S ea
batt l e s I N t h e D u tc h
G o ld e n Ag e
P eter S igmond W o u ter K loek
Terschelling Vlieland Texel Kijkduin
Lowestoft
North Sea
ZuiderZee
Haarlem Amsterdam
Solebay
Ter Heide Goeree
Rotterdam Hellevoetsluis
Middelburg
London
Vlissingen
Sheerness Chatham
Antwerp Dunkirk
Channel
Contents Introduction 8 CHAPTER 1
FOCUS From Sea Beggars to a navy 12
CHAPTER 2
Jacob van Heemskerck and Gibraltar 26
CHAPTER 3
Piet Hein and the silver fleet 40
CHAPTER 4
FOCUS The Navy, the people and the means 50
CHAPTER 5
Maerten Tromp, the Downs and the First Anglo-Dutch War 72
CHAPTER 6
Cornelis Tromp and Livorno 84
CHAPTER 7
FOCUS The artists and their patrons 96
CHAPTER 8
Michiel de Ruyter and the Second Anglo-Dutch War 120
CHAPTER 9
De Ruyter once more: the Third Anglo-Dutch War 152
CHAPTER 10
FOCUS Memorabilia 164
Literature 182 Index 183 Credits 184
003 Portrait of Piet Hein, copy after Jan Daemen Cool, 1629
oil on panel, 65 x 50 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
004 Portrait of Maerten Harpertsz Tromp at the age of 42, Michiel van Mierevelt, 1640
10
oil on panel, 72 x 59 cm Stedelijk Museum, Delft, on loan from Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel erfgoed, Amersfoort
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the great sea battles and their heroes occupied a prominent place as a source of national pride. But the tide turned after the Second World War. National pride has often been rather out of favour over the past fifty years. That could be seen in museum displays, where there was often a deliberate attempt to avoid hero worship. The artworks and memorabilia that had ended up in the museums because of their association with these national heroes were treated with due suspicion. All kinds of excuses were made: the paintings of the great naval battles were almost always executed some time after the event, they sang
the praises of heroes who had not been so flawless after all, or the outcome of the battles was not really so clear-cut, etcetera, etcetera. But now interest seems to have recovered. The canon of Dutch history and culture (fifty key events and people) is compulsory material for Dutch schoolchildren and Michiel de Ruyter is undeniably part of that canon. That is a good reason to put the spotlight on the paintings and objects in the museum collections – in particular the Rijksmuseum, which has a large number of objects relating to the maritime highlights of the Dutch Republic in the 17th century. They serve as a guide for
006 Portrait of an unknown naval officer, by Ferdinand Bol, 1667
oil on panel, 66 x 54 cm Zeeuws maritiem muZEEum, Vlissingen
oil on canvas, 116.5 x 93.5 cm, in original frame Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, on loan from the City of Amsterdam (A. van der Hoop
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005 Portrait of Michiel Adriaensz de Ruyter at the age of about 48, by Hendrick Berckman, 1655
Introduction
Bequest)
this story. Why were they made, why were they preserved and what is their significance? Who made them and for whom? Working from these objects as the starting point yields questions like these and offers a different perspective, while at the same time uncovering the maritime history of the Dutch Republic in the 17th century through words and images. And we have to keep in mind that the museums in Spain, England and France show the other side of the coin. That each country saw these conflicts from its own point of view has consequences for this book, which is written from a Dutch perspective. English historians call the huge Battle of
Ter Heide the Battle of Scheveningen but the Dutch name is used here. But where the Dutch speak of the Battle of Duins, the English name Battle of the Downs is used here. In other cases too the modern local, common spelling is used. That includes places that had different anglicised names in 17th-century English, so this book talks of Livorno rather than Leghorn, and Vlissingen rather than Flushing. The dates are given in accordance with the modern Gregorian calendar, which was used in the Dutch Republic, rather than the Julian calendar still in use in England at the time. The Dutch point of view remains the basis for this book.
