Second Anglo-Dutch War

Second Anglo-Dutch War
Part of the Anglo-Dutch wars
Top: Dutch Attack on the Medway, June 1667 Pieter Cornelisz van Soest c. 1667. The captured ship Royal Charles is right of centre. Bottom: The Royal Prince and other vessels at the Four Days Fight, 11–14 June 1666 (Abraham Storck) depicts a battle of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In the foreground the Swiftsure with Berkeley sinks. On the right the grounded Prince Royal with admiral Ayscue surrenders by firing white smoke; de Ruyter on the Zeven Provinciën accepts. In between the Royal Charles can just be seen with a broken mast.
Date 4 March 1665 – 31 July 1667 (2 years, 4 months, 3 weeks and 6 days) Location North Sea, English Channel, England, Netherlands, Denmark–Norway Result Dutch victory, Uti possidetis Treaty of Breda
Belligerents
Dutch Republic Denmark–Norway  France	England Bishopric of Münster
Commanders and leaders
Michiel de Ruyter Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam Pieter de Bitter Cornelis de Witt Willem Joseph van Ghent Claus von Ahlefeldt Joseph de La Berre	Duke of York Sir Thomas Teddiman George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle Prince Rupert of the Rhine
Strength
Dutch Republic 131 ships Denmark–Norway Fortress, 250 men	139 Ships 21,000 Men 4,200 Guns
Casualties and losses
Dutch Republic 5,150 killed 3,000 wounded 2,500 captured 23 warships lost Denmark–Norway 8 killed 10 civilians killed	7,210 killed 7,000 wounded 2,000 captured 2 Ships Captured 29 warships lost

The Second Anglo-Dutch War (4 March 1665 – 31 July 1667) was a conflict fought between England and the United Provinces for control over the seas and trade routes, where England tried to end the Dutch domination of world trade during a period of intense European commercial rivalry. After initial English successes, the war ended in a Dutch victory. It was part of a series of four Anglo-Dutch Wars fought between the English (later British) and the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The First Anglo-Dutch War was concluded with an English victory in the Battle of Scheveningen in August 1653, although a peace treaty was not signed for another eight months. The Commonwealth government of Oliver Cromwell tried to avoid further conflict with the Dutch Republic. It did not come to the aid of its ally, Sweden, when the Dutch thwarted the Swedish attempt to conquer Denmark in the Battle of the Sound on November 8, 1658. The Commonwealth was at war with Spain in the Anglo-Spanish War (1654–60). The English feared Dutch intervention in this war on the side of the Spanish, in part, because the Republic contained a strong Orangist party hostile to Cromwell. The leading personage of the Royal House of Orange was young Prince William who was the grandson of Charles I the lately beheaded king of England. Thus, the Commonwealth of England feared that the Orange party was under the influence of exiled English royalists.

In reality, however, the Dutch Republic had only recently had its independence from Spain recognised (at the conclusion of the Eighty Year's War in 1648), so had no desire to aid their hated former master. The Dutch were also busy building up their shipping and trading fleet again following the devastation of the First Anglo-Dutch War. While the English had won a great many naval battles and destroyed a great many Dutch ships during the First Anglo-Dutch War, they failed to win the war. The Republic was in a better financial position than the Commonwealth of England; as a result, the Dutch could continue fitting out their naval fleet to make up for the losses they sustained at a pace the English were unable to match. While the war continued, the Dutch had also been free to expand their trade networks along the main sea routes outside English home waters without fear of English retaliation due to their lack of available ships. English commerce was grinding to a halt as they lost access to the Baltic and the Mediterranean Seas, and when the two sides signed the peace treaty in 1654, the English were in essentially the same position that they had begun: watching the Dutch Republic outstrip their economy to become the premier European trade power.

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Wikipedia