page_title: William Penn (Royal Navy officer)
section_title: Naval career
hierarchical_section_title: William Penn (Royal Navy officer) / Career / Naval career
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Château de Macroom, Irlande
context_page_description: Sir William Penn was an English admiral and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1660 to 1670. He was the father of William Penn, founder of the Province of Pennsylvania.
context_section_description: In the First English Civil War of 1642–1646, he fought on the side of the Parliament, and commanded a ship in the squadron maintained against the king in the Irish seas. The service was arduous and called for both energy and good seamanship. In 1648, he was arrested and sent to London, but was soon released, and sent back as rear-admiral in the Assurance. The exact cause of the arrest remains unknown, but it may be presumed that he came under suspicion of corresponding with the king's supporters. It is highly probable that he did so, for until the Restoration of 1660, he was regularly in communication with the Royalists, while serving the parliament, or Cromwell, so long as their service was profitable, and making no scruple of applying for grants of the confiscated lands of the king's Irish friends.
  After 1650, Penn served as commander-in-chief of the southern fleet in the Atlantic and in the Mediterranean in pursuit of the Royalists under Prince Rupert. After an action at Macroom in County Cork, Ireland he was awarded Macroom Castle. He was so active on this service that when he returned home on 18 March 1651 he could boast that he had not put foot on shore for more than a year.
  In the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652–1654), he served in the navy of the Commonwealth of England, commanding squadrons at the battles of the Kentish Knock (1652), Portland, the Gabbard and Scheveningen (1653). In this last battle, a sniper from his ship killed Dutch admiral and fleetcommander Maarten Tromp on the Dutch flagship Brederode.
  In 1654, he offered to carry the fleet over to the king, but in October of the same year he had no scruple in accepting the naval command in the expedition to the West Indies sent out by Cromwell. In 1655, he commanded the fleet that launched a bungled attack on La Hispaniola.  He was not responsible for the shameful repulse at San Domingo, which was due to a panic among the troops.  Afterwards, English forces seized the less desirable island of Jamaica for the Commonwealth régime, and Penn established the Jamaica Station there. On their return, he and his military colleague, Robert Venables, were sent to the Tower. He made humble submission, and when released retired to the estates of confiscated land he had received in Ireland. On 20 December 1658, Penn was knighted by Henry Cromwell at Dublin Castle, but the Protectorate honour passed into oblivion at the Restoration in May 1660.
caption: Macroom Castle gatehouse
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