1673
In the winter of 1673 the French failed to cross the Water Line over the ice, thwarted both by further thaws and special Dutch sailor companies moving on skates, organised by temporary Lieutenant-Admiral Johan de Liefde. In the spring, attempts to drain the northern part of the line or to cross on rafts, proved unsuccessful. The attack from the east thus being considered impractical, the activities of the Royal Navy gained much more importance. It was now ordered, in cooperation with a French squadron, to at least blockade the Dutch coast and, if possible, execute a landing on it, conquering the Republic from the west. How this should be accomplished exactly, was not very clear. The English navy, in contrast to the Dutch fleet, had little experience in shore landings, so it was expected to directly take some Dutch port by assault, despite having insufficient recent information about the dangerous constantly shifting shoals.
Before this could happen the Dutch fleet would have to be defeated first. Although deliberately creating the impression — in order to frighten the Dutch population into an invasion scare — that transports, carrying an army, were sailing immediately behind the war fleet, in fact the (rather small) invasion force was left in Yarmouth, only to be shipped after a full control over the seas had been attained. In this the French would be of little help; they had received clear orders by Louis to give absolute priority to the survival of their vessels and inform him personally about what knowledge they had gained by observing the English and Dutch tactics. The French navy thus considered the campaign first of all to be a great learning opportunity; it would indeed be very instructive.
In May, Rupert advanced to the Dutch coast with superior forces; De Ruyter took up a defensive position in the Schooneveld. Rupert tried to outflank the smaller Dutch fleet hoping to force it to seek refuge in the naval port fortress of Hellevoetsluis, where it could be blocked while the transport fleet would be brought over to storm either Brill in Holland or Flushing on Walcheren in Zealand. Instead De Ruyter attacked, starting the First Battle of the Schooneveld. In the Battle of Solebay of the previous year the French squadron had on sight of the approaching Dutch fleet sailed in a direction opposite to that of the English fleet. To counter English accusations that this had been done on purpose to let the English bear the brunt of the fighting, the French now formed the centre squadron. When a gap formed in the French line, De Ruyter suddenly tacked with his own centre and sailed through it. After a while the French disengaged — later writing enthusiastic reports to Louis about feeling honoured to witness the tactical genius shown by De Ruyter by this manoeuvre — exposing the Allied rear to encirclement by the Dutch rear and centre. On perceiving the danger, its commander, Spragge, abandoned the remainder of the rear with his flotilla to seek out Tromp, who was rather hesitantly attacked by Rupert in the van, fearing the shoals. Thus being outmanoeuvred and divided, the Allied fleet only managed to reunite because De Ruyter decided not to take any unnecessary risks by pressing his advantage; but the disorder was so persistent, it had to withdraw at nightfall.
Rupert now was at a loss how to continue the campaign; not daring to enter the dangerous Schooneveld again, his only hope was to lure the Dutch out; but he was so convinced De Ruyter would never leave this ideal blocking position, his fleet was unready when the resupplied Dutch fleet indeed attacked on 14 June, starting the Second Battle of the Schooneveld. Rupert at the very last moment decided to invert his squadron order, hereby causing such a chaos in the Allied fleet, that the Dutch and French were too astonished to fully commit themselves to the fight. Spragge however, now not having to break formation as there really was none, again sought out Tromp, without success. Much damaged and its morale shaken, the Allied fleet returned to the Thames for repairs.
In late July, Rupert sailed out again, trying to lure the Dutch fleet to the north, pretending to attempt a landing at Den Helder. De Ruyter at first decided not to leave his Schooneveld position, but was ordered to do so by William to prevent a Dutch East India Company fleet, loaded with spices and treasure, from being captured, which might alleviate Charles's lack of funds. This resulted in the final Battle of Texel. Both sides now no longer restrained their forces, striving for a decision; even the French fought hard, but for the fourth time allowed themselves to get separated from the English fleet. Spragge broke formation for the second time to duel with Tromp; on this occasion losing his life. Having incurred enormous damage both fleets retreated. This tactical draw was a complete strategic victory for the Dutch, even though some ships of the Spice Fleet ultimately fell into Allied hands. For De Ruyter, the successful campaign, repelling attacks by much superior fleets to save his homeland, had been the highlight of his career, as the English readily acknowledged; the Duke of York concluded that among admirals "he was the greatest that ever to that time was in the world". The plans for an invasion from the sea had to be abandoned and the large costs of repair troubled Parliament.
