The Franco-Dutch War (1672-1678)

I can think of better ways to go than by cannon ball.

At the conclusion of the Franco-Dutch War, King Louis XIV [The Sun King] had expanded his kingdom through the Treaty of Nijmegen into Flanders, Lorraine and Alsace in the north and northwest. He had the advantages of internal lines of communication, a unified strategy, and very capable military leaders on land and sea.
Extracted from end of {[wikizero.com/www//Franco-Dutch_War]}
a. "In Spain, defeat led to the Queen Regent, Mariana of Austria, being replaced by her long-term rival, the pro-French John of Austria the Younger. She returned to power after his death in September 1679 but not before he arranged the marriage of Charles II of Spain to Louis' niece, 17-year-old Marie Louise of Orléans in November 1679."
b." Louis had the enormous advantages of a stellar corps of commanders, superior logistics and a unified strategy, in contrast to the differing objectives of his opponents; while this remained a factor, 1672–1678 showed the threat of French expansion over-ruled all other considerations and that France, though having emerged as Europe's greatest power, could not impose its will without support. His inability to recognize this and the 1683–1684 War of the Reunions led to the creation of the anti-French Grand Alliance in 1688, which held together through the 1688–1697 Nine Years War and the 1701–1714 War of the Spanish Succession."


The Wars of Louis XIV (AP European History)
In the first segment of my lecture on the Wars of Louis XIV, I discuss Louis' motivations for going to war and give a brief overview of the War of Devolution, the Franco-Dutch War, and the Nine Years' War (with the most attention given to the Franco-Dutch War).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNCD9uTiAl0

Images:
1. Battle of Saint-Denis, Belgium by Romeyn de HoogheThe Battle of Saint-Denis was the last major action of the Franco-Dutch War, which took place on 14 August 1678, four days after France and the Dutch Republic signed the Treaty of Nijmegen. The battle was fought to prevent the French capturing the town of Mons, then on the border between France and the Spanish Netherlands, now modern Belgium. Its result is disputed.
2. The Peace of Nijmegen, 1679 painted by Henri Gascard. peace negotiations were held in Nijmegen which was chosen for its central location. On 11 August 1678 a peace treaty was signed by the Dutch Republic and the French. Peace treaties between the other countries followed.
3. The Place des Victoires; built to celebrate French victory in 1678
4. Vauban's proposal for creating a Pré carré or 'duelling zone' on France's northern border, defended by a line of fortresses known as the Ceinture de fer (marked in red and green)
5. Louis XIV, King of France, by artist Charles le Brun,1655
6. France after the peace of Nimnegan, French acquisitions in lighter pink


Background from {[wikizero.com/www//Franco-Dutch_War]}
Franco-Dutch War
The 1672 to 1678 Franco-Dutch War, also known as the Dutch War (French: Guerre de Hollande; Dutch: Hollandse Oorlog), was fought between France and the Dutch Republic, supported by its allies the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Brandenburg-Prussia and Denmark-Norway. In the early stages of the war, France was allied with Münster and Cologne, as well as England, which took part in the related 1672 to 1674 Third Anglo-Dutch War.
The war began in May 1672 when France nearly overran the Dutch Republic, an event still known as the Rampjaar or "Disaster Year". Their advance was halted by the Dutch Water Line in June and by late July the Dutch position had stabilised. Concern over French gains led to a formal alliance in August 1673 between the Dutch, Emperor Leopold I, Spain and Brandenburg-Prussia. They were joined by Lorraine and Denmark, while England made peace in February 1674. Now facing a war on multiple fronts, the French withdrew from the Dutch Republic, retaining only Grave and Maastricht.
Louis XIV refocused on the Spanish Netherlands and Rhineland, while the Allies led by William of Orange sought to limit French gains. After 1674, the French occupied Franche-Comté and areas along their border with the Spanish Netherlands and in Alsace, but neither side was able to achieve a decisive victory. The war ended with the September 1678 Peace of Nijmegen; although the terms were far less generous than those available in June 1672, it is often considered the high point of French military success under Louis XIV and provided him a significant propaganda success.
Spain recovered Charleroi from France but ceded Franche-Comté, as well as much of Artois and Hainaut, establishing borders that remain largely unchanged into modern times. Under the leadership of William of Orange, the Dutch had recovered all the territory lost in the disastrous early stages, a success that secured him a leading role in domestic politics. This helped him counter the threat posed by continued French expansion and create the 1688 Grand Alliance that fought in the Nine Years War.

Origins
The planned 1672 French offensive; the alliance with Münster and Cologne allowed them to bypass the Spanish Netherlands
As part of a general policy of opposition to Habsburg power in Europe, France backed the Dutch Republic during the 1568 to 1648 Eighty Years War against Spain. The 1648 Peace of Münster confirmed Dutch independence and permanently closed the Scheldt estuary, benefiting Amsterdam by eliminating its rival, Antwerp. Preserving this monopoly was a Dutch priority, but this increasingly clashed with French aims in the Spanish Netherlands, which included reopening Antwerp.
William II of Orange's death in 1650 led to the First Stadtholderless Period, with political control vested in the urban patricians or Regenten. This maximised the influence of the States of Holland and Amsterdam, the power base of Johan de Witt, Grand Pensionary from 1653 to 1672. He viewed his relationship with Louis XIV of France as crucial for preserving Dutch economic power, but also to protect him from his domestic Orangist opponents.
Although France and the Republic concluded an assistance treaty in 1662, the States of Holland refused to support a division of the Spanish Netherlands, convincing Louis his objectives could only be achieved by force. The Dutch received limited French support during the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667) but increasingly preferred a weak Spain as a neighbour to a strong France. Shortly after talks to end the Anglo-Dutch War began in May 1667, Louis launched the War of Devolution, rapidly occupying most of the Spanish Netherlands and Franche-Comté.
In July, the Treaty of Breda ended the Anglo-Dutch War, leading to talks between the Dutch and Charles II of England on a common diplomatic front against France. This was supported by Spain and Emperor Leopold, who was also concerned by French expansion. After his first suggestion of an Anglo-French alliance was rejected by Louis, Charles entered the 1668 Triple Alliance, between England, the Republic and Sweden. After the Alliance mediated between France and Spain, Louis relinquished many of his gains in the 1668 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.

Prince William of Orange, appointed Captain-General in February 1672; political conflict between his supporters and de Witt impacted Dutch preparations
While Breda and Aix-la-Chapelle were seen as Dutch diplomatic triumphs, they also presented significant dangers; De Witt himself was well aware of these, but failed to convince his colleagues. Louis considered the January 1668 Partition Treaty with Leopold confirmation of his right to the Spanish Netherlands, a point reinforced by Aix-la-Chapelle, despite his concessions. He no longer saw the need to negotiate, and decided their acquisition was best achieved by first defeating the Republic.
The Dutch also over-estimated their own power; defeat at Lowestoft in 1665 exposed the shortcomings of their navy and the federal command system, while the successful Raid on the Medway was largely due to English financial weakness. In 1667, the Dutch navy was at the height of its power, an advantage rapidly eroded by English and French naval expansion. The Anglo-Dutch War was primarily fought at sea, masking the poor state of their army and forts, deliberately neglected since they were viewed as bolstering the power of the Prince of Orange.
In preparation for an attack on the Republic, Louis embarked on a series of diplomatic initiatives, the first being the 1670 Secret Treaty of Dover, an Anglo-French alliance against the Dutch. It contained secret clauses not revealed until 1771, including the payment to Charles of £230,000 per year for providing a British brigade of 6,000. Agreements with the Bishopric of Münster and Electorate of Cologne allowed French forces to bypass the Spanish Netherlands, by attacking via the Bishopric of Liège, then a dependency of Cologne (see Map). Preparations were completed in April 1672, when Charles XI of Sweden accepted French subsidies in return for invading areas of Pomerania claimed by Brandenburg-Prussia.

Preparations
French armies of the period held significant advantages over their opponents; an undivided command, talented generals like Turenne, Condé and Luxembourg, as well as vastly superior logistics. Reforms introduced by Louvois, the Secretary of War, helped maintain large field armies that could be mobilised much quicker. This meant the French could mount offensives in early spring before their opponents were ready, seize their objectives, then assume a defensive posture. As in other wars of the period, the army's strength fluctuated throughout the conflict; starting with 180,000 in 1672, by 1678 it had an authorised strength of 219,250 infantry and 60,360 cavalry, of whom 116,370 served in garrisons.
The retention of border towns like Charleroi and Tournai in 1668 allowed Louvois to pre-position supply dumps, stretching from the French border to Neuss in the Rhineland. 120,000 men were allocated to attacks on the Republic, split into two main groups; one at Charleroi, under Turenne, the other near Sedan, commanded by Condé. After marching through the Bishopric of Liège, they would join near Maastricht, then occupy the Duchy of Cleves, a possession of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. At the same time 30,000 mercenaries, paid by Münster and Cologne and led by Luxembourg, would attack from the east. One final element was a planned English landing in the Spanish Netherlands but this ceased to be a viable option when the Dutch retained control of the sea at Solebay in June.

