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Cornelis Tromp

Cornelis Maartenszoon Tromp (3 September 1629-29 May 1691) was a Dutch lieutenant-admiral general who served in the Anglo-Dutch Wars and the Scanian War.

Biography[]

The son of Maarten Tromp, Cornelis Tromp came to prominence in his own right during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. As a vice-admiral commanding a squadron at the Battle of Lowestoft, he kept his head amid the chaos of a Dutch disaster, supervising a fighting withdrawal. This success inflated his ego and his reputation, but he still had to serve under Michiel de Ruyter, who found him a difficult subordinate. Commanding the Dutch rear squadron at the Four Days Battle in June 1666, Tromp failed to see a signal flag deployed by de Ruyter. Failing to move with the fleet, he had to be rescued from encirclement. At the St. James's Day Battle six weeks later, he led his squadron in a savage attack on the English rear, commanded by Sir Edward Spragge. His efforts were shatteringly efective, but carried him out of sight of the rest of the fleet. De Ruyter had his revenge for Tromp's disappearance, when his squadron commander was afterward fired from the navy. The vagaries of Dutch politics brought Tromp back to command in the Third Anglo-Dutch War. At the battle of Texel, he engaged in a ship-to-ship duel with Spragge, who vowed to kill him but was drowned himself. Tromp ended his career in the service of Denmark, leading a Dutch-Danish fleet to victory over the Swedes at Oland in 1676.

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