38
026 The explosion of the Spanish flagship during the Battle of Gibraltar, 25 April 1607, by Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen, 1621
oil on canvas, 137.5 x 188 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
39 A Dutch sloop whose crew are pulling men out of the water is part of a wealth of human detail in this work. The tactics of the battle are underlined by the Dutch flagship approaching on the right, while in the background on the left a Spanish galleon is being boarded by two Dutch ships. In the final painting nearly five metres wide (fig. 025), Van Wieringen left out the drama of the ‘test piece’. He gives a comprehensive overview of the encounter in the bay of Gibraltar, with on the left the battle between the Spanish admiral and the ships of Van Heemskerck and Rear Admiral Mooy Lambert. To the right of the centre is a Zeeland ship whose sails have been holed, making it hard to manoeuvre. To the left of the centre, in the foreground, is a state yacht flying both the arms of the admiralty and of Prince Maurice, thus symbolising the donor and the recipient of this gift. Incidentally, the prince’s arms are shown as they were in 1622 when he was Prince of Orange; in 1607 he was not yet allowed to adopt that title. After the end of the Truce in 1621, the war did not go that well for the Republic. In 1625 the Stadholder and commander of the army, Prince Maurice, died, and the important city of Breda fell into Spanish hands. There was a general longing for a victory. So Piet Hein’s capture of the silver fleet in 1629 was just what was needed.
Jacob van Heemskerck and Gibraltar
while the figure in the centre is Spain, accompanied here by a figure personifying the Inquisition. The figure behind the Spaniard pulling at the stick in the print may be the armed hand of the Catholic Church. This does not give us a straightforward key to the figures in the painting, but the intention is clear. Incidentally, the print, which was published in 1618, is also a call for vigilance, not long before the end of the Twelve Years’ Truce: ‘Wake up, the field is burning.’ The principal painting of the battle (fig. 025), by Cornelis van Wieringen and nearly five metres wide, was a gift from the admiralty of Amsterdam to Prince Maurice. The admiralty originally approached Hendrick Vroom, but he wanted 6000 guilders and that was too much. Van Wieringen, who asked for the still substantial sum of 2400 guilders, didn’t immediately win their trust. He had to paint a test piece first, which is believed to have been the painting of the explosion of the Spanish flagship (fig. 026). He then probably made the modello (fig. 024), a painting on panel more than a metre long, in which he showed his patrons his plan for the huge canvas. The final painting, completed in 1622, was destined for Prince Maurice’s new apartments in the Stadholder’s Quarters in the Binnenhof in The Hague. The triumphal work was no doubt meant to spur Prince Maurice on to more great deeds at sea after the end of the Twelve Years’ Truce. The explosion of the Spanish flagship (fig. 026) is among the most dramatic works in marine painting. The full extent of the battle is not depicted and nautical and topographical details are not emphasised; the scene is limited to the encounter between two ships and the full impact of the explosion, and this is precisely what makes the piece so extraordinary. The imposing Spanish ship has caught fire. The explosion of the powder magazine hurls soldiers still gripping their swords, and ladders, brooms and body parts into the air. The fire appears to have spread to the Dutch vessel that has rammed into the side of the Spanish ship.
