The 335-Year War: History’s Longest Running Technicality

Imagine being at war for centuries without even knowing it…

That was the 335 Year War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly, a minuscule island off the coast of England. Widely considered the world’s longest war, the conflict dates back to 1651. 

In order to fully understand the roots of the war, we must first take a look back at the English Civil War. Beginning in 1642, the Parliamentarians, led by Oliver Cromwell, and the Royalists, strong supporters of England’s King Charles I, fought in a raging war for control of the nation. The Royalist forces faced serious defeats, and by 1648, the majority of England had been taken over by the Parliamentarians. 

The massive defeats that the Royalists faced forced them to retreat to the farthest edges of the United Kingdom; one of the places that Royalist forces ended up retreating to was the Isles of Scilly.

As the Civil War raged on in England, the Dutch government saw an opportunity to gain favorable relations with the party that would be the eventual winner of the conflict. For this reason, they decided to enter the war, fighting on the side of the Parliamentarians. The Royalists, years-long allies of the Dutch, were completely outraged by the Dutch government’s actions. 

In their outrage, the Royalist Navy swiftly began to ambush Dutch merchant ships that traveled off the coast of the Isles of Scilly. The Royalists engaged in acts of piracy, robbing and attacking any Dutch ships that passed along their shores. The constant attacks from the Royalists proved to be quite an issue for the Dutch, a nation that thrived on its global trading power and naval strength. 

By 1651, when the Royalists were suffering immense defeats and had been almost completely pushed out of the British mainland and to the Isles of Scilly, the Dutch saw their chance to take revenge for the years of piracy and attacks that their ships had faced. The Dutch sent a fleet of twelve of their warships to the Isles of Scilly, forming a blockade around the archipelago, and stipulating that they would not remove the blockade until the Royalists paid them reparations for the damages and thievery that had taken place in the attacks throughout the Civil War.

Naturally, the Royalists were outraged. Unwilling and unable to pay reparations because of the amount of losses they had already faced over the duration of the war, they refused to give in to the demands of the Dutch. 

Consequently, on March 30th 1651, Dutch Admiral Maarten Tromp declared war on the Isles of Scilly, the only area in the Kingdom that remained under Royalist control. The declaration of war led to a largely anticlimactic progression of events though, because just a few months later, the Parliamentarians forced the Royalists to surrender and officially took control of the Isles of Scilly. The Dutch finally disassembled their blockade and took their ships back to their own waters.

Now, to most, it seemed as if the brief war between the Dutch and the Royalist Isles of Scilly had ended, and the Dutch sailed home, forgetting completely about their declaration of war. 

It wasn’t until 1986 that a historian noticed a technicality that had been overlooked for centuries. Roy Duncan, a Scillian historian, came to the realization that there had never been an official peace treaty signed before the Dutch moved their ships away from the Isles. Duncan sent a letter to the Dutch Embassy in London to determine if there had truly not been a peace treaty written or signed. Upon further search, this proved to be true, meaning that under technical legal terms, the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly had been at war for 335 years, and still were!

Dutch ambassador Rein Huydecooper acted quickly, taking off on a trip to the Isles to finally remedy this error. On April 17th, 1986, Huydecooper and the Isles signed a peace treaty, officially ending the longest war in history.

With no battles fought and no bloodshed, the centuries long war was not traditional in any sense. Despite being a small, forgotten conflict, the war speaks volumes about international diplomacy. The quirky circumstances of the 335-Years War highlight that wars aren’t always fought through violence, and that history is a web of events that can make us laugh, scratch our heads, or wonder what else might be hidden in dusty archives. 

This was the Politics… stay tuned for the Dinner!