ANGLO-DUTCH RIVALRY
DURING THE FIRST HALF OF THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
BEING THE FORD LECTURES
DELIVERED AT OXFORD IN 1910
BY THE
REV. GEORGE EDMUNDSON, M.A.
F.R.G.S. F.R. Hist. S.
LATE FELLOW AND TUTOR OF BRASENOSE COLLEGE
HONORARY MEMBER OF THE DUTCH HISTORICAL SOCIETY (UTRECHT)
FOREIGN MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF NETHERLANDS LITERATURE (LEYDEN)
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1911
HENRY FROWDE, M.A.
PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK
TORONTO AND MELBOURNE
PREFACE
The varying fortunes of the obstinate and fiercelycontested struggles with the Dutch for maritime andcommercial supremacy in the days of the Commonwealthand the Restoration are familiar to all readersof English history, and especially of English navalhistory. Never did English seamen fight better thanin these Dutch wars, and never did they meet moreredoubtable foes. The details of the many doggedcontests marked by alternate victory and defeat arenow more or less unintelligible save to the expert inthe naval strategy and tactics of the times, but legendshave grown round the story of Martin Tromp sailingdown the Channel with a broom at his mast-head, andof the exploit of Michael de Ruyter in burning theEnglish ships at Chatham, which are never likely to beforgotten. The names of these two famous seamenare probably better known to Englishmen than thoseof any of the contemporary English admirals save thatof Robert Blake alone. This fact should bespeak forthe attempt that is here made to trace the causes andthe growth of the Anglo-Dutch rivalry at sea and incommerce, which culminated in the collision betweenBlake and Tromp off Dover on May 29, 1652, andthe declaration of war that followed. It has been myobject in these Ford Lectures to treat of the relationsbetween England and the United Provinces during thehalf-century that preceded the first outbreak of hostilities,[4]and to make it clear that these wars of 1652-4,1665-7, 1672-4 were the inevitable outcome of a long-continuedclashing of interests, which were of fundamentalimportance and indeed vital to the welfare ofboth nations.
The first half of the seventeenth century was one ofthe most critical periods in English history. In anyaccount of the reigns of the first two sovereigns of theHouse of Stewart political and religious questions ofprimary significance thrust themselves into the foregroundof a picture full of deepening dramatic interest,with the result that other questions, apparently subordinatebut in reality closely bound up with thenational destinies, have been either relegated to thebackground or wholly overlooked and neglected. Ithas been so in regard to the questions dealt with inthese pages.
The history of the revolt of the Netherlands and ofthe rise of the Dutch Republic shows to us Englishmenand Dutchmen united by bonds of sympathy and fightingside by side against a common foe. To bothalike the Spaniard and the Inquisition were hateful,and in shedding their blood freely for the cause ofDutch freedom Englishmen were in fact acting in theirown self-defence against the ambitious projects ofPhilip II. At first sight then it appears strange thatthe conclusion of the truce for twelve years in 1609should have been followed by a coolness and growing