Wars are fought for a multitude of reasons - religion, revenge, ideology, resources - and even follow a procedure - a declaration that is authorized by a governing body that creates war between two countries. This legality assists in showing proof that one, the war occurred, and two, there was an agreement between the head of government and whatever governance of state that country holds. This keeps leaders from starting nonsensical wars that waste resources and destroy lives. But, what if the authenticity of the war is disputed leaving it sounding like nothing more than folklore? A bloodless war is certainly not stereotypical of the noun. In fact, a state that does not reflect extreme aggression, destruction, and the use of …show more content…
The Second English Civil War ended how most wars end, with one side coming out victorious. Oliver Cromwell, a Parliamentarian, fought to the bitter end to purge the Royalist from mainland England forcing them to the Islands of Scilly, owned by John Granville, a Royalist. The Netherlands, who had been aided by the British during the Eighty Years’ War and thus were long time allies with the country, saw that the Parliamentarians’ were more likely to win the Civil War and decided to aid them, ending up the target of the Royalist fleet. The Admiral of the Dutch navy, Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp went to Scilly in the spring of 1691 to demand reparations for the damage done to his navy by Royalist fleets after declaring their alliance with the Parliamentarians. The Royalists refused leaving Tromp to declare war on the Islands of Scilly and the Royalist faction. In the summer of that same year Admiral Robert Blake of the Parliamentary navy commandeered the Islands which prompted the Dutch to leave without firing a single shot since the Royalists were no longer a threat to them. The discrepancy arises when how one recalls how declarations of wars work: a governing leader must declare the war which is accepted by its governing body. As …show more content…
L Bowley are more inclined to explain where this myth may have originated from although he agrees that Tromp had no formal declaration of war from his government. He sites the letters and documents in Whitelock's ‘Memorials’ as the closest thing to a declaration of war the Dutch navy got with the Islands of Scilly. A letter in the ‘Memorials’ states, “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” All war tensions between the two would have been resolved as a result of the treaty between England and the United Provinces at the end of the first Dutch War in 1654. The Dutch army simply omitted their rescind of their declaration and sent their blockade away from now Parliamentary English coasts. There was no point in going to war with an Island that was now under control of their