510
MILITARY HISTORY, 1485-1603.
[1596.
to 130 men. The contingent was under the orders of Jonkheer Jan van Duijvenvoorde, Lord of Warmond and Admiral of Holland; but the English Lord High Admiral was naval commander-in-chief, and for the first time a Dutch fleet obeyed an English flag-officer.[1]
JAN VAN DUIJVENVOORDE, ADMIRAL OF HOLLAND.
(From the engraving by H. Goltzius, 1579)
On board the fleet there were, in addition to the Dutch, 7360 landsmen and 6772 seamen. The troops were under the Lord High Admiral and Essex, as joint generals.[2]
- ↑ For the first time, also, the Dutch fleet seems to have carried a regular national flag to sea. A Resolution of the States-General of April 5th, 1596, directed that the arms of the States, a lion and arrows, should be worn on the colours, which were a tricolour of orange, white and blue. The flag was afterwards changed, red being substituted for orange on account of its superior visibility, and the arms being omitted. In Tromp's time, the orange (or red), white and blue flag was known as the Prince's flag, since it represented the colours of the Prince of Orange.
- ↑ This arrangement foreshadows the appointment under the Commonwealth of 'Admirals and Generals at Sea,' and, to some extent, the later practice of giving naval officers concurrent commissions in the Marines.
