"Le Tellier and Louvois, his son, who had the war department,
trembled at the success and at the credit of Colbert, and had no difficulty in putting
into the head of the King a new war, the success of which caused such fear to
all Europe that France never recovered from it, and after having been upon the
point of succumbing to this war, for a long time felt the weight and misfortune
of it. Such was the real cause of that famous
Dutch war, to which the King allowed himself to be pushed, and which his love
for Madame de Montespan rendered so unfortunate for his glory and for his
kingdom. Everything being conquered,
everything taken, and Amsterdam ready to give up her keys, the King yields to
his impatience, quits the army, flies to Versailles, and destroys in an instant
all the success of his arms! He repaired
this disgrace by a second conquest, in person, of Franche-Comte, which this
time was preserved by France.
" (Duc de Saint-Simon)
"The war of 1672–78 was the first of the great wars of Louis XIV of
France. It was fought to end Dutch competition with French trade and to
extend Louis XIV's empire. Having obtained the support of Charles II of
England by the secret Treaty of Dover (1670) and allied himself with
Sweden and several German states, Louis overran the southern provinces
of the Netherlands (May, 1672). The Dutch stopped his advance on
Amsterdam by opening the dikes; about the same time, under the command
of De Ruyter, the Dutch defeated the English and French fleets at
Southwold Bay. When Dutch peace proposals made at this juncture were
spurned by the French, a revolution broke out, and William of Orange
(later William III of England) took over Dutch leadership from the
ill-fated Jan de Witt (July, 1672). William's attempt to divide the
French lines and enter France was countered by the French seizure of
Maastricht (1673).
By the end of the year the French were forced to
retreat, and Spain, the Holy Roman emperor, Brandenburg, Denmark, and
other powers entered the war on the side of the Dutch. In 1674, England
made peace with the Dutch. Nevertheless, the military situation changed
in favor of France. In 1674, Louis II de Condé [...] won the
battle of Seneff, while Turenne [...] was victorious at
Sinzheim. The defeats Créquy suffered in 1675 were balanced by the
successful naval campaign of Abraham Duquesne in 1676, and in 1677 the
French defeated William at Cassel and took Freiburg. Peace was
negotiated at Nijmegen in 1678. Maastricht was ceded to the Dutch and a
trade treaty modified the French restrictive tariffs in favor of the
Dutch. By a subsequent treaty with Spain, Louis received Franche-Comté
and a chain of border fortresses in return for evacuating the Spanish
Netherlands. By a treaty with the Holy Roman emperor (1679), France was
confirmed in possession of Freiburg and a part of Lorraine" (Steingrad)
