Qualla: St James's Day Battle

St James's Day Battle: Introduction

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wenceslaus Hollar, Public domain. Cornelis Tromp drank gin to steady his nerves. Michiel de Ruyter, the most respected admiral in Europe, stood on the open deck of De Zeven Provincien and shouted up at God: "Amongst so many thousands of cannonballs, is there not one that would take me?" None of them did. For two days in the high summer of 1666, off North Foreland on the Kent coast, the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of England tried to destroy each other in one of the largest fleet actions of the age of sail - and the men in charge came apart at the seams as their ships did.

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Image: Wenceslaus Hollar | Public domain

St James's Day Battle: How they got here

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wenceslaus Hollar, Public domain. Seven weeks earlier the Dutch had won the Four Days Battle, mauling the English fleet so badly that the grand pensionary Johan de Witt ordered de Ruyter to finish the job. The plan was bold: land 2,700 marines of the brand-new Dutch Marine Corps - the first marine corps in histor...

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Image: Wenceslaus Hollar | Public domain

St James's Day Battle: Eighty-eight against eighty-nine

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit «ВЭС». (СПб; 1914 год)., Public domain. The Dutch had 88 ships. The English had 89, commanded jointly by Prince Rupert of the Rhine - cavalier of the Civil War, now in his forties and grey - and George Monck, the army general who had handed Charles II his throne back six years before. The wind shifted twice before the ...

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Image: «ВЭС». (СПб; 1914 год). | Public domain

St James's Day Battle: Tromp's wild ride

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wenceslaus Hollar, Public domain. Far astern, Cornelis Tromp commanded the Dutch rear. He saw the disaster unfolding and decided, in the words of the chronicler, to give the correct example - which is to say, he did something spectacular and possibly mad. He turned sharply west, cut clean across the line of the E...

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Image: Wenceslaus Hollar | Public domain

St James's Day Battle: De Ruyter wants to die

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wenceslaus Hollar, Public domain. By dawn on 5 August, de Ruyter was finished. Forty ships, most of them barely seaworthy survivors of the broken van. A strong easterly pinned him against the Flemish shoals. Fifty English ships closed in a half-circle from the west, bombarding him from a safe leeward position. Wh...

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Image: Wenceslaus Hollar | Public domain

St James's Day Battle: How it ended, and didn't

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Memnon335bc, CC BY-SA 3.0. Then the wind turned west and saved them. De Ruyter formed a line, threaded the Flemish shoals, and brought his fleet home. Only two Dutch ships, Sneek and Tholen, struck their colours; the English burned both. The English lost about 300 men killed. The Dutch lost about 1,200. It...

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Image: Memnon335bc | CC BY-SA 3.0