The French had demonstrated their new tactics when over-running the Duchy of Lorraine in mid 1670, while the Dutch were given accurate information on their plans as early as February 1671. These were confirmed by Condé in November and again in January 1672, Dutch regent de Groot describing him as "one of our best friends." However, the Dutch were poorly prepared for a campaign against France; available funds had mostly been invested in the fleet, at the expense of their land defences. Most of the Dutch States Army was based in the three southern fortresses of Breda, 's-Hertogenbosch and Maastricht; in November 1671, the Council of State reported these as being short of supplies and money, with many fortifications barely defendable. Most units were substantially below strength; on 12 June, one officer reported his official strength of eighteen companies had only enough men for four.
This was partly because with Prince William now of age, his Orangist supporters refused to approve additional military spending unless he was appointed Captain-General, a move opposed by de Witt. Aware of internal English opposition to the Anglo-French alliance, the Dutch relied on the provisions of the Triple Alliance requiring England and the Republic to support each other, if attacked by Spain or France. This assumption was shared by the Parliament of England, who approved funding for the fleet in early 1671 to fulfil its obligations under the alliance. The true danger only became obvious on 23 March, when acting under orders from Charles, the Royal Navy attacked a Dutch merchant convoy in the Channel; this followed a similar incident in 1664.
In February 1672, de Witt compromised by appointing William as Captain-General for a year. Budgets were approved and contracts issued to increase the army to over 80,000 but assembling these men would take months. Negotiations with Frederick William to reinforce Cleves with 30,000 men were delayed by his demands for Dutch-held fortresses on the Rhine, including Rheinberg and Wesel. By the time they reached agreement on 6 May, he was occupied with a French-backed Swedish invasion of Pomerania, and could not engage the French in 1672. The Maastricht garrison was increased to 11,000, in the hope they could delay the French long enough to strengthen the eastern border; the cities provided 12,000 men from their civil militia, with 70,000 peasants conscripted to build earthworks along the IJssel river. These were unfinished when France declared war on 6 April, followed by England on 7 April, using a manufactured diplomatic incident known as the 'Merlin' affair. Münster and Cologne entered the war on 18 May.

French offensive: 1672
France crosses the Rhine
The French offensive began on 4 May 1672 when a subsidiary force under Condé left Sedan and marched north along the right bank of the Meuse. Next day, Louis arrived in Charleroi to inspect the main army of 50,000 under Turenne, one of the most magnificent displays of military power in the seventeenth century. Accompanied by Louis, on 17 May Turenne met up with Condé at Visé, just south of Maastricht; supported by Condé, Louis wanted to besiege the fortress immediately but Turenne convinced him it would be folly to allow the Dutch time to reinforce other positions. Avoiding a direct assault on Maastricht, Turenne prevented it being reinforced by occupying outlying positions at Tongeren, Maaseik and Valkenburg.

Leaving 10,000 men to cover Maastricht, the rest of the French army crossed back over the Meuse, then advanced along the Rhine, supported by troops from Münster and the Electorate of Cologne, led by Luxembourg. The Dutch garrisoned forts intended to defend the Rhine crossings were still severely undermanned and poorly equipped. By 5 June, the French had captured Rheinberg, Orsoy and Burick, with minimal resistance; Wesel, perhaps the most important fortress, surrendered when the townspeople threatened to butcher the commanders, followed by Rees on 9 June. Having secured their rear, the bulk of the French army began to cross the Rhine at Emmerich am Rhein; Grand Pensionary De Witt was deeply shocked by the news of the catastrophe and concluded "the fatherland is now lost".
Although the situation on land had become critical for the Dutch, events at sea were much more favorable. On 7 June, Dutch Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter attacked the Anglo-French fleet as it took on supplies at Southwold on the English coast. The French squadron under d'Estrées failed to properly coordinate with the English and ended up fighting a separate battle with Lieutenant-Admiral Adriaen Banckert, which led to mutual recriminations between the two allies. Although ship losses were roughly equal, Solebay ensured the Dutch retained control of their coastal waters, secured their trade routes and ended hopes of an Anglo-French landing in Zeeland. Anger at the alleged lack of support from D'Estrées increased opposition to the war, and Parliament was reluctant to approve funds for essential repairs. For the rest of the year, this restricted English naval operations to a failed attack on the Dutch East India Company Return Fleet.

IJssel Line is outflanked
In early June, the Dutch headquarters at Arnhem prepared itself for a French onslaught on the IJssel Line. Only twenty thousand troops could be assembled to block a crossing and a dry spring meant that the river could be forded at many points. Nevertheless, there seemed to be no alternative but to make a last stand at the IJssel. However, should the enemy outflank this river by crossing the Lower Rhine into the Betuwe, the field army would fall back to the west to prevent being surrounded and quickly annihilated. The commander of Fort Schenkenschanz protecting the Lower Rhine abandoned his position. When he arrived at Arnhem with his troops, immediately a force of two thousand horse and foot under Field Marshal Paulus Wirtz was sent out to cover the Betuwe. At arrival they intercepted French cavalry crossing at a ford pointed out to them by a farmer. A bloody encounter fight followed but in this Battle of Tolhuis on 12 June, the Dutch cavalry was eventually overwhelmed by French reinforcements. Louis personally observed the battle from the Elterberg. Condé was shot through the wrist. In France,, this battle was celebrated as a major victory and paintings of the Passage du Rhin have this crossing as their subject, not the earlier one at Emmerich.

Captain-General William Henry now wanted the entire field army to fall back on Utrecht. However, in 1666 the provinces had regained full sovereignty of their forces. Overijssel and Guelders in June 1672 withdrew their troops from the confederated army. The French army made little effort to cut off the escape route of the Dutch field army. Turenne recrossed the Lower Rhine to attack Arnhem, while part of his army moved to the Waal towards Fort Knodsenburg at Nijmegen. Louis wanted to besiege Doesburg first, on the east side of the IJssel, taking it on 21 June. The king delayed the capture somewhat to allow his brother, Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, to take Zutphen some days earlier. On his right flank, the armies of Münster and Cologne, reinforced by a French corps under de Luxembourg, advanced to the north along the river, after having taken Grol on 10 June and Bredevoort on 18 June. The IJssel cities panicked. Deventer seceded from the Republic and again rejoined the Holy Roman Empire on 25 June. Then, the province of Overijssel surrendered as a whole to the bishop of Münster, Bernard von Galen, whose troops plundered towns on the west side of the IJssel, such as Hattem, Elburg and Harderwijk, on 21 June. Louis ordered de Luxembourg to expel them again, as he wanted to make the duchy of Guelders a French possession. Annoyed, Von Galen announced to advance to the north of the Republic and invited de Luxembourg to follow him by wading through the IJssel, as no pontoon bridge was available. Exasperated, de Luxembourg got permission from Louis to withhold his corps and the army of Cologne from the Münsterite forces.
From that point onwards, Von Galen would wage a largely separate campaign. He started to besiege Coevorden on 20 June. Von Galen, nicknamed "Bomb Berend", was an expert on artillery ammunition and had devised the first practical incendiary shell or carcass. With such fire shot he intimidated the garrison of Coevorden into a quick surrender on 1 July. He was advised by his subcommanders to subsequently plunder the hardly defended Friesland and use vessels captured there to isolate Groningen, the largest city in the north. Alternatively, he could take Delfzijl, allowing a landing by an English expeditionary force. But the bishop feared the Protestant British would make common cause with the Calvinist Groningers and expected that his siege mortars would force a fast capitulation, starting the Siege of Groningen on 21 July.

