Blake, Robert

Robert (1598-1657), a famous English seaman. He was a native of Somersetshire. His father was a merchant. Robert was well educated. He entered Parliament as a Presbyterian, and took an active part in the conflict with the Royalists. His life began and ended within a few months of that of Cromwell, and their lives ran parallel. When Parliament and the king came to blows, Blake proved his mettle at the head of a troop of his neighbors, and shortly after the execution of Charles I he was appointed General of the Sea. He drove Prince Rupert and the royalist fleet into port in Portugal, captured a fleet of seventeen richly laden Portuguese ships returning from Brazil, destroyed the fleet of Rupert, and fought the Dutch under Van Tromp, De Witt, and De Ruyter. Though Van Tromp lashed a broom to his masthead to indicate his intention of sweeping the English from the sea, the British schoolboy reads in history a glorious story of a Dutch fleet of a hundred ships annihilated, and a Spanish fleet cut out under the guns of a castle on Teneriffe. Blake reduced the Knights of Malta and the piratical states of North Africa, and forced them to respect the flag of the English merchantman. He died at sea in sight of Plymouth, and was buried with honors in Westminster Abbey. His bones were ordered removed by Charles II. In a time of bitter hatreds Blake was an open fighter. He has never been accused of persecution, dishonesty, or unmanly actions in private life.