Editing Anglo–Dutch wars (section)

==== Stuart ====
[[File:Reinier Nooms - Before the Battle of the Downs - c.1639.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|right|''Before the [[Battle of the Downs]]'' by [[Reinier Nooms]], ''circa'' 1639, depicting the Dutch blockade off the English coast, the vessel shown is the ''[[Dutch ship Aemilia (1632)|Aemilia]]'', Tromp's flagship.]]
After the death of Elizabeth I, Anglo-Spanish relations began to improve under the new monarch of  [[James the First]], and the peace of the [[Treaty of London (1604)|Treaty of London]] in 1604 ended most privateering actions, (until the outbreak of the next [[Anglo-Spanish War (1625–1630)|Anglo-Spanish War]] (1625-1630) during the larger continental [[Thirty Years' War]] of 1618-1648). Underfunding then led to neglect of the [[Royal Navy]].

Later, Roman Catholic sympathiser King [[Charles I of England]] made a number of secret agreements with Spain, directed against Dutch sea power. He also embarked on a major programme of naval reconstruction, enforcing [[ship money]] to rebuild and expand the Royal Navy with financing the building of such prestige battle vessels as the {{ship|English ship|Sovereign of the Seas||2}}. But fearful of endangering his relations with the powerful Dutch [[stadtholder]] [[Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange]], his assistance to Spain was limited in practice to allowing Spanish troops on their way to [[Dunkirk]] to make use of English shipping. However, in 1639, when a large Spanish transport fleet sought refuge in [[The Downs (ship anchorage)|The Downs]] anchorage off the town of [[Deal, Kent]], King Charles chose not to protect it against a Dutch attack; the resulting [[Battle of the Downs]] undermined both Spanish sea power and Charles's reputation in Spain.

Meanwhile, in the New World of the [[Americas]], forces from the Dutch [[New Netherlands]] colony and the English [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] contested over much of North America's [[East Coast of the United States|north-eastern seaboard]].