Key Terms You Must Know

📖 Key Terms You Must Know

Navigation Acts

Laws (passed 1651, renewed and strengthened 1660) requiring that goods traded with English colonies must be carried on English ships, crewed largely by English sailors. Their purpose was to destroy Dutch dominance of European carrying trade and build English commercial power. They were the direct economic cause of the Second Dutch War — Holland could not accept English control of colonial trade routes.

Raid on the Medway

The Dutch fleet's attack on the English naval base at Chatham in June 1667. Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter broke through the defensive chain, burned several English ships, and towed away the Royal Charles — the flagship of the English navy, named after the king. It was the worst military humiliation in English history to that point. Londoners could hear the guns. Samuel Pepys wrote that people feared "the ruin of the nation."

Treaty of Breda (1667)

The peace treaty that ended the Second Dutch War, signed in July 1667. England kept New Amsterdam (renamed New York), which it had captured in 1664. But the Dutch kept Surinam, and England lost trading advantages. The treaty was not catastrophic in terms, but the manner of its making — after the Medway humiliation — made it a political disaster for Charles.

Clarendon Code

A series of four Acts passed between 1661 and 1665 that reinforced the Church of England and punished non-conformists: the Corporation Act (1661), Act of Uniformity (1662), Conventicle Act (1664), and Five Mile Act (1665). Named after Lord Chancellor Clarendon, though he did not write them. The Test Act (1673) is NOT part of the Clarendon Code — it was passed eight years later under different circumstances. The Code was a product of Cavalier Parliament's religious conservatism — Clarendon himself had reservations. When Clarendon was dismissed in 1667, partly as a scapegoat for the Dutch War failures, the Code survived but his influence did not.

CABAL

The group of five ministers who replaced Clarendon as Charles's main advisers from 1667: Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, Lauderdale. The name is a coincidental acronym of their surnames. They were a factional, unstable group with conflicting interests — unlike Clarendon's unified counsel. The CABAL's weakness pushed Charles toward seeking French money independently, leading to the Secret Treaty of Dover.

Secret Treaty of Dover (1670)

A secret agreement between Charles II and Louis XIV of France. Charles promised to announce his conversion to Catholicism at a time of his own choosing, and to support France's war against Holland. In return, Louis promised Charles French subsidies (money) that would free him from dependence on Parliament. Only a small inner circle knew the full terms. When the treaty became suspected, it transformed English political life — feeding fears that Charles intended to impose Catholicism on England.

Lord High Admiral

The senior naval officer commanding the English fleet. During the Second Dutch War, this was James, Duke of York — Charles's brother and heir to the throne. James personally commanded at the Battle of Lowestoft (1665), which England won. His role made the navy's subsequent failures personally embarrassing for the royal family, and his later conversion to Catholicism made his naval prominence politically dangerous.

Royal African Company

A trading company granted a monopoly by Charles II in 1660 to trade in slaves and gold on the West African coast. It was one of the commercial flashpoints that contributed to Anglo-Dutch tension — English and Dutch companies raided each other's trading posts and ships on the African coast in the early 1660s. James, Duke of York, was a major investor and later its governor. The company's slave trade was a significant source of friction before the Second Dutch War.