Three years of blood

The phrase "England is the master of the seas" survives in all our minds, but few people today know that in the 17th century it was the Dutch who dominated the maritime trade, with the English playing second fiddle. It took their navy a full half-century of defeats and several encounters with the Dutch before it finally managed to assert itself. And it was the second war with the United Provinces of the Netherlands that was one of the bloodiest ever...