The Treaty of Dover, also known as the Secret Treaty of Dover, was an agreement between Louis XIV of France and Charles II of England signed at Dover on 1 June 1670. Officially, it only committed England to provide France with general diplomatic assistance. However, of greater significance were secret provisions which remained largely unknown until published by historians over a century later.
Under these, Charles would provide military backing for a French invasion of the Dutch Republic, and committed to convert to Catholicism at some future date. In return, Louis agreed to pay him a secret pension of £230,000 per year, as well as a bonus when his conversion was made public. Charles hoped these payments would help make him financially independent of Parliament.
Although the conversion clause was never activated, the treaty led to the 1672 to 1674 Third Anglo-Dutch War, a related conflict of the 1672 to 1678 Franco-Dutch War.
Background
A possible Anglo-French treaty had been discussed after the 1660 Stuart Restoration, but none was agreed.[1] Despite growing tensions over French ambitions in the Spanish Netherlands, Louis XIV of France decided an agreement with the Dutch Republic might allow him to achieve these without war.[2] A Franco-Dutch defensive treaty was signed in 1662, while in January 1666 France entered the Second Anglo-Dutch War against England.[3]
France took a minor role in the war, as mutual suspicion grew between the Dutch and Louis. Following the peace Treaty of Breda (1667), Louis invaded the Spanish Netherlands later that year, beginning the War of Devolution. To oppose French expansion in the region, a Triple Alliance was formed between the Dutch Republic, England and Sweden during 1668, which immediately pressured Louis into signing a peace treaty with Spain.[4] During 1669, friction among the members of the Triple Alliance convinced Louis that he could induce either England or the Dutch Republic to leave it. Following an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate with the Dutch, Louis was approached by Charles with the offer of an alliance, which was delivered secretly by Charles' sister.[5] At this stage, the only participants in the talks were Louis XIV of France, Charles II of England, and Charles's sister Henrietta, duchesse d'Orléans. Louis was first cousin to Charles (through their grandfather Henry IV of France); Henrietta was also Louis's sister-in-law through her marriage to his only brother, Phillippe, duc d'Orléans.[6]
Charles's motives for secretly entering into negotiations with France, while England was still part of the Triple Alliance against France, have been debated among historians. Suggested motives include: a desire to gain the alliance of Europe's strongest state; to ensure Charles' political and financial independence from the English parliament; to put England in a position to receive a share of the Spanish Empire if it broke up (the infant Charles II of Spain had no clear heir); to gain the support of English Catholics (and possibly also Protestant dissenters) for the monarchy; or to seek revenge on the Dutch for the English defeat in the Second Anglo-Dutch War, particularly the humiliating Raid on the Medway. Charles initially attempted to form an alliance with France in 1668, without abandoning the Triple Alliance, so was not as consistent as Louis in opposing the Dutch.[8] Louis was married to Maria Theresa, the eldest daughter of Philip IV of Spain (died 1665); Maria Theresa had renounced her inheritance rights, but Louis consistently manoeuvred to acquire Spanish territory adjacent to France and to promote his wife's potential claim to the Spanish throne.[9] Louis rebuffed Charles's approach in 1668, as Charles was not willing to join a French attack on Spain.[10]
In the early part of 1669, Louis attempted to gain Dutch agreement to his acquiring all or most of the Spanish Netherlands, but the Dutch themselves were anxious to prevent a French army being stationed on or near their frontiers. During the same period, Charles attempted to preserve the Triple Alliance by settling outstanding overseas trade issues with the Dutch, with little success. Through his ambassador Lord St Albans, Charles attempted simultaneously to restart negotiations for a French alliance, but Louis repeated the condition that England must join him in attacking the Netherlands. Charles remained unenthusiastic, but his failure to gain the security he sought by other diplomatic means forced him to accept this precondition, subject to substantial French financial assistance. The parties entered into more detailed discussions by December 1669.[11] During the five months in which detailed terms were being agreed, both parties attempted to reach understandings with Spain: their realisation that Spain might cede the Spanish Netherlands to France in a territorial exchange or act in concert with the Triple Alliance was a strong incentive for Charles and Louis respectively to reach a final agreement.[12]