Peace negotiations
On 14 June, William arrived with the remnants of the field army, some eight thousand men, at Utrecht. The common citizens had taken over the city gates and refused him entrance. In talks with the official city council, William had to admit that he had no intention to defend the city but would retreat behind the Holland Water Line, a series of inundations protecting the core province of Holland. Eventually, the council of Utrecht literally delivered the keys of the gates to Henri Louis d'Aloigny (the Marquis de Rochefort), to avoid plundering. On 18 June, William withdrew his forces. The flooding was not ready yet, only having been ordered on 8 June, and the countryside of Holland was basically defenceless against the French. On 19 June, the French took the fortress of Naarden close to Amsterdam.
In a defeatist mood a divided States of Holland – Amsterdam was more pugnacious – sent a delegation to de Louvois in Zeist to ask for peace terms, headed by Pieter de Groot. The French king was offered the Generality Lands and ten million guilders. Compared to the eventual outcome of the war, these conditions were very favourable to France. It would have made territorial gains not equalled until 1810. The Generality Lands included the fortresses of Breda, 's-Hertogenbosch and Maastricht. Their possession would have ensured the conquest of the Spanish Netherlands and the remaining Republic would have been little more than a French satellite state. De Louvois, rather bemused that the Estates had not capitulated but still considered some damage control possible, demanded far harsher terms.
The Dutch were given the choice of surrendering their southern fortresses, permitting religious freedom for Catholics and a payment of six million guilders, or France and Münster retaining their existing gains – thus the loss of Overijssel, Guelders and Utrecht – and a single payment of sixteen million livres. Louis knew perfectly well that the delegation did not have the mandate to agree such terms and would have to return for new instructions. However, he also did not continue his advance to the west.
Several explanations have been given for this policy. The French were rather overwhelmed by their success. They had within a month captured three dozen fortresses. This strained their organisational and logistical capacities. All these strongholds had to be garrisoned and supplied. An intrusion into Holland proper seemed meaningless to them, unless Amsterdam could be besieged. This city would be a very problematic target. It had a population of 200,000 and could raise a large civil militia, reinforced by thousands of sailors. As the city had recently expanded, its fortifications were the best maintained in the Republic. Their normal armament of three hundred pieces was being enlarged by the militia hauling the reserve ordnance of the Admiralty of Amsterdam upon the ramparts which began to bristle with thousands of cannon. The low-lying surrounding terrain, below sea level, was easily flooded, making a traditional attack via trenches impractical. The battle fleet could support the fortifications from the IJ and Zuyderzee with gun fire, meanwhile ensuring a constant resupply of the food and ammunition stocks. A deeper problem was that Amsterdam was the world's main financial centre. The promissory notes with which many of the French military and the contractors had been paid, were covered by the gold and silver reserves of the Amsterdam banks. Their loss would mean the collapse of Europe's financial system and the personal bankruptcy of large segments of the French elite.

Relations with England were also delicate. Louis had promised Charles to make William Henry the Sovereign Prince of a Holland rump state and puppet state. He very much preferred that it would be France pulling the strings but there was a distinct possibility that the uncle of the prince would be in control. Louis had not mentioned William in his peace conditions. The very patricians that the French king desired to punish were traditionally pro-French and his natural allies against the pro-English Orangists. He wanted to simply annex Holland and hoped that fear of the Orangists would cause the regenten to surrender the province to him. Of course, the opposite might happen too: that a French advance would lead to the Orangists taking power and capitulating to England. The province of Zealand had already decided to rather make Charles their lord than be subjugated by the French. Only fear of the military power of De Ruyter's fleet had kept them from surrendering outright to the English. De Ruyter would not tolerate any talk of capitulation and intended, if necessary, to take the fleet overseas to continue the fight. Louis feared the English wanted to claim Staats-Vlaanderen which he saw as French territory because the County of Flanders was a fief of the French crown. In secret he arranged an informal warband of six thousand under Claude Antoine de Dreux to quickly cross the officially neutral Spanish Flanders and execute a surprise assault on the Dutch fortress of Aardenburg, on 25-26 June. The attempt was a total failure, the small garrison killing hundreds of attackers and taking prisoner over six hundred Frenchmen who had become pinned down in a ravelin.
Louis also allowed his honor to take precedence over the raison d'état. The harsh peace conditions upon which he insisted were meant to humiliate the Dutch. He demanded an annual embassy to the French court asking pardon for their perfidy and presenting a plaquette extolling the magnanimity of the French king. For Louis, a campaign was not complete without some major siege to enhance his personal glory. The quick surrender of so many cities had been somewhat disappointing in this respect. Maastricht having escaped him for the time being, he turned his attention on an even more prestigious object: 's-Hertogenbosch, which was considered "inexpugnable". The city was not only a formidable fortress in itself, it was surrounded by a rare fortification belt. Normally its marshy surroundings would make a siege impossible but its presently weak garrison seemed to offer some possibility of success. After Nijmegen had been taken on 9 July, Turenne captured near 's-Hertogenbosch Fort Crèvecœur, which controlled the sluice outlets of the area, halting further inundations. The main French force, thus removed from the Holland war theatre, camped around Boxtel and Louis took residence in Heeswijk Castle.

Orangists take power
The news that the French had penetrated into the heart of the Republic led to a general panic in the cities of the province of Holland. Blaming the States regime for the Dutch collapse, their populations rioted. Members of the city councils were by force replaced by Orangist partisans or in fear of reprisals declared for the cause of the Prince of Orange. Pamphlets accused the regenten of having betrayed the Republic to Louis and De Ruyter of wanting to deliver the fleet to the French. When the French peace terms became known on 1 July, they caused outrage.

The result was to bolster Dutch resistance. On 2 July, William was appointed stadtholder of Zealand and on 4 June of Holland. The new stadtholder William III of Orange was given a general mandate to negotiate. Meanwhile, the polders of the Holland Water Line had slowly filled, forming an obstacle to a possible French advance.
Charles thought that William's rise to power allowed to quickly obtain a peace favourable to England. He sent two of his ministers to Holland. They were received with jubilation by the population, who assumed they came to save them from the French. Arriving at the Dutch army camp in Nieuwerbrug, they proposed to install William as monarch of a Principality of Holland. In return he should pay ten million guilders as "indemnities" and formalise a permanent military English occupation of the ports of Brill, Sluys and Flushing. England would respect the French and Münsterite conquests. To their surprise, William flatly refused. He indicated that he might be more pliable if they managed to moderate the French peace terms. They then travelled to Heeswijk Castle, but the Accord of Heeswijk they agreed there was even harsher, England and France promising never to conclude a separate peace. France demanded the areas of Brabant, Limburg and Guelders. Charles tried to right matters by writing a very moderate letter to William, claiming that the only obstacle to peace was the influence of De Witt. William made counteroffers unacceptable to Charles but also on 15 August published the letter to incite the population. On 20 August, Johan and Cornelis de Witt were lynched by an Orangist civil militia, leaving William in control.
Observing that the water around 's-Hertogenbosch showed little sign of receding, Louis became impatient and lifted the siege on 26 July. Leaving his main force of 40,000 behind, he took 18,000 men with him, and marched to Paris within a week, straight through the Spanish Netherlands. He freed 12,000 Dutch prisoners of war for a small ransom, to avoid having to pay for their maintenance, allowing the majority to rejoin the Dutch States Army, which by August contained 57,000 men.

War of attrition
In June, the Dutch seemed defeated. The Amsterdam stock market collapsed and their international credit evaporated. Frederick William, the Elector of Brandenburg, in these circumstances hardly dared to threaten the eastern borders of Münster. A single loyal ally remained: the Spanish Netherlands. They well understood that if the Dutch capitulated, they too would be lost. Although officially neutral, and forced to allow the French to transgress their territory with impunity, they openly reinforced the Dutch with thousands of troops.
The Dutch position had stabilised, while concern at French gains brought the support of Brandenburg-Prussia, Emperor Leopold and Charles II of Spain. Instead of a rapid victory, Louis was forced into another war of attrition around the French frontiers; in August, Turenne ended his offensive against the Dutch and proceeded to Germany with 25,000 infantry and 18,000 cavalry. Frederick William and Leopold combined their forces of around 25,000 under the Imperial general Raimondo Montecuccoli; he crossed the Rhine at Koblenz in January 1673 but Turenne forced him to retreat into northern Germany.
The faltering offensive caused financial problems for the allies, especially England. Münster was in an even worse condition; on 27 August it had to abandon the siege of Groningen. Whereas the Dutch had managed to supply the city through waterways at its northern edge, Von Galen's troops were starving and had largely deserted. Also, his siege mortars had lost the artillery duel with the fortress cannon, gradually having been destroyed. Before the end of 1672, the Dutch retook Coevorden and liberated the province of Drenthe, leaving the Allies in possession of only three of the ten—the territories of Drenthe, Staats-Brabant, and Staats-Overmaas were also part of the republic—Dutch provincial areas. The supply lines of the French army were dangerously overextended. In the autumn of 1672, William tried to cut them off, crossing the Spanish Netherlands via Maastricht in forced marches to attack Charleroi, the starting point of the supply route through Liège, though he had to abandon the siege quickly.
The absence of the Dutch field army offered opportunities for the French to renew their offensive. On 27 December, after a severe frost, de Luxembourg began to cross the ice of the Water Line with eight thousand men, hoping to sack The Hague. A sudden thaw cut his force in half and he narrowly escaped to his own lines with the remainder, on his way back massacring the civilian population of Bodegraven and Zwammerdam. This increased the hatred against de Luxembourg. The province of Utrecht was one of the richest regions of Europe and intendant Louis Robert had extorted large sums from its wealthy inhabitants. The French applied the not-unusual method of mettre à contribution: unless noble refugees or Amsterdam merchants made regular payments, their luxury mansions would be burnt down. This made the general the favourite subject of Dutch anti-French propaganda. Special books were published highlighting the outrages he committed, illustrated by Romeyn de Hooghe. The most common Dutch school book, the Mirror of Youth, that had been dedicated to Spanish misdeeds, was now rewritten to reflect French atrocities.

