History UsefulNotes / AngloDutchWars

The ''Second War'' (1664-1667) was provoked by England in an attempt to curb Dutch naval power (The English tried but failed to follow through in the First War) Initially, England was able to take the advantage and win a series of victories over the Dutch such as at the Battle of Lowestoft in 1665 in which they were led to victory by UsefulNotes/PrinceRupert, the [[UsefulNotes/JamesII Duke of York]] and the Earl of Sandwich. But the Dutch turned the tide in Chatham, England during the Raid of the Medway. A fleet of 60 ships led by Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, bombarded and captured Sheerness, Kent, and sailed up the Medway river to Chatham, where the fleet burned and sunk 13 English ships and captured the ships of the line Unity and the Royal Charles, the English flagship. The battle secured a Dutch victory in the war.

The ''Second War'' (1664-1667) was provoked by England in an attempt to curb Dutch naval power (The English tried but failed to follow through in the First War) Initially, England was able to take the advantage and win a series of victories over the Dutch such as at the Battle of Lowestoft in 1665 in which they were led to victory by UsefulNotes/PrinceRupert, the [[UsefulNotes/JamesIIDuke of York]] and the Earl of Sandwich. But the Dutch turned the tide in Chatham, England during the Raid of the Medway. A fleet of 60 ships led by Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, bombarded and captured Sheerness, Kent, and sailed up the Medway river to Chatham, where the fleet burned and sunk 13 English ships and captured the ships of the line Unity and the Royal Charles, the English flagship. The battle secured a Dutch victory in the war.

The ''Second War'' (1664-1667) was provoked by England in an attempt to curb Dutch naval power (The English tried but failed to follow through in the First War) Initially, England was able to take the advantage and win a series of victories over the Dutch such as at the Battle of Lowestoft in 1665 in which they were led to victory by UsefulNotes/PrinceRupert, the Duke of York and the Earl of Sandwich. But the Dutch turned the tide in Chatham, England during the Raid of the Medway. A fleet of 60 ships led by Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, bombarded and captured Sheerness, Kent, and sailed up the Medway river to Chatham, where the fleet burned and sunk 13 English ships and captured the ships of the line Unity and the Royal Charles, the English flagship. The battle secured a Dutch victory in the war.

The ''Second War'' (1664-1667) was provoked by England in an attempt to curb Dutch naval power (The English tried but failed to follow through in the First War) Initially, England was able to take the advantage and win a series of victories over the Dutch. But the Dutch turned the tide in Chatham, England during the Raid of the Medway. A fleet of 60 ships led by Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, bombarded and captured Sheerness, Kent, and sailed up the Medway river to Chatham, where the fleet burned and sunk 13 English ships and captured the ships of the line Unity and the Royal Charles, the English flagship. The battle secured a Dutch victory in the war.

The ''Fourth War'' (1780-1784) was essentially {{Spinoff}} of the UsefulNotes/AmericanRevolution. The Dutch were using the port of Sint Eustatius to run guns for the Revolutionary Army. This, combined with the fact that the Dutch were the first to recognize US sovereignty upset the British quite badly. The war saw the final nail in the coffin for Dutch power. The Dutch navy had been neglected for years and was only a shade of its former self, the British were able to win the conflict quite easily, despite the war ending in a status quo ante bellum. This effectively ended the Dutch as a major power in Europe; from this point until sometime in the 20th century (possibly as late as World War II), the Netherlands was mostly a satellite state of Great Britain (except for the period [[UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution 1795]]-[[UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars 1814]], during which it was first a satellite state and then a part of France).

The ''Fourth War'' (1780-1784) was essentially {{Spinoff}} of the UsefulNotes/AmericanRevolution. The Dutch were using the port of Sint Eustatius to run guns for the Revolutionary Army. This, combined with the fact that the Dutch were the first to recognize US sovereignty upset the British quite badly. The war saw the final nail in the coffin for Dutch power. The Dutch navy had been neglected for years and was only a shade of its former self, the British were able to win the conflict quite easily, despite the war ending in a status quo ante bellum. This effectively ended the Dutch as a major power in Europe; from this point until the 20th century, the Netherlands was mostly a satellite state of Great Britain (except for the period [[UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution 1795]]-[[UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars 1814]], during which it was first a satellite state and then a part of France.

