Franco-Dutch War

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Franco–Dutch War
1672 Dutch War.jpg
The French offensive of 1672
Date 1672–78
Location The Netherlands, England, the Spanish Netherlands, Alsace, Rhineland, Brandenburg, Sicily, France, North America, West Indies
Result Treaty of Nijmegen, Treaty of Westminster; Peace between France, England and the Dutch Republic
Belligerents
 France
 England
 Sweden
Flag of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster.svg Bishopric of Münster
Black St George's Cross.svg Archbishopric of Cologne		  Dutch Republic
 Holy Roman Empire
 Spain
Denmark Denmark-Norway
Wappen Mark Brandenburg.png Electorate of Brandenburg
Commanders and leaders
Kingdom of France Louis XIV
Kingdom of France Vicomte de Turenne
Kingdom of France Prince de Condé		 Dutch Republic Prince of Orange
Wappen Mark Brandenburg.png Elector of Brandenburg
Holy Roman Empire Count Montecuccoli
Dutch Republic Michiel de Ruyter
Strength
400,000
Franco-Dutch War
and
Third Anglo-Dutch War

The Franco-Dutch War (1672–78), often called simply the Dutch War (French: La Guerre de Hollande; Dutch: Hollandse Oorlog) was a war fought by France, Sweden, the Prince-Bishopric of Münster, the Archbishopric of Cologne and England against the Dutch Republic, which were later joined by the Austrian Habsburg lands, Brandenburg and Spain to form a quadruple alliance. The war ended with the Treaty of Nijmegen of 1678, which granted France control of the Franche-Comté and some cities in Flanders and Hainaut, all formerly controlled by Spain. The year 1672 in Dutch is often referred to as Het Rampjaar, meaning the year of disaster.

Contents

Origins [edit]

The absolute monarch Louis XIV of France considered the Dutch to be trading rivals, seditious republicans, heretics and an obstacle to French expansion into the Spanish Netherlands.[1] Another reason for France's attack against the United Provinces was the support given by that Republic to Spain during the War of Devolution (1667–68). A primary objective of Louis XIV was to gain the support of England. England felt threatened by the growing naval power of the United Provinces and Louis XIV agreed to financially support the English with three million pounds annually. Sweden agreed to indirectly support the invasion of the United Provinces, by threatening Brandenburg if that state should intervene in the war against the Dutch Republic.

Preparations [edit]

Measures taken by the Marquis de Louvois (1641–91), Secretary of War under Louis XIV, allowed France to mobilize about 180,000 men. Of these about 120,000 would be used directly against the United Provinces. The bulk of the French army was divided into two bodies, one stationed in Charleroi and the other in Sedan. A third body, created from the allied armies of the prince-bishops of Münster and Cologne, was positioned on the right bank of the Rhine. It was expected that England would launch amphibious landings against the United Netherlands, although this never happened.

The War [edit]

Louis XIV crosses the Rhine at Lobith on 12 June 1672; Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin

After unexpectedly bypassing the fortress of Maastricht, the French had little trouble marching into the heart of the Dutch Republic, even taking Utrecht. In 1672 the leading Dutch politician Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis were lynched by an angry mob, following rumors (never substantiated) that they were planning the assassination of William of Nassau (the later William III), and William was acclaimed stadtholder. As the French had promised the major cities of Holland to the English, they were in no hurry to capture them. The French tried to gain sixteen million guilders from the Dutch in exchange for a separate peace. This demand and other conditions posed by the French stiffened Dutch resistance. Negotiations gave the Republic time to flood the countryside by deliberate inundations along the Dutch Water Line, blocking further French advances. The army of the Bishop of Münster laid siege to Groningen but failed to take it. An attempt was made to invade the Dutch Republic by sea; this was thwarted by Admiral Michiel de Ruyter in four strategic victories against the combined Anglo-French fleet (these events are usually called the Third Anglo-Dutch War). England then abandoned the war in 1674.

Already, allies had joined the Dutch cause; the Elector of Brandenburg, the Emperor, and Charles II of Spain. Louis, despite the successful Siege of Maastricht in 1673, was forced to abandon his plans of conquering the Dutch and revert to a slow, cautious war of attrition around the French frontiers.

