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From butterboxes to wooden shoes: the shift in English popular sentiment from anti-Dutch to anti-French in the 1670s*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Abstract
While Restoration historians have traditionally assumed that there was little public interest in foreign affairs, and that English attitudes towards Europe were determined either by religious or domestic concerns, this essay argues that there was a lively and sophisticated English debate about Europe which turned on the proper identification of the universal monarch rather than religion. In the later 1660s the English political nation was deeply divided in its understanding of European politics. Enthusiastic supporters of the restored monarchy thought that the republican United Provinces sought universal dominion, while the monarchy's radical critics identified absolutist France as an aspirant to universal monarchy. French success in the early phases of the third Anglo-Dutch war, the failure of the French navy to support the English fleet at sea, and the overthrow of the Dutch republican regime in favour of William III, Prince of Orange, convinced the vast majority of the English that France represented the greater threat. Ultimately popular pressure compelled Charles II to abandon the French alliance. In addition, the popular conviction that Louis XIV had succeeded in corrupting the English court resulted in a new-found desire for popular accountability in foreign affairs, and a consequent diminution of the royal prerogative in that sphere.
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References
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53 Algernon Sidney, ‘Court Maxims’, Warwick County Record Office, p. 177. The Venetian observer Pietro Mocenigo also noted ‘the spleen of the nation’ as the English viewed French commercial and naval expansion ‘with resentment’. ‘Account of England’, 30 May/9 June 1671, CSPV, p. 69.
54 M. Appelbome to chancellor of Spain, 6/16 Oct. 1665, Bodleian Library, Clarendon MSS 83, fo. 251r. This point was, of course, classically made by the Baron de Lisola. He complained that ‘all the pretexts with which the French do labour to disguise the vast designs that they have in hand, are but false colours to mask the true spring which gives the motion to this machine, and to make an ambition which goes at a great pace to the Universal Monarchy pass under the veil of justice’. Francois, Lisola, The buckler of state and justice against the designs manifestly discovered of the universal monarchy, under the vain pretext of the Queen of France her pretension (London, 1673)Google Scholar sig. A6r.
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58 Dr William Denton to Sir Ralph Verney, 20 April 1671, Verney MSS, Reel 24 (unfoliated).
59 John Doddington to Joseph Williamson, 27 June 1670, Huntington Library, MSS STT 625.
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61 Information of George Massey, East Horsley, Surrey, 22 May 1672, CSPD, p. 72.
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63 Edmund Verney was one such moderate who was extremely fearful of the French in the later 1660s and early 1670s, but supported the war. His ideological progression is discussed in the next section. Thomas Papillon, whom Margaret Priestley has described as violently anti-French in the later 1670s, clearly appreciated the threat from the United Provinces in this period. As a negotiator at Breda in 1667 he had castigated the Dutch for their economic greed. Throughout the third Dutch war he served as a victualler of the navy. See Margaret, Priestley, ‘London merchants and opposition politics in Charles II's reign’, in Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, XXIX (1956), 205–19Google Scholar; Thomas Papillon's ‘Account of the negotiations at Breda’, Centre for Kentish Studies, MSS U1015/F16/1.
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66 Alberti to Doge and senate, 29 March/8 April 1672, CSPV, p. 195. See also Alberti to Doge and senate, 3/13 Nov. 1671, CSPV, p. 119. This was also the opinion of the French ambassador Colbert. Colbert's letter of 20 March 1672, quoted in Christie, W. D., A life of Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury (London, 1871), II, 83.Google Scholar
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69 Henry Ball to Williamson, 19 Sept. 1673, in Christie, W. D. (ed.), Letters addressed from London to Sir Joseph Williamson (London, 1874), II, 20.Google Scholar
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71 Sir Thomas Player to Williamson, 3 Nov. 1673, Christie, II, 56–7.
