La vie de Michel de Ruiter. Duc, Chevalier, Lieutenant Amiral Général de Hollande & de Oüest-Frise. Où est comprise l histoire maritime des Provinces Unies, depuis l An 1652 jusques à 1676.

A FINE COPY OF THE FIRST FRENCH EDITION (FIRST DUTCH 1687), OF THE LIFE AND DEEDS OF ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS DUTCH ADMIRALS OF ALL TIMES, AND RECENTLY IMMORTALISED IN THE EXCELLENT MOVIE ADMIRAL COMMAND & CONQUER. LEADER OF THE RAID ON THE DOCKYARDS IN THE MEDWAY IN 1667, HE DELIVERED ONE OF THE DEEPEST HUMILIATIONS EVER VISITED UPON ENGLAND AND THE ROYAL NAVY. Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter (1607-1676) is celebrated and regarded as one of the most skilled admirals in history, and famous for his achievements with the Dutch Fleet during the Anglo-Dutch Wars. He fought the English and French naval forces and scored several critical victories, with the Raid on the Medway being the most famous of them. Retaining the pagination of the original Dutch printing, the folding plates depict 1) the naval battle at Plymouth in August 1652, with General George Ayscue in charge of the English fleet and attack, 2) the joint battle of Dutch and Danish forces against the Swedes at Nyborg in November 1659, with the Swedish army commanded by the Prince of Sulzbach and Marshal Steenbok, 3) de Ruyter s brief stop at Algiers, following the signing of a peace treaty with Tunis in September 1662, 4) the raid on Medway in June 1667, 5 ) the huge naval battle of Kijkduin in August 1673 against the combined English and French fleet, under the commands of Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, and the Comte D Estrées, 6) the battle against the French fleet under the command of Admiral Abraham Duquesne near Sicily in April 1676, where de Ruyter was mortally wounded. The last folding plate shows the funeral procession; the final, single-page plate the admiral s tomb. Gerard Brandt, the author of this important biography, was a Dutch preacher, playwright, poet, church historian and naval historian. He died in 1685. The present translation from the original Dutch is by the French priest and writer Nicolas Aubin, whose Dictionnaire de marine appeared at Amsterdam in 1702. Aubin s translation is dedicated to François Jacques le Fort (1656-1699), a Genevan born Russian military figure of Huguenot origin, admiral general, and a close associate of Tsar Peter the Great. Provenance: Captain Simcoe R[oyal] N[avy] Wolford with his 19th-century lithographic armorial bookplate to front paste-down, and most likely identifiable as Captain John Kannaway Simcoe (1825-1891), grandson of General John Graves Simcoe, and the last member of this rather illustrious family. John Kannaway Simcoe was a direct descendent of James Cook s captain on HMS Pembroke, John Simcoe (1710-1759), who, together with Samuel Holland, is remembered as one of Cook s mentor in methods of navigation. Taken ill by pneumonia, John Simcoe died aboard his ship on May 15, 1749, having entered the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River. He was succeeded by his son, John Graves Simcoe (1752-1806), the only child of four to live past childhood. John Graves followed in his illustrious father s footsteps, entering the army as an ensign in 1770. In 1775, he was promoted to captain and sailed to North America, landing on Staten Island, New York in July 1776. In June 1778, he was granted the provisional rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and the 19th of December 1781, his rank was made permanent. He returned to England in December 1782, where he married and settled down on the country estate Wolford, Devon, that had been purchased by his wealthy wife, Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim, and which was to remain the family seat until 1923. In 1790, Simcoe was promoted to Colonel, and the following year appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the new province of Upper Canada. He sailed for Quebec in 1791. He remained in Canada for five years and left the colony in 1796, two years after having been appointed Major-General, to accept a new position in San Domingo. He eventually returned to England, and died on October 26, 1806. The present, last, in the Simcoe lineage, Captain John Kennaway, Justice of the Peace for the County of Devon, w.…