Michiel Adriaanszoon de Ruyter

Dutch admiral

• Born: March 24, 1607
• Birthplace: Flushing, Zeeland Province, United Provinces (now in the Netherlands)
• Died: April 29, 1676
• Place of death: Aboard ship in the Bay of Syracuse, Sicily (now in Italy)

De Ruyter maintained and strengthened the maritime defenses of the United Provinces against a growing number of opponents, especially England in the Anglo-Dutch Wars of 1652 to 1674.

Early Life

Michiel Adriaanszoon de Ruyter (mih-KEEL aw-dree-AWNS-zohn deh ROY-tehr), the fifth of eleven children born to Adriaan and Aelken Michielsz of Flushing, had little to look forward to in life. His father, a sailor, could scarcely support his growing family, and Michael was a difficult child. The boy found little use in schooling, was several times expelled for insolence and fighting, and was eventually apprenticed to a local ropeyard at the age of ten.

The apprentice, too, failed, and the boy was finally sent to sea in 1618, where he excelled. In the ensuing decades, Michael would visit much of Western Europe, the Baltic, the Mediterranean, and North America selling butter, herring, fats, and hides. Almost devoid of education, he began a program of self-improvement. He studied first with his former teacher before retaining experienced captains and navigators to improve his knowledge of the trade. In time, he would be recognized as one of the best and most respected officers in Zeeland.

As a result of his diligence, he rose in the esteem of his employers and was soon promoted to second-in-command (1633) of one of their smaller ships. He was named master of a ship (1640) at the relatively young age of thirty-three. Although his career in the 1630’s and 1640’s is hard to document, he held both merchant and whaling commands and captained several privateers. During this time, he began to invest in the firm, owning interest in several ships. Symbolic of his growing affluence, he married, built a comfortable home for his family, and adopted the name of his mother’s father, Ruyter, to which he soon added “de,” implying nobility.

Life’s Work

His service, his experience, and the support of the Zeeland Admiralty earned him the rank of provincial rear admiralship in 1641. Although not a regular naval officer, de Ruyter, as he was now known, was commissioned third in command of a small fleet in alliance against Spain. He demonstrated conspicuous bravery in saving several ships in battle and was commended by his superiors. More important, he realized the superiority of other nations’ ships to those of the Dutch Republic. Spanish, Portuguese, French, and English ships were heavier gunned, were bigger, carried more sail, and were better maintained. Holland’s smaller ships, however, were more maneuverable.

The conclusion of hostilities brought an end to his naval command. He returned to Flushing in early 1643, purchased a ship with the assistance of several stockholders, and traded in the North Sea, the Mediterranean, and the West Indies for nearly a decade. By 1652, he was a wealthy man and had planned to retire to his home to manage his investments.

The First Anglo-Dutch War (1651-1652) changed these plans. A clash between the two commercial nations of the United Provinces and England was always possible, but English mercantilism, a belief in trade monopoly, made it inevitable. In particular, the Navigation Act of 1651 forbade the Dutch from carrying English goods. War followed, and England sought to blockade and economically strangle the United Provinces. The Dutch were slow to respond, and it was not until their fleet had sailed that the States-General, the ruling body of the United Provinces, realized the vulnerability of their incoming merchant fleets. They hurriedly assembled a reserve force to warn and cover the incoming convoys. They selected de Ruyter, among others, to command the force, and he kept the English Channel open. The admiral was then transferred to the main fleet and gained the admiration of Maarten Tromp, the leading Dutch admiral. De Ruyter, recognized for his ability to attack, led the way at Dungenes, Portland, Nieuwpoort, and Terheiden. Although Tromp was killed at Terheiden, the blockade was broken and the war brought to a close. The merchant admiral was promoted to vice-admiral of the republic’s navy, and a second career, more auspicious than his first, had officially begun.

As an officer of wide experience he was immediately reassigned to areas of need—the Mediterranean (1654-1659 and 1661-1664) and the Baltic (1656 and 1659-1660). He successfully made treaties with the pirates and returned repeatedly to enforce them; he also protected the Danes from the Swedes. He received further assignments to Guinea (1664-1665), the Antilles (1665), and Newfoundland (1665). All of the assignments involved either the recapture of forts owned by the Dutch West India Company or the capture of English posts.

