Everything about Michiel De Ruyter totally explained
Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter (
24 March 1607 –
29 April 1676) is one of the most famous
admirals in
Dutch history. De Ruyter is most famous for his role in the
Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th century. He fought the
English and
French in these wars and scored several major victories, the best known probably being the
Raid on the Medway. The pious De Ruyter was very much loved by his sailors and soldiers; from them his most significant nickname derived:
Bestevaêr (older Dutch for 'grandfather'.)
He is honoured by a statue in his birthplace
Vlissingen, where he stands looking over the sea.
Early life
De Ruyter was born in 1607 in
Flushing (Vlissingen) as the son of beer porter Adriaen Michielszoon and Aagje Jansdochter. Little is known about De Ruyter's early life, but he probably became a
sailor at the age of 11. In
1622 he fought as a
musketeer in the Dutch army under
Maurice of Nassau against the Spaniards during the relief of
Bergen-op-Zoom. That same year he rejoined the Dutch merchant fleet and steadily worked his way up. According to English sources he was active in
Dublin between
1623 and
1631 as an agent for the
Vlissingen-based merchant house of the Lampsins brothers. Although Dutch sources have no data about his whereabouts in those years, it's known that De Ruyter spoke
Irish fluently. He would occasionally travel as supercargo to the Mediterranean or the
Barbary Coast. In those years he usually referred to himself as "Machgyel Adriensoon", his name in the
Zealandic dialect he spoke, not having yet adopted the name "De Ruyter". "De Ruyter" most probably was a nickname given to him. An explanation might be found in the meaning of the older Dutch verb
ruyten or
ruiten which means "to raid", something De Ruyter was known to do as a
privateer with the Lampsins ship
Den Graeuwen Heynst.
In
1631 he married a farmer's daughter named Maayke Velders. The marriage lasted until the end of the year
1631 when Maayke died after giving birth to a daughter who followed her mother in death three weeks later.
In
1633 De Ruyter set sail for
Jan Mayen Island serving as
first mate on a fleet of five
whalers. He repeated this action in
1634 and
1635. At this point he didn't yet have a command of his own. In the summer of
1636 he remarried, this time to a daughter of a wealthy
burgher named Neeltje Engels, who would give him four children. One of these died shortly after birth, the others were named Adriaen (1637), Neeltje (1639) and Aelken (1642).
In the midst of this, in
1637, De Ruyter became captain of a private ship meant to hunt for
raiders operating from
Dunkirk who were preying on Dutch merchant shipping. He fulfilled this task until
1640. After sailing for a while as
schipper (
skipper) of a merchant vessel named de
Vlissinge, he was contacted again by the
Zeeland Admiralty to become captain of the
Haze, a merchant ship turned man-of-war carrying 26 guns in a fleet under admiral Gijsels fighting the
Spanish, teaming up with the
Portuguese during their rebellion.
A Dutch fleet, with De Ruyter as third in command, beat back a Spanish-Dunkirker fleet in an action of
Cape St Vincent 4 November 1641. After returning he bought his own ship, the
Salamander, and between
1642 and
1652, he mainly traded and travelled to
Morocco and the
West Indies to amass wealth as a merchant. During this time his esteem grew among other Dutch captains as he'd regularly free Christian slaves by redeeming them at his own expense.
In
1650 De Ruyter's wife, who in
1649 had given him a second son named Engel, unexpectedly died. On
8 January 1652 he married the widow Anna van Gelder and decided the time had come to retire. He bought a house in Flushing, but his blissful family life wouldn't last long.
First Anglo-Dutch War
During the
First Anglo-Dutch War (
1652–
1654), De Ruyter was asked to join the expanding fleet as a subcommander of a Zealandic squadron of "director's ships": privately financed warships. After initially refusing and stating he wasn't qualified enough for such a job, De Ruyter proved his worth under supreme commander Lieutenant-Admiral (the nominal rank of
Admiral-General was reserved for the
stadtholder but at the time none was appointed)
Maarten Tromp, winning the
Battle of Plymouth against Vice-Admiral
George Ayscue. He also fought at the
Battle of Kentish Knock, the
Battle of Plymouth and the
Battle of the Gabbard. De Ruyter functioned as a squadron commander, being referred to as a
Commodore, which at the time wasn't an official rank in the Dutch navy.
