[176] The Ordinance is quoted in Macpherson, ii. p. 430.
[177] Details of the Navigation Act of 1651 (confirmed in 1660) will be found in Macpherson, ii. pp. 442-444.
[178] Martin Tromp, who fought this action, is often confounded with his even more famous son, Cornelis Van Tromp. In Dutch history he is always called Tromp. There would seem to have been five actions in the years 1652 and 1653. The first between Blake and Tromp, off Dover, May 29, 1652, when Blake was successful; the second in December, in which Blake was thoroughly beaten. After this occasion, Tromp placed the broom at his mainmast-head. The third on February 28, 1653, off Portland, when the Dutch were beaten, and lost three hundred merchantmen they had previously captured. The fourth on June 2, when the Dutch were again beaten. The fifth on August 10, an indecisive action, wherein Monk commanded the English instead of Blake, and Tromp was killed, leaving De Witt in command. The action between Ayscough and De Ruyter was fought on August 26, 1652.—See Sir E. Cust’s ‘Lives of the Admirals,’ etc., i. p. 370.
[179] Art. xiii. of this treaty requires the striking of the flag (Macpherson, ii. p. 453).
[180] Vide Macpherson, ii. pp. 442-444.
[181] Ricardo’s ‘Anatomy of Navigation Laws.’
[182] As all Cromwell’s Acts were ignored, the new laws were dated from the death of Charles I.; hence the Navigation Act of Charles II. is dated as passed in the twelfth of his regnal years, although really in the first of his actual reign.
[183] The principal enacting clauses of this Act are given in Macpherson, ii. pp. 484-486. Roger Coke, in his ‘Discourse on Trade,’ states that owing to the Acts of 1651 and 1660, the building of ships in England had become one-third dearer.
[184] A full account is given by Gérard Brandt of this celebrated action, quoted in Sir E. Cust’s ‘Lives of the Admirals,’ vol. ii. pp. 452-454.
[185] All the accounts of the respective losses of the two fleets vary; but it is clear, from the life of Sir W. Penn, that the English had quite enough of the battle (Cust, vol. ii. p. 384).