Admiralty of Amsterdam

The Admiralty of Amsterdam was the largest of the five Dutch admiralties at the time of the Dutch Republic. The administration of the various Admiralties was strongly influenced by provincial interests. The territory for which Amsterdam was responsible was limited to the city itself, the Gooi region, the islands of Texel, Vlieland and Terschelling, the province of Utrecht and the Gelderland quarters of Arnhem and of the Graafschap (county) of Zutphen. Amsterdam had developed into the most important of all the Admiralties and often compensated for the other admiralties' deficiencies. When the "Committee for Naval Affairs" (Comité tot de Zaken der Marine) replaced the Admiralty Colleges on 27 February 1795 during the reforms by the Batavian Republic, the lower civil servants were kept on, but the officers were dismissed.

Initially, Amsterdam fell under the Admiralty of Rotterdam, as it was located in the Southern Quarter of Holland. However, on 26 July 1586, the Earl of Leicester reorganised maritime affairs and placed Amsterdam, the Northern Quarter of Holland, and the provinces of Utrecht and Gelderland under a single Admiralty based in Hoorn. The region's West Frisian towns played a wayward role, and this was aggravated when they engaged with Amsterdam in a dispute over the Republic's admiralty administration. The States of Holland (the government of the province of Holland) backed Amsterdam. That there was a need for reorganisation was not contested, Leicester having placed naval and maritime affairs under a single college designed to curb Holland's influence. Hoorn, Enkhuizen and Medemblik rejected the idea that commissioned officers should be appointed by the States of Holland instead of the cities themselves. As a result, the commissioned officers resolved to remain in Amsterdam. On 28 August 1586, that decision formed the foundation of the Amsterdam Admiralty.

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