By the secret treaty, Charles was to abandon the Triple Alliance with Sweden and the Dutch Republic in favour of assisting Louis in conquering the Dutch Republic. Provided that the conquest was successfully completed, England was promised several very profitable ports along one of the major rivers that run through the Dutch Republic.[13] The main components of the treaty can be paraphrased:
The King of England will make a public profession of the Catholic faith, and will receive the sum of two millions of crowns, to aid him in this project, from the Most Christian King, in the course of the next six months. The date of this declaration is left absolutely to his own pleasure. The King of France will faithfully observe the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, as regards Spain, and the King of England will maintain the Treaty of the Triple Alliance in a similar manner. If new rights to the Spanish monarchy revert to the King of France, the King of England will aid him in maintaining these rights. The two Kings will declare war against the United Provinces. The King of France will attack them by land, and will receive the help of 6000 men from England. The King of England will send 50 men-of-war to sea, and the King of France 30; the combined fleets will be under the Duke of York's command. His Britannic Majesty will be content to receive Walcheren, the mouth of the Scheldt, and the isle of Cadzand, as his share of the conquered provinces. Separate articles will provide for the interests of the Prince of Orange. The Treaty of Commerce, which has already begun, shall be concluded as promptly as possible.[14]
By Article 7 of the treaty, Charles was able to secure only a vague promise that the rights and interests of his nephew, William, Prince of Orange, would be respected.[15]
The secret treaty did not become public until 1771 when the historian Sir John Dalrymple published its contents in his Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland.[16] Had it been published in Charles II's lifetime, the results might have been drastic; considering the enormous effect of Titus Oates's highly unreliable assertions of a Popish Plot, an even greater backlash might have followed had the English public learned that the King actually obliged himself to turn Catholic and that he was willing to rely on French troops to impose that conversion on his own subjects.
The "cover" treaty
The secret treaty was signed and sealed in June 1670. The Duke of Buckingham was then appointed to negotiate a treaty with the King of France. He was amazed by how smoothly it went. This treaty closely followed the secret treaty just concluded, but the clause by which King Charles was to declare himself a Roman Catholic as soon as the affairs of his kingdom permitted did not appear; neither, therefore, did the stipulation that the attack on the Netherlands would follow his declaration. This treaty was signed by all five members of the Cabal Ministry on 21 December 1670 and was made known to the public. However King Charles and the French knew it was a meaningless fake.[17][18][19]
Consequences
Military preparations took some time; Louis declared war on the Dutch on 6 April 1672, and Charles followed suit the next day. On 14 April 1672 under the Treaty of Stockholm, France paid Sweden subsidies to remain neutral, while also promising Sweden military support if it were threatened by Brandenburg-Prussia. This Franco-Swedish alliance completed Louis' diplomatic encirclement of the Republic.[20]
The Third Anglo-Dutch War started badly for the Dutch. The French strategy was to invade the Dutch Republic along the line of the River Rhine where Dutch defences were weakest, outflanking the main defences on the Dutch border with the Spanish Netherlands. Despite warnings about French intentions, the Dutch leader Johan de Witt mistakenly thought that the war against France and England would be decided at sea, and he prioritised equipping the Dutch fleet while neglecting the eastern frontier fortresses.[21] This led to significant early French successes and a near-collapse of the Dutch army, which was forced to retreat behind the inundations of The Dutch Water Line and offer peace terms that were very favourable to France. The year 1672 is known to the Dutch as the Rampjaar or 'Year of disaster': the Orangists blamed de Witt whom they forced to resign, and they later brutally killed him and his brother Cornelis.[22][23]
The breathing space afforded by its retreat behind the inundations, followed by military reforms, recruitment of new troops and unofficial Spanish assistance, enabled the Dutch army, led by William III of Orange as its Captain-General, to hold the Dutch Water Line for the rest of 1672 and 1673. Louis was now involved in a war of attrition and faced growing opposition from other European powers. Charles was short of money, as the costs of deploying the English fleet were much greater than expected despite French subsidies, and he faced increasing domestic opposition to the war.[24] Part of this opposition related to English perceptions that the French fleet had stood by while the English fleet bore the brunt of the fighting the Dutch.[25]