72 Alberti to the Doge and senate, 31 Oct./10 Nov. 1673, CSPV, p. 168. It should be noted that the sentiment of parliament came as no surprise. Well before the opening of the session M.P.s were known to be meeting and planning an assault on the French alliance. See Alberti to Doge and senate, 29 Aug./8 Sept. 1673, CSPV, p. 106; Alberti to Doge and senate, 10/20 Oct. 1673, CSPV, pp. 143–4; Robert Yard to Williamson, 17 Oct. 1673, Christie, 11, 48.
73 Verbum Sapienti, Jan. 1674, CSPD, pp. 128–9.
74 Sir John Hobart to Mr John Hobart, 1 Nov. 1673, Bodleian Library, Tanner MSS 42, fo. 56r.
75 Sir Christopher Musgrave to Williamson, 3 Nov. 1673, Christie, II, 59.
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80 Allan Wharton (Whitby) to James Hickes, 11 July 1672, CSPD, p. 330.
81 Richard Bower (Yarmouth) to Williamson, 24 June 1672, CSPC, p. 272. See also Captain T. Guy (Yarmouth) to Williamson, 30 Sept. 1672, CSPD, p. 671.
82 William Hurt (Dartmouth) to James Hickes, 5 Nov. 1672, CSPD, p. 127.
83 Reports of French naval performance played a large role in turning opinion against the war. I will elaborate on this point in the next section.
84 Nathaniel Osborne (Weymouth) to James Hickes, 10 Aug. 1672, CSPD, pp. 470–1.
85 Sir Charles Lyttleton to Arlington, 23 July 1673, CSPD, p. 455.
86 Henry Ball to Williamson, 18 July 1673, Christie, 1, 116.
87 Edmund Verney to Sir Ralph Verney, 20 Nov. 1673, Verney MSS, Reel 27 (unfoliated) (my translation). Edmund Verney habitually wrote to his father in French.
88 Grey, 5 Feb. 1673, II, 2. Significantly, Grey doubted his sincerity even at this juncture, noting that Shaftesbury ‘was in a secret management with another party’.
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98 Stubbe, , A further justification, sig. BIVGoogle Scholar. This was in fact true. Francis Benson to Williamson, 9 July 1672, CSPD, p. 323.
99 Henry, Stubbe, The history of the United Provinces of Achaia. Based on Jacobus Gothofredus, but significantly altered (London, 1673)Google Scholar, sig. A2r. The association of the Dutch republic with Achaia was not original, indeed I think it was a far more common identification than that of Venice. See Boccalini, pp. 222, 250; Martinus, Schookius, Belgium Federatum (Amsterdam, 1652)Google Scholar; Martinus, Schookius, Respublicae Achaeorum et Veientum (Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1664)Google Scholar. By this time Stubbe had apparently found a new patron, more sympathetic to his outlook, the earl of Anglesey. George Seignior to Dr. William Sancroft, 1 June 1673, Bodleian, Tanner MSS 42, fo. 12r. Stubbe was also said to have written against the Modena marriage in 1673. John Tillison to Dr William Sancroft, 27 Oct. 1673, Bodleian, Tanner MSS 42, fo. 48r.
100 Stubbe, , Achaia, p. 2.Google Scholar
101 Stubbe, , Achaia, p. 5.Google Scholar
102 Stubbe, , Achaia, pp. 9, 27.Google Scholar
103 Edmund Verney to Sir Ralph Verney, 10 July 1671, Verney MSS, Reel 24; Edmund Verney to Sir Ralph Verney, 18 Dec. 1671, Verney MSS, Reel 24; Edmund Verney to Sir Ralph Verney, 1 Jan. 1672, Verney MSS, Reel 24.
104 Edmund Verney to Sir Ralph Verney, 24 June 1672, Verney MSS, Reel 25; 28 Nov. 1672, Verney MSS, Reel 25; 15 Jan. 1673, Reel 25; 29 Jan. 1673, Reel 25; 27 Nov. 1673, Reel 27; 1 Feb. 1674, Reel 27. All the translations are mine.
105 William Coventry to Thomas Thynne, 23 Nov. 1672, Longleat House, Thynne MSS 16, fo. 24r; W. Coventry to Thomas Thynne, 1 Jan. 1673, Thynne MSS 16, fo. 53r.
