France crosses the Rhine The French offensive began on 4 May 1672 when a subsidiary force under
Condé left
Sedan and marched north along the right bank of the
Meuse. Next day, Louis arrived in
Charleroi to inspect the main army of 50,000 under
Turenne, one of the most magnificent displays of military power in the seventeenth century. Accompanied by Louis, on 17 May Turenne met up with Condé at
Visé, just south of Maastricht; supported by Condé, Louis wanted to besiege the fortress immediately but Turenne convinced him it would be folly to allow the Dutch time to reinforce other positions. Avoiding a direct assault on Maastricht, Turenne prevented it being reinforced by occupying outlying positions at
Tongeren,
Maaseik and
Valkenburg. . Leaving 10,000 men to cover Maastricht, the rest of the French army crossed back over the Meuse, then advanced along the Rhine, supported by troops from
Münster and the
Electorate of Cologne, led by
Luxembourg. The Dutch garrisoned forts intended to defend the Rhine crossings were still severely undermanned and poorly equipped. By 5 June, the French had captured
Rheinberg,
Orsoy and
Burick, with minimal resistance;
Wesel, perhaps the most important fortress, surrendered when the townspeople threatened to butcher the commanders, followed by
Rees on 9 June. Having secured their rear, the bulk of the French army began to cross the Rhine at
Emmerich am Rhein; Grand Pensionary De Witt was deeply shocked by the news of the catastrophe and concluded "the fatherland is now lost". Although the situation on land had become critical for the Dutch, events at sea were much more favourable. On 7 June, Dutch Lieutenant-Admiral
Michiel de Ruyter attacked the Anglo-French fleet as it took on supplies at
Southwold on the English coast. The French squadron under
d'Estrées and English squadrons under the
Duke of York failed to properly coordinate, which meant that the French ended up fighting a separate battle with Lieutenant-Admiral
Adriaen Banckert. This led to mutual recriminations between the two allies. Although ship losses were roughly equal, the
Battle of Solebay ensured the Dutch retained control of their coastal waters, secured their trade routes and ended hopes of an Anglo-French landing in
Zeeland. Anger at the alleged lack of support from D'Estrées increased opposition to the war, and the English Parliament was reluctant to approve funds for essential repairs. For the rest of the year, this restricted English naval operations to a failed attack on the
Dutch East India Company Return Fleet.
IJssel Line is outflanked In early June, the Dutch headquarters at
Arnhem prepared itself for a French onslaught on the IJssel Line. Only twenty thousand troops could be assembled to block a crossing and a dry spring meant that the river could be forded at many points. Nevertheless, there seemed to be no alternative but to make a last stand at the IJssel. However, should the enemy outflank this river by crossing the
Lower Rhine into the
Betuwe, the field army would fall back to the west to prevent being surrounded and quickly annihilated. The commander of Fort
Schenkenschanz protecting the Lower Rhine abandoned his position. When he arrived at Arnhem with his troops, immediately a force of two thousand horse and foot under Field Marshal Paulus Wirtz was sent out to cover the Betuwe. At arrival they intercepted French cavalry crossing at a ford pointed out to them by a farmer. A bloody encounter fight followed but in this
Battle of Tolhuis on 12 June, the Dutch cavalry was eventually overwhelmed by French reinforcements. Louis personally observed the battle from the
Elterberg. Condé was shot through the wrist. In France, this battle was celebrated as a major victory and paintings of the
Passage du Rhin have this crossing as their subject, not the earlier one at Emmerich. Captain-General William Henry now wanted the entire field army to fall back on Utrecht. However, in 1666 the provinces had regained full sovereignty of their forces.
Overijssel and
Guelders in June 1672 withdrew their troops from the confederated army. The French army made little effort to cut off the escape route of the Dutch field army. Turenne recrossed the Lower Rhine to attack Arnhem, while part of his army moved to the
Waal towards
Fort Knodsenburg at
Nijmegen. Louis wanted to besiege
Doesburg first, on the east side of the IJssel, taking it on 21 June. The king delayed the capture somewhat to allow his brother,
Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, to take
Zutphen some days earlier. On his right flank, the armies of Münster and Cologne, reinforced by a French corps under de Luxembourg, advanced to the north along the river, after having taken
Grol on 10 June and
Bredevoort on 18 June. The IJssel cities panicked.
