Editing Michiel de Ruyter (section)

== Second Anglo-Dutch War ==
[[File:De krijgsraad aan boord van de 'De Zeven Provinciën', het admiraalschip van Michiel Adriaensz de Ruyter, 10 juni 1666 (Willem van de Velde I, 1693).jpg|thumb|''Battle council on the Zeven Provinciën, 10 June 1666'' by [[Willem van de Velde the younger|Van de Velde the younger]]]]
In 1664, a year before the [[Second Anglo-Dutch War]] began, [[Robert Holmes (admiral)|Robert Holmes]] had captured several [[Dutch West India Company]] trading posts and ships on the [[West Africa]]n coast, seeking to forcibly expel Dutch influence from the region.<ref>[[Richard Ollard]]: ''Man of War. Sir Robert Holmes and the Restoration Navy''. London (1969).</ref> Although Johan de Witt wanted to avoid an all-out war with England, he considered that this provocation must be responded to, and proposed to the States General that De Ruyter's squadron in the Mediterranean should be sent to West Africa to retake the West India Company's forts there. De Ruyter received his instructions at [[Málaga]] on 1 September 1664 and, by early the next month, all the Dutch West African posts had been recaptured and the squadron was ready to cross the Atlantic to attack English shipping in the West Indies and at the Newfoundland fisheries in reprisal.{{sfn|Bruijn|1993|pp=68–69}}

De Ruyter's activities in the American waters had less satisfactory results than those off West Africa. Arriving off [[Barbados]] in the [[Caribbean]] at the end of April 1665 aboard his flagship ''Spiegel'' (directly translating to mirror but in Dutch use may also refer to the transom or more simply the rear of a ship), he led his fleet of thirteen vessels into [[Carlisle Bay]], exchanging fire with the English batteries and destroying many of the vessels anchored there.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bajanworldheritage.com/history|title=History: History and Development > Settlement of Bridgetown |author=Staff writer|year=n.d.|work=Barbados' UNESCO World Heritage application|publisher=The Ministry of Community Development & Culture, Barbados|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707205009/http://www.bajanworldheritage.com/history|archive-date=7 July 2011|access-date=17 March 2011|quote=In 1665, the Charles Fort played a major role in successfully defending Barbados from attack by the Dutch (commanded by Admiral Michiel de Ruyter) who had attempted a surprise assault from the east.|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> [[Battle of Barbados (1665)|Unable to silence]] the English guns and having sustained significant casualties and considerable damage to his vessels, he retired to French [[Martinique]] for repairs.{{sfn|Kloster|2016|p=103}}

Sailing north from Martinique, De Ruyter captured several English vessels and delivered supplies to the Dutch colony at [[Sint Eustatius]]. In view of the damage that his ships had sustained at Barbados, he decided against an assault on [[New York City|New York]], formerly [[New Amsterdam]] which would have been necessary, had the Dutch wished to retake their former [[New Netherland]] colony. De Ruyter then proceeded to [[Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]], capturing some English merchant ships and temporarily taking the town of [[St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador|St. John's]] before returning to Europe, travelling around the north of Scotland as a precaution.{{sfn|Kloster|2016|p=103}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nlgeotourism.com/content/city-of-st-johns/nflF255940DE7B62E652|title=History of St. john's|author=Staff writer|year=n.d.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160128204612/http://www.nlgeotourism.com/content/city-of-st-johns/nflF255940DE7B62E652|archive-date=28 January 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[File:Four Day Battle - Episode uit de vierdaagse zeeslag (Willem van de Velde I, 1693).jpg|thumb|left|[[Four Days' Battle]] of 1 to 4 June 1666]]
In December 1664, the English fleet attacked the Dutch [[İzmir|Smyrna]] fleet. Although the attack failed, the Dutch in January 1665 allowed their ships to open fire on English warships when threatened.{{sfn|Rommelse|2006|pp=135, 139}} War was declared by the Dutch on 4 March 1665, following two further English attacks on Dutch convoys, one off Cadiz and another in the English Channel.{{sfn|Fox|2018|pp=67–68}} The Dutch fleet was confident of victory but it contained a significant proportion of older or weak ships. In the first year of the [[Second Anglo-Dutch War]], at the [[Battle of Lowestoft]] on 13 June 1665, the Dutch suffered the worst defeat in the history the Dutch Republic's navy. At least sixteen ships were lost, and one-third of its personnel captured or killed; Van Wassenaer was among the dead.{{sfn|Fox|2018|pp=126–127}}

