The States-General had increased the naval budget…

The States-General had increased the naval budget with two million two hundred thousand guilders after the English declaration of war.

De Witt, seeking a decisive naval victory, has decided on an aggressive strategy and sends out de Ruyter with the mission to destroy the Allied fleet.

He surprises it on June 7 when resupplying on the English coast; it is only saved from a severe defeat in the Battle of Solebay, off Southwold on the North Sea coast, by a sudden turning of the wind, causing de Ruyter to lose the weather gage.

Nevertheless the damage incurred—including the death of Admiral Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich—is so extensive that the Allies will be prevented from executing major naval actions for the rest of the season, apart from a failed attempt to intercept the Dutch East India Company (VOC) Return Fleet from the Dutch East Indies.

A blockade of the Dutch coast fails.

Johan de Witt's brother Cornelis de Witt had accompanied the fleet to make the States regime share in the glory, but the events on land nullify this.