Deventer seceded from the Republic and again rejoined the
Holy Roman Empire on 25 June. Then, the province of Overijssel surrendered as a whole to the bishop of Münster,
Bernard von Galen, whose troops plundered towns on the west side of the IJssel, such as
Hattem,
Elburg and
Harderwijk, on 21 June. Louis ordered Luxembourg to expel them again, as he wanted to make the duchy of Guelders a French possession. Annoyed, Von Galen announced to advance to the north of the Republic and invited de Luxembourg to follow him by wading through the IJssel, as no pontoon bridge was available. Exasperated, Luxembourg got permission from Louis to withhold his corps and the army of Cologne from the Münsterite forces. From that point onwards, Von Galen would wage a largely separate campaign. He started to besiege
Coevorden on 20 June. Von Galen, nicknamed "Bomb Berend", was an expert on artillery ammunition and had devised the first practical incendiary shell or
carcass. With such fire shot he intimidated the garrison of Coevorden into a quick surrender on 1 July. He was advised by his subcommanders to subsequently plunder the hardly defended
Friesland and use vessels captured there to isolate
Groningen, the largest city in the north. Alternatively, he could take Delfzijl, allowing a landing by an English expeditionary force. But the bishop feared the Protestant British would make common cause with the Calvinist Groningers and expected that his siege mortars would force a fast capitulation, starting the
Siege of Groningen on 21 July.
Peace negotiations , as its magistrates formally surrender on 30 June 1672 On 14 June, William arrived with the remnants of the field army, some eight thousand men, at
Utrecht. The common citizens had taken over the city gates and refused him entrance. In talks with the official city council, William had to admit that he had no intention to defend the city but would retreat behind the
Holland Water Line, a series of
inundations protecting the core province of Holland. Eventually, the council of Utrecht delivered the keys of the gates to Henri Louis d'Aloigny (the Marquis de Rochefort), to avoid plundering. On 18 June, William withdrew his forces. The flooding was not ready yet, only having been ordered on 8 June, and the countryside of Holland was defenceless against the French. On 19 June, the French took the fortress of
Naarden close to Amsterdam. In a defeatist mood a divided
States of Holland – Amsterdam was more pugnacious – sent a delegation to de Louvois in
Zeist to ask for peace terms, headed by
Pieter de Groot. The French king was offered the
Generality Lands and ten million guilders. Compared to the eventual outcome of the war, these conditions were very favourable to France. It would have led to territorial gains in the Low Countries for France not equalled until 1810. The Generality Lands included the fortresses of Breda, 's-Hertogenbosch and Maastricht. Their possession would have greatly facilitated the conquest of the Spanish Netherlands, and the remaining Republic would have been little more than a French satellite state. De Louvois, rather bemused that the Estates had not capitulated but still considered some damage control possible, demanded far harsher terms. The Dutch were given the choice of surrendering their southern fortresses, permitting religious freedom for Catholics and a payment of six million guilders, or France and Münster retaining their existing gains – thus the loss of Overijssel, Guelders and Utrecht – and a single payment of sixteen million livres. Louis knew perfectly well that the delegation did not have the mandate to agree such terms and would have to return for new instructions. However, he also did not continue his advance to the west. Several explanations have been given for this policy. The French were rather overwhelmed by their success. They had within a month captured three dozen fortresses. This strained their organisational and logistical capacities. All these strongholds had to be garrisoned and supplied. An intrusion into Holland proper seemed meaningless to them, unless Amsterdam could be besieged. This city would be a very problematic target. It had a population of 200,000 and could raise a large civil militia, reinforced by thousands of sailors. As the city had recently expanded, its fortifications were the best maintained in the Republic. Their normal armament of three hundred pieces was being enlarged by the militia hauling the reserve ordnance of the
Admiralty of Amsterdam upon the ramparts which began to bristle with thousands of cannon. The low-lying surrounding terrain, below sea level, was easily flooded, making a traditional attack via trenches impractical. The battle fleet could support the fortifications from the
IJ and
Zuyderzee with gun fire, meanwhile ensuring a constant resupply of the food and ammunition stocks. A deeper problem was that Amsterdam was the world's main
financial centre. The
promissory notes with which many of the French military and the contractors had been paid, were covered by the gold and silver reserves of the Amsterdam banks. Their loss would mean the collapse of Europe's financial system and the personal bankruptcy of large segments of the French elite. Relations with England were also delicate. Louis had promised Charles to make William Henry the Sovereign Prince of a Holland
