A story through the diary · His work
The Dutch war, from his desk
England's war with the Dutch, 1664–67, seen by the man who had to find the ships, the seamen and the money.
411 days across 7 years, 1662–1668 · 24 steps in its story
Pepys was Clerk of the Acts all through England's war with the Dutch: the Navy Board's secretary, and one of its members. English merchants had quarrelled with the Dutch over trade in Guinea and the East Indies; English ships took Dutch merchantmen in November 1664, and war was proclaimed in March 1665. He feared it from the start. He heard the guns of the great battles from Greenwich Park, the leads at Whitehall and, in 1667, the river at Gravesend, and followed them as news in letters; and he had to find the ships, the men, the victuals and, above all, the money.
Around him in these steps: the Duke of York, the King's brother and Lord High Admiral (“the Duke”); William Coventry, the Duke's secretary and a Navy commissioner; Sir George Carteret, Treasurer of the Navy; Penn, Batten and Brouncker, his colleagues at the Board; Prince Rupert, the King's cousin, and the Duke of Albemarle, once General Monck, who commanded the fleet together in 1666; and Sandwich, his patron, an admiral.
The money ran out in the first year. Seamen were paid off with tickets instead of wages, starved and rioted, and some, it was reported, were heard on the Dutch side; men were pressed (forced into service) without press-money, which he called a great tyranny. In June 1667, with no fleet at sea, the Dutch broke the chain across the Medway and burned ships at Chatham; a peace was made at Breda that summer.
A Commons committee then inquired into the war's miscarriages: Pepys's defence of the Navy Board, and his speech to the House in March 1668, are in Making the Navy work. What the war years brought him, among them the victualling post, and the gold he sent away during the raid are in From £40 to £6,900; the prize goods, Sandwich's and his own, are in Patrons.
The story in 24 steps
Step 1 · Monday 22 February 1664
Alsopp, the King's brewer, spends an hour bewailing the state of things to him: the King, he says, led by a few favourites, no money laid up in bank. Both fear a Dutch war, unless a French attack on Flanders parts France from the Dutch.
all the Court are mad for a Dutch war; but both he and I did concur, that it was a thing rather to be dreaded than hoped for
22 Feb 1664Step 2 · Wednesday 20 April 1664
In Westminster Hall Coventry tells him the Committee for Trade has received all the merchants' complaints against the Dutch, and means to report their wrongs to the House next day, very highly. Pepys thinks the wrong is England's own doing.
when, God knows! it is only our owne negligence and laziness that hath done us the wrong
20 Apr 1664Step 3 · Friday 25 November 1664
At Batten's he hears the Commons have given the King £2,500,000 for the war, for the Navy alone, over three years. That morning he had made, for Parliament, an account of the Dutch business's extra cost to the Navy, making it appear £852,700.
but God knows this is only a scare to the Parliament, to make them give the more money
25 Nov 1664Step 4 · Saturday 31 December 1664
At the year's end public matters are “all in a hurry about a Dutch warr”, the preparations and the provocations both great. Sandwich is with the fleet at Portsmouth, sending ships out to cruise, and a great number have been taken.
after all our presumption, we are now afeard as much of them, as we lately contemned them
31 Dec 1664Step 5 · Sunday 15 January 1665
Pepys is there when, before the King and Council, Penn argues against letting the Turkey merchants' ships sail: the King means to have 130 ships out by spring, needing 30,000 seamen. Ayscue says war and trade cannot both be carried on; Coventry agrees.
and of them in service we have not above 16,000; so we shall need 14,000 more
15 Jan 1665Step 6 · Thursday 8 June 1665
At the Lord Treasurer's comes news of victory off Lowestoft (3 June); the goldsmiths will not yet lend on his tallies as Tangier's new treasurer. At the Cockpit, Coventry's letter: some 24 Dutch ships taken or sunk, it is believed, for at most 700 English.
So home to bed, with my heart at great rest and quiett, saving that the consideration of the victory is too great for me presently to comprehend.
8 Jun 1665Step 7 · Saturday 9 September 1665
With Doyly, Evelyn and Cocke he talks of thousands of prisoners kept at great charge, with hardly any money. Cocke reports the Dutch fleet safe home from Bergen, in Norway; they foresee the English fleet coming home in shame, needing money that cannot be had.
so that, as things look at present, the whole state must come to ruine
9 Sep 1665Step 8 · Saturday 7 October 1665
Crowds of seamen hinder the office's business; at noon a hundred follow the officers, “some cursing, some swearing, and some praying”. Then Albemarle writes that 80 Dutch sail were seen off Solebay the day before; Pepys fears no force at sea can oppose them.
because of the horrible crowd and lamentable moan of the poor seamen that lie starving in the streets for lack of money
7 Oct 1665Step 9 · Saturday 4 November 1665
A hundred seamen spend the afternoon below the office, swearing and cursing the officers, breaking the glass windows, and swearing to pull the house down next Tuesday. He sends word of it to Court, though he doubts that will help.
nothing will helpe it but money and a rope
4 Nov 1665Step 10 · Thursday 7 June 1666
Still expecting victory in the Four Days' Battle (1–4 June), he hears from Brouncker and another commissioner that the fleet is beaten: good commanders lost, the Prince aground on the Galloper and burned, Ayscue taken. He must write Lady Sandwich a sad letter.
