13 - The Anglo-Dutch treaty of 1662

Summary

Despite the predictions of all the international pundits, no Anglo-Dutch war did break out in the summer of 1662. What explains this tremendous change of events? In order to answer that question it is necessary to examine English domestic politics.

The Restoration, even if it was not a complete return to the pre-Civil War polity, was a victory for the Anglican Royalists. Republicans, religious radicals, and even some Cromwellians were quite dissatisfied with the new regime. But the discussion and ultimate passage in May 1662 of the Act of Uniformity deeply offended the sensibilities of the Presbyterians who considered themselves responsible for the triumphant return of Charles II. The strict requirements of the Act of Uniformity made it impossible for even the more moderate of Presbyterian clergymen to remain within the Established Church. For many it must have seemed as if the ideological and religious divisions of the late 1630s and 1640s had been recreated.

Not surprisingly the movement of the Bill for Uniformity through the Houses of Parliament began to rekindle old fears. The Essex minister Ralph Josselin “heard many strange passages visional and prophetical of alterations in England.” The passage of the Act forced Independents, Presbyterians, and sectaries to shelve the differences which had dominated the politics of the 1640s and 1650s. “Three or four societies that for this 12 years or more could scarcely give each other a good word now upon publishing of the Act of Uniformity are all united,” warned the government informant William Williamson, “there will be some villainy designed or else they lost their old orders.”