1673
Until the advent of railways in the 19th century, goods and supplies were largely transported by water, making rivers such as the Lys, Sambre and Meuse vital for trade and military operations. The primary French objective in 1673 was the capture of Maastricht, which controlled a key access point on the Meuse; the city surrendered on 30 June. In June 1673, the French occupation of Kleve and lack of money temporarily drove Brandenburg-Prussia out of the war in the Peace of Vossem.
However, in August, the Dutch, Spain and Emperor Leopold, supported by other German states, agreed the anti-French Alliance of The Hague, joined by Charles IV of Lorraine in October. In September, William recaptured Naarden, while Münster and Cologne left the war in November; with the war expanding into the Rhineland and Spain, French troops withdrew from the Dutch Republic, retaining only Grave and Maastricht.
The alliance between England and Catholic France had been unpopular from the start and although the real terms of the Treaty of Dover remained secret, many suspected them. The Cabal ministry that managed government for Charles had gambled on a short war but when this proved not to be the case, opinion quickly turned against it, while the French were also accused of abandoning the English at Solebay.
Opposition to the alliance with France further increased when Charles' heir, his Catholic brother, James, was given permission to marry Mary of Modena, also a devout Catholic. In February 1673, Parliament refused to continue funding the war unless Charles withdrew a proposed Declaration of Indulgence and accepted a Test Act barring Catholics from public office. After the Dutch defeated an Anglo-French fleet at Texel in August and captured the English settlement of New York, pressure to end the war became unstoppable and England made peace in the February 1674 Treaty of Westminster.
The combination led Louis to pursue a "policy of exhaustion that emphasised...sieges and the gathering of war taxes, raids, and blockades over full-scale battles”. In support of this strategy, Swedish forces in Swedish Pomerania attacked Brandenburg-Prussia in December 1674 after Louis threatened to withhold their subsidies. It resulted in the 1675–1679 Scanian War and the Swedish-Brandenburg War, whereby the Swedes tied up the armies of Brandenburg, Denmark and some minor German principalities.
War expands: 1674–1675
In broad terms, French strategy now focused on retaking Spanish possessions gained in 1667–1668 but returned at Aix-La-Chapelle, while preventing Imperialist advances in the Rhineland. They also supported minor campaigns in Roussillon and Sicily that absorbed Spanish and Dutch naval resources.
Flanders and the Franche-Comté
In the spring of 1674, the French invaded the Spanish province of Franche-Comté and over-ran the entire province in less than six weeks. French troops then reinforced Condé's army in the Spanish Netherlands, who were outnumbered by the main Allied field army. William invaded French Flanders, hoping to recapture the Spanish possession of Charleroi and take Oudenarde, but was halted by Condé at the Battle of Seneffe. While this was a French victory, the appalling casualties confirmed Louis' preference for positional warfare, ushering in a period where siege and manoeuvre dominated military tactics.
One of the biggest obstacles to Allied success in Flanders was their diverging objectives; the Imperials wanted to prevent reinforcements reaching Turenne in the Rhineland while the Spanish aimed at recovering losses in the Spanish Netherlands. The Dutch were further split by internal disputes; the powerful Amsterdam mercantile body were anxious to end an expensive war once their commercial interests were secured, while William saw France as a long-term threat that had to be defeated. This conflict increased once ending the war became a distinct possibility with the recapture of Grave in October 1674, leaving only Maastricht.

Rhineland
During the winter of 1673–1674, Turenne based his troops in Alsace and the Palatinate; despite England's withdrawal from the war in February, his army of less than 8,000 retained a number of English regiments, as Charles II encouraged members to continue serving in order to keep his French subsidies. Monmouth and Churchill were among those who did so, while others enrolled in the Dutch Scots Brigade, including John Graham, later Viscount Dundee.
The 1674 campaign began when Turenne crossed the Rhine in June with 7,000 men, hoping to attack Charles of Lorraine before he could combine with forces under Alexander von Bournonville. At Sinsheim, the French routed a separate Imperial army led by Aeneas de Caprara but the delay allowed Bournonville to link up with Charles at Heidelberg; after receiving reinforcements, Turenne began crossing the Neckar river, forcing the Imperial troops to retreat.
Bournonville marched south to the Imperial City of Strasbourg, giving him a base for an attack on Alsace but delayed while he awaited the arrival of 20,000 troops under Frederick William. To prevent this, Turenne made a night march that enabled him to surprise the Imperial army and fought them to a standstill at Entzheim on 4 October. As was then accepted practice, Bournonville halted operations until spring but in his Winter Campaign 1674/1675, Turenne inflicted a series of defeats culminating in Turckkeim on 5 January, which secured Alsace and prevented an Imperial invasion. This campaign is often considered to be Turenne's masterpiece.
Command of Imperial operations in the Rhineland passed to Montecuccoli, the only Allied general considered equal to Turenne. He crossed the Rhine at Philippsburg with 25,000 men, hoping to draw the French north, then double back, but Turenne was not fooled, and instead blocked the river near Strasbourg to prevent Montecuccoli being resupplied. By mid-July, both armies were running out of food and Turenne tried to bring the retreating Imperial army to battle. At Salzbach on 27 July, he was killed by a stray cannonball while reconnoitering the enemy's positions. Demoralised by his death, the French withdrew after some inconclusive skirmishing, and fell back to Alsace. They were pursued by Montecuccoli, who crossed the Rhine at Strasbourg and besieged Hagenau, while another Imperial army defeated Créquy at Konzer Brücke and recaptured Trier. Condé was despatched from Flanders to take command and forced Montecuccoli to withdraw across the Rhine; however, ill-health forced him to retire in December and he was replaced by Créquy.

Spain and Sicily
Activity on this front was largely limited to skirmishing in Roussillon between a French army under Frederick von Schomberg and Spanish forces led by the Duque de San Germán. The Spanish won a minor victory at Maureillas in June 1674 and captured Fort Bellegarde, ceded to France in 1659 and retaken by Schomberg in 1675.
In Sicily, the French supported a successful revolt by the city of Messina against their Spanish overlords in 1674, obliging San Germán to transfer some of his troops. A French naval force under Jean-Baptiste de Valbelle managed to resupply the city in early 1675 and establish local naval supremacy.

Negotiating the peace: 1676–1678
On both sides, the last years of the war saw minimal return for their investment of men and money. French strategy in Flanders was largely based on Vauban's proposed line of fortresses known as the Ceinture de fer or iron belt (see Map). This aligned with Louis' preference for siege warfare, which was further reinforced by the death of Turenne and Condé's retirement; their passing removed two of the most talented and aggressive French generals of the 17th century and the only ones with sufficient stature to challenge him.
In Germany, Imperial forces captured Philippsburg in September 1676 but the French stabilised their front. Créquy's maneuvering countered Imperial offensives by Charles V of Lorraine whereas the French commander succeeded in capturing Freiburg in November 1677. Defeating the Imperials at Rheinfelden and Ortenbach in July 1678 ended their hopes of retaking the city. The French followed up by capturing Kehl and the bridge over the Rhine near Strasbourg, thus ensuring control of Alsace. The Spanish theatre remained largely static; French victory at Espolla in July 1677 left the strategic position unchanged but their losses worsened the crisis faced by the Spanish administration.
Dutch admiral De Ruyter was killed at Augusta in April 1676 and the French achieved naval supremacy in the Western Mediterranean when their galleys surprised the Dutch/Spanish fleet at anchor at Palermo in June. However, French intervention had been opportunistic; friction arose with the anti-Spanish rebels, the cost of operations was prohibitive and Messina was evacuated in early 1678.
The peace talks that began at Nijmegen in 1676 were given a greater sense of urgency in November 1677 when William married his cousin Mary, Charles II of England's niece. An Anglo-Dutch defensive alliance followed in March 1678, although English troops did not arrive in significant numbers until late May. Louis seized this opportunity to improve his negotiating position and captured Ypres and Ghent in early March, before signing a peace treaty with the Dutch on 10 August.
The Battle of Saint-Denis was fought three days later on 13 August, when a combined Dutch-Spanish force attacked the French army under Luxembourg. While a French tactical victory, it ensured Mons would remain in Spanish hands and on 19 August, Spain and France agreed an armistice, followed by a formal peace treaty on 17 September.

