Battles of Schooneveld

Battle of Schooneveld
Part of Franco-Dutch War
The first battle of Schooneveld, 7 June 1673 by Willem van de Velde, the elder, painted c.1684.
Date 7 June 1673 and 14 June 1673 Location North Sea Result Dutch victory
Belligerents
England  France	Dutch Republic
Commanders and leaders
Rupert of the Rhine Jean II d'Estrées Edward Spragge	Michiel de Ruyter Cornelis Tromp Adriaen Banckert
Strength
86 ships 24,295 men 4,826 cannons	64 ships 14,762 men 3,157 cannons
Casualties and losses
2 ships	1 ship

The Battles of Schooneveld were two naval battles of the Franco-Dutch War, fought off the coast of the Netherlands on 7 June and 14 June 1673 (New Style; 28 May and 4 June in the Julian calendar then in use in England) between an allied Anglo-French fleet commanded by Prince Rupert of the Rhine, and the fleet of the United Provinces, commanded by Michiel de Ruyter.

The Dutch victories in the two battles, and at the Battle of Texel that followed in August, saved their country from an Anglo-French invasion.

The Franco-Dutch War of 1672–1678 resulted from the attempts of Louis XIV of France to annex the Spanish Netherlands. In 1672, troops from France, Münster and Cologne invaded the Netherlands by land, while England's navy attacked Dutch shipping and threatened a seaborne invasion. The conflict between England and the Republic is commonly called the Third Anglo-Dutch War.

The years 1672-1673 were particularly desperate for the Dutch, with the French stopped only by The Dutch Water Line, a deliberate flooding of large parts of the Dutch countryside, and the withdrawing of guns and men from the fleet to augment the army of William III of Orange, now Admiral-General of the fleet. A surprise attack by De Ruyter in June 1672, resulting in the Battle of Solebay, had however prevented the allies from establishing naval superiority on the North Sea, keeping open the sea lanes so vital to Dutch trade.

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