rump state and puppet state. He very much preferred that it would be France pulling the strings but there was a distinct possibility that the uncle of the prince would be in control. Louis had not mentioned William in his peace conditions. The very patricians that the French king desired to punish were traditionally pro-French and his natural allies against the pro-English Orangists. He wanted to simply annex Holland and hoped that fear of the Orangists would cause the
regenten to surrender the province to him. Of course, the opposite might happen too: that a French advance would lead to the Orangists taking power and capitulating to England. The province of Zealand had already decided to rather make Charles their lord than be subjugated by the French. Only fear of the military power of De Ruyter's fleet had kept them from surrendering outright to the English. De Ruyter would not tolerate any talk of capitulation and intended, if necessary, to take the fleet overseas to continue the fight. Louis feared the English wanted to claim
Staats-Vlaanderen which he saw as French territory because the
County of Flanders was a
fief of the French crown. In secret he arranged an informal warband of six thousand under
Claude Antoine de Dreux to quickly cross the officially neutral Spanish Flanders and execute a
surprise assault on the Dutch fortress of
Aardenburg, on 25–26 June. The attempt was a total failure, the small garrison killing hundreds of attackers and taking prisoner over six hundred Frenchmen who had become pinned down in a
ravelin. Louis also allowed his honour to take precedence over the
raison d'état. The harsh peace conditions upon which he insisted were meant to humiliate the Dutch. He demanded an annual embassy to the French court asking pardon for their perfidy and presenting a
plaquette extolling the magnanimity of the French king. For Louis, a campaign was not complete without some major siege to enhance his personal glory. The quick surrender of so many cities had been somewhat disappointing in this respect. Maastricht having escaped him for the time being, he turned his attention on an even more prestigious object: 's-Hertogenbosch, which was considered "inexpugnable". The city was not only a formidable fortress in itself, it was surrounded by a rare fortification belt. Normally its marshy surroundings would make a siege impossible but its presently weak garrison seemed to offer some possibility of success. After
Nijmegen had been taken on 9 July, Turenne captured near 's-Hertogenbosch
Fort Crèvecœur, which controlled the sluice outlets of the area, halting further inundations. The main French force, thus removed from the Holland war theatre, camped around
Boxtel and Louis took residence in
Heeswijk Castle.
Orangists take power The news that the French had penetrated into the heart of the Republic led to a general panic in the cities of the province of Holland. Blaming the States regime for the Dutch collapse, their populations rioted. Members of the city councils were by force replaced by
Orangist partisans or in fear of reprisals declared for the cause of the Prince of Orange. Pamphlets accused the
regenten of having betrayed the Republic to Louis and De Ruyter of wanting to deliver the fleet to the French. When the French peace terms became known on 1 July, they caused outrage. The result was to bolster Dutch resistance. On 2 July, William was appointed
stadtholder of Zealand and on 4 July of Holland. The new stadtholder William III of Orange was given a general mandate to negotiate. Meanwhile, the
polders of the Holland Water Line had slowly filled, forming an obstacle to a possible French advance. Charles thought that William's rise to power allowed to quickly obtain a peace favourable to England. He sent two of his ministers to Holland. They were received with jubilation by the population, who assumed they came to save them from the French. Arriving at the Dutch army camp in
Nieuwerbrug, they proposed to install William as monarch of a Principality of Holland. In return he should pay ten million guilders as "indemnities" and formalise a permanent military English occupation of the ports of Brill,
Sluys and
Flushing. England would respect the French and Münsterite conquests. To their surprise, William flatly refused. He indicated that he might be more pliable if they managed to moderate the French peace terms. They then travelled to Heeswijk Castle, but the
Accord of Heeswijk they agreed there was even harsher, England and France promising never to conclude a separate peace. France demanded the areas of Brabant, Limburg and Guelders. Charles tried to right matters by writing a very moderate letter to William, claiming that the only obstacle to peace was the influence of De Witt. William made counteroffers unacceptable to Charles but also on 15 August published the letter to incite the population. On 20 August,
Johan and
Cornelis de Witt were lynched by an Orangist civil militia, leaving William in control. Observing that the water around 's-Hertogenbosch showed little sign of receding, Louis became impatient and lifted the siege on 26 July. Leaving his main force of 40,000 behind, he took 18,000 men with him, and marched to Paris within a week, straight through the Spanish Netherlands. He freed 12,000 Dutch prisoners of war for a small ransom, to avoid having to pay for their maintenance, allowing the majority to rejoin the Dutch States Army, which by August contained 57,000 men.