De Ruyter arrived home in 1665 to cheering crowds and a promotion to lieutenant-admiral. He also found the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667) in progress and that the Dutch had experienced an almost crushing defeat. Seen as the avenging hero and immediately appointed commander of the main battle fleet, he put to sea with what remained of his fleet, not to fight, but to buy time until new ships could be built and old ones refitted. Literally, at his demand, the United Provinces undertook to build bigger, faster, and more heavily armed ships such as those of their enemies.

Fortunately, de Ruyter’s maneuvers, a simultaneous blockade of the Thames River, and a severe visitation of plague on the English ships provided the time necessary to reconstruct the fleet. In mid-June, 1666, the two opposing naval forces clashed. The Dutch, for the first time bigger and one-third stronger than their opponent, were victorious. The Four Days’ Battle was a major defeat for the English. Two months later, a far stronger English navy beat the Dutch at the Two Days’ Battle, only to experience another crushing reverse at Chatham (June, 1667). As de Ruyter’s ships followed up the victory by burning English shipping and by landing soldiers along the coast of Britain, peace was quickly arranged.

Now lieutenant-admiral and the supreme chief of the States Fleet, de Ruyter worked out of Amsterdam. It was partly a matter of his health, but it was also a matter of watching England. Sweden, England, and the United Provinces had concluded an arrangement—the Triple Alliance—in 1668 to protect themselves and each other from the rising ambitions of France. Unfortunately, it was soon evident that England was shifting toward France and that the Dutch were to be squeezed between the two nations. As the Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672-1674) approached, de Ruyter and Johan de Witt, the chief official of the States-General, worked long hours to provide forts, soldiers, sailors, and ships from the insufficient resources of the small nation.

The French and English plan was to capture the Dutch frontier fortresses and force the States-General to reinforce the army at the expense of the navy. English and French ships could then crush the reduced Dutch battle fleet, capture their ports, and land an army from the Channel. Fortunately for the Dutch, the plan failed. The States-General rallied behind their hereditary military leader, William III of Orange, found allies, and retained their chief fortresses. The fleet under de Ruyter, even though it was at times badly outnumbered, held its opponents at bay and gained strategic victories at Sole Bay (1672), Schooneveld (1673), and Camperdown (1673). In 1674, England was forced to withdraw from the conflict.

The war with France continued, and de Ruyter was sent to attack French colonies in the West Indies (1674) and to recapture Messina in Sicily (1675-1676) for Spain, the United Provinces’ ally. The first expedition achieved little, and the second brought a naval victory at Etna. It was de Ruyter’s last victory. He was wounded and died on board his flagship. His remains were embalmed and returned to Zeeland in an iron coffin.

Significance

De Ruyter was a self-made man. He rose from the working class and obtained wealth through hard work, planning, and frugality, but he was a firm believer in God’s will rather than his own abilities alone, and he won the devotion of his men because he always led the way. Yet, his significance should also be viewed in terms of his ability as a naval commander. He took the offense, whenever possible, and on the attack he reduced his opponents’ offensive capabilities by isolating one or more parts of their line, either the vanguard or the rear. Then he would concentrate his ships to assault, then split, and then overwhelm the opponent in the center.

Bibliography

Blok, Petrus J. In The Life of Admiral de Ruyter. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1975. Still the best study available in English, but it is far from complete.

Cooper, J. P. “Seapower.” In The Decline of Spain and the Thirty Years’ War, 1609-1648. Volume 4 in The New Cambridge Modern History. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1970. An essential background to the period’s naval history.

Hainsworth, Roger, and Christine Churches. The Anglo-Dutch Naval Wars, 1652-1674. Stroud, England: Sutton, 1998. The authors maintain the wars were a significant milestone in the development of naval warfare, as they introduced new technologies and strategies.

Kossman, E. H. “The Dutch Republic.” In The Ascendancy of France: 1648-1688. Volume 5 in The New Cambridge Modern History. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1961. An elementary discussion of the States-General, John de Witt, and the prince of Orange.

Mahan, Alfred T. The Influence of Seapower upon History, 1660-1763. New York: Hill and Wang, 1957. A good discussion of naval strategies, but only those after 1660.