In the Battle of Solebay in 1672, d'Estrées, commanding the French squadron, avoided the main battle and only engaged a much smaller Dutch force at long-range, earning the condemnation of English, and of some French officers.[26] The conduct of the French fleet in the two 1673 Battles of the Schooneveld was undistinguished and, in the final 1673 conflict, the Battle of the Texel, D'Estrées, either through poor seamanship, or because he had been ordered by Louis XIV to preserve the French fleet should England make peace with the Dutch, failed to engage the Dutch closely.[27] In addition, Dutch privateers had been much more successful at capturing English merchant ships than English privateers attacking Dutch vessels in this war.[28]
Desperate for funds, Charles was forced to call Parliament into session for the first time in over two years. He had hoped to keep it prorogued in order to wage the war without its oversight. In 1674, largely because of the pressure put upon Charles by Parliament, England signed the Treaty of Westminster: this largely restored the pre-war status quo and ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War.[29] The French would continue to fight for four more years. A peace conference was convened at Nijmegen in 1676, but this made little progress as the French insisted in retaining the Dutch fortress of Maastricht. However, the conclusion of an Anglo-Dutch defensive treaty in March 1678 convinced Louis to offer peace without the cession of any Dutch territory, leading to the signing of the Treaty of Nijmegen.[30] Although not unfavourable to the Dutch, and less favourable to France than the terms offered by the Dutch in 1672, France gained Franche-Comté and several towns in the Spanish Netherlands by this treaty, although relinquishing other conquests. More importantly, Louis achieved a diplomatic victory by breaking the European alliance against him.[31]
In 1672, Charles issued a Declaration of Indulgence which suspended the penal laws against nonconforming Protestants and also relaxed (but did not suspend) the penal laws applying to Roman Catholics. When Parliament reconvened that year, they denounced the Declaration and announced that the English monarch did not possess the power to issue proclamations that suspended penal laws passed by the Parliament. Furthermore, they refused to fund the ongoing Third Anglo-Dutch War until the declaration was withdrawn. Charles was forced to comply with Parliament's demands, thereby ending the chance offered by the treaty of reconciling England with the Roman Catholic Church.[32]
The treaty's reference to the possibility of "new rights to the Spanish monarchy reverting to the King of France" envisaged the possibility of Charles II of Spain dying childless, and of Louis then claiming the Spanish throne for the House of Bourbon through his wife. At the time of the treaty, the Spanish monarch was only nine years old, but his infirmity was already evident and well-known, casting doubt on his ever being able to beget children. However, Charles's promise to Louis was purely personal, and as the Spanish King outlived him, his promise had no effect.[33] When, shortly after the conclusion of the Nine Years' War, the death of Charles II of Spain seemed imminent, the exhausted participants agreed by the First Partition Treaty of 1698, brokered by William III, that Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria would succeed to the Spanish throne, and that France and Austria would divide Spain's European possessions outside the Iberian Peninsula. After Joseph Ferdinand's death in 1699, the Second Partition Treaty of 1700, also sponsored by William III awarded Spain and its overseas possessions to Archduke Charles and most of Spain's European possessions to France. However, when the Spanish king died childless in 1700, William III's foreign policy initiative was nullified when Louis claimed the whole Spanish inheritance for his grandson, and French ambitions caused the War of Spanish Succession.[34]
Charles II was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651 and King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685.
The Anglo–Dutch Wars were mainly fought between the Dutch Republic and England in the mid-17th and late 18th century. The first three wars occurred in the second half of the 17th century over trade and overseas colonies, while the fourth was fought a century later. Almost all the battles were naval engagements.
The Second Anglo-Dutch War, or Second Dutch War, began on 4 March 1665, and concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Breda on 31 July 1667. One in a series of naval conflicts between England and the Dutch Republic, its causes were a combination of political differences and commercial disputes.