62 English fleets. With their heavier guns they could keep their distance while still inflicting considerable damage with their three-deckers beyond the range of the Dutch cannon. For this reason the Dutch preferred to avoid an artillery duel and to get close enough to grapple and board. Another way of compensating for the disadvantage of fewer guns was to stay on the lee side, that is away from the wind, of the enemy. The wind made the English ships lean over towards the Dutch so that the guns on the lowest deck could not be used, and cannonballs fired from the higher decks had a smaller range. In the case of the Dutch ships, the windward side came higher out of the water, so that the guns on all
decks could be used and the range was increased. One disadvantage of this tactic was that the initiative lay with the ships sailing to the windward. They could decide to increase or reduce the distance between the two fleets, to change course and sail towards the enemy, or not to engage him. The fleet on the lee side could not sail into the wind, and so had to await what the opponent did. At first the fleets were divided into three squadrons: a vanguard, a centre and a rearguard, which were sometimes each subdivided into flotillas. The ships operated in groups and sought out their counterparts. After shots
043 The beginning of the Two Days’ Battle, 1666, etching by Wenzel Hollar
63
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
FOCUS
The Navy, the people and the means
were exchanged, the ships grappled together and a series of duels was fought in a vast melee. To get more benefit from their guns, in the second half of the 17th century the English began to sail in long lines (fig. 043). The result was a long ribbon of cannon. If an enemy ship was so badly damaged that it had to hang behind, it could be easily overmastered and taken as a prize or sunk. Capture was an attractive option, because then the ship could later be sold or added to one’s own fleet after repair. Indeed, in the Anglo-Dutch Wars we regularly come across former enemy ships under a new name. Sailing in line ahead meant that as far as possible the ships ought to have the same sailing
characteristics. In the First Anglo-Dutch War the Dutch deployed ships hired from the VOC; that did not happen again in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Ships were increasingly built according to the same ‘charter’ or model. Sailing in line ahead also required considerable seamanship, training and discipline. The ships had to keep to their place in the line by setting more or less sail, and manoeuvres such as changing course or tacking demanded exact timing. We must also bear in mind that a line might be several kilometres long, and that the ships had often been damaged in battle and lost their rigging, sails or masts. A stiff wind might be blowing and visibility was sometimes poor because of the smoke
68
048 ‘A warship, carrying 96 cannon’. Lengthwise section of a Dutch warship, published by Cornelis Danckerts
engraving Het Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam
in tar and other flammable material. Not identifiable as such to the enemy, the fire ship would be manoeuvred towards the opponent by a minimal crew and set alight. The crew would then escape in sloops. Best of all was if the fire ship could be hooked on to an enemy ship, or if the wind direction made it certain that it would be driven against the enemy (fig. 108). When two ships were chained together after grappling irons had been thrown into the rigging, they would be boarded and hand-to-hand fighting would begin. Pistols were not of much use because reloading took too long. Hand grenades, short sabres, knives and all manner of clubs and cudgels were favoured. Friend and foe were hard to distinguish because of the smoke, and because hardly anyone wore uniform as yet. As we have noted, boarding the enemy followed by hand-tohand combat long remained the favourite method of the Dutch. Generally speaking, they had fewer guns and were bound to lose a battle at long distance. The advent of fighting in line ahead made this method ever more difficult, however, and the shortage of guns had to be compensated for by having better trained gunners who could achieve a higher firing rate.
Ships At first there was hardly any uniformity among warships. A fleet would have a great variety of large and small ships, making it difficult to operate as an entity. Around the unwieldy, big and heavily armed vessels operated adviesjachten carrying orders to the units in the fleet, yachts, lightly armed, fast craft for reconnaissance missions, freighters with extra equipment and large and small warships with one or two gun decks. In the 1630s the frigate, a fast and fairly heavily armed ship, became increasingly popular with the Dutch navy. The oldest model in the Rijksmuseum collection, dating from 1648, is a ship of this type (fig. 049). It has two gun decks and a total of 44 pieces. The biggest model, dating from 1698, is a three-decker, the William Rex, named after Stadholder-King William III (fig. 050). It is not a model of an existing vessel but a showpiece made for the Zeeland admiralty and commissioned by Admiral Cornelis Evertsen the Younger (fig. 051). The lengthwise section of a warship with 96 pieces (fig. 048) also dates from the last years of the 17th century. The size of this ship is very similar to that of such English king’s ships as Royal Prince (fig. 102). The fighting strength of Maerten Tromp’s Brederode (59 pieces), for example,
049 Model of a Dutch warship with 44 pieces, 1648
The Navy, the people and the means
69
wood, length 106 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
FOCUS
96
Who commissioned all those wonderful maritime pictures? Why were they painted and who were the artists?
FOCUS
CHAPTER 7
The artists and their patrons In the 17th century painting sea battles, ship’s portraits and sea and river views was a specialisation. It was part of the wave of specialisations that can be observed in the Netherlands from the end of the 16th century. As if by magic, there are suddenly specialists in landscapes, still lifes and scenes from everyday life. Painters had earlier concentrated on biblical or mythological scenes, and on portraits of course, but most of the other specialisations emerged around 1600. Why they came into existence at this time is a question that has yet to be answered. It is known that with the disappearance of the Church as a patron after the Reformation, artists went in search of other possibilities, a new clientele. In turn, wealthy citizens, but also public bodies, were eager to make use of the new opportunities offered by artists.
