The 335 - Year War

By Lavanya Singh

Yes, you read it right. This 'war' lasted for almost 30 decades. But how come we've never heard of it? Well, let's go to Scilly (pr: silly), a small archipelago of the coast of England. Rumours were, that in 1651, a state of war was declared between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly.

Hoping to prove the rumours wrong, Roy Duncan, a historian in the 1980s, dove into the origins of Scilly. But he never could've guessed what he found. As we've already read above, war was declared around 1651. This war, however, had not been resolved with a peace treaty despite the fact that there had been zero combat between the two countries.

Roy, who was set out to prove that it was just an old wives' tale, was shocked by the results he got. His research has proved that war had indeed been declared between the two unlikely foes around the English Civil War. This has occurred after the Netherlands demanded reparation for the damage caused to their ships by the English Royal forces. At this point, the Royalists, who were losing against the parliamentarians, were forced to retreat to Scilly. This is where the Netherlands' navy cornered them and forced them to pay for the damages. When their demands were refused, lieutenant-admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp declared war.

The declaration of war, however, was never resolved. So, Duncan wrote to a Dutch ambassador to visit the island to solve this so-called conflict. Peace was officially declared on April 17th 1986, exactly 335 years after its declaration. This war was also the longest and least bloody conflicts in history! While his intentions were to prove an absurd myth wrong, Duncan ended up both uncovering and resolving an active war!

By Lavanya Singh