# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/michiel-de-ruyter
# Generated: 2026-09-01T00:28:53.866Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/michiel-de-ruyter"
name: "Michiel de Ruyter"
slug: "michiel-de-ruyter"
description: "A merchant captain who became the admiral England couldn't break. In three separate wars across two decades, de Ruyter held off combined English and French fleets, burned much of the Royal Navy in its own harbor, and stole the king's flagship — then sailed it home to Amsterdam."
tagline: "Dutch admiral (1607-1676)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Bol%2C_Michiel_de_Ruyter.jpg"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "Netherlands"
  isoCode: "NL"
category:
  name: "Writers"
  slug: "writers"
profileType:
  name: "Writer / Author"
  slug: "writer"
birthDate: "1607-03-24"
deathDate: "1676-04-29"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           55.37
  momentum:             0.07852424280194442
  historical:           23.04885866666667
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
tags:
  - name: "Historical Figures"
    slug: "historical-figures"
  - name: "Other"
    slug: "other"
  - name: "Literature"
    slug: "literature"
  - name: "Early Modern Era"
    slug: "early-modern-era"
sources:
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q316945"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter"
    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Michiel%20de%20Ruyter"
    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D1%96%D1%85%D1%96%D0%BB_%D0%90%D0%B4%D1%80%D1%8B%D1%8F%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD_%D0%B4%D1%8D_%D0%A0%D0%BE%D0%B9%D1%82%D1%8D%D1%80"
    title: "Міхіл Адрыянсан дэ Ройтэр"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B8%D1%85%D0%B8%D0%BB_%D0%B4%D0%B5_%D0%A0%D0%BE%D0%B9%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80"
    title: "Михил де Ройтер"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://br.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter"
    title: "Michiel de Ruyter"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter"
    title: "Michiel de Ruyter"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ckb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%DB%8C%D8%B4%DB%8E%D9%84_%D8%AF%DB%8E_%DA%95%DB%86%DB%8C%D8%AA%DB%95%D8%B1"
    title: "میشێل دێ ڕۆیتەر"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter"
    title: "Michiel de Ruyter"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter"
    title: "Michiel de Ruyter"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter"
    title: "Michiel de Ruyter"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter"
    title: "Michiel de Ruyter"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter"
    title: "Michiel de Ruyter"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter"
    title: "Michiel de Ruyter"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter"
    title: "Michiel de Ruyter"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter"
    title: "Michiel de Ruyter"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter"
    title: "Michiel de Ruyter"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://gd.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter"
    title: "Michiel de Ruyter"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%9B%D7%99%D7%9C_%D7%93%D7%94_%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%99%D7%98%D7%A8"
    title: "מיכיל דה רויטר"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter"
    title: "Michiel de Ruyter"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter"
    title: "Michiel de Ruyter"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter"
    title: "Michiel de Ruyter"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9F%E3%83%92%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%83%87%E3%83%BB%E3%83%AD%E3%82%A4%E3%83%86%E3%83%AB"
    title: "ミヒール・デ・ロイテル"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EB%AF%B8%ED%9E%90_%EB%8D%94_%EB%9D%BC%EC%9C%84%ED%84%B0%EB%A5%B4"
    title: "미힐 더 라위터르"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://li.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter"
    title: "Michiel de Ruyter"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pl.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter"
    title: "Michiel de Ruyter"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%B4%D9%8A%D9%84_%D8%AF%D9%8A_%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%AA%D8%B1"
    title: "ميشيل دي رويتر"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Michiel de Ruyter grew up in modest circumstances in Zeeland and was at sea early enough to captain merchant ships by thirty. A brief stint as rear admiral during Portugal's war for independence in 1641 led back to prosperous trading until the First Anglo-Dutch War pulled him into the navy under Maarten Tromp in 1652; he came out a vice admiral. Named fleet commander at the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1665, he won the brutal Four Days' Battle a year later, then executed the Raid on the Medway in 1667 — destroying the English fleet in its own anchorage and towing away HMS Royal Charles, forcing a favorable peace. When England and France joined forces in 1672, de Ruyter fought them to a standstill at Solebay, Schooneveld, and Texel, saving the Dutch coast from invasion. A cannonball caught him at Augusta off Sicily in 1676 while fighting the French; he died in Syracuse a week later. They brought his body home for a state funeral in Amsterdam's Nieuwe Kerk.