The Isles of Scilly and the 350-Year War

Podcast Transcript

Located off the tip of Cornwall, England, lies a small group of islands known as the Isles of Scilly.

If you’ve never heard of the Isles of Scilly before, you probably just chuckled when you heard the name.

If you have heard of them, you know that they comprise the extreme southwest point of the United Kingdom and are the warmest part of the country.

These islands were also supposedly involved in a 350-year war with the Netherlands.

Learn more about the Isles of Scilly and the 350-year war on this episode of Everything Everwhere Daily.

If you aren’t British, there is a good chance that you’ve never heard of the Isles of Scilly.

They aren’t very big, and there aren’t a lot of people who live there. However, they have historically played an important role.

Today, the Isles of Scilly have a population of about 2,300 people. They are an archipelago of more than 140 islands, islets, and rocks located in the Atlantic Ocean. They are located about 28 miles or 45 kilometers off the coast of Land’s End, Cornwall, in Southwestern England.

Only five of the islands are inhabited: St Mary’s, Tresco, St Martin’s, Bryher, and St Agnes.

Geographically, one of the most interesting aspects of the Isles of Scilly is that they are remarkably warm, considering their location in England.

This is due to the moderating influence of the North Atlantic Drift, a branch of the Gulf Stream. This warm ocean current flows from the southwest across the Atlantic, bringing milder temperatures and reducing seasonal extremes.

The Isles of Scilly very rarely have frost or snow, even though they are at the same approximate latitude as Winnipeg, Manitoba. By the same token, it also never gets very hot. The hottest temperature ever recorded was 27.8°C or 82°F.

The average temperatures fluctuate in a very narrow band between about 17.2°C or 63°F in August and 7.9°C or 46°F in February. It should come as no surprise that the biggest industry in the islands is tourism.

The earliest human presence on the Isles of Scilly dates back to the Neolithic period, around 4000-2500 BC. During this time, the islands were believed to be part of a single, larger landmass called “Ennor.”

Rising sea levels gradually separated this landmass into the islands we know today, with significant flooding occurring between 3000 and 1000 BC.

Archaeological evidence reveals numerous prehistoric monuments across the islands, including graves and standing stones on several islands.

These structures suggest the existence of organized communities with social hierarchies and spiritual traditions. The high concentration of burial chambers indicates the islands may have held sacred significance beyond their practical value.

There might have been Phoenician influence in the Isles of Scilly. It is speculative but stems from ancient accounts suggesting the Phoenicians, renowned seafarers and traders from the eastern Mediterranean, may have reached the British Isles in their quest for tin, if you remember from previous episodes, it is a critical component of bronze.

Cornwall, near the Scillies, was a major source of tin in antiquity, and the Scilly Isles may have served as navigational waypoints or minor trading outposts along maritime routes.

Classical writers like Herodotus and later Roman sources hinted at a “Tin Islands” which some historians have associated with the Scillies. However, no direct archaeological evidence has confirmed a Phoenician presence on the islands, so the theory remains intriguing but unproven.

The Greek geographer Pytheas, in the 4th century BC, possibly visited the area during his explorations of Britain.

The Romans occupied England, but it isn’t known if they directly occupied the islands. If they didn’t occupy the islands, they certainly visited and influenced the islands.

Roman coins have been found across several islands, pottery fragments from Mediterranean trade routes have found their way there, and there were written accounts mentioning the islands.

Here, I should probably address the question that many of you probably have. Why are these islands called Scilly? ….because it seems rather…..silly.

The etymology of the Isles of Scilly is uncertain and has been debated for centuries. The modern name “Scilly” likely derives from a much older pre-Roman or early Celtic word, though its original meaning is unclear.

It could have come from the Celtic goddess Sullis.

One theory suggests it comes from a Brythonic root related to rocks or crags, possibly referring to the islands’ rugged and scattered granite outcrops. Another possibility is that it is linked to a word meaning “sun” or “bright,” reflecting the islands’ relatively mild and sunny climate compared to mainland Britain.

Classical sources referred to the islands as Scillonia Insulae in Latin or simply Scillonia, as seen in Roman and early medieval documents.

The first appearance of the word in English was in 1176 when it appeared as the word Sully.

Some 17th-century writers mistakenly believed the name was linked to the word “silly,” prompting odd theories about the inhabitants or the nature of the islands, but this was based on a false linguistic assumption.

The letter “c” was eventually added to the word just to distinguish it from the word “silly.”

I should, however, reiterate that the name of the islands predated the English word, which means foolish.

In the early Middle Ages, the islands came under the control of Celtic Christian communities. By the 9th and 10th centuries, Norse raiders may have reached or even briefly occupied them, as they did much of coastal Britain. Eventually, the Isles of Scilly became part of the manor of Penwith in Cornwall.

