Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam
Encyclopedia
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
– 13 June 1665 off Lowestoft
Lowestoft
Lowestoft is a town in the English county of Suffolk. The town is on the North Sea coast and is the most easterly point of the United Kingdom. It is north-east of London, north-east of Ipswich and south-east of Norwich...
) was a Dutch Lieutenant-Admiral, and supreme commander of the confederate Dutch navy. The name Obdam was then also spelled as Opdam. British contemporaneous sources typically refer to him as Admiral Opdam or Lord Obdam because it was not until 1657 that he bought the Wassenaar
Wassenaar
Wassenaar is a town in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. A fairly affluent suburb of The Hague, Wassenaar lies 10 km north of that city on the N44 highway near the North Sea coast. It is part of the Haaglanden region...
Estate from relatives and thus acquired its title. Modern Dutch sources sometimes less correctly insert a second "van" between "Wassenaer" and "Obdam" or use the modern spelling "Wassenaar".
First Anglo-Dutch War
Jacob was born in 1610, the eldest son of Lieutenant-Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer Duivenvoorde and Anna van Randerode van der Aa. In 1631 he joined the army. On 28 April 1633 at MaarssenMaarssen
Maarssen is a town and former municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht, along the river Vecht. It lies in an area called the Vechtstreek.On January 1, 2011 Maarssen merged with Breukelen and Loenen to Stichtse Vecht....
he married Agnes Renesse van der Aa. In 1643 he became drost (political governor) of Heusden
Heusden
Heusden is a municipality and a city in the South of the Netherlands. It is located between the cities Waalwijk and 's-Hertogenbosch.- Population centres :...
, an important fortress town, and soon after military governor of its garrison.
As a member of the Hollandic nobility, Van Wassenaer was delegated to the States of Holland
States of Holland
The States of Holland and West Frisia were the representation of the two Estates to the court of the Count of Holland...
to represent their interests, as one of the ten members of the ridderschap (the "knighthood" Estate
Estates of the realm
The Estates of the realm were the broad social orders of the hierarchically conceived society, recognized in the Middle Ages and Early Modern period in Christian Europe; they are sometimes distinguished as the three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and commoners, and are often referred to by...
within the States). In 1650 when stadtholder
Stadtholder
A Stadtholder A Stadtholder A Stadtholder (Dutch: stadhouder [], "steward" or "lieutenant", literally place holder, holding someones place, possibly a calque of German Statthalter, French lieutenant, or Middle Latin locum tenens...
William II of Orange
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
died, he opposed installing the latter's infant son as nominal stadtholder. He bribed the nobility members of other States
The States
The States or the Estates signifies the assembly of the representatives of the estates of the realm, called together for purposes of legislation or deliberation...
by promising them positions in the army. His opposition to the House of Orange was based on socio-economic and religious grounds: the stadtholders had their political base in the artisan class, which consisted mainly of puritan Calvinists. Many members of the Van Wassenaer family were still catholic and feared religious oppression. When the First Anglo-Dutch War
First Anglo-Dutch War
The First Anglo–Dutch War was the first of the four Anglo–Dutch Wars. It was fought entirely at sea between the navies of the Commonwealth of England and the United Provinces of the Netherlands. Caused by disputes over trade, the war began with English attacks on Dutch merchant shipping, but...
started in 1652 he, then a cavalry Colonel, was again delegated to the States-General. There he supported the faction of Johan de Witt
Johan de Witt
Johan de Witt, heer van Zuid- en Noord-Linschoten, Snelrewaard, Hekendorp and IJsselveere was a key figure in Dutch politics in the mid 17th century, when its flourishing sea trade in a period of globalization made the United Provinces a leading European power during the Dutch Golden Age...
and Cornelis de Graeff
Cornelis de Graeff
Cornelis de Graeff, also Cornelis de Graeff van Polsbroek was the most illustrious member of the De Graeff family. He was a mayor of Amsterdam from the Dutch Golden Age and a powerful Amsterdam regent after the sudden death of stadholder William II of Orange...
who proposed to build a strong professional confederate fleet, at the expense of the army. Because his father had been an Admiral he was made "Delegate of the States to the National Fleet", thereby becoming responsible for all day-to-day dealings between the States-General and the navy, a position that carried much power.
Near the end of the war, in the Battle of Scheveningen
Battle of Scheveningen
The Battle of Scheveningen was the final naval battle of the First Anglo-Dutch War...
