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Charles II.

The Treaty of Dover, also known as the Secret Treaty of Dover, was an offensive and defensive treaty between England and France signed at Dover in 1670. It required France to assist England in her aim to rejoin the Roman Catholic Church and England to assist France in her war of conquest against the Dutch Republic. The Third Anglo-Dutch war is a direct consequence of this treaty.

Henrietta Anne, Charles II's youngest sister assisted in the negotiations that led to the Secret Treaty of Dover.^[1]

Exactly who first proposed the alliance between these two traditional enemies is unknown, as is the date when the possibility was first discussed. However, it is known that the two nations had discussed forming a closer relationship since 1663. The only participants in the talks to begin with were King Louis XIV of France, King Charles II, and Charles's sister Henrietta Anne Duchesse d'Orléans. Henrietta Anne was also Louis's sister-in-law through her marriage to his only brother Phillippe Duc d'Orléans.

No real progress was made in the negotiations until 1669 after Charles allegedly held a meeting with some of his advisors. During this meeting Charles announced that he wished to officially convert to Catholicism and at the same time reunite his lands with the Roman Catholic Church. Whether this meeting actually took place is a source of intense speculation. Although much of the groundwork had been laid by Henrietta Anne, the finer points and actual provisions of the treaty were hammered out by Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington and Sir Thomas Clifford.

In the treaty signed at Dover, Louis promised to provide Charles with ample funds (to free Charles from dependence on Parliament) and a force of 6,000 troops so that he could successfully convert England (and presumably Scotland) to Roman Catholicism. Further, Charles was to abandon England's Triple Alliance with Sweden and the Dutch Republic in favour of assisting Louis in conquering the Dutch Republic. Provided that the conquest was successfully completed, England was promised several very profitable ports along one of the major rivers that run through the Dutch Republic.

The Third Anglo-Dutch War failed to go off as originally planned. The costs of deploying the English fleet were much greater than expected, and the money sent by Louis to offset the costs wasn't even close to enough. Furthermore the Dutch, led by Captain-General William III of Orange put up a much better fight than expected. Desperate for funds, Charles was forced to call Parliament into session for the first time in over two years. He had hoped to keep it prorogued in order to wage the war without its oversight. In 1674, largely because of pressure put upon Charles by Parliament, England signed the Treaty of Westminster ending their involvement in the third Anglo-Dutch War. The French would continue to fight for another four years before they signed the Treaty of Nijmegen.

In 1672, Charles issued a Declaration of Indulgence which suspended the penal laws against nonconforming Protestants. This same declaration also relaxed (but did not suspend) the penal laws applying to Roman Catholics. When Parliament reconvened that year they denounced the Declaration and announced that the English Monarch did not possess the power to issue proclamations that suspended penal laws passed by the Parliament. Furthermore they refused to fund the ongoing Third Anglo-Dutch War until the declaration was withdrawn. Charles was forced to comply with Parliament's demands. By doing so, he ended any chance of achieving his dream of reconciling England with the Roman Catholic Church.

1. ^ Stephen Coote Royal Survivor: The Life of Charles II 2000, ISBN: 031222687X

• List of treaties

• Charles and Madame by Cyril Hughes Hartman
• Royal Survivor by Stephen Coote
• The Life of King James II of England & etc as Collected from works writ by his own Hand