these ships, worth several millions, and to divide the spoil. Through mismanagement, however, the scheme was defeated, and the Earl of Sandwich, who had been sent to carry out this intrigue, was so severely handled by the governor of Bergen, that the English ships were compelled to return home. A strong fleet of ninety-three ships, well equipped, under the command of De Ruyter, was then despatched from Holland to convey home the valuable merchant ships from Bergen, but a storm severely damaged this expedition, and ultimately twenty of the ships fell into the hands of the English.
Coalition between the French and Dutch, 1666.
Battle of June 1,
In the following year the affairs of England looked
alarming, the States-General having induced the
king of France to declare war against England, at
the same time subsidising the king of Denmark,
to enable him to keep a fleet at sea in the service of
the allies. It is irrelevant to our main purpose to
describe the tactics of the English and allied fleets; it
will be only necessary to remind our readers that the
English admirals, Monk and Prince Rupert, engaged
the Dutch fleet under De Ruyter and Cornelis Van
Tromp on the 1st of June, 1666, off the coast of
Flanders, and, after a bloody struggle for four days,
the English lost two admirals and twenty-three
great ships, besides smaller vessels, six thousand men,
and two thousand six hundred prisoners, while the
losses of the Dutch amounted to four admirals, six
ships, two thousand eight hundred soldiers, and
eighty sailors. The latter of course claimed the
victory, but the Londoners made bonfires as if they
were the conquerors.[1]*
- ↑ All the accounts of the respective losses of the two fleets vary;
