Editing Four Days' Battle (section)

===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>