Michiel de Ruyter
Dutch admiral (1607-1676) · Netherlands · Writers · Died at 69
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Something wrong?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.
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Photos 8
Bol, Michiel de Ruyter%2C_RP-P-1905-3046.jpg?width=1200)
Admiraal Michiel de Ruyter raakt tijdens de zeeslag bij Agosta dodelijk gewond, 1676 Admiraal de Ruyter. 22 april 1676 (titel op object), RP-P-1905-3046%2C_RP-P-OB-82.448.jpg?width=1200)
Admiraal Michiel de Ruyter raakt tijdens de zeeslag bij Agosta dodelijk gewond, 1676 Admiraal de Ruyter. 22 April 1676 (titel op object), RP-P-OB-82.448%2C_RP-P-OB-82.451.jpg?width=1200)
Admiraal Michiel de Ruyter raakt tijdens de zeeslag bij Agosta dodelijk gewond, 1676 Admiraal de Ruyter. 22 April 1676 (titel op object), RP-P-OB-82.451%2C_RP-P-OB-82.452.jpg?width=1200)
Admiraal Michiel de Ruyter raakt tijdens de zeeslag bij Agosta dodelijk gewond, 1676 Het doodelijk verwonden van den admiraal de Ruijter L'amiral de Ruijter blessé mortellement (titel op object), RP-P-OB-82.452%2C_RP-P-OB-82.450.jpg?width=1200)
Admiraal Michiel de Ruyter raakt tijdens de zeeslag bij Agosta dodelijk gewond, 1676 Het doodelijk verwonden van den admiraal Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruijter (titel op object), RP-P-OB-82.450
Admiraal Michiel de Ruyter raakt tijdens de zeeslag bij Agosta dodelijk gewond, 1676, RP-P-1903-A-24189
Admiraal Michiel de Ruyter raakt tijdens de zeeslag bij Agosta dodelijk gewond, 1676, RP-P-OB-67.767Awards
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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.
Writers from the Netherlands 6
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