1678: the Peace of Nijmegen and its consequences
The Peace of Nijmegen confirmed most of the French gains. Louis XIV, having successfully fought a powerful coalition, came to be known as the 'Sun King' in the years that followed the conflict. Nevertheless, while favorable to France, and largely permanent, the peace terms were significantly worse than those that had been available in July 1672. France returned Charleroi, Ghent and other towns in the Spanish Netherlands, in return for Spain ceding Franche-Comté, Ypres, Maubeuge, Câteau-Cambrésis, Valenciennes, Saint-Omer and Cassel; with the exception of Ypres, all of these remain part of modern France.
Brandenburg managed to occupy Swedish Pomerania completely in September 1678, France's ally Sweden regained it by the 1679 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye but this did little to improve its perilous financial position. In addition, Frederick William's resentment at being forced to give up what he saw as his own territory turned Brandenburg-Prussia into an implacable opponent.
The Dutch recovered from the near disaster of 1672 to prove they were a permanent and significant power in Northern Europe. Arguably, their most lasting gain was William's marriage to Mary and his arrival as one of the most powerful statesmen in Europe, with sufficient stature to hold together an anti-French coalition. It also showed that while significant sections of the English mercantile and political class were anti-Dutch on commercial grounds, there was no popular support for an alliance with France.
In Spain, defeat led to the Queen Regent, Mariana of Austria, being replaced by her long-term rival, the pro-French John of Austria the Younger. She returned to power after his death in September 1679 but not before he arranged the marriage of Charles II of Spain to Louis' niece, 17-year-old Marie Louise of Orléans in November 1679.
Louis had the enormous advantages of a stellar corps of commanders, superior logistics and a unified strategy, in contrast to the differing objectives of his opponents; while this remained a factor, 1672–1678 showed the threat of French expansion over-ruled all other considerations and that France, though having emerged as Europe's greatest power, could not impose its will without support. His inability to recognise this and the 1683–1684 War of the Reunions led to the creation of the anti-French Grand Alliance in 1688, which held together through the 1688–1697 Nine Years War and the 1701–1714 War of the Spanish Succession.

Chronological list of key events
• 1672 – Battle of Solebay (7 June, Third Anglo-Dutch War)
• 1673 – Battle of Schooneveld (7–14 June, Third Anglo-Dutch War)
• 1673 – Siege of Maastricht (13–26 June)
• 1673 – Battle of Texel (21 August; Third Anglo-Dutch War)
• 1673 – Siege of Bonn (October–November)
• 1673 – Siege of Werl
• 1673 – Battle of Heringen
• 1674 – Occupation of Acadia
• 1674 – Siege of Besançon (April–May)
• 1674 – Battle of Sinsheim (16 June)
• 1674 – Battle of Ladenburg (7 July)
• 1674 – Battle of Seneffe (11 August)
• 1674 – Battle of Enzheim (4 October)
• 1674 – Battle of Mulhouse (29 December)
• 1675 – Battle of Turckheim (5 January)
• 1675 – Battle of Fehrbellin (28 June; Brandenburg-Swedish War)
• 1675 – Battle of Nieder Sasbach (27 July)
• 1675 – Battle of Konzer Brücke (11 August)
• 1676 – Battle Alicudi (8 January)
• 1676 – Battle of Messina (25 March)
• 1676 – Battle of Golfo di Augusta (22 April)
• 1676 – Battle of Jasmund (25 May; Danish-Swedish (Scanian) War of 1675–1679)
• 1676 – Battle of Öland (11 June, Scanian War of 1675–1679)
• 1676 – Battle of Palermo (2 June)
• 1676 – Battle of Halmstad (17 August; Scanian War of 1675–1679)
• 1676 – Battle of Lund (4 December; Scanian War of 1675–1679)
• 1677 – Siege of Valenciennes (28 February – 17 March)
• 1677 – Siege of Cambrai (28 March – 17 April)
• 1677 – Battle of Cassel (11 April)
• 1677 – Battle of Køge Bay (1 July; Scanian War of 1675–1679)
• 1677 – Battle of Landskrona (24 July; Scanian War of 1675–1679)
• 1677 – Battle of Kochersberg (7 October)
• 1678 – Battle of Warksow (18 January; Brandenburg-Swedish War )
• 1678 – Siege of Offenburg
• 1678 – Siege of Ypres (18–25 March)
• 1678 – Battle of Rheinfelden (6 July)
• 1678 – Battle of Ortenbach, also known as Battle of Gengenbach; (23 July)
• 1678 – Battle of Saint-Denis (14 August)

Footnotes
1. ^ 66,510 Imperial, 65,840 Habsburg
2. ^ An attitude described at the time as Gallus amicus, non-vicinus or "The Frenchman should be a friend, not a neighbour"

References
1. ^ Clodfelter 1992, p. 47.
2. ^ Wilson 2016, p. 461.
3. ^ Levy, Jack S (1983). War in the Modern Great Power System: 1495 to 1975. University Press of Kentucky. Page 90.
4. ^ 1672 Disaster Year Archived 24 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Rijksmuseum
5. ^ Israel 1990, pp. 197–199.
6. ^ Rowen 1978, pp. 121–125.
7. ^ Geyl 1936, p. 311.
8. ^ Hutton 1986, pp. 299–300.
9. ^ Rowen 1954, pp. 9–12.
10. ^ Geyl 1936, pp. 312–316.
11. ^ Lynn 1999, pp. 109–110.
12. ^ Kenyon 1993, pp. 67–68.
13. ^ Hutton 1986, p. 309.
14. ^ Frost 2000, p. 209.
15. ^ Black 2011, pp. 97–99.
16. ^ Lynn 1994, p. 893.
17. ^ Lynn 1999, p. 113.
18. ^ Hutton 1986, p. 302.
19. ^ Rowen 1978, p. 758.
20. ^ Rowen 1978, p. 752.
21. ^ Van Nimwegen 2010, pp. 440–441.
22. ^ Boxer 1969, p. 71.
23. ^ Clodfelter 1992, p. 46.
24. ^ Rowen 1978, p. 771.
25. ^ Rowen 1978, pp. 755–756.
26. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 112.
27. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 134.
28. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 135.
29. ^ Jenkins 1973, pp. 51–53.
30. ^ Rodger 2004, p. 82.
31. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 139.
32. ^ Panhuysen 2009, pp. 140–141.
33. ^ Panhuysen 2009, pp. 146–150.
34. ^ Panhuysen 2009, pp. 145–146.
35. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 150.
36. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 201.
37. ^ Panhuysen 2009, pp. 151–152.
38. ^ Panhuysen 2009, pp. 149, 153.
39. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 162.
40. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 163.
41. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 149.
42. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 165.
43. ^ Troost 2001, p. 87.
44. ^ Lynn 1999, p. 115.
45. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 158.
46. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 205.
47. ^ Reinders 2013, p. 108–110.
48. ^ Young 2004, p. 131.
49. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 202.
50. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 183.
51. ^ Lynn 1999, p. 114.
52. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 185.
53. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 220.
54. ^ Smith 1965, p. 200.
55. ^ Lynn 1999, pp. 117–18.
56. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 210.
57. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 285.
58. ^ Panhuysen 2016, p. 86.
59. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 269.
60. ^ Panhuysen 2016, p. 87.
61. ^ Panhuysen 2009, pp. 197–98.
62. ^ Panhuysen 2009, p. 200.
63. ^ Childs 1991, pp. 32–33.
64. ^ Lynn 1999, p. 120.
65. ^ Young 2004, p. 132.
66. ^ Boxer 1969, pp. 74–75.
67. ^ Palmer 2005, pp. 60–61.
68. ^ Hutton 1989, pp. 345–46.
69. ^ Boxer 1969, pp. 88–90.
70. ^ Satterfield 2003, p. 319.
71. ^ Frost 2000, p. 210.
72. ^ Tucker 2009, p. 650.
73. ^ Lynn 1999, p. 125.
74. ^ Jacques 2007, p. 408.
75. ^ Linklater 2004.
76. ^ Lynn 1999, p. 129.
77. ^ Lynn 1999, pp. 131–32.
78. ^ Lynn 1999, p. 141.
79. ^ Rowlands 2002, p. 54.
80. ^ Lynn 1999, p. 135.
81. ^ Blackmore 2011, pp. 95–96.
82. ^ Nolan 2008, p. 126–128.
83. ^ Wolfe 2009, p. 149.
84. ^ Starkey 2003, p. 38.
85. ^ Young 2004, p. 135.
86. ^ Lynn 1999, p. 148–149.
87. ^ Lesaffer, Randall. "The Wars of Louis XIV in Treaties (Part V): The Peace of Nijmegen (1678–1679)". Oxford Public International Law. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
88. ^ Lynn 1999, p. 159.
89. ^ "Treaty of Peace between France and Spain, signed at Nimeguen, 17 September 1678". Oxford International Public Law. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
90. ^ Clark 2007, p. 50.
91. ^ Barton, Simon (2008). A History of Spain (2009 ed.). Palgrave. p. 146. ISBN [login to see] 128.
92. ^ Nolan 2008, p. 128.

