After a conflict with Lieutenant Admiral Philips van Dorp in 1634, Maarten Tromp left the fleet starting to work as a deacon.

[9] Gaining sudden popularity, he was temporarily given supreme command as lieutenant admiral of the confederate fleet on 23 July 1665, but had to give up this function (but not rank) the next month in favour of Lieutenant Admiral Michiel de Ruyter; he fought, having been transferred to the Admiralty of Amsterdam on 6 February 1666, under the latter in the Four Days Battle and the St. James's Day Battle.

As this failure off Nieuwpoort in August 1666 was imputed to him by De Ruyter, he was dismissed, at the same time, being under the suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government, but he was reinstated in April 1673 by William of Orange,[8] after the Orangists seized power, to fight against the French and English navies in the Third Anglo-Dutch War.

The French coast was kept in fear for some time, but after visiting the Mediterranean Sea, Tromp's fleet returned to Holland at the end of 1674.

On 8 May 1676, he became admiral general of the Danish-Norwegian Navy and Knight in the Order of the Elephant; in 1677, Count of Sølvesborg – then a Danish nobility title.

[13] Tromp led the successful Landing at Ystad in Scania in June 1677, where there was a minor but still notable fighting before the Swedes withdrew and left the city in Danish hands.

Tromp summoned all the local noblemen of Danish origin to his presence in order to promise they would stay still on their estates and not cause any trouble.

He then took a two-week holiday at Baron Jörgen Krabbe's Castle Krogholm (now Krageholm), just north of Aletophilus (Olluf Rosencrantz?)

Tromp is mentioned in the local court registers for having licensed a Sheriff by the name of Bendix Clausen to recruit men in six different districts (hundreds) and there was some fierce fighting between these troops and the Swedes.

He died in Amsterdam in 1691,[16] his mind broken by alcohol abuse and remorse, still officially commander of the Dutch fleet, after having been for a period replaced by Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest.

Tromp was a very aggressive squadron commander who personally relished the fight, preferring the direct attack having the weather gage over line-of-battle tactics.

[17] He was popular with his crews, despite the danger he put them in, because of his easy-going manners and his supporting the cause of the House of Orange against the States regime of Johan de Witt.

[20] As his wider family was among the most fanatical supporters of Orange, he participated in most of their schemes, especially those of his brother-in-law Johan Kievit, a shrewd and unscrupulous intriguer.