War of attrition In June, the Dutch seemed defeated. The Amsterdam stock market collapsed and their international credit evaporated. Frederick William, the Elector of Brandenburg, in these circumstances hardly dared to threaten the eastern borders of Münster. A single loyal ally remained: the Spanish Netherlands. They well understood that if the Dutch capitulated, they too would be lost. Although officially neutral, and forced to allow the French to transgress their territory with impunity, they openly reinforced the Dutch with thousands of troops. Concern at French gains brought the support of
Brandenburg-Prussia,
Emperor Leopold and
Charles II of Spain. Instead of a rapid victory, Louis was forced into a war of attrition around the French frontiers; in August, Turenne ended his offensive against the Dutch and proceeded to Germany with 25,000 infantry and 18,000 cavalry. Frederick William and Leopold combined their forces of around 25,000 under the Imperial general
Raimondo Montecuccoli; he crossed the Rhine at
Koblenz in January 1673 but Turenne forced him to retreat into northern Germany. The faltering offensive caused financial problems for the anti-Dutch allies, especially England. Münster was in an even worse condition; on 27 August it had to abandon the siege of Groningen. Whereas the Dutch had managed to supply the city through waterways at its northern edge, Von Galen's troops were starving and had largely deserted. Largely due to an effective guerrilla campaign by troops from Friesland under
Hans Willem van Aylva against their supply lines. Also, his siege mortars had lost the artillery duel with the fortress cannon, gradually having been destroyed. Before the end of 1672, the Dutch under
Carl von Rabenhaupt retook
Coevorden and liberated the province of Drenthe, leaving the Allies in possession of only three of the ten—the territories of
Drenthe,
Staats-Brabant, and
Staats-Overmaas were also part of the republic—Dutch provincial areas. The supply lines of the French army were dangerously overextended. In the autumn of 1672, William tried to cut them off, crossing the Spanish Netherlands via Maastricht in forced marches to attack
Charleroi, the starting point of the supply route through Liège, though he had to abandon the siege quickly. The absence of the Dutch field army offered opportunities for the French to renew their offensive. On 27 December, after a severe frost, Luxembourg began to cross the ice of the Water Line with eight thousand men, hoping to sack The Hague. A sudden thaw cut his force in half and he narrowly escaped to his own lines with the remainder, on his way back massacring the civilian population of
Bodegraven and
Zwammerdam. This increased the hatred against Luxembourg. The province of Utrecht was one of the richest regions of Europe and
intendant Louis Robert had extorted large sums from its wealthy inhabitants. The French applied the not-unusual method of
mettre à contribution: unless noble refugees or Amsterdam merchants made regular payments, their luxury mansions would be burnt down. This made the general the favourite subject of Dutch anti-French propaganda. Special books were published highlighting the outrages he committed, illustrated by
Romeyn de Hooghe. The most common Dutch school book, the
Mirror of Youth, that had been dedicated to Spanish misdeeds, was now rewritten to reflect French atrocities. ==1673==