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• Boxer, CR (1969). "Some Second Thoughts on the Third Anglo-Dutch War, 1672–1674". Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 19: 67–94. doi:10.2307/3678740. JSTOR 3678740.
• Clark, Christopher M. (2007). Iron kingdom: the rise and downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947. Penguin. ISBN [login to see] 340.
• Childs, John (1991). The Nine Years' War and the British Army, 1688–1697: The Operations in the Low Countries. Manchester University Press. ISBN [login to see] 961.
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• Frost, Robert (2000). The Northern Wars; State and Society in Northeastern Europe 1558–1721. Routledge. ISBN [login to see] 294.
• Geyl, P (1936). "Johan de Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland, 1653–72". History. 20 (80): 303–319. doi:10.1111/j.1468-229X.1936.tb00103.x. JSTOR 24401084.
• Hutton, Ronald (1989). Charles II: King of England, Scotland and Ireland. Clarendon Press. ISBN [login to see] 117.
• Hutton, R (1986). "The Making of the Secret Treaty of Dover, 1668–1670". The Historical Journal. 29 (2): 297–318. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00018756. JSTOR 2639064.
• Israel, Jonathan (1990). Dutch Primacy in World Trade, 1585–1740 (1990 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN [login to see] 396.
• Jacques, Tony (2007). Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A Guide to 8,500 Battles from Antiquity through the Twenty-first Century, Volume 2, F–O. Greenwood. ISBN [login to see] 389.
• Jenkins, E. H. (1973). A History of the French Navy. MacDonald and Jane's. ISBN [login to see] 847.
• Kenyon, JP (1986). The History Men: The Historical Profession in England since the Renaissance (1993 ed.). Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
• Linklater, Magnus (2004). "Graham, John, first viscount of Dundee [known as Bonnie Dundee]". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/11208. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Lynn, John (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667–1714 (Modern Wars in Perspective). Longman. ISBN [login to see] 299.
• Lynn, John A (1994). "Recalculating French Army Growth during the Grand Siecle, 1610-1715". French Historical Studies. 18 (4): 881–906. doi:10.2307/286722. JSTOR 286722.
• Nolan, Cathal (2008). Wars of the Age of Louis XIV, 1650–1715: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization. Greenwood. ISBN [login to see] 469.
• Palmer, Michael (2005). Command at Sea: Naval Command and Control Since the Sixteenth Century. Harvard University Press. ISBN [login to see] 113.
• Panhuysen, Luc (2009). Rampjaar 1672: Hoe de Republiek aan de ondergang ontsnapte. Uitgeverij Atlas. ISBN [login to see] 282.
• Panhuysen, Luc (2016). Oranje tegen de Zonnekoning: De strijd van Willem III en Lodewijk XIV om Europa. De Arbeiderspers. ISBN [login to see] 718.
• Reinders, Michel (2013). Printed Pandemonium: Popular Print and Politics in the Netherlands 1650–72. Brill. ISBN [login to see] 187.
• Rodger, N. A. M. (2004). The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649–1815. Penguin. ISBN [login to see] 117.
• Rowen, Henry Herbert (1978). John de Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland, 1625–1672 (2015 ed.). Princeton University Press. ISBN [login to see] 437.
• Rowen, Herbert H (1954). "John De Witt and the Triple Alliance". The Journal of Modern History. 26 (1): 1–14. doi:10.1086/237659. JSTOR 1874869. S2CID 145695238.
• Rowlands, Guy (2002). The Dynastic State and the Army under Louis XIV: Royal Service and Private Interest 1661-1701. CUP. ISBN [login to see] 742.
• Satterfield, George (2003). Princes, Posts and Partisans: The Army of Louis XIV and Partisan Warfare in the Netherlands (1673–1678). Brill. ISBN [login to see] 767.
• Sommerville, J. P. (16 January 2008), The wars of Louis XIV
• Smith, Rhea Marsh (1965). Spain: A Modern History. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. OCLC 733708764.
• Starkey, Armstrong (2003). War in the Age of Enlightenment, 1700–1789. Praeger. ISBN [login to see] 400.
• Troost, W. (2001). Stadhouder-koning Willem III: Een politieke biografie. Hilversum: Uitgeverij Verloren. ISBN 90-6550-639-X.
• Tucker, Spencer C. (23 December 2009). A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East [6 volumes]: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-85109-672-5.
• Van Nimwegen, Olaf (2010). The Dutch Army and the Military Revolutions, 1588–1688. Boydell Press. ISBN [login to see] 752.
• Wilson, Peter H. (2016). Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
• Wolf, John (1962). The Emergence of European Civilization. Joanna Cotler Books. ISBN [login to see] 804.
• Wolfe, Michael (2009). Walled Towns and the Shaping of France: From the Medieval to the Early Modern Era. AIAA. ISBN [login to see] 122.
• Young, William (2004). International Politics and Warfare in the Age of Louis XIV and Peter the Great. iUniverse. ISBN [login to see] 922

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Battle of Texel – 1673 – Franco Dutch and Third Anglo Dutch Wars
The naval Battle of Texel or Battle of Kijkduin took place on 21 August 1673 between the Dutch and the combined English and French fleets and was the last major battle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War, which was itself part of the Franco-Dutch War , during which Louis XIV of France invaded the Republic and sought to establish control over the Spanish Netherlands. English involvement came about because of the Treaty of Dover, secretly concluded by Charles II of England, and which was highly unpopular with the English Parliament.
The overall commanders of the English and Dutch military forces were Lord High Admiral James, Duke of York, afterwards King James II of England, and Admiral-General William III of Orange, James' son-in-law and also a future King of England. Neither of them took part in the fight. The Battle of Texel was joined when a Dutch fleet sought to oppose the landing of troops by a combined Anglo-French fleet.
Prince Rupert of the Rhine commanded the Allied fleet of about 92 ships and 30 fireships, taking control of the centre himself, with Jean II d'Estrées commanding the van, and Sir Edward Spragge the rear division. The Dutch fleet of 75 ships and 30 fireships was commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral-General Michiel de Ruyter, with Lieutenant-Admirals Adriaen Banckert in charge of the van and Cornelis Tromp the rear. The Dutch were under an even greater disadvantage than the above numbers show, as Dutch warships were on the average smaller than both their English and French opponents.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7vd7dLbxPU

Images;
1. Battle of Alicuri, took place on 8 January 1676 French naval combat against the Dutch and the Spaniards -Indecisive [The Battle of Stromboli, also known as the Second Battle of Stromboli[2] or the Battle of Alicuri,[1] took place on 8 January 1676 during the Franco-Dutch War between a French fleet of 20 ships under Abraham Duquesne and a combined fleet of 19 allied ships (18 Dutch and one Spanish ship) under Lieutenant-Admiral-General Michiel de Ruyter that lasted eight hours and ended inconclusively. The fleets fought again at the Battle of Augusta. - Indecisive

2. Battle of Palermo took place on 2 June 1676 – French Victory [The action of March 1677, also known as the Battle of Tobago, took place on 3 March 1677 between a Dutch fleet under the command of Jacob Binckes and a French squadron commanded by Jean II d'Estrées attempting to recapture the island of Tobago in the West Indies. There was much death and destruction on both sides. One of the Dutch supply ships caught fire and exploded; the fire then quickly spread in the narrow bay causing several warships, among them the French flagship Glorieux, to catch fire and explode in turn which resulted in great loss of life. The French fleet retreated but would make a second attempt to captured Tobago at the end of the year with a much stronger fleet. - French victory]

3. Battle of Tobago, took place on 3 March 1677 between a Dutch fleet under the command of Jacob Binckes and a French squadron commanded by Jean II d'Estrées - Dutch victory
4. Naval Battle off Augusta in Mediterranean Sea 22 April 1676 - Indecisive [1. The Battle of Augusta, also known as the Battle of Agosta and the Battle of Etna,[2] took place on 22 April 1676 during the Franco-Dutch War and was fought between a French fleet of 29 men-of-war, five frigates and eight fireships under Abraham Duquesne, and a Dutch-Spanish fleet of at least 28 warships (17 Dutch, 11 Spanish) besides several frigates and five fireships with a Spanish admiral in overall command and Dutch Lieutenant-Admiral-General Michiel de Ruyter commanding the squadron most involved in the fighting.]

5. Dutch naval genius Admiral Michiel de Ruyter was mortally wounded by a cannon ball during the naval battle off Augusta on April 26, 1676
6. Portrait of French Admiral Abraham Duquesne by Antoine Graincourt
7. Admiral Sir Thomas Allin, painted c. 1680 by Sir Godfrey Kneller.