, the supreme commander of the confederate Dutch fleet, Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp
Maarten Tromp
Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp was an officer and later admiral in the Dutch navy. His first name is also spelled as Maerten.-Early life:...
, was killed in action. His second in command had been Vice-Admiral Witte de With, both a courageous and competent sailor and a man seen as politically reliable as he wasn't a supporter of the Orangist faction. He would thus seem to have been the natural choice for a successor to Tromp. De With however also was a very quarrelous man who had made himself profoundly hated throughout the rank and file of the navy. His appointment might cause an immediate revolt. Third in command had been Vice-Admiral Johan Evertsen
Johan Evertsen
Johan Evertsen was a Dutch admiral from the 17th century.- Biography :Johan was the eldest surviving son of Johan Evertsen, known as Captain Jan, who died in 1617 fighting near La Rochelle against a French corsair...
, again a brave and excellent sailor. Moreover he had much sympathy among the men. However Evertsen was commander of the Zealandic fleet. Hollandic captains would take offence to being subordinated to a man they had always seen as a rival. Worse, he had been a personal friend of the late stadtholder and was known to be an ardent supporter of the plan to make his infant son stadtholder. De Witt tried to find a more neutral candidate and offered command to Commodore
Commodore (rank)
Commodore is a military rank used in many navies that is superior to a navy captain, but below a rear admiral. Non-English-speaking nations often use the rank of flotilla admiral or counter admiral as an equivalent .It is often regarded as a one-star rank with a NATO code of OF-6, but is not always...
Michiel de Ruyter
Michiel de Ruyter
Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter is the most famous and one of the most skilled admirals in Dutch history. De Ruyter is most famous for his role in the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th century. He fought the English and French and scored several major victories against them, the best known probably...
. Much to De Witt's dismay De Ruyter declined. When even begging didn't help De Witt saw but a single solution to the deadlock: he ordered Van Wassenaer to take over command. The Colonel refused at first, protesting vehemently that he had no experience as a fleet commander or even as a captain. Political pressure became too great however and at last he consented.
New tactics
In 1654 the Dutch Navy had a new commander, Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam, Lieutenant-Admiral of Holland and West Frisia - and a complete amateur. This inexperienced man now had to solve the fundamental problem facing the Dutch fleet in that century: how to beat an enemy who was equipped with much more powerful ships. As the Dutch home waters were so shallow building very heavy ships was out of the question. De Witt had just convinced the States to spend four million guilderGuilder
Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch gulden — from Old Dutch for 'golden'. The guilder originated as a gold coin but has been a common name for a silver or base metal coin for some centuries...
s on a programme of sixty new warships but although these, carrying mostly about 44 cannon, were a lot heavier than the average Dutch ship of the last war, they were still little more than frigate
Frigate
A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...
s by British standards. The typical solution when fighting Spanish galleon
Galleon
A galleon was a large, multi-decked sailing ship used primarily by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries. Whether used for war or commerce, they were generally armed with the demi-culverin type of cannon.-Etymology:...
s had always been the direct attack having the weather gauge, using superior manoeuvrability and numbers, or if that failed: employing fireships and boarding. Against the British however this was generally unsuccessful; they were at least as competent in these aggressive tactics
Naval tactics in the Age of Sail
Naval tactics in the Age of Sail were used from the early 17th century onward when sailing ships replaced oared galleys. These were used until the 1860s when steam-powered ironclad warships rendered sailing line of battle ships obsolete.-Early history:...
and they had too many ships. Maarten Tromp then tried an informal line of battle, but this ploy came back with a vengeance. Robert Blake
Robert Blake (admiral)
Robert Blake was one of the most important military commanders of the Commonwealth of England and one of the most famous English admirals of the 17th century. Blake is recognised as the chief founder of England's naval supremacy, a dominance subsequently inherited by the British Royal Navy into...
created a very formal version that worked even better for the British as they had very powerful ships and a more professional navy - the Dutch had to employ many armed merchants.
Studying Blake's Sailing and Fighting Instructions Van Wassenaer saw a new solution to the old problem. Now that a professional Dutch Navy was being created, this navy surely would soon be the equal in competence of the British one. That left only the inequality in firepower to be solved. He understood that this could be achieved by abandoning the traditional aggressive stance and embracing defence. Sailing in a battle line in a defensive leeward position, the wind, blowing from the side of the enemy, would give the guns of the Dutch ships a higher elevation and therefore a better range. That same wind would decrease the range of the enemy ships or even force them to close the gun ports of their lower gun deck - that carried the heaviest guns. So this became Van Wassenaer's favorite method: damage the enemy ships from a safe distance and then disengage. Whether the enemy was destroyed or your own fleet damaged too was immaterial. With their superior shipbuilding capacity the Dutch could always make quicker repairs. Simply keeping the enemy fleet inoperational would suffice. Dutch trade wouldn't be disturbed and while a few battles might well deplete the enemy's treasury, the Republic would always have plenty of reserves. In Van Wassenaer's opinion naval warfare was a gigantic battle of attrition that the Dutch were guaranteed to win.
