The Battle of Scheveningen was the final and decisive battle of the First Anglo-Dutch War, fought off the North Sea coast of Holland in 1653.
After his victory at the Battle of the Gabbard, Admiral George Monck and his English fleet of 120 ships blockaded the Dutch coast, capturing many merchant vessels. The Dutch economy began to collapse due to mass unemployment and the resultant economic downturn, forcing Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp to put out to sea with 100 ships and lift the blockade at the island of Texel, where Witte de With's 27 ships were blockaded by the English. The English fleet pursued Tromp to the south, enabling De With's fleet to join forces with Tromp's fleet, albeit with the loss of two Dutch ships. The English and Dutch fleets met off Scheveningen, with the fleets moving around each other four times.
Tromp was killed by an English sharpshooter, and 12 Dutch ships were sunk or captured and many were put out of commission. Dutch morale broke, and a large group of Dutch vessels fled north, forcing De With to cover the retreat to the island of Texel. However, the English fleet was also badly damaged, and the English fleet returned to port to refit and tend to the wounds of its injured sailors, ending their blockade of the Dutch coast. Tromp's death demoralized the Dutch and weakened the Orangist political faction, whose leader, the infant Prince William of Orange, was the maternal grandson of King Charles I of England, and whose faction threatened to allow the House of Stuart to use the Netherlands as a base for their planned restoration of the monarchy. Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt gave formal treaty assurances to Oliver Cromwell that William of Orange would never become stadtholder, and peace was made in the 1654 Treaty of Westminster.