Background from {[searchinginhistory.blogspot.com/2019/07/what-happened-during-franco-dutch-war-part1.html]}
What happened during the Franco-Dutch War (1672 – 1678)?
Labels: 17th century, Diplomacy, Europe, France, Political, The Netherlands, War
The War of Devolution revealed Louis XIV’s ambition to expand his kingdom’s domain. And with the betrayal of the Dutch during the previous conflict, the Sun King desired revenge.

Prologue to War
Louis wanted France to ascend as a European Empire. He set his eyes in expanding to the Low Countries in the early years of his reign using his wife’s inheritance leading to the War of Devolution (1667 – 1668). In this conflict, he expected Dutch support against the English, but the Low Country Republic thought otherwise and joined a coalition of countries that condemned the French invasion. In the end, France succeeded in capturing a number of towns and cities, but ultimately failed to annex the Spanish Netherlands.
Louis desired revenge against the Dutch. Moreover, besides the betrayal, he also viewed the Dutch as heretics hoping to bring Europe into his side by professing a war against the Protestant Dutch Republic. Furthermore, he also saw the Dutch as a thorn to the French economy. He wished to end Dutch domination of trade in favor of a French commercial empire.
For years after the War of Devolution, Louis plotted, however, questions loomed over the practicality of war within the government. The previous conflict already demonstrated Europe’s fear and efforts to foil French expansions and its implication in upsetting the balance of power. Minister such as Jean Baptiste Colbert argued about the huge cause of the war considering much of the strain in the treasury brought by the war and massive projects of the King such as Versailles. Hughes de Lionne, Louis’ top diplomat, feared of France’s isolation within the international community. Nevertheless, the absolute power of Louis XIV triumphed and preparations began at earnest.
France looked for allies in the upcoming conflict. Louis hoped for an alliance with King Charles II of England against the Dutch that culminated with the secret Treaty of Dover in 1670 signed on December 31, 1670. The Treaty guaranteed English support and recognition of French gains in the Dutch Republic as well as possible assumption by Louis of the Spanish throne in case of the death of King Charles IV of Spain. In exchange, France paid England an amount of £ 200,000 and 6,000 French troops to be placed under the command of King Charles. In addition to England, Louis sought also an alliance with the Northern superpower Sweden with the Treaty of Stockholm signed on 1672. He also enlisted the support of German states of Liege and Cologne, strategic alliances that would give France a route towards the Dutch Republic bypassing the Spanish Netherlands.

As the French military drew battle plans, the Sun King saw the Dutch riddled with multiple problems in 1672. The Third Anglo-Dutch War began proving King Charles II’s commitment to Louis. Also within the Dutch Republic, Johan de Witt, de facto leader of the Republic, faced a challenger to his regime in form of William III of Orange. Louis then exploited the internal and external problems the Netherlands faced.

Initial Invasion
French invasion of the Dutch Republic began in May 1672. A massive army of 250,000 troops marched into the lands of allied German states of Liege and Cologne before finally striking against the Dutch. Renowned French commanders such Marshall Turenne and the Prince de Conde led the advance. Both commanders marched along the Rhine with Nijmegen as their objective. Meanwhile, Marshall Luxembourg led a Franco-German Army targeting Groningen in the north.
French forces besieged major cities along the route towards the primary target – Amsterdam. This led to the fall of Utrecht on June 30, 1672 and by Nijmegen on July 9, 1672. Louis stood poise to finally erase the Dutch Republic.
When the seemed closed to its end, the Sun King faced a setback. William III took power and the Dutch opened their dikes releasing water that blocked passage to the Dutch capital. Louis looked into the Dutch regrouping and amassing their forces along the so-called Water Line while he received news of resistance in Utrecht and Zeeland. This resistance threatened his armies route eastward back into friendly territories. Not to mention, it also threatened the French supply lines from the Rhine. Louis’ blitzkrieg turned into a protracted war.

Naval Theater
The war in the seas suffered more difficulties than engagements in the continent. French navies joined the English navy which already engaged the Dutch in the Third Dutch War. The English, however, suffered from lack of budget. Parliament discovered a secret clause in the Treaty of Dover – a clause that guaranteed French support on the event of Charles II’s conversion to Catholicism. As a result of the scandal, Parliament blocked all budget to finance the French instigated conflict.
The allied navies further agonized with a defeat in the Battle of Sole Bay on May 28, 1672. English naval forces of 60 warships under the Duke of York and French navy of 40 warships of the Comte d’Estrees saw a pre-emptive strike by the Dutch navy of 70 to 80 warships under the Dutch naval genius Admiral Michiel de Ruyter. The attack prevented the Franco-English navy from threatening the Netherlands by sea.

Allied navies continued to suffer from defeats under de Ruyter in multiple engagement. They lose in the Battle of Schooneveld in June 1672. The war furthered until 1673 along with their string of defeats in the Battles of Ostend and Kijkduin.

Europe Turned Against Louis
Louis faced setbacks from land and sea. French navies continued to lose to the Dutch. The French army laid in waiting for the water line to freeze in winter, while occupied Dutch territories rose up in resistance to the French occupation. As quick victories turned into protracted war, European powers mobilized to foil Louis’ advance. The Holy Roman Empire and Brandenburg-Prussia declared war against France and their troops began to amass.
Though the French failed to advance to Amsterdam due to the water line, it also prevented the Dutch from moving out. To make the best out of the situation, the Prince de Conde moved south to capture Strasbourg in Alsace, while Marshall Turenne marched east to Westphalia to face the threat of the coalition forces of the Holy Roman Empire and Brandenburg-Prussia.
In the autumn of 1672, Brandenburg-Prussian forces under the leadership of the Great Elector Frederick William entered the Low Countries. The arrival of German allies of the Dutch distracted the French from advancing to Amsterdam in winter. Turenne fought the German armies until he exhausted them enough for the Great Elector to sue for peace on June 6, 1673. Meanwhile, Holy Roman Imperial forces under Raimondo Montecuccoli gathered in Bohemia and marched into the region. Turenne faced this imperial host and humbled them in Wetzlar.

Allied navies continued to suffer from defeats under de Ruyter in multiple engagement. They lose in the Battle of Schooneveld in June 1672. The war furthered until 1673 along with their string of defeats in the Battles of Ostend and Kijkduin.

Siege of Maastricht
As the war progress, French forces needed to secure supply lines between France and the Dutch Republic. The city of Maastricht held a vital crossing in the River Meuse and the Dutch held it. French forces then besieged the city with Sebastien de Vauban taking the lead. He had 26 artillery and 45,000 troops ready to fight the Dutch forces in the city under the command of Jacques de Fariaux and his 6,000 troops.
The siege of Maastricht displayed the innovations in siege warfare of Vauban. He demonstrated the effectivity of his tactics using parallel lines to get close to the city walls. From June 8, 7,000 peasants dig trenches around the city. Vauban had the pleasure of explaining his tactic to King Louis XIV who visited the siege himself on June 10. From June 23, the French assaulted the city. By June 30, de Fariaux negotiated the surrender of the city and on July 1, 1673, French forces triumphantly entered Maastricht.


Growing Threat
After visiting Maastricht fell, Louis himself led the French army to battle. He targeted the Duchy of Lorraine and overran it before advancing to the Electorate of Trier. Louis’ advances fell to fearful ears of European monarchs.
The coalition that began with the Holy Roman Empire and Brandenburg-Prussia grew to accept more support. Spain joined and remnants of the forces of the Duchy of Lorraine also pledged their support. The coalition forces then captured Bonn, another vital crossing along the Rhine River. The fall of the city forced Westphalia and Cologne to sue for peace and leave their alliance with France. Worse, by 1674 Denmark and Brandenburg joined the coalition and Brandenburg-Prussia rejoined the conflict. It seemed Europe banded together against France. Lionne’s prediction came true.
England gave Louis XIV a shock. In spring of 1674, withdrew from its alliance with France. Series of defeat led to the falling popularity of Charles II. The War also failed to galvanize the people and parliament. With this, France solely fought the war in the sea. Luckily for Louis, the tough battle the French army gave the Dutch forced them to divert much of their resources to the army rather than the navy.

