ABSTRACT
This chapter argues the political developments of the 1660s and 1670s were crucial for the subsequent development of party strife. It also analyses the origins of the Tory-Whig divide are to be found not so much in the Court-Country tensions that had been developing in the 1660s and 1670s, but rather in the religious conflict between Church and Dissent. The chapter looks at the beginnings of party organization, and suggests that the Court and Country groupings of the 1670s pioneered the techniques of party management which were to be used by the Whigs and Tories after the Popish Plot. The re-emergence of a conflict between Court and Country can be traced back to the latter years of Clarendon's administration. The disappointments of the second Dutch War of 1665-67 brought about the first major political crisis for the Court, and enabled the opposition in Parliament to make successful challenges to the royal prerogative in two crucial respects.
