, the refitted English fleet defeated the same Dutch admirals at the St. James's Day Battle. The next year de Ruyter raided up the Medway and towed the chained Royal Charles home as a tro...

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Image: Unknown authorUnknown author. Photography: D-vorm, Bert en Lilian Mellink | Public domain

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/k/four-days-battle-wp/u11k-four-days-battle-a-pyrrhic-sort-of-victory.mp3 0:06 7 full