Tromp's death during the
Battle of Scheveningen ended the war and De Ruyter declined an emphatic offer from
Johan de Witt for supreme command, because he considered himself 'unfit' and also feared that bypassing the seniority principle would bring him into conflict with
Witte de With and
Johan Evertsen. Later De Ruyter and De Witt would become personal friends. Colonel
Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam then became the new Dutch supreme commander of the confederate fleet. De Ruyter — after refusing to become Obdam's naval 'advisor' — remained in service of the Dutch navy however and later accepted an offer from the admiralty of
Amsterdam to become their Vice-Admiral on
2 March 1654. He relocated with his family to the city in
1655.
1655–1663
In July
1655 De Ruyter took command of a squadron of eight of which the
Tijdverdrijf was his flagship and set out for the Mediterranean with 55 merchantmen in convoy. His orders were to protect Dutch trade. Meeting an English fleet under
Robert Blake along the way, he managed to avoid creating a new flag incident. Operating off the
Barbary Coast he captured several infamous corsairs and having negotiated a peace agreement with
Salé, De Ruyter returned home May
1656
The same month the
States-General, becoming ever more wary of Swedish king
Charles X and his expansion plans, decided to intervene in the
Northern Wars by sending a fleet to the
Baltic Sea. The Swedes controlled this area after Charles had invaded Poland and made himself king there. De Ruyter once again embarked on the
Tijdverdrijf arriving in the
Sound the 8th of June; there he waited for Lieutenant-Admiral
Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam to arrive. After Obdam had assumed command De Ruyter and the Dutch fleet sailed to relieve the besieged city of
Gdańsk on
27 July, without any bloodshed. Peace was signed a month later. Before leaving the Baltic De Ruyter and other flagofficers were granted audience by
Frederick III of Denmark. De Ruyter took a liking to the Danish king who would later become a personal friend.
In 1658 the
States-General decided to once again send a fleet to the
Baltic Sea to protect the important
Baltic trade and to aid the Danes against Swedish aggression, continued despite a peace settlement. In accordance with the States'
balance of power politics a fleet under Lieutenant-Admiral
Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam was sent, without De Ruyter, who at the time was blockading
Lisbon. On
8 November a bloody melee took place: the
Battle of the Sound, which resulted in a Dutch victory, relieving
Copenhagen. Still the Swedes were far from defeated and the States decided to continue their support. De Ruyter took command of a new expeditionary fleet and managed to liberate
Nyborg in
1659. For this he was knighted by the Danish king
Frederick III of Denmark. From 1661 until 1663 De Ruyter had convoy duty in the Mediterranean.
Second Anglo-Dutch War
In
1664, a year before the Second Anglo-Dutch War officially began, he clashed with the English off the
West African coast, where both the English and Dutch had significant slave stations, retaking the Dutch possessions occupied by
Robert Holmes and then crossing the Atlantic to raid the English colonies in America.
Arriving off
Barbados in the
Caribbean at the end of April
1665 aboard his flagship
Spiegel, he led his fleet of thirteen vessels into
Carlisle Bay, exchanging fire with the English batteries and destroying many of the vessels anchored there. Unable to silence the English guns and having sustained considerable damage to his own vessels, he retired to French
Martinique for repairs.
Sailing north from Martinique, de Ruyter captured several English vessels and delivered supplies to the Dutch colony at
Sint Eustatius. Given the damage he'd sustained, he decided against an assault on
New York (the former
New Amsterdam) to retake
New Netherland. He then took off to
Newfoundland, capturing several English fishing boats and temporarily taking
St. John's before proceeding to Europe.
On his return to The Netherlands he learned that Van Wassenaer had been killed in the disastrous
Battle of Lowestoft. Many expected that Tromp's son Cornelis would now take command of the confederate fleet, especially
Cornelis Tromp himself, who had already been given a temporary commission. Tromp however wasn't acceptable to the regent regime of Johan de Witt because of his support of the Prince of Orange's cause. De Ruyter's popularity had grown after his heroic return and, most importantly, his affiliation lay with the
Estates-General and
Johan de Witt in particular. He therefore was made commander of the Dutch fleet on