Adventure in Sicily
In 1674, France found a means to prevent Spain from intervening in the war in the continent. Sicily, an island south of Italy and controlled by the Kingdom of Naples who had the same sovereign as Spain. Louis then decided to support a revolt in the island. Soon French subsidy and weapons supported the Sicilian rebels. Spain then sought Dutch naval support who sent Admiral de Ruyter.
De Ruyter, however, did not arrived in Sicily until September 1675 with 18 warships and joined with the Spanish navy under the Marquis of Bayona. French naval forces too took a year before arriving in the island in 1676 with 20 warships under Abraham Duquesne. On January 8, 1676, French confronted the Dutch in the port of Messina forcing them to withdraw to Palermo.
Following the success, another confrontation underwent on April 22, 1676. This time, however, the Dutch and Spanish navies attacked the French off the coast of Agosta ensuing a furious battle. The Spanish lack of discipline led to confusion within the Spanish-Dutch navy. In the heat of battle, a French fire caught De Ruyter wounding the Dutch admiral. The battle ended with the withdrawal of the Dutch and Spanish navies to Syracuse where De Ruyter succumbed to his wounds.

Continental Battle
As the revolt and naval battle in Sicily progressed, the war in the continent also continued. In 1674, fresh attacks by the French began. Great French generals maneuvered towards victory and sometimes defeats.
In 1674, the Prince de Conde led a French invasion of the Spanish Netherlands. On August 11, 1674, Conde faced William III in the Battle of Seneffe – the Dutch commander’s first field battle. Conde won a victory adding another score in his belt of triumph.

Battle of Seneffe
Louis, on the other, led an invasion of Franche-Comte. He successfully overran the region with the assistance of his rising marshal Sebastien Vauban. Eventually, Franche-Comte’s capital of Besancon fell by the end of the year.
While Louis ravaged Franche-Comte, Turenne moved to intercept any relief forces from the Holy Roman Empire or the Dutch. He faced an imperial army under the command of Alexander von Bournonville whose forces centered in Cologne and Trier. Another imperial army formed with troops from Southern German states under the command of Duke Charles IV of Lorraine and the Count of Caprara. This imperial army moved along the Rhine with the objective of linking up von Bournoville before striking the French.
Turenne moved against the imperial armies before they rendezvoused. Turenne first moved against the Count of Caprara and the Duke of Lorraine battling them in Sinsheim on June 16, 1674. Turenne also decided to raze the lands of the Palatinate to prevent the imperial army from foraging the land. The act terrified Europe, even the Prince Elizabeth Charlotte of Palatinate, wife of Louis XIV’s brother Philippe, Duc de Orleans.
The French marshal then turned his attention towards the army of Alexander Bournoville. Borunaville became a further nuisance as another army from Brandenburg-Prussia threatened to reinforce the imperial army. Turenne successfully marched against Bournaville in the Battle of Enzheim on October 4, 1674 before setting up camp in Dettweller in Alsace for winter.
From Dettweller, instead of awaiting spring, Turenne made the bold decision of launching an attack during winter with the objective of overrunning Alsace. On December 29, 1674 Turenne delivered French victory in the Battle of Mulhausen followed by another success on January 5, 1675 in the Battle of Turkheim. His onslaught finally led to the fall of Strasburg securing the region for Louis XIV. His winter campaign ended in success.

As Louis made advances against the war, the shift in balance of power in favor of France threatening other European monarch that forced them to act.
Year of Transition
1675 marked the 3rd year of the war. Turenne’s advance secured Lorraine for Louis, while the King himself took part in the war in May and June of the year. Louis led the French army in taking control of the Meuse River and the province of Limburg as well as major cities such as Liege.
Meanwhile, French operations also began against Spain that went hand in hand with operations in Sicily to distract the Spaniards. Frederick, duc de Schomberg, led attacks in Catalonia though with limited success.
On the Rhine, the battle of maneuvers between commanders prevailed. Turenne continued to march against his imperial adversary Riamond Montecucculi who had replaced Frederick William as commander of the coalition forces. The French and coalition forces clashed against each other between Philipsburg and Strasbourg. Rivalry between the 2 commanders reached its climax on July 27, 1675 when they fought in the Battle of Sasbach. During the battle, Turenne suffered injuries from a cannon blast. Later on, the illustrious French Marshall succumbed to his wombs ending decades of service to the French crown.
The loss of Turenne pushed the French back from the Rhine. On August 11, 1675, Turenne’s successor, Marshal Francois de Crequy suffered a defeat in the hands of Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, in the Battle of Konzer Brucke. The French Marshall even faced further humiliation with his capture in the battle’s end. By September 6, 1675, the major city of Trier, near Luxembourg, fell to the coalition.

Marshall de Crequy
Though the French saw setbacks in the Rhine, the Prince de Conde redeemed the Kingdom. De Conde marched into Alsace and took over the forces that retreated from the Rhine. His uncontested excellent skills in battle and boldness regained the lands lost from the coalition and the Rhine became once again the front lines of the war.
Following de Conde’s success, the war saw the retirement of many great commanders of the war. By 1675, de Conde suffered from ailments and sickened by old age decided to retire leaving decades of energetic presence in the battlefield. On the other hand, In the same year, the imperial commander Riamond Montecucculi also retired. Hence, the war fell on the hands of new and younger commanders.

French Advances
After Louis saw the curtains drop on the careers of many of his competent commanders, new Marshalls proved their worth and French successes continued. News of success in Sicily reached Versailles as Marshall Louis Victor de Rochechouart de Mortemart or the Marshall de Vivonne took control of the Italian island being rewarded with the title of Viceroy of Sicily.
Afterwards, French forces repulsed attempts of William III’s advance. Despite this successes, imperial forces chased out the French in Philipsburg on September 17, 1676 threatening French gains in the Rhine and Alsace. Marshal Duc de Luxembourg saw to it that imperial forces under Charles IV of Lorraine failed to capitalize with his victories.
Battle against the Dutch and the Spanish Netherlands intensified. Louis himself besieged Valenciennes with the advice from Sebastien Vauban. The King’s brother Philippe, Duc de Orleans, led valiantly the French army against the Dutch army in the Battle of Cassel on April 11, 1677. Philippe’s victory blocked any of Dutch attempts to take cities of St. Omer and Charleroi.

In the Rhine, Marshall de Crequy returned to the battlefield after his humiliating defeat and capture in 1675. He fought once again his nemesis Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine and foiled the latter’s invasion to retake his Duchy of Lorraine. On October 7, he won the Battle of Kochersberg defeating a combine army of Lorraine and the Holy Roman Empire. By November 14, Freiburg fell to the French.

In 1678, France continued its advance. They gained ground in the Spanish Netherlands while the cities of Ghent and Ypres fell in between February and March. Finally on August 14, 1678, Marshall Luxembourg proved his capability by defeating the armies of William III.

End of Hostillities
The Franco-Dutch War proceeded for almost a decade, France made extensive gains but failed in its primary objective of annihilating the Dutch Republic. Pressure to end hostilities mounted as England turned its back on France and threatened to join the Grand Alliance.
By 1678, the so-called Treaties of Nijmegen began. A series of treaties signed with different belligerents of the war from 1678 until 1679. Negotiations with the Dutch began as far as 1676, but it lasted until August 10, 1678. France agreed to return Maastricht. Agreement with the Spaniards followed on September 17, 1678 where France gained the Franche-Comte, Artois, and 16 towns in the Flanders, giving France a buffer state for its security. In exchange for gains, France agreed to fix the border with the Spanish Netherlands and withdraw its forces from Sicily.
An agreement with the Holy Roman Empire came on February 5, 1679. France gave Philipsburg the city of Freiburg in Breisgau. It also gained the coveted the Duchy of Lorraine. Additional agreements with other belligerents followed in 1679. A peace with Brandenburg-Prussia cemented in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Another followed with the Peace of Fontainebleau with Denmark.

In Summary
The French-Dutch War demonstrated the might of King Louis XIV and his determination to forge a new French Empire. Against insurmountable odds and with most of Europe stood in opposition, his army and will remained. Much of the French success laid with the effectivity of French commanders such as Turenne and de Conde and the French army as well. Nevertheless, Louis’ triumphs in the field brought countless deaths on both sides. Germany and the Low Countries once again suffered from destruction as it served as the battleground for contest of supremacy. The war cemented Louis’ reputation as a head of a great army, but also one of Europe’s most notorious war mongers. Yet, the war did not marked the end of his series of war.



Bibliography:
“Dutch War (1672 – 1678).” Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. Encyclopedia.com. Accessed on June 10, 2019. URL: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/dutch-war-1672-1678
“Dutch Wars: War of 1672 – 1678.” The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia.com. Accessed on June 11, 2019. URL: https://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/modern-europe/wars-battles/dutch-wars/war-of-1672%E2%80%9378
Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “Treaty of Dover.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed on July 28, 2019. URL: https://www.britannica.com/event/Treaty-of-Dover
Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “Treaties of Nijmegen.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed on July 28, 2019. URL: https://www.britannica.com/event/Treaties-of-Nijmegen
Field, Jacob. “Siege of Masstricht.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed on July 28, 2019. URL: https://www.britannica.com/event/Siege-of-Maastricht-1673



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