The artists Hendrick Vroom, the first to specialise in painting ships (fig. 012, 016), probably painted his first works in the last
decade of the 16th century. Before that time, as mentioned, he made designs for tapestries (fig. 011). The oldest extant painting by him dates from 1599, but he had no doubt been painting before then. His first dated sea battle was painted in 1601. Vroom also created the genre of the ship’s portrait: a single ship, recorded with great precision, sometimes among other ships, sometimes in the port for a townscape. He must have been very popular, especially as the painter of these ship’s portraits. Works by him in the Rijksmuseum include the portrait of a four-master, traditionally identified as the Hollandse Tuyn, entering the IJ estuary after returning from Brazil in 1605 under the command of Paulus van Caerden (fig. 074). Although this identification has been questioned, the chances that this is the Hollandse Tuyn are fairly high, given that only a few four-masters were built in Holland. Vroom’s pivotal role for the genre becomes clear when we turn to his followers Cornelis Claesz van
Wieringen, Abraham de Verwer, Adam Willaerts, Aert Anthonisz and Andries van Eertvelt. All of them painted in a very similar style, which is sometimes difficult to distinguish from that of Vroom. Cornelis van Wieringen is credited with one spectacular innovation: in his Explosion of the Spanish flagship during the Battle of Gibraltar (fig. 026), he gives priority to the incident – the point at which fire breaks out, the powder magazine explodes and part of the ship is blown up – rather than to the story of the triumph or the legibility of the mass of detail. Vroom dominated the field well into the 1630s. The artists we now regard as the great innovators in marine painting, masters such as Jan Porcellis, Pieter Mulier and particularly Simon de Vlieger, had important roles in the representation of water, clouds and ships on their way to distant or nearby destinations, but they
rarely if ever recorded a naval battle. Moreover, Simon Vlieger, who only ever painted one battle, derives his importance in part from the example he set for Willem van de Velde the Younger. It seems as if the specialisation was not taken up again until the Anglo-Dutch Wars. It then went through several significant phases of renewal thanks to the work of the two Willem van de Veldes. But a number of other painters were active before then. Jacob Gerritsz Loef, for example, painted both sea battles and ship’s portraits in the 1640s. He thus occupies a position in between the three painters named and Willem van de Velde the Younger, whose early work seems to look back to the relatively modest work of Loef. In 1653 both Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraten and Reinier Nooms, called Zeeman, painted large works that are both in the Rijksmuseum collection (fig. 001, 066). Although numerous masters focused on painting water and ships,
The artists and their patrons
oil on canvas, 144 x 279 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
FOCUS
97
074 The Amsterdam four-master ‘De Hollandse Tuyn’ and other ships on their return from Brazil in 1605 under Paulus van Caerden, by Hendrick Vroom
120
094 Portrait of Michiel Adriaensz de Ruyter, by Ferdinand Bol, 1667
oil on canvas, 157 x 138 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
CHAPTER 8
The Four Days’ Battle and the Raid on the Medway at Chatham will always be linked to the name of Michiel de Ruyter. Both illustrious feats were recorded in images countless times, bringing De Ruyter eternal fame as one of the greatest Dutch admirals.