11 August 1665, as Lieutenant-Admiral (a rank he at the time shared with six others) of the Amsterdam admiralty.
In this
Second Anglo-Dutch War (
1665–
1667) he won a hard-fought victory in the
Four Days Battle (June
1666) but narrowly escaped disaster in the
St James's Day Battle (August 1666) which brought him into conflict with Cornelis Tromp, eventually leading to Tromp's dismissal. He then became seriously ill, recovering just in time to take nominal command of the fleet executing the
Raid on the Medway in
1667. The Medway raid was a costly and embarrassing defeat for the English, resulting in the loss of the English flagship
HMS Royal Charles and bringing the Dutch close to
London and the war to its end. Between 1667 and 1671 he was forbidden by De Witt to sail, in order not to endanger his life. In 1669 a failed attempt on his life was made by a Tromp supporter, trying to stab him with a bread knife in the entrance-hall of his house.
Third Anglo-Dutch War and death
De Ruyter saved the situation for the Netherlands in the
Third Anglo-Dutch War. His strategic victories over larger Anglo-French fleets at the Battles of
Solebay (
1672), the double
Schooneveld (
1673) and
Texel (1673) warded off invasion. The new rank of Lieutenant-Admiral-General was created especially for him in February 1673, when the new
stadtholder William III of Orange became Admiral-General.
Again taking the battle to the Caribbean, this time against the French, De Ruyter arrived off Martinique aboard his flagship
De Zeven Provinciën on
19 July 1674. He led a substantial force of eighteen warships, nine storeships, and fifteen troop transports bearing 3,400 soldiers. Attempting to assault
Fort Royal, his fleet was becalmed, allowing the greatly outnumbered French defenders time to solidify their defenses. The next day, newly-placed booms prevented de Ruyter from entering the harbor. Nonetheless, the Dutch soldiers went ashore without the support of the fleet's guns, and were badly mauled in their attempt to reach the French fortifications atop the steep cliffs. Within two hours, the soldiers were returning to the fleet, with 143 killed and 318 wounded, as compared to only fifteen French defenders lost. His ambitions thwarted and with the element of surprise lost, De Ruyter sailed north to
Dominica and
Nevis, then returned to Europe while disease spread aboard his ships.
In 1676 he took command of a combined Dutch-Spanish fleet to help the Spanish suppress the
Messina Revolt and fought a French fleet under
Duquesne twice at the
Battle of Stromboli and the
Battle of Agosta, where he was fatally wounded when a cannonball hit his left leg. On
18 March 1677 De Ruyter was given an elaborate state funeral when his body was buried in the
Nieuwe Kerk (
New Church) in
Amsterdam. He was succeeded as supreme commander by Cornelis Tromp in 1679.
De Ruyter was highly respected by his sailors and soldiers, who used the term of endearment
Bestevaêr ("Granddad") for him, both because of his disregard for hierarchy (he was himself of humble origin) and his refusal to back away from risky and bold undertakings despite his usually cautious nature.
Respect also extended far beyond the borders of the Republic. On his last journey home, the late Lieutenant-Admiral-General was saluted by canon shots fired on the coasts of France by the direct orders of the French king Louis XIV. The town of
Debrecen erected a statue of him for his role in freeing 26 Protestant
Hungarian ministers from
slavery.
Modern reference
In the
2004 election of
De Grootste Nederlander (The Greatest Dutchman) Michiel de Ruyter was the seventh-most voted.
'Michiel de Ruyter' is the default name for the Dutch in Sid Meier's 1994 game,
Colonization.
He was buried in the
Nieuwe Kerk (
New Church) in
Amsterdam. De Ruyter's burial site has now turned into a tourist attraction. De Ruyter's
praalgraf is visible, protected by a glass pane. However, descendents of the De Ruyter family are granted unrestricted access to his grave, and De Ruyter's descendent stated in a 2007 issue of Dutch newspaper
Het Parool that he visited the coffin privately in 1948 with his own grandfather, and they decided to lift the coffin's lid. The grand-grand son was shocked with the sight and said: "it wasn't a pleasant sight. He (De Ruyter) was
embalmed with great haste, and they didn't bother with his shot-off leg, they just dropped it in. It was just lying there. No, it wasn't pleasant, it was a shock actually ".
Ships
Six ships of the
Royal Netherlands Navy have been named
HNLMS De RuyterFurther Information
Get more info on 'Michiel De Ruyter'.
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