Blake, Robert
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
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.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The facts Aiton's set down in 1910 still hold: Blake commanded at sea from 1649, broke Rupert's royalist squadron, fought Tromp and De Ruyter, and burned the Spanish treasure fleet at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1657 before dying within sight of Plymouth. What has grown is his standing — he is now routinely called a founder of the modern Royal Navy, largely for the 1653 Fighting Instructions issued by the Generals at Sea, which imposed line-of-battle discipline on English fleets for the next century and a half. Aiton's glides past the sequel in a single clause; in 1661 Charles II had the body taken out of Westminster Abbey and tipped into a common pit in St Margaret's churchyard nearby, where it remains. His birthplace at Bridgwater in Somerset is now the Blake Museum, and successive warships have carried the name HMS Blake.
Written for this edition, 2026.