Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter virtually controlled the seas around the south coast of England after a battle that took place in what year ?
Raid on the Medway The Raid on the Medway during the Second Anglo-Dutch War in June 1667, sometimes called the Battle of the Medway, Raid on Chatham or the Battle of Chatham, was a successful and daring attack conducted by the Dutch navy deep upriver targeting the largest English naval battleships at a time when most were virtually unmanned and unarmed, laid up due to lack of funding in the fleet anchorages off Chatham Dockyard and Gillingham in the county of Kent. At the time, the fortress of Upnor Castle and a barrier chain called the "Gillingham Line" were supposed to protect the mothballed naval ships anchored off Chatham, the main English naval base in southeastern Stuart England.
Battle of Alton The Battle of Alton (also Storm of Alton), of the First English Civil War, took place on 13 December 1643 in the town of Alton, Hampshire, England. There, Parliamentary forces serving under Sir William Waller led a successful surprise attack on a winter garrison of Royalist infantry and cavalry serving under the Earl of Crawford. In the context of the First English Civil War, the Battle of Alton was the first decisive defeat of Sir Ralph Hopton, leader of Royalist forces in the south, and the event had a significant psychological effect on him as commander. More important to Hopton was the loss of men, however, as he was already short-handed in much-needed infantry. The successful Parliamentarians were able, after their victory, to attack and successfully besiege Arundel, a larger and more formidable Royalist outpost in the south of England.