The so-called political crisis of 1672 was in fact a series of factional disputes caused by the superficial contradiction between the Republicans and the Orange faction. In this political crisis, caused by the threat of French invasion, the Republicans were accused of being too pro-French and attacked by the Orange faction, which had coerced the will of the people, and finally had to retreat.

In this confrontation, many merchants, who feared a French invasion of their country, sided with the Prince of Orange. Although they usually scolded the Orange faction members one by one, when the crisis came, their bodies still lay down on the other side very honestly, because they believed that only the Orange family had the ability to protect the United Province from the French invasion.

Now, in the 80s, as the persecution of Protestants by the French became more and more excessive, countless French Huguenots came to Amsterdam, all of whom were members of the social elite who were able to speak and describe the terrible news that had taken place all over France, which caused widespread outrage in the United Provinces throughout society. In such a situation, there were many people within the republicans who were afraid of the French, so that the tone of improving relations with France, which they had advocated for many years, could not be sung. In addition, the Orange faction blamed the republicans for "general law", whether this thing was true or not, in short, many centrists had doubts about them, and the living environment of the entire republicans deteriorated rapidly, making them fall further into a state of weakness, and gradually lose the checks and balances on the Orange faction - the whole process was almost the same as back then, and every time the Orange faction sat up, it was almost inseparable from the French.

Lin Dingzhi just said that he was worried that this time it would turn into a political crisis in 1672, and the underlying meaning was not actually the French, but the English on the other side of the North Sea.

In recent years, since the accession of King James II, there has been a fierce conflict with the bourgeois members of Parliament over domestic taxation and religious policies. This man ascended the throne in 1685 after the death of his brother Charles II, and as soon as he ascended the throne, he encountered the rebellion of his brother's illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth.

At that time, because James II was a Catholic and Monmouth was a Protestant, many merchants or conservative nobles in England supported the Duke of Monmouth, and secretly sent money and weapons. Monmouth had only three ships sponsored by the Dutch (in this case, William III clearly did not want a single Catholic to take control of England), and there were no more than 100 followers, but within two days of landing, more than 2,000 horsemen came to join him. Everyone called King James II "Duke of York" and "Catholic tyrant", and called on all the people to rise up and eliminate violence.

Subsequently, when the rebel forces were still weak, the Duke of Albemarle, the highest military governor of Devon, had 4,000 troops at hand, and he simply abandoned the suppression and withdrew, on the grounds that he found that his army "loved the Duke of Monmouth". The rebels made their way to Taunton unhindered, and the local people surrendered immediately because of their opposition to King James, and the nearby nobles rushed to join them. Here Monmouth received a military flag and a Bible hand-sewn by twenty noble maidens, and was persuaded by the crowd to become king, proclaiming James II the Catholic a false king.

The Duke of Monmouth's army had grown to six or seven thousand men, and began to storm the city everywhere, and the momentum was so strong that people came to take refuge almost every day. At this time, James was still fighting with the parliamentarians in Congress, asking them to allocate funds to suppress the rebellion, and the parliamentarians took the opportunity to put forward many conditions, which caused James's outrage.

The French came to the aid of James II at the critical moment, and they sponsored James II with a lot of money, which enabled him to recall the six legions stationed in the United Provinces, and at the same time urgently formed a force of 3,000 men from London, under the command of Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, to the west to contain the expansion of the rebel army - he did not ask Churchill to defeat the rebels now, that was unrealistic, he only asked them to maintain the situation.

At this time, the members of Parliament, seeing that things had changed, did not hold on to the king, so they stopped insisting and finally agreed to allocate 400,000 pounds for military expenses to suppress the rebellion. But even so, James II was already very jealous of these people, and distrustful of the nobles and merchants who tried to take refuge in Monmouth, and the rift between the English monarchs and ministers became more and more obvious.

After thwarting a plot to start a rebellion in London, James II left the capital with his army and headed west to quell the rebellion. At this time, he showed good military qualities and extraordinary courage, personally commanded in the Battle of Sedgmore, and in one fell swoop crushed the main force of the Monmouth rebels. In this battle, James's army was broken up for a time, but under excellent command, it still won the victory, completely crushing the main rebel force - the Duke of Monmouth, after fleeing the battlefield, exchanged clothes with a peasant, and was finally found by the king's army in a ditch, and then escorted back to London to be guillotined.

The rebellion was thus quelled. But James II was still not satisfied, because many important members of the Monmouth rebels were not found, and it was clear that someone had sheltered them. Moreover, seeing that the rebellion had subsided, the parliamentarians who had promised to allocate 400,000 pounds also stopped continuing to allocate funds, and the actual cost was not even 300,000 pounds, and the remaining balance was resolutely refused, which made James a little angry.

In addition to this, MPs also demanded that James II stop imposing a number of taxes, including customs duties, and instead return the right to Congress. Their reason is very good, that is, these rights were originally approved by Parliament to Charles II, and now that Charles II is dead, naturally these taxes go to the state, not James II himself - it is obvious that the financial power of the country is in the hands of Parliament, and if the king does not even have some private money, he will naturally not be able to do anything, which is equivalent to a puppet in the hands of Parliament.

