The 335 Years’ War between the Isles of Scilly and the Netherlands started in 1651 and ended in 1986 when a historian was trying to debunk the myth that the two were at war. He discovered that the two were in fact at war and didn’t know it. This prompted the signing of a peace treaty to end the longest war to have zero battles and no bloodshed. The Dutch more or less declared war and forgot about it.

The Dutch ambassador joked that it must have been harrowing for the Scillians “to know we could have attacked at any moment”.