Born 1598.—Died 1657.—Elizabeth.—James I.—Charles I.

Born at Bridgewater in Somersetshire. He was first distinguished as a Parliamentary General. He afterwards raised the name of the English navy, under Cromwell, to almost its greatest height. He burnt nine pirate ships in Tunis Harbour, and after a series of battles and brilliant victories, in which he several times defeated the Dutch under Van Tromp, he carried off the spoil of several rich Spanish plate galleons at Teneriffe. That same year, just as his well-known ship the St. George was entering Plymouth sound, Blake, worn out with toil and disease, breathed his last.