The ‘Three Hundred and Thirty-Five Years’ War lasted from 30 March 1651 to 17 April 1986.
The “war” between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly is one of those curious historical footnotes that often draw a few chuckles. This conflict, if it can even be called that, occurred in 1651 during the First Anglo-Dutch War. The Isles of Scilly, a small archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, found themselves inadvertently dragged into the conflict.
The story goes that a Dutch fleet, under the command of Admiral Maarten Tromp, was sailing back to the Netherlands after an unsuccessful raid on Spanish silver ships near Cadiz.
Due to navigational errors and bad weather, they ended up near the Isles of Scilly. Mistaking the islands for the more strategic and economically valuable island of Tresco, they launched an attack.
However, the Isles of Scilly were hardly a military power. In fact, they were mostly unaware that there even was a war going on. Upon realizing their mistake and finding nothing of value to plunder, the Dutch fleet left without much incident. No shots were fired, and there were no casualties.
The “war” technically lasted for 335 years because nobody bothered to officially end it until 1986 when a historian, Roy Duncan, from the Isles of Scilly discovered the oversight. The Dutch ambassador to the UK humorously traveled to the Isles of Scilly and formally declared peace, signing a peace treaty to officially end the conflict.
Roy Duncan wrote to the Dutch Embassy in London to see if there was any evidence to support the seemingly absurd claim of a 335-year war. To everyone’s surprise, the embassy uncovered a series of documents that suggested that the Netherlands and the Islands were, indeed, still at war!
The trip even made The New York Times and this is how the world-famous newspaper reported it.
Ambassador Jonkheer Huydecoper made the 28-mile journey from the southwest tip of England to the tiny cluster of islands by helicopter, carrying a lavish scroll declaring the state of war terminated.
Sources
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/The-335-Year-War-the-Longest-War-in-History
https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/story-behind-worlds-longest-weirdest-4092887
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