On his return to the republic, De Ruyter learned Van Wassenaer had been killed at Lowestoft. [[Cornelis Tromp]] had been put in temporary command of the confederate fleet after the battle, but was not acceptable to the regime of [[Johan de Witt]] because of his support for the Orangist cause.{{sfn|Prud'homme van Reine|1996|p=152}} De Ruyter was politically neutral, but on friendly terms with [[Johan de Witt]] and his associates. His successes in distant waters, which ensured he was not involved in the battle of Lowestoft and tainted by that defeat, made him the obvious candidate to succeed Van Wassenaer as commander of the Dutch fleet, which he did on 11 August 1665.{{sfn|Fox|2018|pp=125–127}} He was therefore made lieutenant-admiral (a rank he would in 1666 share with five others in the Dutch admiralties){{citation needed|date=November 2021}} of Rotterdam, a position traditionally reserved for the ''Bevelhebber van 's-Landts Vloot'', the supreme operational commander.
[[File:De ruyter de witt texel img 9310.jpg|thumb|De Ruyter and [[Johan de Witt|De Witt]]'s embarkment at Texel in 1667, by [[Eugène Isabey]]]]
In the second year of the war, 1666, De Ruyter won the hard-fought [[Four Days' Battle]] of 1 to 4 June 1666. The division of the English fleet gave the Dutch the advantage of numbers on the first and second days of fighting. An English attack on the anchored Dutch fleet on the first day was resisted and, after two days fighting, the English fleet retreated towards the Thames.{{sfn|Fox|2018|pp=234–236}} However, the English fleet was reinforced by a squadron of undamaged ships on the third evening and fought strongly on the fourth day, so that Tromp seemed near to defeat in the afternoon, until De Ruyter decided the battle with a surprise all-out attack that demoralised his opponents into retreat.{{sfn|Fox|2018|pp=263–264}}

However, the English fleet was not destroyed and, on 4 and 5 August, the Dutch suffered heavy manpower losses and narrowly escaped disaster in the [[St. James's Day Battle]]. After the battle, De Ruyter accused Cornelis Tromp of ignoring the main English attack on the Dutch fleet, preferring to chase the English rear squadron as far as the coast, which eventually led to Tromp's dismissal.{{sfn|Fox|2018|pp=293–296}} De Ruyter then became seriously ill, recovering just in time to take nominal command of the fleet executing the [[Raid on the Medway]] in 1667, the third year of the war. The Medway raid was part of a broader plan by Johan de Witt to land Dutch troops in Kent or Essex, and De Ruyter neither agreed with de Witt's fixation with the Thames estuary as the critical theatre of the naval war nor with this raid. The Medway raid was a costly and embarrassing defeat for the English, resulting in the loss of the English flagship {{HMS|Royal Charles|1660|6}} and effectively ended the war in favour of the Dutch.{{sfn|Jones|1988|pp=29–30}}

A planned Dutch attack on the English anchorage at [[Harwich]] led by De Ruyter had to be abandoned after the [[battle of Landguard Fort]], at the close of the war.{{sfn|Fox|2018|pp=301–304}} The [[Peace of Breda]] brought the war to an end.

Between 1667 and 1671, De Ruyter was forbidden by De Witt to sail, so as not to endanger his life.{{sfn|Prud'homme van Reine|1996|p=228}} In 1669, a failed attempt on his life was made by a Tromp supporter, who tried to stab him with a bread knife in the entrance hall of his house.{{sfn|Prud'homme van Reine|1996|p=253}}