The Commonwealth period is better remembered for the military success of Thomas Fairfax, Oliver Cromwell, and the New Model Army. Besides resounding victories in the English Civil War, the reformed Navy under the command of Robert Blake defeated the Dutch in the First Anglo-Dutch War which marked the first step towards England's naval supremacy. In Ireland, the Commonwealth period is remembered for Cromwell's brutal subjugation of the Irish, which continued the policies of the Tudor and Stuart periods.