Editing Four Days' Battle (section)

==Aftermath==
===Assessment===
[[File:The Four Days Fight, 1-4 June 1666 RMG BHC0285.jpg|300px|thumb|right|The Four Days Fight, 1–4 June 1666, by [[Pieter Cornelisz van Soest]] ]]
The biggest sea battle of the [[Second Anglo-Dutch War]] and in the age of sail was undoubtedly a Dutch victory although both sides initially claimed they had won.{{efn|The contemporaneous Dutch view on this matter was expressed by the poet [[Constantijn Huygens]]:
:''Two fight — and for their lives''<br>:''The one that caused the row''<br>:''is beaten — but survives''<br>:''And boasts: "I've won it now!''<br>:''As master of the field!"''<br>:''And did he win? For sure!''<br>:''Face-down he couldn't yield:''<br>:''His victory was pure''<br>:''The other took his hat,''<br>:''his rapier and his gold''<br>:''And left him lying flat,''<br>:''The glorious field to hold''<br>:''So master he has been:''<br>:''Our Neighbours are the same:''<br>:''If thus they like to win,''<br>:''we wish them lasting fame''}} However, the Dutch fleet had found it difficult to overcome an English fleet that, for the first three days of fighting, was much weaker in numbers than it, and the Dutch had been in danger of defeat on the second and particularly the fourth day.<ref>Fox, p. 276</ref> The Dutch had also lost more men killed, mainly on the four ships that had been burned.<ref>Fox, p. 275</ref> The absence of the French fleet prevented the possible destruction of the English fleet, so the outcome is sometimes described as inconclusive.<ref>Fox, pp. 285-6</ref> Although the Dutch adopted the tactic of fighting in line for the first time, it was not a complete success, as subordinate commanders and individual captains sometimes lacked sufficient discipline to fully exploit this new tactic. The Dutch victory on the fourth day was only  won after De Ruyter signalled an "old-fashioned" attack which many of the Dutch were more used to.<ref>Van Foreest and Weber, p. 23</ref>

Immediately after the battle the English captains of Rupert's squadron, not having seen the outcome, claimed De Ruyter had retreated first, then normally seen as an acknowledgement of the superiority of the enemy fleet. Though the Dutch fleet was eventually forced to end the pursuit, they had managed to cripple the English fleet, at least temporarily, and lost only four smaller ships themselves as the ''Spieghel'' refused to sink and was repaired. However, the apparent ascendancy of the Dutch fleet after the Four Days Battle lasted only seven weeks, during which time many damaged English ships were repaired, several others that missed Four Days Battle completed their fitting out and joined the fleet, and a rigorous use of [[impressment]] powers ensured the English fleet was adequately manned<ref>Fox, pp. 287-8</ref>

Around 1,800 English sailors were taken prisoner and transported to Holland. Many subsequently took service in the Dutch fleet against England. Those that refused to do so remained in Dutch prisons for the following two years.<ref>Kemp, pp. 38–9</ref>

===Later actions===
[[File:Krijgsraad van de Nederlandse vloot voor de Vierdaagse Zeeslag in 1666, RP-T-1961-95.jpg|thumb|Court martial of the Dutch fleet for the Four Days Marches Battle in 1666. [[Willem van de Velde the Younger|Willem van de Velde II.]]]]
The Dutch leader, [[Johan de Witt]], overestimating the scale of the Dutch victory, ordered de Ruyter to attack and destroy the English fleet while it was anchored in the Thames estuary, while 2,700 Dutch infantry would be transported to the Kent or Essex shores of the Thames to defeat any local militia. This two-pronged attack would, de Witt hoped, end the war in favour of the Dutch Republic. De Ruyter sailed on 25 June and reached the mouth of the Thames on 2 July. Two Dutch squadrons attempted to find a safe passage into the Thames but found the buoys and other navigational aids either removed or placed over sandbanks and a strong English squadron ready to dispute their passage. De Ruyter then decided to blockade the Thames in the hope that what he thought would be the weakened remains of the English fleet would be forced to face him and be destroyed.<ref>Fox, p. 287</ref>

Although the restored English fleet had reached numbers equal to de Ruyter's fleet by the first week of July, 1666, Rupert and Albemarle waited until the ships being fitted out and manned joined, and sailed out of the Thames on 22 July.<ref>Fox, p. 288</ref> The Dutch fleet moved away from the shallow estuary, and the two fleets met on 25 July at the [[North Foreland]] in the [[St. James's Day Battle]]. This was an English victory, although not as comprehensive as its commanders wished, because the bulk of the Dutch fleet was not destroyed, although it suffered heavy casualties.<ref>Fox, pp. 295-6</ref> The Dutch were, however, demoralised and its commanders indulged in mutual recriminations. After this battle, while the Dutch fleet was being repaired an English squadron, during [[Holmes's Bonfire]] entered the [[Vlie]] estuary and burned 150 out of a fleet of 160 merchant ships, inflicting severe economic damage on the Netherlands.<ref>Fox, pp. 296-7</ref>

The French and the Dutch accused each other of failing to ensure that their respective fleets met as planned. Louis XIV blamed the Dutch for not having its fleet ready in March, which had caused him to delay Beaufort, and the Dutch believed that Louis never intended to risk his fleet in battle.<ref>Fox, pp. 173, 176</ref> However, on 1 September de Ruyter had anchored his fleet near [[Boulogne]] and could have joined Beaufort at [[Belle-Île]], but he withdrew to Dunkirk on 8 September. Meanwhile, Beaufort had left Belle-Île and entered the [[English Channel]] reaching Dieppe on 13 September before turning back on finding de Ruyter had withdrawn, losing a new and powerful ship which was captured by four English ones. This ended naval and military cooperation between the two countries.<ref>Fox, pp. 298-9</ref>

===End of the war===
In 1667, the English government was unable to finance a fleet as large and well-manned as that fitted out in July 1666, although such a strong one would have been needed to inflict a serious, and possibly decisive, defeat on the Dutch fleet. This and the Dutch success in the [[Raid on the Medway]] made peace inevitable.<ref>Rommelse, p.175</ref> England had gone to war in the expectation of an early victory that would not overstretch its government's fragile financial position, but both it and the Netherlands had put such unprecedented efforts into providing ships and men that no decisive naval victory was possible, and severe English financial difficulties and the Dutch need to resume unrestricted commercial activity created the conditions for peace without resolving all the underlying causes for the conflict <ref>Rommelse, pp. 175, 195</ref>