| Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Isles of Scilly Republic of the Seven United Netherlands | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Isles of Scilly |  Dutch Republic | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| John Granville | Maarten Tromp | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None | None | ||||||
TheThree Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War (Dutch:Driehonderdvijfendertigjarige Oorlog[driˌɦɔndərtˌfɛifɛnˌdɛrtəxˈjaːrəɣəˈʔoːrlɔx];Cornish:Bell a dri hans pymthek warn ugens) was an alleged state of war between theNetherlands and theIsles of Scilly (located off the southwest coast of Great Britain). It is said to have beenextended by the lack of a peace treaty for 335 years without a single shot being fired, which would make it one of theworld's longest wars, and abloodless war. Despite the uncertain validity of thedeclaration of war, and thus uncertainty about whether or not a state of war ever actually existed, peace was finally declared in 1986, bringing an end to any hypothetical war that may have been legally considered to exist.
The origins of the war can be found in theEnglish Civil War, fought between theRoyalists andParliamentarians from 1642 to 1651.[1]Oliver Cromwell had fought the Royalists to the edges of theKingdom of England. In the west of Britain, this meant thatCornwall was the last Royalist stronghold. In 1648, Cromwell pushed on until mainland Cornwall was in the hands of the Parliamentarians. The Royalist navy was forced to retreat to theIsles of Scilly, which lay off the Cornish coast and were under the ownership of RoyalistJohn Granville.[2]
Thenavy of theUnited Provinces of the Netherlands was at the time allied with the Parliamentarians. The Netherlands had been assisted by the English under a number of rulers in theEighty Years' War (1568–1648), starting with QueenElizabeth I. TheTreaty of Münster (30 January 1648) had confirmed Dutch independence from Spain. The Netherlands sought to maintain their alliance with England and had chosen to ally with the Parliamentarians as the side likely to win the Civil War.[2]
The Dutch merchant navy was suffering heavy losses from the Royalist fleet based in Scilly. On30 March 1651, Lieutenant-AdmiralMaarten Harpertszoon Tromp arrived in Scilly to demand reparation from the Royalist fleet for the Dutch ships and goods taken by them.[2]
According toWhitelocke's Memorials, a letter of17 April 1651 explains: "Tromp came toPendennis and related that he had been to Scilly to demand reparation for the Dutch ships and goods taken by them; and receiving no satisfactory answer, he had, according to his Commission, declared war on them." As most of England was now in Parliamentarian hands, war was declared specifically upon the Isles of Scilly.[3]
In June 1651, soon after the declaration of war, the Parliamentarian forces under AdmiralRobert Blake forced the Royalist fleet to surrender. The Dutch fleet, no longer under threat, left without firing a shot. Due to the obscurity of one nation's declaration of war against a small part of another, the Dutch did not officially declare peace.[2] When the Dutch and theCommonwealth of England signed theTreaty of Westminster (1654), this separate state of war was not mentioned and thus not included in the peace.
For many years in the Isles of Scilly, the local legend was that the state of war was still in effect.[4]
In 1986, Roy Duncan, historian and Chairman of theIsles of Scilly Council, decided to investigate and wrote to theDutch Embassy in London. Embassy staff found that no peace treaty had ever been signed, and Duncan invited the Dutch ambassadorJonkheer Rein Huydecoper to visit the islands and officially end the "conflict".
Peace was declared on 17 April 1986, 335 years after the supposed declaration of war.The Dutch ambassador joked that it must have been horrifying to the Scillonians "to know we could have attacked at any moment."[5]
Bowley (2001) argues that the letter in Whitelocke's Memorials[6] is the probable origin of the "declaring war" legend: "Tromp had no 'Commission' from his government to declare war on the rebels in Scilly; but he did come to try – by a show of force, threats and even by violence perhaps, although this never happened – to seek reparation for Royalist piracies, but short of resorting to any action which might offend the Commonwealth even if [a war] had occurred in 1651, all matters pertaining would have been resolved in 1654 as a part ofthe treaty between England and the United Provinces at the end of theFirst Dutch War".[3]
The reality of this war is also disputed by Graeme Donald. In his bookLoose Cannons: 101 Myths, Mishaps and Misadventurers of Military History he argues that no such war could have existed because neither side was sovereign: "Tromp was an admiral, not a nation, and Scilly part of England". He goes on to describe it as "a greatPR coup for the island's tourist board".[7]
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