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Franco-Dutch War: A Visual History

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Visual history of a war

Louis XIV's attempt to crush the Dutch Republic, saved by opening the dikes and William of Orange, ended with France taking Franche-Comte and the Sun King at his height.

Fought
1672 to 1678
Duration
6 years
Dates
April 1672 to 1678 (Nijmegen 1678-1679)
Deaths
About 220,000 to 340,000 soldiers
France and allies
Louis XIV; Conde, Turenne, Luxembourg, Vauban; England (to 1674), Munster, Cologne, Sweden
Dutch and allies
Dutch Republic (William III, De Ruyter); Spain, Emperor Leopold, Brandenburg, Denmark, Lorraine
Result
France gains Franche-Comte and Flemish fortresses; Dutch survival; William III's rise

The Franco-Dutch War (1672-1678) began when Louis XIV, allied with England and the bishops of Munster and Cologne, invaded the Dutch Republic in the Rampjaar (disaster year) of 1672 with 120,000 men and overran three provinces in weeks. The Dutch flooded the Water Line, lynched the De Witt brothers and made William III of Orange stadtholder; De Ruyter's fleet beat the Anglo-French navy at Solebay, Schooneveld and the Texel, England left the war in 1674, and Spain and the Emperor joined the Dutch. Louis's armies then took Franche-Comte and won in Flanders (Seneffe, Cassel), and Turenne fought his last campaign in Alsace. The Treaties of Nijmegen (1678-1679) gave France Franche-Comte and Flemish towns and left the Republic intact but exhausted.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Franco-Dutch War. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

800100012001400160018002000Franco-Dutch War (1672 to 1678)Open: Holy Roman EmpireHoly Roman Empire (800 to 1806)Open: Spanish EmpireSpanish Empire (1492 to 1976)Open: First French colonial empireFirst French colonial empire (1534 to 1814)Open: Northern WarsNorthern Wars (1554 to 1721)Open: Eighty Years' War (Dutch Revolt)Eighty Years' War (Dutch Revolt) (1568 to 1648)Open: British EmpireBritish Empire (1583 to 1997)Open: Dutch EmpireDutch Empire (1602 to 1975)Open: Swedish EmpireSwedish Empire (1611 to 1721)Open: Thirty Years' WarThirty Years' War (1618 to 1648)Open: Nine Years' WarNine Years' War (1688 to 1697)Open: Great Northern WarGreat Northern War (1700 to 1721)Open: War of the Spanish SuccessionWar of the Spanish Succession (1701 to 1714)

Casualties in the great battles

05101520Seneffe 1674: 2020Seneffe 1674Enzheim 1674: 77Enzheim 1674Turckheim 1675: 44Turckheim 1675Cassel 1677: 1212Cassel 1677killed and wounded, thousands (approximate)

Timeline of the Franco-Dutch War

  1. 1670
    Secret Treaty of Dover
  2. 1672
    Invasion; Water Line flooded; De Witts murdered; Solebay
  3. 1673
    Schooneveld; Texel; Bonn taken
  4. 1674
    England withdraws; Franche-Comte conquered; Seneffe
  5. 1675
    Turenne killed; Fehrbellin
  6. 1677
    Cassel; Valenciennes and Cambrai fall
  7. 1678
    Peace of Nijmegen

The disaster year

Angered by Dutch trade and the Triple Alliance that had checked him in 1668, Louis bought Charles II with the secret Treaty of Dover and struck in April 1672. French armies crossed the Rhine at Tolhuis and took Utrecht; the mob murdered the republican leaders Johan and Cornelis de Witt at The Hague on 20 August; the 21-year-old William III was made stadtholder and captain-general. The dikes were cut to flood the land before Amsterdam and Holland; the French halted; De Ruyter fought the combined Anglo-French fleet to a standstill at Solebay in June.

The coalition widens

William raided Charleroi and took Bonn (1673); Spain, the Emperor and Brandenburg joined; De Ruyter's victories at Schooneveld and the Texel in 1673 stopped an English landing and Parliament forced Charles II out of the war in February 1674. Louis conquered Franche-Comte in six weeks in 1674; Conde beat William at Seneffe with 20,000 dead on both sides; Turenne's winter campaign of 1674-1675 cleared Alsace, and he was killed by a cannonball at Sasbach in July 1675. Brandenburg beat Sweden at Fehrbellin; De Ruyter died fighting the French off Sicily in 1676.

Nijmegen

Vauban's sieges took Conde, Bouchain, Valenciennes, Cambrai and Saint-Omer in 1676-1677; Luxembourg beat William at Cassel (1677); William married Mary Stuart, and England threatened to intervene. The Peace of Nijmegen (August 1678 with the Dutch, September with Spain, February 1679 with the Emperor) gave France Franche-Comte, Cambrai, Valenciennes, Ypres and other towns, restored Maastricht to the Dutch and lowered French tariffs. Louis was hailed as 'the Great'; William III became the organiser of every coalition against him for the next 25 years.

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8 surprising things about the Franco-Dutch War

  1. The De Witt brothers were lynched, mutilated and reportedly partly eaten by the mob at The Hague; William III did nothing to punish the killers.
  2. The Dutch Water Line, flooding the polders knee-deep, stopped the French cavalry; ice in winter nearly let them across.
  3. Louis XIV crossed the Rhine at Tolhuis in person and had it painted as an epic feat, though the river was fordable.
  4. The English public and Parliament, appalled at fighting fellow Protestants for Catholic France, forced Charles II to make peace.
  5. De Ruyter, the greatest Dutch admiral, died of wounds off Syracuse fighting the French; the Spanish gave him a state funeral.
  6. Turenne's death at Sasbach in 1675 was mourned like a king's; Napoleon later moved his remains to Les Invalides.
  7. The war saw the first use of Vauban's parallel siege trenches at Maastricht in 1673, where d'Artagnan of the musketeers was killed.
  8. William III's marriage to Mary in 1677 set up the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

Sources

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