106 Sir William Coventry, 31 October 1673, Grey, II, 203. For William Coventry's opposition to the earlier war, see my Protestantism and patriotism.
107 Sir William Coventry, 31 Oct. 1673, Grey, II, 204.
108 Sir William Coventry, 31 Oct. 1673, Grey, II, 213; Sir William Coventry, 22 Feb. 1677, Grey, IV, 133; Sir William Coventry, 11 May 1678, Grey, V, 387. He expressed similar views – calling Louis XIV ‘a Match for all Europe’ – in a letter to Thomas Thynne, 4 Jan. 1675, Thynne MSS 16, fo. 212r.
109 Sir William Coventry, 6 March 1677, Grey, IV, 188–9. On France's pernicious economic policies see Sir William Coventry, 27 Feb. 1668, Grey, 1, 97; Sir William Coventry, 10 May 1675, Grey, III, 125.
110 Sir William Coventry, 29 Jan. 1678, Grey, V, 18–20.
111 Sir Philip Warwick, ‘Of government’, 28 Aug. 1679, Huntington Library, MSS HM 41956, fo. 182. See also Sir Philip Warwick, 14 March 1678, Grey, V, 230. Despite having harboured the great Anglican theologian, Henry Hammond, during the Interregnum, Warwick had come to support ‘some indulgence’ for dissenters: 11 March 1668, Grey, I, III. This was a position not dissimilar from that of his patron the earl of Southampton. For more on Warwick, see Henning (ed.), III, 674–7. I owe this reference to the kindness of Blair Worden.
112 William, bishop of Lincoln, to Williamson, 22 June 1672, CSPD, p. 264.
113 Henry Robinson (Westminster) to Arlington, 19 June 1672, CSPD, p. 250.
114 Alberti to Doge and senate, 31 May/10 June 1672, CSPV, p. 225.
115 Henry Powle, 23 Oct. 1675, Grey, III, 334. Powle, significantly, was one of the leaders of the opposition to the Modena marriage: W. Bridgeman to Williamson, 20 Oct. 1673, Christie, II, 49.
116 Sir Thomas Meres, II May 1675, Grey, III, 136. For his moderation see Henning, III, 48–59. Similar views were expressed in Verbum Sapienti, Jan. 1674, CSPD, p. 131.
117 Sir William Coventry, 31 Oct. 1673, Grey, II, 203.
118 Alberti to Doge and senate, 28 Nov./8 Dec. 1673, CSPV, p. 182.
119 Alberti to Doge and senate, 7/17 April 1671, CSPV, p. 38; Alberti to Doge and senate, 19/29 April 1672, CSPV, p. 203.
120 Alberti to Doge and Senate, 17/27 Oct. 1672, CSPV, p. 306.
121 Edmund Verney to Sir Ralph Verney, 10 Feb. 1673, Verney MSS, Reel 25 (unfoliated).
122 Gilbert, Burnet, History of his own time (London, 1815), 1, 467Google Scholar. Henry Coventry made a similar point in parliament: Alberti to Doge and senate, 31 Oct./10 Nov. 1673, CSPV, p. 169. Sir Heneage Finch also pointed out that the Innsbruck marriage elicited no religious opposition: Speech of Sir Heneage Finch, 30 Oct. 1673, Leicestershire Record Office, D.G. 7/Box 4957p. 33.
123 Robert Yard to Williamson, 17 Oct. 1673, Christie, II, 48; Miller, p. 210. Effigies of popes were burned as soon as she set foot on English soil: Thomas Derham to Williamson, 5 Dec. 1673, CSPD, p. 44; Walter Overbury to Williamson, 1 Dec. 1673, CSPD, p. 40.
124 Edmund Verney to Sir Ralph Verney, 27 Nov. 1673, Verney MSS, Reel 27 (unfoliated).
125 A relation of the most material matters in parliament relating to religion, property, and the liberty of the subject (1673), pp. 19–20Google Scholar; Ralph, Josselin, Diary, 11 February 1674, p. 573Google Scholar; Alberti to Doge and senate, 1/11 Aug. 1673, CSPV, p. 85. See also Henry Ball to Williamson, 31 July 1673, Christie, 1, 137–8; Robert Yard to Williamson, 4 Aug. 1673, Christie, 1, 142–3; Henry Ball to Williamson, 4 Aug. 1673, Christie, 1, 144. This was how the marriage was recalled in popular verse. See ‘The Duke of York's farewell speech to his friends’, c. 1680, Folger Library MSS G, c. 2.
