Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War

Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War
Isles of Scilly   Republic of the Seven United Netherlands
Date 30 March 1651 – 17 April 1986 Location Isles of Scilly Result Indecisive; peace treaty
Belligerents
Isles of Scilly	Republic of the Seven United Netherlands
Commanders and leaders
John Granville	Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp
Casualties and losses
None	None

The Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War (Dutch: Driehonderdvijfendertigjarige Oorlog) was an alleged theoretical state of war between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly (located off the southwest coast of Great Britain). The truth of this war ever existing is disputed. It is said to have been extended by the lack of a peace treaty for 335 years without a single shot being fired, which would make it one of the world's longest wars and a bloodless war. Despite the uncertain validity of the declaration of war, and thus uncertainty about whether or not a state of war ever actually existed in the first place, peace was finally declared in 1986, bringing an end to any hypothetical war that may have been legally considered to exist.

War

Origins

The origins of the war can be found in the Second English Civil War, fought between the Royalists and Parliamentarians from 1642 to 1652. Oliver Cromwell had fought the Royalists to the edges of the Kingdom of England. In the West of England this meant that Cornwall 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 the Isles of Scilly, which lay off the Cornish coast and were under the ownership of Royalist John Granville.

Dutch Navy alliance

The navy of the United Provinces of the Netherlands was allied with the Parliamentarians. The Netherlands had been assisted by the English under a number of rulers in the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648), starting with Queen Elizabeth I of England. The Treaty 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 side likely to win the Civil War.

The Dutch Navy was suffering heavy losses from the Royalist fleet based in Scilly. On 30 March 1651, Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp arrived in Scilly to demand reparation from the Royalist fleet for the Dutch ships and goods taken by them.

According to Whitelocke's Memorials (cited in Bowley, 2001), a letter of 17 April 1651 explains: "Tromp came to Pendennis 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.

Royalist surrender

In June 1651, soon after the declaration of war, the Parliamentarian forces under Admiral Robert Blake forced the Royalist fleet to surrender. The Netherlands 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.

Peace treaty

In 1985, Roy Duncan, historian and Chairman of the Isles of Scilly Council, wrote to the Dutch Embassy in London to dispose of the myth that the islands were still at war. Embassy staff found the myth to be accurate and Duncan invited the Dutch ambassador Jonkheer Rein Huydecoper to visit the islands and sign a peace treaty. Peace was declared on 17 April 1986, 335 years after the "war" began. The Ambassador joked that it must have been harrowing to the Scillonians "to know we could have attacked at any moment."

Authenticity

Bowley (2001) argues that the letter in Whitelock's Memorials 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 of the treaty between England and the United Provinces at the end of the First Dutch War".

The reality of this war is disputed by Graeme Donald. In his book Loose Cannons: 101 Myths, Mishaps and Misadventurers of Military History he argues that no such war could have existed because the Isles were not an independent nation. The Netherlands could not sign a peace treaty with islands that are only a part of the United Kingdom.

See also

• List of wars extended by diplomatic irregularity
• Arauco War (1536–1881), another example of a very long war
• Anglo–Zanzibar War, generally considered the world's shortest war

References

Notes

Bibliography

• "Scilly peace". The Times, 19 April 1986.
• Bowley, RL (2001). Scilly at War, pp. 37, 38 & 65. Isles of Scilly, UK: Bowley Publications Ltd. ISBN 0-900184-34-5.

External links

• Scilly History