I do find great reason to think that we are beaten in every respect, and that we are the losers
7 Jun 1666Step 11 · Wednesday 13 June 1666
At the funeral of Sir Christopher Mings, where Coventry, he notes, is the only person of quality, a dozen of Mings's seamen come in tears to Coventry's coach and ask for a fireship to avenge their commander. Pepys can hardly keep from weeping.
We are here a dozen of us that have long known and loved, and served our dead commander
13 Jun 1666Step 12 · Sunday 1 July 1666
Till midnight he ships the City's pressed men from the Tower, while women run to every party of men brought in, looking for their husbands, and weep after each vessel as far as they can see it by moonlight. It grieves him to the heart.
and that without press-money, but forced against all law to be gone. It is a great tyranny.
1 Jul 1666Step 13 · Tuesday 10 July 1666
Some 300 women, he thinks, fill the yard cursing the officers, then cry at his window for money for their husbands, prisoners in Holland: their families' want, what the men suffered for the King, how well the Dutch here are kept. He gives one money.
I do most heartily pity them, and was ready to cry to hear them, but cannot helpe them
10 Jul 1666Step 14 · Sunday 29 July 1666
Bells ring for victory in the St James's Day Fight (25 July). Coventry writes that the Dutch were beaten back into the Wielingen, and two great ships taken but burned by order of the Generals, Rupert and Albemarle. A poor result, he thinks.
only we keep the sea, which denotes a victory, or at least that we are not beaten; but no great matters to brag of, God knows
29 Jul 1666Step 15 · Sunday 7 October 1666
Before the King's Cabinet, the officers having agreed only to ask for money, he speaks first on the Navy's debt. Rupert, who brought the fleet home, angrily says it came in good condition. The King finds £5,000 or £6,000, against £100,000 needed.
This is every day a greater and greater omen of ruine.
7 Oct 1666Step 16 · Wednesday 19 December 1666
On Tower Hill he sees three or four hundred seamen gather, and hurries home afraid. Hearing a thousand are in arms, he fears for his riches. Batten and Ford tell him seamen have been at prisons to free seamen; Albemarle has taken troops to Wapping.
the horrid shame brought on the King’s service by the just clamours of the poor seamen
19 Dec 1666Step 17 · Wednesday 6 March 1667
The Duke and the King tell the officers that this year only squadrons will be kept at sea, not a fleet. Sheerness and Portsmouth are to be fortified and troops drawn to the coast, for there is some fear of an invasion.
the Duke of York himself did declare his expectation of the enemy’s blocking us up here in the River
6 Mar 1667Step 18 · Wednesday 3 April 1667
Before the Duke he reads what he calls two of the most dismal letters ever written on the Navy's straits; to every demand Carteret, the Treasurer, answers “no money”. Coventry says his work now is orders that will justify the Duke when called to account.
God knows, it is an ill sign when we are once to come to study how to excuse ourselves
3 Apr 1667Step 19 · Monday 10 June 1667
The Dutch are at the Nore; Coventry presses for fireships. For once the office has money, but, he owns, its officers are used to idleness and despair. At Gravesend Albemarle arrives with “a great many idle lords and gentlemen, with their pistols and fooleries”.
partly people that have been used to be deceived by us as to money, won’t believe us
10 Jun 1667Step 20 · Friday 14 June 1667
After the Dutch raid on the Medway (12–13 June), a man of Gauden's says, Pepys thinks, he heard Englishmen aboard the Dutch ships. Seamen offer to fight if their tickets are paid; Wapping wives cry, “This comes of your not paying our husbands”.
We did heretofore fight for tickets; now we fight for dollars!
14 Jun 1667Step 21 · Sunday 30 June 1667
At Chatham: the wrecks of three great ships, dead bodies by the water, the chain. The Dutch at Gillingham, he hears, killed none and plundered no houses; English soldiers after them did. At Sheerness, he is told, nothing was done for defence towards the sea.
and, which is to our eternal disgrace, that what my Lord Douglas’s men, who come after them, found there, they plundered and took all away
30 Jun 1667Step 22 · Monday 29 July 1667
A letter Coventry has drafted for the Duke, ordering the ships laid up, means the war is “now professedly over”. At the Duke's the talk is of Jordan's failed fireship attack, and of ships' companies that deserted for fear. Parliament is sent home.
Thus, in all things, in wisdom, courage, force, knowledge of our own streams, and success, the Dutch have the best of us, and do end the war with victory on their side.
29 Jul 1667Step 23 · Thursday 22 August 1667
The officers examine men jailed for rescuing pressed men; two days earlier, two who leapt from a press vessel into the Thames were shot by guards. He hears the peace was proclaimed in Holland (19 August), and cannot tell whether to be glad or sorry.
we do plainly see that the desperate condition that we put men into for want of their pay, makes them mad, they being as good men as ever were in the world
22 Aug 1667Step 24 · Tuesday 31 December 1667
Captain Perryman thinks want of money has so discouraged England's seamen that most have gone abroad or are going; he says Irishmen in town offer £3 in hand and 40 shillings a month for French service. He ends the year fearing the nation lost.
which is a mighty shame, but yet I believe is true
31 Dec 1667
See all 411 days on the mood grid
Related stories
- Making the Navy work How a clerk new to the Navy learned its business, and then had to defend it.
- Patrons Edward Montagu, Earl of Sandwich from 1660, made him; then Coventry and the Duke of York took over, while Sandwich fell from favour, went abroad and came home deep in debt.
- From £40 to £6,900 How a clerk worth £40 became a rich official, counting his pounds on the way.
Sources: The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Introduction (opens in a new tab)