BLAKE, ROBERT English parliamentarian and admiral, was born at Bridgwater, Somersetshire, the eldest son of a well-to-do merchant, and was educated at Bridgwater grammar school and at Oxford, where he was entered at St. Alban's hall, but afterwards removed to Wadham college. He remained at the university till 1625. Nothing is known of his life with certainty for the next fifteen years. An anonymous Dutch writer in the Hollandische Mercurius (1652) represents him as saying that he had lived in Schiedam "for five or six years" in his youth. He was elected to represent his native borough in the "Short Parliament" of 1640. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Blake declared for the Parliament, and served under Sir John Horner. He was one of the defenders of Bristol (1643) against Prince Rupert, and in 1644 he gained high dis tinction by the resolute defence of Lyme. The siege was raised on May 23, and on July 8 Blake took Taunton by surprise, and held the town for the Parliament against two sieges by the Royalists until July 1645, when it was relieved by Fairfax. In 1645 he re-entered parliament as member for Taunton.
In Feb. 1649 he was appointed, with Colonels Dean and Pop ham, to the command of the fleet, under the title of general of the sea. In April he was sent against Prince Rupert's fleet at Kinsale. There he blockaded the prince for six months ; and when Rupert slipped through the blockade and reached the Tagus Blake followed him and again blockaded him for some months. The king of Portugal refusing permission for Blake to attack his enemy, the latter made reprisals by falling on the Portuguese fleet, richly laden, returning from Brazil. He captured 17 ships, burnt three, and brought his prizes home without molestation. After revictualling his fleet, he sailed again, captured a French man-o-war, and then pursued Prince Rupert, who had been asked to go away by the Portuguese and had entered the Mediterranean. In Nov. 1650 Blake destroyed the bulk of the Royalist squadron near Cartagena. The thanks of parliament were voted to Blake, and he received a grant of f 1,o0o. He was continued in his office of admiral and general of the sea ; and in May following he took, in conjunction with Ayscue, the Scilly Islands. He was soon after made a member of the council of state.
In 1652 war broke out with the Dutch, and in March command of the fleet was given to Blake for nine months. In the middle of May the Dutch fleet of 45 ships, led by their great admiral Tromp, appeared in the Downs. Blake, who had only 20 ships, sailed to meet them, and the battle took place off Dover on May 1g. The Dutch were defeated in an engagement of four or five hours, lost two ships, and withdrew under cover of darkness. Attempts at accommodation were made by the States, but they failed. Early in July war was formally declared, and in the same month Blake captured a large part of the Dutch fishery fleet and the 12 men-of-war that formed their convoy. On Sept. 28 Blake and Penn again encountered the Dutch fleet, now com manded by De Ruyter and De Witt, off the Kentish Knock, de feated it, and chased it for two days. The Dutch took refuge in Goree. A third battle was fought near the end of November. By this time the ships under Blake's command had been reduced in number to 4o, and nearly half of these were useless for want of seamen. Tromp, who had been reinstated in command, appeared in the Downs, with a fleet of 8o ships besides ten fire ships. Blake, nevertheless, risked a battle off Dungeness, but was defeated and withdrew into the Thames. The English fleet having been refitted, put to sea again in Feb. 1653 ; and on the 18th Blake, at the head of 8o ships, encountered Tromp in the channel. The Dutch force, according to Clarendon, numbered loo ships of war, but according to the official reports of the Dutch, only 7o. The battle lasted three days; the Dutch then retreated and took refuge in the shallow waters off the French coast. In this action Blake was severely wounded. The three English admirals put to sea again in May; and on June 3 and 4 another battle was fought near the North Foreland. On the first day Dean and Monk were repulsed by Tromp; but on the second day the scales were turned by the arrival of Blake, and the Dutch re treated to the Texel.
Ill health now compelled Blake to retire from the service for a time, and he did not appear again on the seas for about 18 months; meanwhile he sat as a member of the Little Parliament (Barebones'). In Nov. 1654 he was selected by Cromwell to conduct a fleet to the Mediterranean to exact compensation from the duke of Tuscany, the knights of Malta, and the piratical states of North Africa, for wrongs done to English merchants. This mission he executed with his accustomed spirit and with complete success. Tunis alone dared to resist his demands. and Tunis paid the penalty of the destruction of its two fortresses by English guns. In the winter of 1655-56, war being declared against Spain, Blake was sent to cruise off Cadiz and the neigh bouring coasts, to intercept the Spanish shipping. One of his captains captured a part of the Plate fleet in Sept. 1656, In April 1657 Blake, then in very ill health, suffering from dropsy and scurvy, heard that the Plate fleet lay at anchor in the bay of Santa Cruz, in the island of Teneriffe. The position was a very strong one, defended by a castle and several forts with guns. Under the shelter of these lay a fleet of 16 ships drawn up in crescent order. Captain Stayner was ordered to enter the bay and fall on the fleet. This he did. Blake followed him. Broad sides were poured into the castle and the forts at the same time, and soon nothing was left but ruined walls and charred fragments of burnt ships. The wind was blowing hard into the bay ; but suddenly, and fortunately for Blake, it shifted and carried him safely out to sea. "The whole action," says Clarendon, "was so incredible that all men who knew the place wondered that any sober man, with what courage soever endowed, would ever have undertaken it ; and they could hardly persuade themselves to believe what they had done ; while the Spaniards comforted them selves with the belief that they were devils and not men who had destroyed them in such a manner." The English lost one ship and 200 men killed and wounded.
After again cruising for a time off Cadiz, his health failing more and more, he was compelled to make homewards before the summer was over. He died at sea, but within sight of Ply mouth, on Aug. 17 1657. His body was brought to London and embalmed, and after lying in state at Greenwich House was in terred with great pomp and solemnity in Westminster Abbey. In 1661 Charles II. ordered the exhumation of Blake's body, with those of the mother and daughter of Cromwell and several others. They were cast out of the Abbey, and were reburied in the churchyard of St. Margaret's. "But that regard," says Johnson, "which was denied his body has been paid to his better remains, his name and his memory. Nor has any writer dared to deny him the praise of intrepidity, honesty, contempt of wealth, and love of his country." Clarendon bears the following testi mony to his excellence as a commander : "He was the first man that declined the old track, and made it apparent that the science might be attained in less time than was imagined. He was the first man that brought ships to contemn castles on the shore, which had ever been thought very formidable, but were dis covered by him to make a noise only, and to fright those who could be rarely hurt by them." BIBLIOGRAPHY.-A life of Blake is included in the work entitled Bibliography.-A life of Blake is included in the work entitled Lives, English and Foreign. Dr. Johnson wrote a short life of him, and in 1852 appeared Hepworth Dixon's fuller narrative, Robert Blake, Admiral and General at Sea. See also Letters and Papers Relating to the First Dutch War, edited by S. R. Gardiner for the Navy Records Society (1898-99) ; C. R. B. Barrett, The Missing Fifteen Years (1625-164o) in the life of Robert Blake (1917)•