The ''Fourth War'' (1780-1784) was essentially {{Spinoff}} of the UsefulNotes/AmericanRevolution. The Dutch were using the port of Sint Eustatius to run guns for the Revolutionary Army. This, combined with the fact that the Dutch were the first to recognize US sovereignty upset the British quite badly. The war saw the final nail in the coffin for Dutch power. The Dutch navy had been neglected for years and was only a shade of its former self, the British were able to win the conflict quite easily, despite the war ending in a status quo ante bellum. This effectively ended the Dutch as a major power in Europe.

The ''Fourth War'' (1780-1784) was essentially {{Spinoff}} of the UsefulNotes/AmericanRevolution. The Dutch were using the port of Sint Eustatius to run guns for the Revolutionary Army. This, combined with the fact that the Dutch were the first to recognize US sovereignty upset the British quite badly. The war saw the final nail in the coffin for Dutch power. The Dutch navy had been neglected for years and was only a shade of its former self, the British were able to win the conflict quite easily, despite the war ending in a status quo ante bellum. This effectively ended the Dutch as a major power in Europe.

* BadassArmy: Both sides qualify.
* BadassBureaucrat: Samuel Pepys practically built the Royal Navy himself.
* BittersweetEnding: The Third War for both the English and the Dutch. The English lost, but exited a war that Charles II had forced the country into and one that Parliament hated. The Dutch won resounding victories at Solebay and Texel, preventing England from landing troops near the Hague, but the French invaded and caused mass panic in the Low Countries, the lynching of the De Witts, the end of the First Stadtholderless Period, and the beginning of the end of the Dutch Golden Age.
* DarkestHour: 1672, called ''het Rampjaar'' or the Disaster Year in Dutch. Facing an invasion by England from the sea and worse an invasion by France over land, for a moment it looked like the Dutch Republic was going to be conquered.
* TheEmpire: France. In fiction, they assume a GreaterScopeVillain role, since the Parliament in England wasn't particularly keen on advancing Louis XIV's ambition's on the continent, and the Dutch were genuinely fighting for their survival as a distinct country during the third war.
* GloriousLeader: Cromwell
* JustTheFirstCitizen: The Dutch ''stadtholder,'' a quasi-royal position held by members of the House of Orange. The first three wars took place during the First Stadtholderless Period, where the Dutch Republic was ruled by Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his republican faction, where he assumed more or less this role for twenty-two years. Also, Oliver Cromwell is the quintessential English example.
* MegaCorp: Both England and the Republic had an East India Company.
* ProudMerchantRace: Both sides.
* TheRepublic: The Republic of the Seven United Netherlands
** In the first war, England was a republic as well.
* WeAREStrugglingTogether: Arguably. At the time of the first war, England and the Netherlands were both radical revolutionary republics (by the standards of the time) in a sea of absolute monarchies, and had even considered uniting. What did they do? Go to war with each other.
* WoodenShipsAndIronMen
** Bizarrely to us, at this time the Dutch were considered more of a sailor race than the English. English naval commanders were even called "Generals-at-Sea" rather than admirals.
*** [[SarcasmMode Because it's completely unimaginable that a country literally built on water would produce terrific sailors.]] As Descartes said, God created the Earth, but he left it up to the Dutch to create Holland. Even today, with more reclaimed land than ever, 20% of the country's surface area is made up of water.
*** Add to this the extensive usage of windmills for shipbuilding, making Holland the first industrialised country in the world, plenty of peat available for processes that required heat and you've got yourself the ingredients for a truly [[BadassArmy Badass Navy]] that enabled one of the smallest countries in Europe to dominate the seas in the face of the combined might of France and Britain.
** By the last war, however, the British had more or less evolved into the naval juggernaut that would, 20 years later, destroy the combined Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar and usher in a century and a bit of unchallenged British dominance of the seas.
* WorthyOpponent: Both sides more or less respected each other; there was never terribly much bad blood between Britain and the Netherlands.
** TrashTalk: While there was only mild anti-British sentiment in the Dutch Republic, the British did actually have quite a low image of Dutch people. It became so common that the term "Dutch" in various idioms came to signify something was inferior or fake. [[http://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/files/2613/6700/9122/DISSING_THE_DUTCH.pdf The New Netherlands Institute]] recorded around 130 such idioms in the English language. Perhaps the most common are "Dutch Courage", meaning [[IntoxicationEnsues liquor]], and [[FearlessFool the bravado it inspires]], and "Dutch Treat", referring to a man taking a woman out on a date, but expecting her to pay for herself.
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!!Depictions in fiction
<<|MilitaryAndWarfareTropes|>>

