The Dutch War

Though Cromwell had crippled the commerce of Holland, the Dutch still remained the great rivals of England and competed with her in India, Africa, and America. All England seems to have desired war with Holland: parliament, because of the constant complaints that were heard of Dutch encroachments ; the nation, because of its jealousy of a successful rival; and Charles II, because he wished to do anything that would strengthen England's commerce and colonies and so increase his customs duties, and because the Dutch had rejected as stadtholder his nephew, William of Orange, selecting as their head a commoner, Jan de Witt.

England, eager to strike the first blow, attacked, in 1664, the Dutch colonists, both at Cape Verd in Africa, and at New Amsterdam in America, where was situated a Dutch settlement separating the English settlements in New England from those in Maryland and Virginia. A little later in the same year, war was formally declared. The Dutch were promised help by Louis XIV, who wished to see the two Protestant powers fighting each other instead of uniting to oppose his own plans. For two years the war continued. The English won a victory at Harwich, but the Dutch showed unexpected staying power and won in a great battle, fought off the Downs- in 1666.

This defeat for the English was accompanied with other disasters not connected with the war. In the same year London was visited with a great plague and a great fire, both of which caused extraordinary loss and confusion. Moreover, the war was making havoc in the administration of the navy. Inasmuch as money could not be obtained, seamen were unpaid and mutinous, shipbuilders held back completed vessels, repairs were left undone, food was left unfurnished, and finally the supply of men gave out entirely. The Dutch, taking advantage of these deplorable conditions, sent a fleet up the Thames. It entered the Medway, burnt the English ships, and blockaded London. This humiliating incident led to an early peace, and in July, 1667, the treaty of Breda was signed.

Holland herself, divided into factions and alarmed by the grasping policy of Louis XIV, made favorable terms with England, and gave her the Dutch colony in America in return for undisputed possession of the Spice Islands.

Fall of Clarendon

Both parliament and people blamed Clarendon for the bad management of the war. Since 1660 he had been the chief man of the realm ; but he had not understood the new temper of the English people, and in becoming lord chancellor had not realized how much England had changed since the days when he had sat as Edward Hyde in the Long Parliament. Parliament held him responsible for the sale of Dunkirk, for the burning of the English ships in the Medway, and, in general, for bad government and the misuse of funds. Charles II did nothing to save his minister; for he did not like Clarendon's stern uprightness, and was rather glad than otherwise to be rid of a minister who criticised his immoral life and had no sympathy with his desire to tolerate Roman Catholics and Dissenters. In 1667 Charles dismissed Clarendon, and in the same year parliament impeached him and banished him from England.

Financial Position of Charles II: Intrigues with France

Clarendon was overthrown chiefly because of the wretched financial condition into which England had fallen. The Dutch war had shown that there was not enough money in the treasury to run the kingdom. It is commonly said that Charles II misappropriated the money that parliament allowed him and spent it on favorites and mistresses, but the accusation has not been made good. In truth, Charles and his treasurer, the upright Southampton, did not have money enough to pay the regular expenses, because the sums voted by parliament could not be collected, and the receipts never actually equalled the amount, small enough at best, that parliament was willing to allow the king. The king, had to make up the deficit in various ways. He turned into the treasury the dowry which his Portuguese wife brought him, as well as the money received from the sale of Dunkirk. He sold the crown lands and tried to help with the funds received. He borrowed money of private persons and of the goldsmiths, the bankers of that day, promising to pay when the supplies granted by parliament came in. But all these devices proved of very little avail.

A new way out of the difficulty soon opened. When the war with Holland was over, the English people realized, as they had never done before, that Louis XIV was the great enemy of Protestant Europe. In the "war of devolution," 1667, he attempted to annex the Netherlands, and in so doing disclosed the first part of his plan to increase the territory of France at the expense of his neighbors. Parliament, aroused by this danger, sent Sir William Temple to Holland to arrange an alliance against France. In consequence, a triple alliance, of England, Holland, and Sweden was formed, and so menacing did the combination appear to the French king that he at once took steps to destroy it. In order to quiet the suspicions of his enemies, he concluded the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1668, and at once began secret negotiations, first with Sweden and afterward with England.

Charles was willing to treat with Louis, (1) because England's rivalry with Holland was as keen after the treaty of Breda as before; (2) because he himself secretly sympathized with Roman Catholicism and wished to bring England into close touch with the Catholic countries of the Continent ; and (3) because he and his treasurer had been unable to meet the deficit in the treasury. Commercial, religious, and financial reasons underlay these unpatriotic and secret negotiations with Louis XIV, which ended in the secret treaty of Dover, June 1, 1670. In return for a cash payment of L200,000, and more in the event of actual war, Charles promised to aid Louis against the Dutch and to acknowledge himself a Roman Catholic. The financial bankruptcy of England must be. held in part responsible for this disgraceful treaty.

Period of the Cabal : the King's Policy of Alliance with France abroad and Toleration at Home

After the fall of Clarendon, the king gave his confidence to no one in particular; but out of the whole body of his privy councillors he consulted, more frequently than others, five men, of whom the most important was Anthony Ashley Cooper, at first known as Lord Ashley and afterward as the Earl of Shaftesbury. These men in no way formed a ministry or cabinet in the modern sense of the word, and legally were in no way responsible to parliament; but they foreshadowed the modern ministry, and, as it happened, were later held responsible by parliament for bad advice and bad government, just as Clarendon had been.

Charles adhered to the policy adopted when he signed the secret treaty with France. In 1672 he was forced to declare the bankruptcy of the state, in what is known as the Stop of the Exchequer, and refused to pay the loans of the goldsmiths and of private individuals, because the treasury was empty. But his need of money did not prevent him from carrying out his part of the French treaty by declaring war on the Dutch, a war in which "the nations fought without being angry." At the same time, he pursued his policy of toleration by issuing a declaration of indulgence, releasing non-conformists, Roman Catholics and Dissenters alike, from the operation of the Clarendon Code.

But parliament was growing suspicious. It saw with concern that France, rather than England, was profiting from the war with Holland ; and that Roman Catholics had been chiefly considered in the Act of Indulgence. Thoroughly distrustful, therefore, of both the king and his advisers, it compelled Charles to withdraw the Act of Indulgence in 1673, and in the same year passed the Test Act, which declared that all who held office under the crown should receive the sacrament according to the rites of the Anglican church. In passing the act, parliament rebuked the king, and caused all Roman Catholics to withdraw from office. The king's brother, James, Duke of York, resigned the office of high admiral, and Clifford withdrew from the treasury. Furthermore, the war with the Dutch became increasingly unpopular, as the people realized that England was being made a mere cat's-paw by France. Anthony Ashley Cooper, who had been created earl of Shaftesbury in 1672, was dismissed from office; and in 1674 the war was brought to an end.