James II was naturally reluctant to be the puppet king, so relations with Parliament became increasingly strained, and some conflicts broke out from time to time. At this time, the fatal rumor began to spread rapidly that the bourgeois parliamentarians of England were deploring the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth and were now looking for a new suitable man to succeed to the throne of England. And in order to appease his subjects, it would be better for the new king to be a wise and martial Protestant, so that William III, the consul of the United Provinces, and his wife seem to be good candidates.

At this time, William III also vaguely expressed that he was "not rejected" to the throne of England, and repeatedly talked in public about how wrong and cruel his father-in-law James II's religious policy was, which undoubtedly greatly catered to the preferences of the bourgeois parliamentarians in England, making them more and more important to William III and his wife.

Compared to them, the current king of England, James II, had a very uncomfortable life. Parliament was stuck with the royal family in money at every turn, and the subjects were mostly Protestants, and they were very suspicious of the king's Catholic faith, so James II had become more and more dependent on the aid of the French, otherwise he would not be able to sustain himself in England. And this dependence itself exacerbated the ill-willed feelings of the parliamentarians and his subjects, who also regarded the French as unreliable hostile forces, and the persecution of the Huguenots in recent years made the influence of the British on France fall to the bottom, and even James II received a lot of additional reproaches.

The Republicans in the United Provinces were somewhat disillusioned by the interaction between the Prince of Orange and the British MPs, who were the main commercial rivals of the Dutch, and the two sides were fiercely engaged in business in the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean, and even Russia. Under these circumstances, how could the Dutch capitalists look down on their British counterparts? Therefore, they intend to persuade the provincial councillors and chief delegates in the Estates-General to pass a motion that the Orange family must not betray the interests of the United Provinces at any time, and that if they violate this (e.g. as the head of state of another country), they will automatically lose their positions in the United Provinces and all power will return to the Estates-Generals.

There is no doubt that this was a well-designed motion against William III. Because there was a lot of evidence that the English were inviting William III to London to rectify the situation, and William III himself was somewhat moved by this, the Estates-General wanted to do everything in their power to avoid the worst-case scenario, that is, William III insisted on going to England to challenge James II's throne, so that he should also be cut off from the United Provinces, so that he would not control two powerful trading countries at the same time.

It is conceivable that this bill will definitely be strongly sniped by all sides, but the Republicans do not intend to give up, and must fight to the end with those Orange family dogs. Therefore, if this kind of thing is not done properly, it is very likely to detonate the political crisis in the United Provinces again, and this is no joke.

Lin Dingzhi has studied the triangular relationship between Britain, France, and the Netherlands all year round, and he does not dare to say anything about it, but he is definitely very familiar with it. In his opinion, William III's departure to England as king was unacceptable to the people on the East coast and must be prevented by a certain means. The reason for this is very simple, that is, it is related to the grand strategy of the Eastern Coast Republic, more precisely, to the balance of the mainland -

Many years ago, as early as the days when Xu Xin and Zheng Yong presided over the diplomatic mouth, they set a policy of balancing the European continent including England, that is, England balanced the situation on the European continent, and the people on the east coast used this to balance the situation of the entire European continent, including England. To put it more plainly, England likes to encourage Austria, France and other countries to fight each other to balance the situation on the European continent, but the East Coast prefers to see the English also fight, while the East Coast silently supports behind the scenes.

They have this self-confidence. The Kingdom of England now has only colonies in North America and the Caribbean, and there are some small trade-oriented colonies in Africa and India, which are not too strong, and the lifeblood is in the hands of the East Coast (Cape Freeport), and the East Coast people are confident enough to suppress the development of the Kingdom of England and prevent it from growing into a force that can challenge them. Therefore, the diplomatic relationship between them and Britain was actually one of both guard and cooperation, and in a private chat, Xu Xin and Zheng compared the relationship between Britain and Japan before the Russo-Japanese War, that is, to cultivate a decent thug, and once the situation on the mainland could not be controlled, let this thug also go down and rebalance the situation. So, the relationship between the East Coast and Britain was complex, as was their relationship with France, both cooperative and confrontational, depending on how the international situation changed.

From this point of view, you can understand why the East Coasters are difficult to accept William III's entry into London, that is, they are afraid that the East Coasters will no longer be able to control them after the strength of England skyrockets! This is one of the two things that the East Coasters fear most in Western Europe, the other being the annexation of the Iberian Peninsula and Northern Italy by France, which has the potential to challenge the East Coast Republic by transforming itself into a composite power on land and sea.

Therefore, Lin Dingzhi came to The Hague from Paris this time, not just to ventilate Van Boiningen and them. His greater intention was to mobilize the republicans and find a way to create obstacles for William III to prevent him from going to England. At worst, even if William III ascends the throne of England, it is absolutely unacceptable to let him cut off from the United Provinces, and never let him serve as the head of two countries at the same time.