Northern Wars
In 1655 Charles X of Sweden started a series of aggressive campaigns (part of the Northern WarsNorthern Wars
Northern Wars is a term used for a series of wars fought in northern and northeastern Europe in the 16th and 17th century. An internationally agreed nomenclature for these wars has not yet been devised...
) intending to make Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
the dominant power in the Baltic
Baltic region
The terms Baltic region, Baltic Rim countries, and Baltic Rim refer to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea.- Etymology :...
. The Dutch saw this as threat to their vital interests. Although they are today better known for their exploitation of the East Indies
East Indies
East Indies is a term used by Europeans from the 16th century onwards to identify what is now known as Indian subcontinent or South Asia, Southeastern Asia, and the islands of Oceania, including the Malay Archipelago and the Philippines...
, in fact their Baltic trade was more profitable in absolute terms. Also the Republic was critically dependent on Scandinavian wood to build ships and Polish grain to feed its large urban population.
When Charles conquered Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Amsterdam under his regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
Cornelis de Graeff supported the subsequent rebellion and sent Van Wassenaer with a fleet to relieve Danzig
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
in 1656. In 1657 Van Wassenaer blockaded Lisbon and captured fifteen ships of a Portuguese sugar fleet, but in 1658 had to return to the Baltic as the situation there had grown even more critical. After the failure of his Polish campaign Charles had turned his attention on Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and had invaded Jutland
Jutland
Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...
from Germany. He then made peace with Frederick III of Denmark
Frederick III of Denmark
Frederick III was king of Denmark and Norway from 1648 until his death. He instituted absolute monarchy in Denmark and Norway in 1660, confirmed by law in 1665 as the first in western historiography. He was born the second-eldest son of Christian IV of Denmark and Anne Catherine of Brandenburg...
but treacherously broke it a few weeks later in an attempt to take Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
by assault. This failed and he laid siege to the Danish capital, the last part of his kingdom still under Frederick's control.
After much deliberation the States-General decided to send the entire active Dutch fleet and a mercenary army to relieve the Danes. On 8 November 1658 the Dutch defeated the heavier Swedish ships in the Battle of the Sound
Battle of the Sound
The naval Battle of the Sound took place on 8 November 1658 during the Second Northern War, near the Sound or Oresund, just north of the Danish capital, Copenhagen. Sweden had defeated Denmark and an army under Charles X of Sweden had Copenhagen itself under siege...
. Despite this success Van Wassenaer was much criticised. While Witte de With was killed while attacking with the Dutch van, Van Wassenaer commanding the centre in the Dutch flagship Eendragt had remained utterly passive merely beating off Swedish attacks — apparently true to his doctrine. Indeed he had had an attack of gout
Gout
Gout is a medical condition usually characterized by recurrent attacks of acute inflammatory arthritis—a red, tender, hot, swollen joint. The metatarsal-phalangeal joint at the base of the big toe is the most commonly affected . However, it may also present as tophi, kidney stones, or urate...
and basically had left command to his flag captain Egbert Bartholomeuszoon Kortenaer, who would become the real hero of the battle. Van Wassenaer's political enemies immediately suggested that the Admiral wasn't suffering from gout but from a lack of nerve and that he had simply panicked. When the Dutch sent a new squadron and army to liberate the Danish Isles in 1659 it was commanded by Vice-Admiral De Ruyter.
Second Anglo-Dutch War
After the English RestorationEnglish Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
, Charles II of England
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
became king, and tried to serve his dynastic interests by putting pressure on the States-General to make his nephew
Nephew
Nephew is a son of one's sibling or sibling-in-law, and niece is a daughter of one's sibling or a sibling-in-law. Sons and daughters of siblings-in-law are also informally referred to as nephews and nieces respectively, even though there is no blood relation...