* FourStarBadass: Several

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: More than a few were involved.
* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: The Four Days Battle, where the two navies hammered away at each other for ''Four Days.''
** The Dutch sailing up the Medway river to the English Navy's biggest shipyard/port, running the gauntlet of the defensive forts, breaking through the chain across the river, then attacked much of the English fleet docked there, unarmed and unmanned. Then they had the sheer balls to steal two ships that they didn't sink, and take them back home as prizes.

* TheKingdom: England

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: More than a few were involved

* TheEmpire: France. In fiction, they assume a BiggerBad role, since the Parliament in England wasn't particularly keen on advancing Louis XIV's ambition's on the continent, and the Dutch were genuinely fighting for their survival as a distinct country during the third war.

* BadassArmy: Both sides qualify

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: The Four Days Battle, where the two navies hammered away at each other for ''Four Days''

*** Because it's completely unimaginable that a country literally built on water would produce terrific sailors. As Descartes said, God created the Earth, but he left it up to the Dutch to create Holland. Even today, with more reclaimed land than ever, 20% of the country's surface area is made up of water.

** The Dutch sailing up the Medway river to London.
*** The Medway doesn't lead to London. The Dutch sailed to the English Navy's biggest shipyard/port, ran the gauntlet of the defensive forts, broke through the chain across the river, then attacked much of the English fleet docked there, unarmed and unmanned. Then they had the sheer balls to steal two ships that they didn't sink, and take them back home as prizes.
*** Think on that last one. The Dutch Royal Marines are the only military organisation to hold a battle honour won on English soil, and the only ones to have done so since William the Conqueror.
*** The Dutch actually weren't the only ones to successfully invade Britain or England in particular since 1066, though I'd agree de Ruyter's victory was probably the most badass. In "Fortess Britain", Ian Hernon documented 73 invasions of England, and the British Isles more broadly, since the Norman Conquest, a striking number of them successful. Other than de Ruyter's nerves of steel feat, I'd say the next most badass was the invasion of western England by the Spanish commander Carlos de Amezola (sometimes spelled Amesquita) in 1595-- a year prior to a major Spanish victory over Francis Drake himself which essentially knocked Elizabethan England out of the war and gave victory to Spain. Hernon points out this was basically the successful Spanish Armada: Amezola's ships bombarded English defenses before his troops landed on English soil. His hardened soldiers then defeated the English garrisons and militias, and burned down a bunch of towns in west England (Mousehole, Penzance and several others) before finally running out of ammo and disembarking. Most badass moment: Amezola was so hard-core, he and his soldiers celebrated a traditional Spanish mass on English soil! The Dutch also successfully invaded England under William of Orange in 1688 (William had the support of several factions but was opposed by the British governing authorities who were defeated and overthrown-- the way a lot of successful invasions occur), and the Spaniards and especially the French invaded England successfully on many other cases after 1066.

** TrashTalk: While there was only mild anti-British sentiment in the Dutch Republic, the British did actually have quite a low image of Dutch people. It became so common that the term "Dutch" in various idioms came to signify something was inferior or fake. [[http://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/files/2613/6700/9122/DISSING_THE_DUTCH.pdf The New Netherlands Institute]] recorded around 130 such idioms in the English language.

The ''First War'' (1652-1654) was fought due to England passing the Act of Navigation, which mandated that ships from Country A (usually, the Netherlands) could not carry goods from Country B to England or its colonies, sparking the war. The war initially was fought to a draw between the English and Dutch Navies, 2 of Europe's {{Badass}} Navies. The English eventually won the war after several naval victories in 1654, including a decisive victory in the Battle of the Gabbard.

* [[BadassArmy Badass Navy]]: Both sides qualify