A room for two centuries of naval warfare
This gallery traces English naval wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries through the painters who documented them, often Dutch — a direct consequence of the fact that the United Provinces were, for much of this period, England's main enemy or direct rival at sea.
1. 1588: launching fireships against the Invincible Armada
The Launching of the Fireships against the Spanish Armada, 7 August 1588, shows one of the decisive episodes of the Spanish attempt to invade England: English ships set alight and let loose, crewless, into the Spanish fleet anchored off Calais, causing panic and scattering the enemy ships. The episode marks the beginning of the Armada's rout, largely completed by the storms that later battered the Spanish fleet as it returned north around Scotland and Ireland.
2. 1667: the Medway disaster
Dutch Ships in the Medway, June 1667 documents one of the worst disasters in the history of the Royal Navy: under Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, the Dutch fleet sailed up the Thames and then the Medway, captured Sheerness, and destroyed or captured several major English warships laid up, unmanned, at Chatham. Among the Dutch prizes was the Royal Charles, the flagship that had carried Charles II back from exile in the Netherlands at the Restoration of 1660 — a humiliation made sharper still by the fact that this very ship carried the king's own name.
How much time
A century separates these two paintings: look for how the same navy could carry, decades apart, both its greatest victory and its greatest humiliation.
- Fireships against the Armada — 8 minutes.
- The Medway disaster — 8 minutes.
Sources and verification
Checked against the official notices of Royal Museums Greenwich (rmg.co.uk / collections.rmg.co.uk) and cross-checked with Wikipedia EN/FR.
- Royal Museums Greenwich — Dutch Ships in the Medway, June 1667
- Royal Museums Greenwich — Dutch Attack on the Medway, 9-14 June 1667
- Rijksmuseum — The Dutch Raid on the Medway, 1667
- Wikipedia EN — HMS Royal Charles (1660)
Displays and room openings can change. Check the Royal Museums Greenwich website on the day of your visit before following a route.
Continue your visit
Royal Museums Greenwich, London
Listen to the commentary in the gallery
This route gives you a thread to follow. In front of an artwork, CulturAll adds the audio commentary: photograph the work or its label, listen, then ask your questions.
