Franco-Dutch War

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Franco-Dutch War

Date	1672-1678
Location	Europe, The Netherlands
Result	Treaty of Nijmegen, Treaty of Westminster

Belligerents

Dutch Republic

Holy Roman Empire

Spain

Brandenburg

France

England

Bishopric of Münster

Archbishopric of Cologne

Commanders

Michiel de Ruyter

v • d • e Franco-Dutch and Third Anglo-Dutch War

Solebay – Schooneveld – Texel – Maastricht – Seneffe – Turckheim - Konzer Brücke - Stromboli - Agosta - Palermo - Utrecht – Groningen - Cassel - Saint-Denis

The Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678) was a war fought between the Kingdom of France, Bishopric of Münster, Archbishopric of Cologne and Kingdom of England against the Dutch Republic.
The Dutch were later on joined by the Holy Roman Emperor, Brandenburg and Spain to form a quadruple alliance. The war ended with the Treaty of Nijmegen (1678); this granted France control of the Franche-Comté (from Spain).

France led a coalition including Münster and England. Louis XIV was annoyed by the Dutch refusal to cooperate in the destruction and division of the Spanish Netherlands.

As the Dutch army had been neglected since 1648, the French had no trouble after unexpectedly by-passing the fortress of Maastricht to march into the heart of the Republic, taking Utrecht. Prince William III of Orange is assumed to have had the leading Dutch politician Johan de Witt deposed and murdered^{[citation needed]}, and was acclaimed stadtholder. As the French had promised the major cities of Holland to the English they were in no hurry to capture them, but tried to extort sixteen million guilders from the Dutch in exchange for a separate peace. This outrageous demand stiffened Dutch resistance and the negotiations gave the Republic time to flood the countryside by deliberate inundations (Dutch Water Line), blocking any further French advance. The bishop of Münster laid siege to Groningen but failed. An attempt was made to invade the Republic by sea, but this was thwarted by Admiral Michiel de Ruyter in four strategic victories against the combined Anglo-French fleet (these events are usually called the Third Anglo-Dutch War). England then abandoned the war in 1674.

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

Jurriaen Aernoutsz, a navy captain from Curaçao, captured two small forts in the French colony of Acadia in 1674. Although the Dutch never fully gained control of the territory, they continued to claim sovereignty over Acadia on paper for the duration of the war, even appointing Cornelius Van Steenwyk as its nominal governor. In actual practice, however, the territory remained under French control. By the time of the Treaty of Nijmegen, however, the Dutch claim to Acadia was simply abandoned.

By 1678, he had managed to break apart his opponents' coalition, and managed to gain considerable territories by the terms of the Treaty of Nijmegen. Most notably, the French acquired the Franche-Comté and various territories in the Southern Netherlands from the Spanish. Nevertheless the Dutch had thwarted the ambitions of two of the major royal dynasties of the time: the Stuarts and the Bourbons. The war marked the beginning of the unending rivalry between the two most powerful men in Europe. William III (who would later on also seize the throne of England, see Glorious Revolution) and Louis XIV and their respective allies would be pitted against each other in a long series of wars that followed in the years afterwards.