Third Anglo-Dutch War
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| Anglo-Dutch Wars |
|---|
| First – Second – Third – Fourth |
The Third Anglo-Dutch War (Dutch: Derde Engelse oorlog) pitted England against the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands from 1672 to 1674.
Although England, the Netherlands and Sweden had signed a Triple Alliance against France in 1668, Charles II of England signed the secret Treaty of Dover with France in 1670. Indeed Charles, feeling personally humiliated by the results of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, had only engaged himself in the Triple Alliance in order to create a rift between the former Dutch and French allies. While publicly trying to appease tensions between France and the Republic, he secretly schemed to seduce Louis to a campaign against the Netherlands. He was promised that after a French victory he would be rewarded by taking as Crown possessions the cities of Rotterdam and Amsterdam, the latter the richest of Europe.
In conformance to this treaty, England joined France when it invaded the Netherlands in 1672. The German states of Münster and Cologne (Dutch: Keulen, German: Köln) also took part in the invasion. French troops occupied large parts of the country, until they were stopped by The Dutch Water Line (Dutch: waterlinie), a deliberate flooding to protect most vital parts of the Netherlands. In Dutch history, the year 1672 subsequently became known as the "Year of Disaster" (Dutch: 'Rampjaar'). A Dutch saying was coined: 'Radeloos, redeloos, reddeloos', meaning: Desperate (the leaders), lost to reason (the people), unsavable (the country). Obviously, subsequent events alleviated this mood of utter despair.
The Dutch government under Johan de Witt collapsed, De Witt was murdered by a carefully organised lynch "mob" and William III of Orange became Stadtholder of the Netherlands. Ironically, the English thus waged war against their future king William III of England. Charles had supported the orangist party in the hope William would consent in making the Republic a English protectorate to save it from the French, but to his dismay discovered the stadtholder hadn't the slightest intention of doing so. Louis, instead of capturing the major Hollandic cities for the benefit of Charles, delayed his conquest to offer the Dutch a separate peace in exchange for sixteen million guilders. This however only stiffened the resistance of the outraged Dutch and gave them time to inundate the Water Line.
English naval support to the French was countered by Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter, who defeated the Anglo-French fleet in the Battle of Solebay in 1672, the double Battle of Schooneveld and the final Battle of Texel in 1673. The English failed in blockading the Dutch coast and were themselves largely blocked from the vital Baltic trade in wood and tar.
When the Dutch allied themselves with Spain — which had been itself at war with the Netherlands until 1648 — France withdrew its forces from the territory of the Republic in 1673. England was forced to sign the Treaty of Westminster on February 19, 1674 as Parliament would not allow more money to be spent on the war. The English were dismayed by the unexpected fact that Dutch raiders managed to capture more English ships (over 550) than vice versa and that New Amsterdam had been retaken by the Dutch in 1673. The treaty stipulated that New Netherland would henceforth be an English possession and that Suriname, captured by the Dutch in 1667, would remain their colony, legalising the status quo of 1667.