By the 11th century, King Henry I granted them to Tavistock Abbey. Later, during the late medieval period, the Scillies came increasingly under royal and noble control. The Godolphin family, a powerful Cornish dynasty, governed the islands for many centuries and maintained considerable local influence.

During the Tudor and Stuart periods, the strategic significance of the Isles of Scilly became more pronounced. Their location along vital Atlantic trade routes and proximity to Brittany in France made them important for maritime defense and piracy control.

Fortifications were built during the reign of Elizabeth I and again during the English Civil War.

More on the English Civil War in a bit….

The Isles of Scilly played an important role in Britain’s maritime economy in the 18th and 19th centuries. They became known for pilotage and shipwreck salvage. The treacherous rocks and shoals around the islands caused numerous wrecks, the most infamous being the loss of four Royal Navy ships, including HMS Association, in 1707, which killed nearly 2,000 sailors.

This disaster prompted a renewed effort to solve the “longitude problem,” eventually leading to the invention of John Harrison’s marine chronometer, which I covered in a previous episode.

Throughout the 19th century, the islands remained economically marginal but increasingly engaged in flower farming, particularly daffodils, which became a major export to mainland Britain.

The first steamer service to the city of Penzance was introduced in the 1850s, enhancing the connection to the mainland.

The 20th century brought modernization, but the Scillies retained much of their rural, insular character. They played minor roles in both World Wars, mainly as lookout posts and for anti-submarine operations. Postwar, the islands shifted toward tourism, which remains a crucial part of the economy today.

The governance of the Isles of Scilly is unique in England. While technically part of Cornwall, they have their own local authority, the Council of the Isles of Scilly, established in 1890 and reformed in 1930. The Lord Proprietor system finally ended in 1920.

I have left out a major part of the Isles of Scilly story. That is because it concerns the other half of this episode and the real reason I bothered to cover them in the first place: the 350-year war.

In previous episodes, I’ve covered the Seven Year War, the Thirty Year War, and even the Hundred Year War.

A Three-Hundred-Fifty-Year War is a really long war. So what is the story here?

It goes back to the English Civil War.

During the English Civil War, the Isles of Scilly played a small but strategically significant role as a Royalist stronghold in the conflict between Parliamentarians and Royalists. Owing to their remote location and defensible terrain, the islands became a refuge for Royalist forces near the war’s end, particularly after the Royalists lost control of mainland Cornwall.

In 1648, Sir John Grenville, a staunch Royalist, took control of the islands and used them as a base for privateers—essentially legalized pirates—who targeted Parliamentarian and Dutch merchant ships passing through the English Channel and Atlantic approaches.

That same year, the future King Charles II took refuge on the islands while fleeing Parliamentary forces. This period saw the strengthening of defenses, particularly on St. Mary’s.

At this time, the Dutch Republic was officially neutral in the English Civil War, but its merchants suffered losses due to these raids. In 1651, in retaliation, the Dutch sent a fleet under Admiral Maarten Tromp to the Isles of Scilly to demand reparations for the attacks.

Failing to get satisfaction, Tromp allegedly declared war on the Royalist-controlled Isles of Scilly.

There is no evidence that a formal declaration of war was ever made by the Dutch Republic.

Even if Tromp did make such a declaration, it would have been unofficial and unrecognized by the broader Dutch authorities.

Meanwhile, Parliamentarian forces, recognizing the threat posed by Royalist piracy and the islands’ potential as a naval base, launched a campaign to retake the archipelago.

Admiral Robert Blake led the assault, and in June 1651, the Royalists surrendered without major bloodshed. Afterward, the islands were brought under Parliamentarian control, ending their active role in the conflict and solidifying their strategic importance in coastal defense for years to come.

With the threat to Dutch shipping gone, the Dutch forces left, and the entire episode was soon forgotten.

However, because there had been no peace treaty or formal end to this supposed “war,” the story took on a peculiar afterlife as a historical curiosity.

In 1986, the story was revived by a local historian named Roy Duncan, who contacted the Dutch embassy in London and pointed out that no peace had ever been declared.

As a playful diplomatic gesture, the Dutch ambassador Rein Huydecoper visited the Isles of Scilly and signed a ceremonial “peace treaty” with local officials—thereby “ending” a war that had never really begun and had certainly never involved a shot fired or casualty taken.

Technically, the war would have been 335 years, but 350 makes for a nicer, rounder number.

The notion of a 335- or 350-year-long war between a tiny island archipelago and one of Europe’s great seafaring powers, with no battles and no casualties, was irresistible to journalists and trivia lovers. It has been widely circulated in books of odd facts and has become a staple of quirky British history…..and now I’m doing a podcast episode on it.

In truth, the entire episode is more a historical footnote and humorous diplomatic anecdote than an actual war. It illustrates how obscure legalities, poor documentation, and a sense of humor can create enduring stories.

In fact, in hindsight, the entire story of a three-century war between the Dutch and some sparsely populated islands does in fact sound…..kind of silly.