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Battle of Dover

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Period of increasing tension between the English Commonwealth and the Dutch Republic. Issue of trade/commercial rivalry, irritation over fishing rights in the North Sea, and Dutch support for the English Royalist faction, tension/

situation exacerbated by parliaments revival of the claim to the sovereignty if the seas, ie control, over the waters around the British Isles, exemplified by its requirement that ships of foreign nations salute English ships when met. Up to the spring of 1652 the Dutch States general had advised thay the salute be offered as a courtesy, without admitting/endorsing the claim what underlay it, but in May of that year it dispatched a fleet under adm. Marten van Tromp with more ambiguous orders; to offer the salute only if faced with superior forces. Tromp was not a rash or provocative commander, but his orders could only lead to trouble, and did so.

On 17 May Tromp, with a fleet of 41 warships, was cruising down the coast of Flanders intending to meet a convoy returning from the Mediterranean. On ..in the Straits of Dover he ran into a westerly gale, from which he took shelter in the Downs, a roadstead off the coast of Kent. Also in the Downs a was an English squadron of 9 ships under N Bourne. Tromp sent two frigates to Bourne to notify him of his intentions, but refused the salute, leading to a tense stand-off. Bourne, heavily outnumbered, sent word to Blake, who lay off Rye with 12 ships, while some desultory firing took place during the night between the Dutch ships and Dover castle. In the morning Tromp weighed anchor and set out for the French coast, followed by Bourne, while Blake beat up the channel from the south. However, when halfway across, Tromp sighted a Dutch ship approaching from the south, past Blakes squadron. This was Capt. Van Zaanen, second-in-command of a convoy from the/ the med convoy. Thsi had ben involved in a gun action off the Start 5 days earlier, and was presently sheltering at Fairlight, near Hastings, Tromp immediately altered course towards Fairlight, intending to join them, but thus course brought him/ caused him to bear down on Blakes squadron, and was interpreted as hostile. Ax the fleet closed, firing broke out, most likely from the English fleet / ships first, / broke out, and became general

Hainsworth/Church Roger

Action off Start Point

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The action off Start Point, in southwest England, occurred in May 1652 and

It involved /was an exchange of fire between English ships of the Western Guard and warships of the Dutch Republic. On the morning of 12 May.. the 40 gun Resident, under Capt. Andrew Young, in company with the 26 gun Nightingale, encountered a Dutch convoy of seven merchants, escorted by three men-of-war under the command of Capt. Huylight?

After approaching, Young demanded the salute, an ancient right recently revived by the English Commonwealth, and the source of some friction with other nations. H, under orders/ following instructions/guidance from the States general that the salute could be given as a courtesy without admitting/ recognizing the sovereignty implied, gave the salute, but his second-in-command, van Zaanen , in the / refused, whereupon Young opened fire on the Dutchmen. A confused exchange of fire ensued for 90 minutes, until V Zaanen struck his colours. Young demanded the Dutch ships put into Plymouth to assess damages and pay compensation, but H refused to do this, and Y felt unable to press the point further. H continued up the c Channel, hoping to meet the Dutch fleet under M v Tromp, who was sailing south / known to be cruising off the French coast. Five days later V Zaanen, scouting ahead, met Tromp off Dover, there he was facing an English fleet under Blake.. News of the Start engagement led to a confrontation between Tromp and Blake, later known as the Battle of Dover, the first action/battle of the First ADW/ and to general war between the two nations.

Hainsworth/Church Roger .

Sovereignty of the Seas

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The SotS was an ancient right claimed by the English monarch during the Middle Ages and into the Tudor and Stuart periods/eras. It was a point of dispute with England's neighbours and a casus belli in the Dutch Wars of the 17th century.

Background

The English claim to the lordship of the sea was traced back to 10th century Anglo-Saxon King Edgar the Peaceable. It is claimed that the/at his coronation at Chester six (or eight) other kings of the British Isles hailed him as overlord, and in recognition of this manned oars on his barge for the/a journey on the River Dee. These included the kings of Alba, of Man and the Isles, of Strathclyde, Cumbria and Gwynedd. Edgar also maintained/kept a large fleet, and earned his epithet by maintaining/ deterring other nations from attacking his realm; during a period of Viking raids on France, his England was left largely alone.

In 1293 in the reign of Edward I the claim was made explicit by / advocates for EI to the king of f France; in a dispute between seamen/ sailors of ? nd of La Rochelle, E was summoned by Louis? As his vassal/ feudal overlord for his lands in France, his advocates claimed parity, argued/ing that the English king had from time out of mind had been in the peaceable possession of the sovereign lordship of the English Sea and the islands therein.

However the right was only good when it was enforceable and in periods of internal strife, or royal weakness, was ignored. The right was also pursued in times of the kings weakness by other parties claiming recompense for loss to pirates; it was held that as lord of the sea the king had a duty to suppress piracy, and his failure to do so made him liable for their losses.

The right was revived and extended by Charles I, who built/ expanded his navy (the Ship Money fleet) to enforce it. Ships of other natiomns were required to salute Charles’s ships when they were met/encountered, or face retaliation. This policy was / began to be enforced in 1635, with incidents recoreded of English ships firing on those that refused the salute. After a period in abeyance duringthe English Civil Wars, the Commonwealth navy revived the custom, leading to friction, and eventually war with the Dutch republic.

Roger Wilson

[[Ship money#aftermath would, and would


search [Medieval Maritime Warfare: battle of Dover 1217 = [https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Medieval_Maritime_Warfare/zzagBwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Medieval+Maritime+Warfare:+battle+of+Dover+1217&pg=PA236&printsec=frontcover p236 Charles Stanton Medieval Maritime Warfare (2020) {{ISBN|978-1526782199 ] .