War in Embryo

Abstract

The few years that preceded the outbreak of the first Dutch War were a time of rapidly shifting alignments and, on both sides, of alternating hopes and fears. Yet, throughout, the tension grew steadily and, as it seems in retrospect, inexorably. For the Dutch, the signing of a treaty with Spain promised a new era of peace and pushed back the limits of commercial expansion. But what was fair promise to Holland seemed an added threat to England. Here, conversely, the execution of Charles I seemed, to those in power, to put an end to uncertainty and the threat of disorder, and to open the way to a period of stable and peaceful government. It was therefore a source of surprised resentment that the Dutch, Orangists and Patricians alike, viewed the act of the regicides with horrified amazement. An English mission under Strickland which was in Holland when the king was executed found itself working in an atmosphere violently hostile. Its main task was to urge the States-General to expel the Royalist refugees from Dutch soil and ban Dutch harbours to Royalist ships.