Maarten Tromp
Maarten Tromp was born on April 23, 1598. See ranking, bio blurb, and everyone else born that day.
About Maarten Tromp
Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp (23 April 1598 – 31 July 1653), also known as Maarten van Tromp, was an army general and admiral in the Dutch navy during much of the Eighty Years' War and throughout the First Anglo-Dutch War. Born in Brielle, the son of a ship's captain, Tromp spent much of his childhood at sea, during which time he was twice captured by pirates and sold into slavery. After regaining his freedom, he joined the Dutch navy and served with distinction, rising to the rank of lieutenant admiral in 1637 during the Eighty Years' War. Subsequently at the behest of Stadtholder Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange he accepted the command of the Dutch navy, which had fallen into a deplorable state due to incompetence and neglect. In 1639, through the deliberate use of line of battle tactics, he won a decisive victory over Antonio de Oquendo's Spanish fleet at the Battle of the Downs. The defeat all but marked the end of Spain's power at sea and ushered in an era of Dutch maritime supremacy. A skirmish between Tromp and English Admiral Robert Blake at Dover in 1652 led to the outbreak of the First Anglo-Dutch War. Temporary control of the English Channel following the Dutch victory at Dungeness was soon lost when Tromp suffered a significant defeat at the Gabbard in the face of superior English firepower. During the final battle of the war at Scheveningen in July 1653, Tromp was fatally wounded by an English sharpshooter. His death, a major blow to both the Dutch navy and the Orangist faction, solidified his public status as a naval hero. He was accorded a state funeral and interred in the Oude Kerk in Delft. An innovative tactician and a key figure in the rise of the Dutch Republic as a major power, Tromp was widely considered the best Dutch naval commander of his time as well as a folk hero.