March 30th The Longest War in History (Declaration)

The ‘Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years War’ was a state of war between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly which originated in the English Civil War when a large number of retreating Royalists and the remnants of its navy escaped to the Isles of Scilly in 1648.

The Dutch had sided, expediently, with the Parliamentarians as they were viewed likely victors and valued the long history of the Anglo-Dutch alliance in the Eighty Years War.
Dutch shipping, which was supplying the English mainland, came close to Scilly and suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Royalists who were desperate for stores and supplies. 

Consequently, on this day in 1651 the Dutch commander, Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp, landed on Scilly to demand reparations for the lost goods and ships.  Being rebuffed he promptly declared war on Scilly but only on the islands but not on the rest of the county since the mainland was largely under the control of the Parliamentarians.

A mere few months later the Royalists were forced to surrender to the Parliamentarians and the Dutch left without having fired a single shot and promptly forgot about their war! 

This meant that there was no formal peace treaty or declaration of peace until the then Dutch Ambassador landed on the islands on 17th April 1986, 355 years after the declaration of war and declared that peace now existed between The Netherlands and Scilly.  He joked that it must have been horrifying for the Scillonians ‘to know we could have attacked at any moment!’




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