436 Three Horsemen

December 21, 2025·40 min·3 clips

At the Battle of Lowestoft, chainshot decapitated courtiers and a Dutch flagship exploded in a brutal naval clash.

January 1665 finally snaps. The Dutch declare war first, and England answers in March after a delay, turning pressure into open conflict. Minette is a force in the story. Charles gets help and pressure from his 20-year-old sister Henrietta, married to Louis XIV's brother and very much alive to hard international politics. She wants alignment. Her aim, as presented here, is to bring France and England together against the Dutch, without much misty sentiment getting in the way. Louis is in no rush. He would rather watch England and the Dutch bruise each other while he waits for his own opening in the Spanish Netherlands. That is the trick. Louis can quietly nix Anglo-Danish negotiations, refuse arbitration, and give the Dutch almost nothing useful. The Dutch still ask. Their defensive alliance with Louis eventually produces something, but the host makes it sound thin indeed. Then Scotland gets clobbered. For the Scots, this is plainly an English war, with Dutch trade at risk and no matching access to English markets. They share a king, not the commercial upside, and the Dutch embargo Scotland anyway because wartime does not care much for union niceties. Charles does not pause. Neither does his Privy Council. Round two is coming, and the host frames the Anglo-Dutch war as two whales, not a mismatch.

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