The Third Anglo-Dutch War, began on 27 March 1672, and concluded on 19 February 1674. A naval conflict between the Dutch Republic and England, in alliance with France, it is considered a related conflict of the wider 1672 to 1678 Franco-Dutch War.
Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, KG, PC was an English statesman.
The Grand Alliance, sometimes erroneously referred to as its precursor the League of Augsburg, was formed on 20 December 1689. Signed by William III on behalf of the Dutch Republic and England, and Emperor Leopold I for the Habsburg Monarchy, its primary purpose was to oppose the expansionist policies of Louis XIV of France.
The War of Devolution took place from May 1667 to May 1668. In the course of the war, France occupied large parts of the Spanish Netherlands and Franche-Comté, both then provinces of the Holy Roman Empire ruled by Spain. Its name derives from an obscure law known as the Jus Devolutionis, used by Louis XIV to claim that these territories had "devolved" to him by right of marriage to Maria Theresa of Spain.
The Franco-Dutch War was a European conflict that lasted from 1672 to 1678. Its primary belligerents were France, backed at different times by Münster, Cologne, England, and the Swedish Empire, and the Dutch Republic, allied with the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Brandenburg-Prussia and Denmark-Norway. The 1672 to 1674 Third Anglo-Dutch War and 1675 to 1679 Scanian War are considered related conflicts.
The Triple Alliance was signed by the Kingdom of England, the Swedish Empire and the Dutch Republic in May 1668. It was created in response to the occupation of the Spanish Netherlands and Franche-Comté by France. Although Spain and Emperor Leopold were not signatories, they were closely involved in the negotiations.
The Treaty of Westminster of 1674 was the peace treaty that ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War. Signed by the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of England, the treaty provided for the return of the colony of New Netherland to England and renewed the Treaty of Breda of 1667. The treaty also provided for a mixed commission for the regulation of commerce, particularly in the East Indies.
The Peace of Breda, or Treaty of Breda was signed in the Dutch city of Breda, on 31 July 1667. It consisted of three separate treaties between England and each of its opponents in the Second Anglo-Dutch War: the Dutch Republic, France, and Denmark–Norway. It also included a separate Anglo-Dutch commercial agreement.
The Treaty of London (1700) or Second Partition Treaty was the second attempt by Louis XIV of France and William III of England to impose a diplomatic solution to the issues that led to the 1701-1714 War of the Spanish Succession. Both divided the Spanish Empire without prior consultation and since the Spanish viewed an undivided Empire as non-negotiable, historians generally view them as largely unenforceable.
The Anglo-Spanish War was a conflict between the English Protectorate and Spain between 1654 and 1660. It was driven by the economic and religious rivalry between the two countries, with each side attacking the other's commercial and colonial interests in various ways, such as privateering and naval expeditions.
Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, 27 July 1625 to 28 May 1672, was an English military officer, politician and diplomat from Barnwell, Northamptonshire. During the First English Civil War, he served with the Parliamentarian army, and was a Member of Parliament at various times between 1645 and 1660. Under The Protectorate, he was also a member of the English Council of State and General at sea.
In Dutch history, the year 1672 is referred to as the Rampjaar. In May 1672, following the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War and its peripheral conflict the Third Anglo-Dutch War, France, supported by Münster and Cologne, invaded and nearly overran the Dutch Republic. At the same time, it faced the threat of an English naval blockade in support of the French endeavor, though that attempt was abandoned following the Battle of Solebay. A Dutch saying coined that year describes the Dutch people as redeloos ("irrational"), its government as radeloos ("distraught"), and the country as reddeloos. The cities of the coastal provinces of Holland, Zealand and Frisia underwent a political transition: the city governments were taken over by Orangists, opposed to the republican regime of the Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt, ending the First Stadtholderless Period.
Sir George Downing, 1st Baronet was an Anglo-Irish diplomat and financial reformer, who held office first under the Commonwealth of England, then Charles II. As Teller of the Exchequer, he carried out major reforms in public finance, including securing passage of the Navigation Acts, intended to protect English maritime commerce, especially from the Dutch Republic.
