The Third Anglo-Dutch War or Third Dutch War, a military conflict between England and the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands lasting from 1672 to 1674, is part of the larger Franco-Dutch War.
The Royal Navy joins France in its attack on the Republic, but is frustrated in its attempts to blockade the Dutch coast by four strategic victories by Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter.
An attempt to make the province of Holland an English protectorate rump state likewise fails.
Parliament, fearful that the alliance with France is part of a plot to make England Roman Catholic, forces the king to abandon the costly and fruitless war