Overall the war had been far from profitable. In previous conflicts many in England had gained riches by joining privateering enterprises; in this war Dutch raiders managed to capture more English ships (over 550 merchantmen; 2800 vessels of all Allies) than vice versa. Being well aware that the war was waged by English and French nobles who disdained the Dutch as a nation of "cheesemongers", at least three privateers sailed under the name of the Getergde Kaasboer, the "Provoked Cheesemonger". The English had failed in blockading the Dutch coast and were themselves largely blocked from the vital Baltic trade in wood and tar. That New York City (formerly New Amsterdam) had been retaken by the Dutch in 1673 mattered little in financial respect, like the temporary loss of Saint Helena, but hurt the English reputation. In the East, on 1 September 1673 a Dutch East India Company fleet commanded by Cornelis van Quaelbergen defeated an East India Company squadron under William Basse off Masulipatam. The material damage compounded a moral unease about the justifiability of the war; John Evelyn already after Solebay wrote: "the loss of my Lord Sandwich redoubled the loss to me, as well the folly of hazarding so brave a fleet, and losing so many good men, for no provocation in the world but because the Hollander exceeded us in industry, and all things else but envy". In November 1673 Parliament voted to deny Charles a war budget for 1674.
Meanwhile the developments in the land war had also become very unfavourable to Charles. The ultimate aim of the French and their deeper rationale for this war was to conquer the Spanish Netherlands. Such a conquest would however be very detrimental to the English strategic position: should the province of Holland capitulate to them the French would then control the entire continental coast opposite England, as would be the case later, in the Napoleonic Wars. For this reason Charles had in the Treaty of Dover explicitly reserved his rights to come to the aid of the Spanish Netherlands should his interests demand so; Louis thus had to delay the execution of his plans in this region until the Dutch affair was finished. Now that a deadlock had been reached Louis's patience was severely tried and eventually the tempation to take possession of the Southern Netherlands while they were so vulnerable became too great. He gradually turned his attention to this area, first by the capture of Maastricht in July 1673, in which Monmouth's brigade played an honourable rôle. Though this could be justified as improving the supply situation of the northern French army, its potential as a starting point for a Flemish campaign was not lost on the Spanish. On 30 August, the Republic, the Empire, Spain and Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine (who wanted his duchy back from Louis) concluded the Quadruple Alliance and William made sure peace negotiations held with France in Cologne failed. In November Bonn was taken by the alliance forces commanded by William; this forced the French army to abandon almost all occupied Dutch territory, with the exception of Grave and Maastricht. A final victory over the Dutch had thus become most implausible; the war was changed into one about the dominion of Flanders and on this issue the natural interests of England were opposed to those of France. The changed international situation was an important consideration for Parliament influencing its decision to withhold funding, but internal events were even more decisive.
The Treaty of Dover was not only aimed at the Dutch Republic but also at the domination of Protestantism in England; Charles had promised Louis to try and end it. In accordance on 25 March 1672 he had issued the Royal Declaration of Indulgence, as a first step to complete religious tolerance. Parliament was shocked by this, but at first was unaware of the relation with the French alliance; in February 1673 it voted to start funding the alliance in exchange for a suspension of the Indulgence (and an issuing of the Test Act in March), not as yet seeing any contradiction in such policies. This would soon change however. Arlington's former secretary, Pierre du Moulin, had after fleeing to the Republic begun to work for William; in the summer of 1673 he exploited the fears of the English population by starting a propaganda campaign, using one of the Dutch main assets: the world's largest printing capacity. Soon England was flooded with tens of thousands of pamphlets accusing Charles of wanting to make the country Catholic again in conspiracy with the French king. The campaign was a complete success, convincing the English people that such a plan really existed; it was greatly aided by the decision by Charles's brother James, the Duke of York, to lay down his position as Lord High Admiral, which was generally (and correctly) interpreted as a sign that James had in secret become a Catholic and was therefore unable to abjure the transubstantiation doctrine, as the Test Act demanded of all officials. In September James married the Catholic Mary of Modena, a beautiful young girl especially selected for him by King Louis. As Charles himself had no legitimate offspring, this created the strong prospect of a Catholic dynasty ruling England in the future.
Reacting to the change in the public mood, Buckingham, who had learned of it during his trip to the Republic the previous year, began to leak the Dover Treaty to many fellow politicians and Arlington soon followed. Thus in a short time Charles's own cabinet, the Cabal Ministry, went over to the "Dutch" peace party; Lord Shaftesbury, much shocked by the revelation, even beginning to consider driving out the troublesome House of Stuart entirely and inducing his secretary, John Locke, to further develop the legal concepts which would later be the basis of the Two Treatises of Government, which justified the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
In this situation Charles felt that continuing the alliance was a grave threat to his personal position. He informed the French ambassador Colbert de Croissy that to his regret he had to terminate the English war effort and told the Dutch via the Spanish consul in London, the Marquess del Fresno, that, his main war aim, to install his noble nephew as stadtholder, having been attained, there was no longer any objection on his side to concluding a lasting peace between the two Protestant brother nations, if only some minor "indemnities" could be paid. At first the States of Holland were disinclined to grant Charles's demands: as England had accomplished nothing in the war, it was, in their opinion, not entitled to anything. Many members admitted their personal satisfaction in the thought that the British might be kept suffering a bit longer. But William convinced them that there was even some chance of bringing Charles into the war against France eventually and that this had to take precedence over petty considerations of retribution, unworthy of their high office. Furthermore Spain had still not declared war on France and was only willing to do so if England made peace, because it feared English attacks on its American colonies.
Read more about this topic: Third Anglo-Dutch War