Editing Anglo–Dutch wars (section)

=== Second war: 1665–1667 ===
{{Main|Second Anglo-Dutch War}}
[[File:Van Minderhout Battle of Lowestoft.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Battle of Lowestoft]], 13 June 1665.]]
[[File:Het verbranden van de Engelse vloot bij Chatham, juni 1667, tijdens de Tweede Engelse Zeeoorlog (1665-1667) Rijksmuseum SK-A-1393.jpeg|thumb|The 1667 [[raid on the Medway]].]]
After the [[English Restoration]] in 1660, newly-crowned King [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] tried through diplomatic means to make his nephew, [[William III of England|Prince William III of Orange]], stadtholder of the Dutch Republic. At the same time, Charles promoted a series of mercantilist policies aimed at encountering Dutch mercantile dominance, which again led to a renewed deterioration in Anglo-Dutch relations. This subsequently led to a surge of [[anti-Dutch sentiment]] in England, the country being, as [[Samuel Pepys]] put it, "mad for war". English merchants and chartered overseas mercantile trade companies—such as the East India Company, the [[Royal African Company|Royal Adventurers Trading into Africa]], and the Levant Company—calculated that global economic primacy could now be wrestled away from the Dutch. They reckoned that a combination of naval battles and irregular [[privateer]]ing missions would cripple the Dutch Republic and force the States General to agree to a more favourable peace.<ref name="Rommelse">{{cite journal |first=Gijs |last=Rommelse |title=Prizes and Profits: Dutch Maritime Trade during the Second Anglo-Dutch War |journal=International Journal of Maritime History |year=2007 |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=139–159 |doi=10.1177/084387140701900207 |s2cid=155011146 }}</ref> The plan was for English ships to be replenished, and sailors paid, with looted booty seized from captured Dutch merchant vessels returning from overseas.

In 1665 many Dutch merchantman ships were captured, and Dutch trade and industry were hurt. The English achieved several victories over the Dutch, such as taking the Dutch colony of [[New Netherland]] and seaport town of [[New Amsterdam]] (present day of later renamed [[New York City|New York]]) by an English fleet of King Charles' younger brother, the future King [[James II of England|James II]]; but there were also several Dutch victories, such as the capture of the renewed [[Royal Navy]] flagship ''Prince Royal'' during the [[Four Days Battle]] at sea of 11 to 14 June 1666 – the subject of a famous painting by [[Willem van de Velde, the younger|Willem van de Velde]] (1633–1707). Dutch maritime trade recovered from 1666, while the English war effort and economy suffered a downturn when [[Great Plague of London|London was ravaged by disease in the Great Plague]] during 1665–1666,<ref name="Rommelse" /> and much of the [[capital city|capital]] of the [[City of London]] along the [[Thames River]] was burnt to the ground by the massive devastating infamous [[Great Fire of London]] of September 1666, (which was generally interpreted across the English Channel in the Dutch Republic as divine retribution for the earlier [[Holmes's Bonfire]] raid in August 1666).

A surprise attack in June 1667, the [[raid on the Medway]], on the English fleet in its home port arguably won the war for the Dutch; British historian [[C. R. Boxer]] described it as one of the "most humiliating defeat suffered by British arms".<ref>{{cite book |quote=It can hardly be denied that the Dutch raid on the Medway vies with the [[Battle of Majuba Hill|Battle of Majuba]] in 1881 and the [[Battle of Singapore|Fall of Singapore]] in 1942 for the unenviable distinctor of being the most humiliating defeat suffered by British arms. |first=Charles Ralph |last=Boxer |title=The Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th Century |publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office |location=London |year=1974 |page=39 }}</ref> A flotilla of ships led by [[Michiel de Ruyter]] (1607–1676), sailed westward up the [[Thames River]] and [[Thames Estuary]], on a daring raid, broke through the defences guarding [[Chatham Harbour]], set fire to several English warships moored there, and even towed away {{HMS|Unity|1665|6}} and {{HMS|Royal Charles|1660|6}}, flagship and second largest warship of the Royal Navy. Also in June 1667, the Dutch sailed vessels on a raiding expedition from the Caribbean north into the [[Hampton Roads]] harbor at the mouth of the [[Chesapeake Bay]] in the [[Battle of the James River (1667)|Battle of the James River]], near the modern-day [[Hampton, Virginia|Hampton]] and [[Norfolk, Virginia|Norfolk]] seaports of the English [[Colony of Virginia]], destroying an English ship in the harbour and bombarding its coastal protecting fort. The raid on the [[Medway]] led to widespread anger in England towards the government. This, together with the mounting costs of the war and the extravagant spending of the returned King Charles's court, produced a rebellious atmosphere in London. Charles ordered the English envoys at [[Breda]] to sign a peace quickly with the Dutch, as he feared an open revolt at home against him.