ABSTRACT
One of the most perceptive reactions to the first Anglo-Dutch War came from an awestruck neutral, who exclaimed that he realized he was watching 'such war as never before was', an apparently mortal struggle of an entirely new character and on an epic scale. These were the first great oceanic wars fought by fleets composed increasingly of great ships, successors to the galleys which had dominated Mediterranean wars for two millennia but were now obsolete even within its confines. The size of the combatant fleets, the resources in men, materiel and money which they absorbed, the complexity of the logistical and administrative support which they required, the intensity of the fighting with major battles fought at short intervals despite appallingly high casualties in personnel, were all new phenomena. The course of each war saw dramatic alternations of fortunes; in 1665 after Lowestoft all other European states were faced with the prospect of total English domination of the seas, but by 1667 they had lost control of even their coastal waters. Subsequently the temporarily triumphant Dutch were reduced in 1672 to the extremity of offering capitulation before what remains as the most skilful and successful defensive naval campaign ever waged ensured their survival, and Charles II was forced by his own subjects to quit the war. This outcome emphasizes the difference between the governmental systems of the two states principally involved, England and the Dutch Republic, and all the other states of Europe, both monarchical and republican. The first war was fought by two entirely new states, the Stadtholderless Dutch Republic, which had in 1651 put the House of Orange into eclipse, and the regicide Commonwealth of England, which since 1649 was engaged in conquering Scotland and Ireland. Even after the English Restoration of 1660 few European sovereigns, or their ministers and subjects, understood the character and workings of the English system of government but were puzzled by the contrast between the naval power which Charles deployed and the political restrictions and limitations on his authority over his own subjects.
