At length General Goring attacked Taunton with nearly ten thousand men, carried all the outworks, and actually took a part of the town. Blake, however, held the rest of it and the castle with wonderful obstinacy till relief came; for which extraordinary service the parliament gave the garrison a bounty of two thousand pounds, and honoured Colonel Blake with a present of five hundred pounds. All who have preserved the memory of the signal events in this unhappy war allow this to have been a singularly gallant and soldier-like action.
In April, 1646, Colonel Blake marched with a detachment from his garrison, and reduced Dunster Castle, a seat belonging to the ancient family of Lutterel, the troops posted therein having given great disturbance to the country. This was the last military achievement he performed during the Civil War. On the 24th of December following, the parliament ordered five hundred pounds to be paid to him for disbanding some forces. When the parliament voted that no further addresses should be made to the king, Blake, as Governor of Taunton, joined in an address of thanks to the House of Commons for having taken this step.
It is not easy to guess what induced the parliament to make choice of Blake, who had always served as a horse-officer, to take the supreme command of the fleet, but on February 12th, 1648-9, he was appointed one of the commissioners of the navy, and upon the 21st an Act was passed, appointing him, in conjunction with Deane and Popham, to command the fleet. His first service was driving Prince Rupert's fleet from the Irish coast, and then following him into the Mediterranean. This gave his masters high satisfaction, for it not only put an end to the piratical war in which the prince was engaged, and which did so much damage to trade, but also inspired respect among the powers of Europe for the young Commonwealth of England.
In the month of February, 1651, Blake, on his return homewards, fell in with a French man-of-war of forty guns; when a characteristic incident occurred which certainly deserves to be particularly mentioned. The admiral commanded the French captain on board him, and asked him if he was willing to lay down his sword? He answered that he was not; upon which, Blake generously bade him return to his ship and fight it out as long as he was able. The captain took him at his word, fought him bravely for about two hours, and then submitting, went again on board Blake's ship, first kissed him and then presented his sword to him upon his knees. This ship, with four more, the admiral sent into England; and not long after arriving at Plymouth with his squadron, there received the thanks of the parliament for his vigilance and valour, and was constituted one of the lords-wardens of the Cinque Ports.
In the March following, Colonel Blake, Colonels Popham and Deane, or any two of them, were again appointed by act of parliament to be admirals and generals of the fleet for the year ensuing; in which year Blake reduced the islands of Scilly, Guernsey, and Jersey to the obedience of the parliament; and, as a new mark of honour, was, on November 25th, elected one of the council of state. When the necessity of a Dutch war became apparent, the parliament gave the highest testimony of their sense of his merit and of their entire confidence in his conduct by constituting him, in March 1652, sole general of the fleet.
The story of the Dutch war is told in a separate chapter, where justice is done to Blake's prowess as admiral, and it is only necessary here to give such incidents as bring out his qualities as a man.
Just before the first battle in the Downs, which took place on May 19th, 1652, Blake observed that Van Tromp, the Dutch admiral, bore nearer to his fleet than he had any occasion to do, and so saluted him with two guns without ball, to put him in mind of striking sail; upon which the Dutchman, in contempt, fired on the contrary side. Blake then fired a second and a third gun, which Van Tromp answered with a broadside, and the English admiral perceiving his intention to fight, detached himself from the rest of the fleet to treat with him upon the point of honour, to prevent unnecessary effusion of blood and a national quarrel. As Blake approached nearer to the Dutchman, Van Tromp, and the rest of his fleet, contrary to the law of nations, fired on him with whole broadsides. Blake was in his cabin drinking with some officers, little expecting to be thus saluted, when the shot broke the windows of the ship and shattered the stern; which put him into a vehement passion, so that curling his whiskers, as he used to do whenever he was angry, he commanded his men to answer the Dutch in their kind, saying, when his heat was somewhat over, "he took it very ill of Van Tromp that he should take his ship for a disorderly house, and break his windows." Blake singly sustained the shock of the Dutch fleet for some time, till his own ships and the squadron under Major Bourne joined him; and then the engagement grew hot on both sides, and bloody on the side of the enemy, till night put an end to it.
After this battle Blake lay in the Downs for a considerable time, which he spent in repairing and augmenting his fleet, and in detaching small squadrons to cruise against the enemy. About the beginning of June, finding he had force enough to undertake any service, he caused a solemn fast to be held on board his ships, to implore the blessing of God upon their arms, and encouraged his seamen by the example of his zeal on this occasion, as much as he had ever done by his personal bravery in a time of action. In the course of this month he sent forty rich prizes into the river, and so effectually ruined the Dutch trade, and broke the spirits of such as were appointed to support it, that most of their vessels declined coming through the Channel, even under convoy; choosing rather to put into French ports, land their cargoes there, and afterwards transport them to Holland, by land or water, as they could.
In the beginning of July, finding Sir George Ayscue returned from Barbadoes, with a force sufficient to guard the Downs, he resolved to sail northwards, to execute a design he had long meditated, of destroying the herring-fishery; which he thought would have put an immediate end to the war by convincing the Dutch of the folly of disputing our sovereignty in our own seas. This appears to have been the most judicious scheme laid down through the whole war; because it tended to clear the ground of the quarrel and to show the Dutch their error in disputing with a nation who had it in their power to distress them at any time in the tenderest part—that which afforded a subsistence to many and was the main source of wealth to all.
On July 2nd Blake bore away to the north, and quickly fell in with the Dutch fishing vessels, which were there in great numbers under the protection of twelve men-of-war. Blake attacked their convoy, and they, knowing the importance of their charge, and having taken on board a great supply of fresh men from the vessels under their care, fought bravely and sold their freedom dearly; but at last were all taken, which left the fishery entirely at the admiral's mercy, who upon this occasion showed the rectitude of his heart and the solidity of his understanding; for having first threatened these busses with utter destruction if ever they were found there again without leave, he afterwards freely permitted them to complete their ladings, on their paying the tenth herring as tribute to the Commonwealth.