14. The Dutch Republic and the Isles of Scilly Fought a 335-Year War Without a Single Casualty (1651–1986)
The longest uninterrupted war in human history concluded without shedding a single drop of blood, lasting 335 years simply because governments forgot it existed. During the English Civil War in 1651, the Dutch Republic allied with Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentarians against King Charles II’s Royalist forces. As Royalist naval fleets suffered losses, they retreated to the Isles of Scilly off the southwest coast of Cornwall. Seeking compensation for Dutch merchant ships raided by Royalist privateers, Dutch Admiral Maarten Tromp traveled to Scilly to demand reparations. Receiving no satisfaction, Tromp formally declared war on the Isles of Scilly in April 1651.
Shortly thereafter, Cromwell’s forces forced the Royalist fleet to surrender, securing Parliamentary control over all of Britain. The Dutch fleet sailed home without firing a shot, but state negotiators neglected to sign an official peace treaty to formalize the war’s conclusion. The conflict faded into historical obscurity until 1985, when Roy Duncan, a local historian and Chairman of the Isles of Scilly Council, researched the anomaly and contacted the Dutch Embassy in London. Confirming that a legal state of war technically persisted, Dutch Ambassador Rein Huydecoper traveled to the Isles of Scilly on April 17, 1986, to sign an official peace treaty, ending 335 years of symbolic hostility.