126 Robert Yard to Williamson, 22 Aug. 1673, Christie, 1, 182.
127 Henry Ball to Williamson, 10 Oct. 1673, Christie, II, 36. It was long known that Louis XIV hoped to gain political influence through the Duke of York's bride: Alberti to Doge and senate, 7/17 April 1671, CSPV, p. 38; Alberti to Doge and senate, 16/26 May 1673, CSPV, p. 52. Charles II was said to support the match for precisely those reasons: Alberti to Doge and senate, 8/18 Mary 1673, CSPV, p. 91.
128 Alberti to Doge and senate, 7/17 Nov. 1673, CSPV, p. 174.
129 SirTemple, Richard, ‘An essay upon government’, 1667?Google Scholar, Bodleian Library, MSS Eng. Hist. c. 201, fo. 13r.
130 Alberti to Doge and senate, 25 March/4 April 1672, CSPV, p. 189; Arlington to Sir William Thompson, 21 May 1672, CSPD, p. 30; Silas Taylor to Williamson, 18 March 1673, CSPD, pp. 58–9; examination of George Verleken, 19 March 1673, CSPD, p. 66; examination of Nicholas Van Hull, 22 March 1673, CSPD, p. 74; W. Bridgeman to Williamson, 26 Dec. 1673, CSPD, p. 69.
131 ? to Marquess of Baden Hochberg, 3 April 1673, CSPD, p. 127; privy council minute, 18 June 1673, CSPD, p. 380.
132 England's appeal from the private cabal at White-Hall to the great council of the nation (1673), p. 34.Google Scholar
133 England's appeal, p. 21.
134 England's appeal, pp. 1–2.
135 See MSS inscription in Bodleian Library, G Pamph. 1125.
136 Henry Coventry to Worden, 2 Aug. 1672, Coventry MSS LXXXII, fo. 28r; Stephen Temple to Sir Richard Temple, 4 March 1672, Huntington Library, MSS STT 2200; newsletter, 9 June 1672, CSPD, p. 185; Arlington to Sunderland, 17 June 1672, in T. Bebington, Arlington's letters to Sir W. Temple, II, 374; Sir Ralph Verney to Edmund Verney, 18 June 1672, Verney MSS, Reel 125 (unfoliated).
137 Edmund Verney to Sir Ralph Verney, 17 June 1672, Verney MSS, Reel 25 (unfoliated).
138 Henry Coventry to Duke of York, 17 July 1672, Coventry MSS LXXXII, fo. IIr; Stephen Temple to Sir Richard Temnple, 4 March 1672, Huntington Library, MSS STT 2200; Alberti to Doge and senate, 23 Aug./2 Sept. 1672, CSPV, p. 274; Sir Ralph Verney to Edmund Verney, 22 Feb. 1672, Verney MSS, Reel 25 (unfoliated).
139 Stubbe, A further justification, sig. CI.
140 Alberti to Doge and senate, 6/16 Sept. 1672, CSPV, p. 281. See also Alberti to Doge and senate, 30 Aug./9 Sept. 1672, CSPV, p. 278; John Trevor to Henry Coventry, 12 Dec. 1671, Coventry MSS LXV, fos. 69v–70r; John Trevor to Henry Coventry, 5 Jan. 1672, Coventry MSS LXV, fo. 93. This was the hope expressed in much of the English propaganda. See for example, A letter out of Holland, 20/30 April 1672 (London, 1672), pp. 1–2, 4–5.Google Scholar
141 Dr William Denton to Sir Ralph Verney, 22 Aug. 1672, Verney MSS Reel 25 (unfoliated); newsletter from London, 17 Aug. 1672, Library of Congress MSS 18124, III, fo. 230r; Silas Taylor to Navy Commissioners, 17 Aug. 1672, CSPD, pp. 499–500; Henry Coventry to Earl of Essex, 29 Aug. 1672, Coventry MSS LXXXII, fo. 51.
