was widened. A strong party in the Provinces were unfriendly
to the Commonwealth, and insults were offered in the Hague
to the English envoys. The parliament replied by passing the
memorable Navigation Act (Oct. 1651), which struck a deadly
blow at the Dutch carrying trade. It was the beginning of that
struggle for supremacy upon the seas which was to end, after
three great wars, in the defeat of the weaker country.
Naval struggle with England.
The first English war lasted from May 1652 to April
1654, and within fifteen months twelve sea-fights took
place, which were desperately contested and with
varying success. The leaders on both sides—the Netherlanders
Tromp (killed in action on the 10th of August 1653) and de
Ruyter, the Englishmen Blake and Monk—covered themselves
with equal glory. But the losses to Dutch trade were so serious
that negotiations for peace were set on foot by the burgher party
of Holland, and Cromwell being not unwilling, an agreement
Peace of Westminster.
was reached in the Treaty of Westminster, signed on
the 5th of April 1654. The Dutch conceded the
striking of the flag and compensation for English
claims against the Dutch in the East Indies and elsewhere.
The act of Seclusion, which barred the young prince of
Orange from holding the office of stadholder and of captain-general,
had been one of the conditions on which Cromwell had
insisted. The consent of the States-General was refused, but by
a secret treaty Holland, under the influence of de
Act of Seclusion.
Witt, accepted it in their own name as a sovereign
province. The popular feeling throughout the United
Provinces was strongly antagonistic to the act of Seclusion,
by which at the dictation of a foreign power a ban of exclusion
was pronounced against the house of Orange-Nassau, to which
the republic owed its independence.
In 1658, the States-General interfered to save the Danes from Charles Gustavus of Sweden. In 1659 a treaty of peace was concluded between France, England and the United Provinces with a view to the settlement of the Dano-Swedish question, which ended in securing a northern War with Sweden. peace in 1660, and in keeping the Baltic open for Dutch trade. The foreign affairs of the republic were throughout these years ably conducted by de Witt, and the position of Dutch colonial expansion in the Eastern seas made secure and firm. An advantageous peace with Portugal was made in 1662.
Meanwhile the Commonwealth in England had been followed
in 1660 by the restoration of the monarchy. To conciliate the
new king the act of Seclusion was repealed, and the
education of the young prince of Orange was undertaken
by the States of Holland under the superintendence
Second English war.
of de Witt. But Charles owed a grudge
against Holland, and he was determined to gratify it. The
Navigation Act was re-enacted, old grievances revived, and
finally the Dutch colony of New Netherland was seized in time
of peace (1664) and its capital, New Amsterdam, renamed New
York. War broke out in 1665, and was marked by a series of
terrific battles. On the 13th of June 1665 the Dutch admiral
Obdam was completely defeated by the English under the
duke of York. The four days’ fight (11th-14th of June 1666)
ended in a hard-won victory by de Ruyter over Monk, but later
in this year (August 3rd) de Ruyter was beaten by Ayscue
and forced to take refuge in the Dutch harbours. He had his
revenge, for on the 22nd of June 1667 the Dutch fleet under
de Ruyter and Cornelius de Witt made their way up the Medway
as far as Chatham and burnt the English fleet as it lay at anchor.
Negotiations between the two countries were already in progress
Peace of Breda.
The Triple Alliance.
and this event hastened a settlement. The peace of
Breda was signed (31st of July 1667) on terms on
the whole favourable to the Dutch. New Netherland
was retained by England in exchange for Suriname. In the
following year by the efforts of Sir William Temple the much
vaunted Triple Alliance was concluded between Great
Britain, the United Provinces and Sweden to check
the ambitious designs of Louis XIV. The instability
of Charles II., who sold himself to Louis by the treaty
of Dover (1670), speedily rendered it of no effect, and left the
United Provinces to face unaided the vengeance of the French
king.
From 1668 to 1672 Louis made ready to destroy the Dutch,
and so well had his diplomacy served him that they were left without
a friend in Europe. In 1672 the storm broke: the
English without a declaration of war tried, unsuccessfully,
to intercept the Dutch Mediterranean fleet;
The French invasion.
and the French at the same time set forth in apparently
irresistible strength to overcome the despised traders of Holland.
The States were ill-prepared on land though their fleet was
strong and ready; party spirit had become intensely bitter as
the prince of Orange (see William III.) grew to man’s estate,
and the ruling burgher party, knowing how great was the
popularity of William, especially in the army, had purposely
neglected their land forces. Town after town fell before the
French armies, and to de Witt and his supporters there seemed
to be nothing left but to make submission and accept the best
terms that Louis XIV. would grant. The young prince alone
William III. Stadholder and Captain-general.
The third English war.
Murder of the Brothers de Witt.
rose to the height of the occasion, and set his face against such
cowardly counsels, and he had the enthusiastic support
of the great majority of the people. Amidst general
acclamation William was elected stadholder, first of
Zeeland, then of Holland, and was appointed captain-general
of the Union (June 1672). Meanwhile the
fleet under de Ruyter had encountered a combined English
and French force in Solebay (7th of June), and after a
desperate fight, in which the French had but slackly supported
their allies, had more then held its own. William,
in his turn, with an army wholly insufficient to meet
the French in the open field, was able to persuade
his countrymen to open the dikes and by flooding
the land to prevent its occupation by the enemy. The courage
and resourcefulness of their youthful leader inspired
the people to make heroic sacrifices for their independence,
but unfortunately such was the revulsion of
feeling against the grand pensionary, that he himself
and his brother Cornelius were torn in pieces by an infuriated
mob at the Hague (20th of August).
William, now supreme in the States, while on land struggling
with chequered success against the superior forces of the
French, strove by his diplomacy, and not in vain, to
gain allies for the republic. The growing power of
France caused alarm to her neighbours, and Sweden,
Peace of Westminster.
Denmark, Spain and the emperor lent a willing ear
to the persuasions of the stadholder and were ready to aid his
efforts to curb the ambition of Louis. On sea in 1673 de Ruyter,
in a series of fiercely contested battles, successfully maintained
his strenuous and dogged conflict against the united English
and French fleets. In England the war was exceedingly unpopular,
and public opinion forced Charles II. to conclude peace.
The treaty of Westminster, which provided that all conquests
should be restored, was signed on the 14th of February 1674.
The French now found themselves threatened on many sides,
The war with France.
Death of de Ruyter.
Peace of Nymwegen.
and were reduced to the defensive. The prince, however,
suffered a defeat at Seneff, and was in 1674
prevented from invading France. The war, nevertheless,
during the following years was on the whole
advantageous to the Dutch. In 1676 a Dutch squadron fought
two hard but indecisive battles with a superior French force,
off Stromboli (8th of January) and off Messina (22nd of April).
In the last-named fight Admiral de Ruyter was badly
wounded and died (29th of April). In 1677 negotiations
for peace went on, and were forwarded by the
marriage, at the close of the year, of William of Orange with
his cousin the princess Mary, daughter of the duke of York.
At last (August 1678) a peace was concluded at Nymwegen
by which the Dutch secured the integrity
and independence of their country. All the conquests
made by the French were given up.
The aggressive policy of Louis XIV. in the years that followed the peace of Nymwegen enabled William to lay the foundations of the famous confederacy which changed the whole aspect
