Man of War: Sir Robert Holmes and the Restoration Navy

by Richard Ollard

Book Overview

Spirited and adventurous, Sir Rupert Holmes lived a life rich with escapades. Embarking on one of the strangest and most romantic episodes in naval history, he accompanied the exiled Prince Rupert on... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1842122363
• ISBN13: 9781842122365
• Release Date: June 2001
• Publisher: Phoenix Press (CA)
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Fun to read and very informative

Very well written book, fun to read, with lots of information in it. Has some very nice illustrations, too. Maybe not the most scientific work around, but because Sir Roberts life was so interesting, it would be a shame to just boil it down to the scientific facts and leave out all the adventures and escapades ...:).

A Brave and Brilliant Patriot

Robert Holmes was a brilliant and professional admiral who served the House of Stuart faithfully and well, at great personal cost to himself. He began as a dashing soldier in Charles I's Cavalier army. After power was usurped by Oliver Cromwell and his firebrand Puritans, Holmes remained loyal to King-in-Exile, serving as one of Prince Rupert's most effective lieutenants in the famous cruise of the Royalist fleet during the 1650s. When, in 1660, legitimate government returned in the form of King Charles II, Holmes became a leading supporter of the Royal Africa Company and, later, admiral in the Restoration navy. Ollard provides a brilliant account, based on contemporary sources, of Holmes's controversial raid on the Dutch fortresses in Gambia (arguably provoking the Second Anglo-Dutch war); he also explains Holmes's role in intercepting the Dutch Smyrna fleet (arguably causing the Third Anglo-Dutch war). The climax of the story is Holmes's brilliant raid on islands of Vlie and Schelling, dealing much-deserved retribution to the Dutch aggressor. Finally the author traces Holmes's virtual retirement to the position of governor of the Isle of Wight. A comprehensive biography of a much-neglected defender of English liberty.