Michiel de Ruyter and the Second Anglo-Dutch War After the death of Maerten Tromp in 1653 a conflict arose among the admirals of the various admiralties over the appointment of a new lieutenant-admiral, in fact the commander-in-chief of the fleet. Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt did not want to make a decision, so he opted for the old solution and appointed an army officer from the nobility, Jacob van Wassenaer van Obdam, who bore final responsibility for the admiralties’ collection of fleets. De Witt’s preference was already for De Ruyter, but appointing him would have upset too many people. Obdam’s first major campaign was to ‘sort out’ the situation at the Sound, where Sweden threatened to gain control of the vital strait. In 1658 the Dutch came to the aid of the Danes and with the help of Egbert Meeuwsz Cortenaer, flag captain of the Eendragt (fig. 096), on 11 November Obdam won the Battle for the Sound. In 1665 it was still impossible for De Witt to appoint De Ruyter, his preferred candidate, as admiral. For this
reason De Ruyter was sent on a mission to the Mediterranean, a diversionary move, because the real object was to recapture the forts taken by the English on the African and North American coasts. Hostilities against the English escalated and on both sides great efforts were made to reinforce the fleets. After the Dutch recaptured the African forts, England declared war. The Battle of Lowestoft was the first encounter of the Second AngloDutch War.
The Battle of Lowestoft Fought on 13 June 1665, this was among the most curious and most gripping sea battles of the Golden Age. The Rijksmuseum has a large drawing by one of the Van de Veldes (fig. 095) which is an almost unknown but superb document of this battle on a roll of paper over 30 centimetres high and over 2 metres long. It belongs to a number of similar rolls drawn by the Van de Veldes
Michiel de Ruyter and the Second Anglo-Dutch War
121
Credits 184
a publication of WBOOKS, Zwolle info@wbooks.com www.wbooks.com authors Peter Sigmond and Wouter Kloek translation John Rudge, Amsterdam, with additional translation by Clare Wilkinson, Tessera Translations design Beukers Scholma, Haarlem photography Image department of the Rijksmuseum and other institutions which are mentioned in the captions. For the following images, the below stated additional information applies: fig. 011 Ivo Wennekes, Middelburg fig. 057 Terwen Consultancy, Leiden fig. 072 Flickr.com/E. Dronckert fig. 068 and 141 Stichting De Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam, photo: Erik en Petra Hesmerg
This is a fully revised edition of Sea battles and naval heroes in the 17th-century Dutch Republic, published by the Rijksmuseum (2007)
cover image Battle of Ter Heide, 10 August 1653, by Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraten (detail) oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
About the authors Wouter Kloek is an art historian, specialised in 16th- and 17th-century paintings. He was head of the Department of Paintings of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Until his retirement in 2010 he was in charge of coordinating the artistic plans for the new layout of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. He is now, amongst other things, editor for the periodical Amstelodamum. Peter Sigmond is a historian, specialised in 16th- and 17th-century Dutch maritime history. He taught Dutch cultural history at the University of Amsterdam and worked at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, first as head of the Dutch history department and until 2008 as director of collections. Since then he works as a publishing author and acts in a supervisory capacity for various cultural institutions.
Š 2014 WBOOKS / Peter Sigmond and Wouter Kloek All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. The publisher has endeavoured to comply with all statutory provisions regarding the rights to the illustrations. Those who nevertheless wish to assert certain rights may contact the publisher. The copyright to works by visual artists affiliated with a CISAC organisation has been obtained from Pictoright in Amsterdam. Š c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2014.
ISBN 978 94 625 8029 9 engels ISBN 978 94 625 8023 7 nederlands NUR 688
The sea was of crucial importance for the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands in the 17th century. The merchant ships brought great wealth while the fisheries fed hundreds of thousands of mouths. The navy kept the seas safe and protected the country from invasion, and consequently its admirals and naval officers enjoyed a high status. The memory of these sea heroes has been kept alive through impressive paintings, prints, drawings and memorabilia. But what is the story behind these objects? How and why were they made and what do they really show? This revised edition gives fascinating insights into Dutch maritime history. Read all about the great naval battles of the Dutch Golden Age and the people they made famous: heroes like Jacob van Heemskerck, Piet Hein, Maerten and Cornelis Tromp and Michiel de Ruyter, but also artists like Hendrick Vroom, Willem van de Velde the Elder and the Younger, and Ludolf Backhuysen.
Wouter Kloek is an art historian. He was in charge of coordinating the artistic plans for the new layout of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Peter Sigmond a maritime historian, used to work at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam as head of the Dutch History Department wouter kloek
ISBN 978 94 625 8029 9
Peter sigmond
and until 2008 as director of Collections.