142 Newsletter from London, 11 July 1672, Library of Congress MSS 18124, III, fo. 214r; newsletter from London, 22 Aug. 1672, Library of Congress MSS 18124, III, fo. 232r.
143 Edmund Verney to Sir Ralph Verney, 24 June 1672, Verney MSS, Reel 25 (unfoliated). My translation.
144 Henry Coventry to Sir Edward Wood, 19 Aug. 1672, Coventry MSS LXXXII, fos. 46–7.
145 Arlington to Sunderland, 29 Aug. 1672, Bebington, II, 386.
146 Verbum Sapienti, Jan. 1674, CSPD, p. 129. See also the comment in Williamson's newsletter, 3 Feb. 1674, Folger MSS L. c. II; and the 1670s poem in Huntington MSS EL 8826.
147 Stephen Temple to Sir Richard Temple, 11/21 Oct. 1672, Huntington Library MSS STT 2201.
148 Sir Thomas Player to Williamson, 6 June 1672, CSPD, p. 160; Alberti to Doge and senate, 14/24 June 1672, CSPV, p. 233. See also the similar reports in Richard Bower (Yarmouth) to Williamson, 10 June 1672, CSPD, p. 190; Edmund Verney to Sir Ralph Verney, 6 May 1672, Verney MSS, Reel 25 (unfoliated); Sir Thomas Player to Williamson, 4 June 1672, CSPD, p. 149; Alberti to Doge and senate, 21 June/I July 1672, CSPV, p. 235; Burnet, p. 418.
149 For government censorship see Sir Ralph Verney to Edmund Verney, 6 June 1672, Verney MSS, Reel 25 (unfoliated); Henry Coventry to Sir William Curtius, 29 Aug. 1673, Coventry MSS LXXXII, fo. 130V; Henry Ball to Williamson, 5 Sept. 1673, Christie, II, 13; Sir William Temple to the Earl of Essex, 10 Sept. 1673, in Osmund, Airy (editor), The Essex papers (London: Camden Society, 1890), 1, 121Google Scholar. For some anti-French accounts see An exact relation of the several engagements and actions of his Majesties fleet (London, 1673)Google Scholar; ‘A relation of the battle’, II Aug. 1673, Bodleian Library, Tanner MSS 42, fos. 21–2. On all of this see Davies, pp. 172–4.
150 Sir Thomas Player to Williamson, 9 Sept. 1673, Christie, II, 16. Player went on to assert that ‘though the wisdom of the state might think fit to stifle any public narrative wherein the French might be exposed, yet there were so many letters from the commanders and others of the fleet charging [them] with cowardice and treachery, that it was impossible to conceal it’.
151 Alberti to Doge and senate, 7/17 Nov. 1673, CSPV, pp. 173–4.
152 Rupert to Charles II, 17 Aug. 1673, CSPD, p. 498; Rupert to Arlington, 23 Aug. 1673, CSPD, p. 509; Alberti to Doge and senate, 22 Aug./I Sept. 1673, CSPV, p. 110; Alberti to Doge and senate, 12/22 Dec. 1673, CSPV, p. 187.
153 Henry Ball to Williamson, 19 Sept. 1673, Christie, II, 21–2; William Coventry to Thomas Thynne, 18 June 1673, Longleat, Thynne MSS 16, fo. 136r; Yard to Williamson, 18 Aug. 1673, Christie, I, 174; Yard to Williamson, 29 Aug. 1673, Christie, I, 195; Ball to Williamson, 1 Sept. 1673, Christie, II, 2; Miller, p. 210; O'Malley, Leslie Chree, ‘The whig prince: Prince Rupert and the court vs. country factions during the reign of Charles II’, Albion, VIII (1976), 338–42.Google Scholar