The 1698 Treaty of The Hague, also known as the 1698 Treaty of Den Haag or First Partition Treaty was one of two attempts by France, Great Britain, and the Dutch Republic to achieve a diplomatic solution to the issues that led to the 1701–1714 War of the Spanish Succession.
The Battle of Entzheim took place on 4 October 1674, during the 1672 to 1678 Franco-Dutch War. It was fought near the town of Entzheim, south of Strasbourg in Alsace, between a French army under Turenne, and an Imperial force commanded by Alexander von Bournonville.
The Treaty of Lisbon was signed on 31 March 1667 by Portugal and France, which agreed to a ten-year defensive and offensive alliance against Spain. The treaty was driven by Louis XIV, who was preparing to seize the Spanish Netherlands. The Portuguese Restoration War, which had begun in 1640, was coming to an end. Ensuring that it continued would absorb Spanish resources and prevent Spain from sending reinforcements.
The Treaty of Madrid, also known as the Earl of Sandwich's Treaty, was signed on 23 May, 1667 by England and Spain. It was one of a series of agreements made in response to French expansion under King Louis XIV.
↑ Ronald Hutton, "The Making of the Secret Treaty of Dover, 1668–1670." pp. 297, 299.
↑ Gijs Rommelse, The Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667), pp 28, 34.
↑ Ronald Hutton, "The Making of the Secret Treaty of Dover, 1668–1670." p. 299.
↑ Ronald Hutton, "The Making of the Secret Treaty of Dover, 1668–1670." pp. 300-302.
↑ Ronald Hutton, "The Making of the Secret Treaty of Dover, 1668–1670." pp. 303-304.
↑ David Ogg, England in the Reign of Charles II vol 1 pp 344-46.
↑ Andrew Browning, ed. English Historical Documents: 1660-1714 (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1953), pp 863-67 for text; paraphrase by François Mignet from Julia Ady, Madame (1894) pp. 332–33.
↑ Ronald Hutton, "The Making of the Secret Treaty of Dover, 1668–1670." p. 303.
↑ J. P. Kenyon, The History Men. The Historical Profession in England since the Renaissance. Second Edition (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1993), pp. 67-68.
↑ Antonia Fraser, Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration (1979), pp. 275–276
↑ David Ogg, England in the Reign of Charles II vol 1 pp 346-48.
↑ Tim Harris, Restoration: Charles II and his kingdoms, 1660-1685 (2006) p 71.
↑ Roger Frost, The Northern Wars 1558–1721 p. 209.
↑ J. R. Jones, The Anglo-Dutch Wars of the Seventeenth Century, pp 179-181, 185
↑ C. R. Boxer, Some Second Thoughts on the Third Anglo-Dutch War, p 81.
↑ J. R. Jones, The Anglo-Dutch Wars of the Seventeenth Century, pp 193, 197-198, 220
↑ C. R. Boxer, Some Second Thoughts on the Third Anglo-Dutch War, p 72.
↑ E. H. Jenkins, A History of the French Navy, pp 50-1 52.
↑ E. H. Jenkins, A History of the French Navy, pp 50-51.
↑ E. H. Jenkins, A History of the French Navy, p 52.
↑ J. R. Jones, The Anglo-Dutch Wars of the Seventeenth Century, pp 30, 192
↑ F. L. Carsten, The New Cambridge Modern History: Volume 5, p 275
↑ F. L. Carsten, The New Cambridge Modern History: Volume 5, p 219
↑ F. L. Carsten, The New Cambridge Modern History: Volume 5, pp 296-297
↑ David Ogg, England in the Reign of Charles II vol 1 pp 354-55, 365-68.
↑ F. L. Carsten, The New Cambridge Modern History: Volume 5, pp 309-310
↑ C. W. Ingrao, The Habsburg Monarchy, 1618-1815, pp 105-107
Bibliography
Ady, Julia (1894). Madame, a Life of Henrietta, Daughter of Charles I and Duchess of Orleans. Seeley & Co.
Black, Jeremy. "British Foreign Policy and International Affairs during Sir William Trumbull's Career." The British Library Journal 19.2 (1993): 199–217.
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