Willem de Zoete


Willem de Zoete, Heer Haultain was a Dutch Admiral of the 17th century. He served as a Lieutenant-Admiral from 1601 to 1627. During the Eighty Years' War he directed Dutch fleets in naval battles such as the attack on a Spanish convoy in the Dover Strait in 1605, the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1606 and the Battle of Gibraltar in 1621. He also led a fleet Dutch of 20 warships, supplied under the terms of the 1624 Franco-Dutch treaty, into the Siege of Saint-Martin-de-Ré against a Huguenot uprising. His fleet would be removed from French service in February 1626 after a resolution of the States-General in December 1625.