154 Lisola, p. 13.
155 Burnet, p. 456.
156 Verbum Sapienti, Jan. 1674, CSPD, p. 130; Burnet, p. 414.
157 Burnet, pp. 437–8; Dr William Denton to Sir Ralph Verney, 4 Oct. 1671, Verney MSS, Reel 24 (unfoliated).
158 England's interest, p. 36.
159 Edmund Verney to Sir Ralph Verney, 15 Jan. 1672, Verney MSS, Reel 24 (unfoliated). My translation.
160 Burnet, p. 398.
161 Thomas, Shadwell, The humorists (London, 1671), p. 2Google Scholar. See also Shadwell, , ‘The miser’, in Montague, Summers (ed.), The complete works of Thomas Shadwell (London, 1927), II, 17.Google Scholar
162 Nathaniel, Lee, The tragedy of Nero (London, 1675)Google Scholar, prologue. (N.B. The play was first performed in 1674.)
163 James, Howard, The English mounsieur (London, 1674), p. 48Google Scholar. This was a revival of a 1660s play.
164 Thomas Shadwell, ‘Epsom-Wells’, Works, II, 150; Shadwell, ‘The virtuoso’, Works, I, 314.
165 Remarques on the humours and conversation of the town (London, 1673), pp. 97–8.Google Scholar
166 Shadwell, ‘The miser’. Works, II, 17 (prologue).
167 ‘A dialogue between Britannia and Rawleigh’, 1675Google Scholar, Sir W. Haward's Collection, Bodleian Library, MSS Don b. 8, fo. 536.
168 This point was perceived by the Venetian secretary. See Alberti to Doge and senate, 22 March/1 April 1672, CSPV, p. 188.
169 Sir Ralph Verney to Edmund Verney, 18 June 1672, Verney MSS, Reel 25 (unfoliated); proclamation, 12 June 1672, CSPD, p. 214.
170 Cary Gardiner to Sir Ralph Verney, 25 Nov. 1672, Verney MSS, Reel 25 (unfoliated). See also Richard Bower (Yarmouth) to Williamson, 4 Sept. 1672, CSPD, p. 567; John Wright (Ipswich) to Sir William Doyley, 19 Aug. 1672, CSPD, p. 509; Sir Ralph Verney to Edmund Verney, 9 Dec. 1672, Verney MSS, Reel 25 (unfoliated).
171 ‘The history of insipids’, Huntington Library, MSS EL 8808.
172 ‘The christians gamball or a poem of the grand Caball’, 31 Dec. 1672, Public Record Office, SP 29/319/159.
173 ‘Nostradamus' prophecy’, Poems on the affairs of state, 1, 188.
174 Alberti to Doge and senate, 31 May/10 June 1672, CSPV, p. 225. Alberti clearly accepted this argument himself. ‘For the last fifty years’, he wrote, ‘a struggle has been going on between the sword, which is wielded by the king, and the purse, which is in the hands of the people’. Alberti to Doge and senate, 19/29 Dec. 1673; CSPV, p. 192; see also Alberti to Doge and senate, 8Jan./29 Dec. 1671, CSPV, p. 143; Alberti to Doge and senate, 26 April/6 May 1672, CSPV, p. 205.
175 Burnet, pp. 388, 445–6.
176 Lord Cavendish, 31 Oct. 1673, Grey, 1, 200.
177 Lord Cornbury, 26 Jan. 1674, Grey, 1, 348.
178 Alberti to Doge and senate, 2/12 Jan. 1674, CSPV, p. 196. I agree with Professor Miller that ‘by the end of 1673 that trust [in the King] had been shattered’. But I disagree with him ‘that the reasons for this lay less in the French alliance as such than in what many saw as its likely effects within England’. Since the French alliance was perceived to be the policy of absolutism, the two were inextricably intertwined. War with France would preclude the possibility of absolutism in England. See Miller, p. 175.
179 Sir Heneage Finch, speech for supply, 31 Oct. 1673, Leicestershire Record Office, D.G. 7/Box 4957/ pp. 33.
180 Edmund Verney to Sir Ralph Verney, 25 Jan. 1674, Verney MSS, Reel 27 (unfoliated).
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