Jurriaen Aernoutsz, a navy captain from Curaçao, conquered the capital of Acadia in 1674, renaming the colony New Holland. Although the Dutch never fully gained control of the territory, they continued to claim sovereignty over Acadia on paper for the duration of the war, even appointing Cornelius Van Steenwyk as its nominal governor. In actual practice, however, the territory remained under French control. By the time of the Treaty of Nijmegen, however, the Dutch claim to Acadia was simply abandoned. During their war against England, the Dutch also occupied New York City, which had formerly been the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam, but returned it to the English when the English left the war.

In the naval battle of Messina the French 1676 defeated the Spanish and were invited by Messina to occupy the town. However, one year later Spanish took the town again

In 1676, the French navy finally destroyed a Dutch fleet near Palermo and temporarily achieved naval supremacy in the Mediterranean. De Ruyter had already been killed during the inconclusive battle of Augusta against a French fleet.

By 1678, Louis had managed to break apart his opponents' coalition, and France gained considerable territories under the terms of the Treaty of Nijmegen. Most notably, the French acquired the Franche-Comté and various territories in the Southern Netherlands from the Spanish. Nevertheless, the Dutch had thwarted the ambitions of two of the major royal dynasties of the time: the Stuarts and the Bourbons.

The war marked the beginning of a rivalry between two powerful men in Europe: William III (who would later invade England in support of the claim of his wife, Queen Mary II, to the English throne as part of the "Glorious Revolution") and Louis XIV. They, along with their respective allies, would be pitted against each other in a series of wars in the years that followed.

1678, Peace and Consequences [edit]

In 1678 Louis continued his conquests at the expense of the Spanish Netherlands, capturing Ghent and Ypres (March 25). The United Provinces again, so to feel pressure on their territory. The talks progressed in Nijmegen, but were thwarted by the French decision to protect Swedish interests. But with a new French victory in July, the United Provinces signed the Peace of Nijmegen in August 1678. Other peace treaties are signed with the other contenders in the coming months, where the decadent Spain would come out as the big loser [3], losing to France the Franche-Comté and various cities of the Spanish Netherlands. The United Provinces, which ran the risk of being wiped out in 1672, could celebrate the reduction of some tariffs in its trade with France. Sweden, whose military tradition was not sufficient to stop the rise of Berlin, managed to leave the conflict with territorial losses negligible. Although the outcome was at first glance inconclusive, it would have great importance for the events of the next 40 years. France, which in the final years of the war fought almost alone against a powerful coalition, left the episode as a great military power of continental Europe. The United Provinces had started to show signs of decay and its pre-eminence as a naval power would eventually be ceded to England, which, ruled by William of Orange after the Glorious Revolution, was to become the sworn enemy of France. Spain and Sweden, shy participants in this conflict, lost importance and would suffer great territorial losses in the following decades.

The song "Auprès de ma blonde" or "Le Prisonnier de Hollande" ("The Prisoner of Holland"), in which a French woman grieves for her beloved who is held prisoner by the Dutch, appeared during or soon after the Franco-Dutch War - reflecting the contemporary situation of French sailors and soldiers being imprisoned in the Netherlands - and remains an enduring part of French culture up to the present.

Chronological list of key events [edit]

See also [edit]

Bibliography [edit]

  • BÉLY, Lucien - La France Moderne, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1994.
  • EGGENBERGER, David. An Encyclopedia of Battles, New York: Dover Publications, 1985, ISBN 0-486-24913-1.
  • PUJO, Bernard - Le Grand Condé - Éditions Albin Michel - 1995
  • SOUZA, Marcos da Cunha e et al. História Militar Geral I, Palhoça: UnisulVirtual, 2009.
  • TARNSTROM, Ronald - The Sword of Scandinavia, Lindsborg: Trogen Books, 1996.
  • WEYGAND, General - Turenne, Paris:Americ Edit., 1929.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Franco-Dutch War

References [edit]

  1. ^ J.P. Sommerville, The wars of Louis XIV

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