, the later William III of Orange
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
, stadtholder. Believing the Dutch were weakened by their political divisions British parliament grew ever more enthusiastic to start a war to take over the Dutch colonial empire. At first the Dutch tried to fend off this disaster by bribing Charles, but they soon understood he was too weak a king to resist the pressure from the British elite. In 1664 it became obvious war was unavoidable. In reaction the Dutch began to expand their fleet. Laid up obsolete ships from the previous war were activated and a new ad hoc building programme was started that year, soon followed by an official plan at a price of eight million guilders to build sixty heavier ships (so as to completely replace the core of the fleet) in the years 1665-67. Company warships were brought over from the Indies. Large merchants were hired or bought to be rebuilt.
In March 1665 the British declared the Second Anglo-Dutch War
Second Anglo-Dutch War
The Second Anglo–Dutch War was part of a series of four Anglo–Dutch Wars fought between the English and the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries for control over the seas and trade routes....
. When ordered by Johan de Witt in May 1665 to prevent a second British blockade of the Dutch coast - after the first had to be broken off for lack of supplies, the British Admiralty even so early in the war having a cash flow problem - Van Wassenaer commanded the largest fleet ever in Dutch history. He was deeply unhappy with it. In fact he refused to sail at all. In a meeting with De Witt he pointed out that this fleet lacked any unity. As the Mediterranean Fleet had been sent to West Africa under De Ruyter, only half of the home fleet now consisted of professional ships; the remainder of disparate vessels either too old or too new and all poorly trained, manned by sailors from all over Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Asia. How was he ever going to execute modern fleet tactics with that motly collection? De Witt's answer was simple: don't, revert to the old tactics and surprise the British fleet while having the weather gauge. Van Wassenaer shouted that he would never do that. Why not?, De Witt shouted back, Was it true then after all that he was no more than a coward? Van Wassenaer fell silent and after a few moments said he would obey.
Van Wassenaer took to sea and soon intercepted a British convoy from Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, capturing nine merchant ships. De Witt sent letters to the fleet, but not to congratulate Van Wassenaer with his success but to ask him for what reason he was tarrying at the Dutch coast. Would he please be so kind as to at last attack the British fleet? Deeply offended, the Admiral sailed to the British coast. On 12 June he met the enemy fleet. But despite having the weather gauge he didn't attack, though he had clear written orders to do so. The next day the wind had turned and now he did engage the enemy, in a defensive leeward position, trying to form a line of battle. But as he had predicted, the fleet wasn't in any way ready for sophisticated manoeuvres; it lost all cohesion and was trapped by the British rear. This Battle of Lowestoft
Battle of Lowestoft
The naval Battle of Lowestoft took place on 13 June 1665 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War.A fleet of more than a hundred ships of the United Provinces commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam attacked an English fleet of equal size commanded by James Stuart, Duke of York forty...
turned into the worst naval defeat in Dutch history. The Dutch flagship Eendragt duelled her counterpart HMS Royal Charles
HMS Royal Charles
Two ships of the British Royal Navy have been named HMS Royal Charles, both after King Charles II.* The first Royal Charles was an 80-gun ship of the line, launched as Naseby for the Commonmwealth Navy in 1655, renamed in 1660, and captured by the Dutch in the Raid on the Medway in 1667.* The...
and exploded; Van Wassenaer was not among the five survivors. One report stated that just before the explosion he was swept from the deck by a British cannonball fired across the ship.
The heavy defeat caused a national outrage. Trying to explain his commander's behavior captain Tjerk Hiddes de Vries
Tjerk Hiddes de Vries
Tjerk Hiddes de Vries was a naval hero and Dutch admiral from the seventeenth century. The French, who could not pronounce his name, called him Kiërkides...
, soon to be promoted to Lieutenant-Admiral of Frisia, wrote about the causes of the defeat: "In the first place God Almighty robbed our supreme commander of his senses — or never gave him any to begin with.".
Like any Dutch Admiral killed in action Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam was given a marble grave memorial, in this case of course a cenotaph
Cenotaph
A cenotaph is an "empty tomb" or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been interred elsewhere. The word derives from the Greek κενοτάφιον = kenotaphion...
. It is in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, in the Old Church. His son, also named Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam
Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam (younger)
General Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam was a Dutch general in the War of the Spanish Succession.He was born in Heusden, the son of the famous Dutch Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam. On May 19, 1676 at Delden he married Adriana Sophia van Raesfelt...
, was a military commander in the War of the Spanish Succession
War of the Spanish Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession was fought among several European powers, including a divided Spain, over the possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under one Bourbon monarch. As France and Spain were among the most powerful states of Europe, such a unification would have...
.