3. Lopsided Loss at the Medway
The Dutch overcame a barrier chain stretched across the Medway. They next forced their way past fortresses along the way that were intended to protect the English battleships anchored at Gillingham and Chatham. When the Dutch reached the English ships laid up in their dockyards, they discovered that the financially strapped English had left them virtually unmanned and unarmed. The raiders swiftly burned three capital ships and ten smaller warships. They also captured and towed away two major ships of the line, including HMS Royal Charles, the flagship of the Royal Navy, named after the reigning king.
In a lopsided defeat, England’s Royal Navy lost 13 ships, while the Dutch lost none. The demonstration that the English could not protect their own fleet within their own borders humiliated England. So great was the humiliation that there was speculation about the collapse of the monarchy, which had been restored only seven years earlier after a decade of rule without a king during the English Commonwealth. Chagrined, broke, and with a monarch seated atop a shaky throne, the English hurried to sign a peace treaty favorable to the Dutch, and exited the war.
