Jack Russell
30.11.09
The Second Anglo-Dutch War
The Second Anglo-Dutch War lasted from around the years 1665 to 1667. Unlike the First Anglo-Dutch War, which was fought under the leadership of Cromwell from 1652 to 1654, the Second Anglo-Dutch War was fought under the leadership of Charles II after his restoration to the throne in 1660. The First Anglo-Dutch War could have been considered a success for the English as Cromwell’s government received more favorable concessions in the 1654 Treaty of Westminster as well as winning many major navel battles, including the decisive Battle of Scheveningen, they also suffered a good amount of losses and drained themselves funding the war. Unlike the somewhat success of the first war, the Second Anglo-Dutch War was more of a failure. By the end of the second war, the English had won a few great battles such as the conquest of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, they suffered great losses such as at the Four Days Battle and almost saw the complete inhalation of their fleet at Medway. The end of the war saw England once again drained of finances and the loss of most of its navy as well as giving rise to the peak of Dutch power.
When Charles II took the throne in 1660 the navy, “though dilapidated and virtually bankrupt, was by far the strongest point in an otherwise precarious regime” (Rodgers, 65). In order to show strength of his crown and authority, Charles wanted to show the might of his Navy in a popular and hopefully lucrative foreign war. While this was in Charles’s future ambitions, the beginning of his reign saw his court forming alliances with Portugal and France, while seeing Spain be an enemy, and seeing Dutch as a friendly but tense relationship, since the Dutch had lent money to Charles I during the Civil War. Tension also grew from the fact that the Dutch government at this time was full of Republicans that when making peace with Cromwell after the first war agreed to terms that tired to reduce or...