At Dungeness on 29–30 November 1652, Blake and
40 English ships, took on Tromp and 95 Dutch ships.
Blake’s forces suffered a serious loss, with six ships sunk
and two captured, and they were forced to withdraw
into the Thames River, allowing the Dutch control of
the English Channel. Blake rebuilt his fleet, and at Port-
land (18–20 February 1653), also called the Three Days
Battle, Blake suffered a serious leg wound but defeated
Tromp and the Dutch and reestablished English control
over the Channel. When General George monck and
Richard Deane faced Tromp at North Foreland (2–3
June 1653), Deane was killed but Blake came to the aid
of the English forces and defeated Tromp. Ill health from
his wound forced Blake to return to England, and he did
not participate further in the war, which ended with the
battle of Scheveningen on 31 July 1653.
Blake went into retirement, although he did serve
for a time as a member of Parliament from Bridgwater
in what was called the Barebones Parliament. This was
named after Nicholas Barbon, who led parliamentary
criticism of the lord protector, Oliver cromWell, who
in turn dismissed Parliament. When Cromwell went to
war with the French and Spanish, Blake was called back
into service. Given command of an English fleet of 24
warships, he attacked the fort at Porto Fariña in Tunis
(now Tunisia) to discourage Barbary pirates threatening
English shipping, and these firm measures were success-
ful. Blake then moved to the coast of Spain off Cádiz,
threatening to capture Gibraltar, and it was at this point
that his finest victory came. At Tenerife (Canary Islands)
on 20 April 1657, he attacked the Spanish and destroyed
or captured their entire fleet with the loss of only one
English ship.
Ill health forced Blake to sail for England. He was
nearly home when he succumbed to his war wounds on
17 August 1657 at the age of only 58. He was buried
in Westminster Abbey, but, following the restoration of
Charles I’s son, Charles II, his body was removed from
the abbey and thrown into a pit near the abbey. It was re-
covered and reburied in the churchyard of St. Margaret’s
Church in London.
Historian C. R. B. Barrett, in his 1917 treatise on
“the missing years” of Blake’s early life (1625–1640),
sums up his life and his career: “It must... in fairness
be stated that no one really satisfactory account of Blake
exists as a whole. Of his parliamentary career, which
began in 1640, little is told us. His military exploits,
which began in 1642, are worthy of far more atten-
tion than has been bestowed on then, and to this day,
as a commander of land forces, he has been neglected
by military historians. His naval exploits have, however,
been adequately treated and his distinguished services as
Admiral and General at Sea have been recorded at length
and in detail.”References: Laughton, John Knox, “Blake, Robert,” in
The Dictionary of National Biography, 22 vols., 8 supps.,
edited by Sir Leslie Stephen and Sir Sidney Lee, et al.
(London: Oxford University Press, 1921–22), II:632–
641; Beadon, Roger, Robert Blake: Sometime Command-
ing All the Fleets and Naval Forces of England (London:
Edward Arnold & Co., 1935); Vere, Francis, Salt in Their
Blood: The Lives of the Famous Dutch Admirals (London:
Cassell & Company, Ltd., 1955); Barrett, C. R. B., “The
Missing Fifteen Years (1625–1640) in the Life of Rob-
ert Blake, Admiral and General at Sea,” The Journal of
the Royal United Science Institution 62 (1917): 98–110; A
Great Victory Obtained by His Excellency the Lord General
Blake... (London: Printed for George Horton, 1652);
Bruce, George, “Dover” and “Portland,” in Collins Dic-
tionary of Wars (Glasgow, Scotland: HarperCollins Pub-
lishers, 1995), 76, 200.Blücher, Gebhard Leberecht von (1742–1819)
Prussian general
Born in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Schwerin (now in Ger-
many), on 16 December 1742, Gebhard Leberecht von
Blücher did not consider a military career until he vis-
ited the Swedish island of Rügen, where he saw Swedish
hussars training. He then joined the Swedish army as
a cornet (junior officer). Coincidentally, the first action
he saw was against his native Prussia; taken prisoner
(ironically, by the same regiment he later commanded),
Blücher was persuaded to join the Prussian army. He was
given the rank of lieutenant in the regiment that had
captured him; however, he soon became aggrieved by
what he felt was the unworthy promotions of other men,
and he left the army in 1772, retiring to his family’s es-
tate in Pomerania.
In 1787, following the death of Prussian king Fred-
erick II, Blücher was induced to return to the army, this
time with the rank of major, and he commanded his old
regiment when it was sent into battle in Holland. When
Prussia went to war against France, he saw major action
at the battles of Orchies (1793), Frankenstein (1793),blücheR, gebhARD lebeRecht von