Although primarily a European war between the English and the French against the Dutch, the 3rd Anglo Dutch war ( 7 April 1672 to 19 February 1674) did involve action in the colonies. The impetus of the war was the Secret Treaty of Dover (1670) when Charles II of England agreed to support an attack by Louis XIV of France on the Dutch Republic. This occurred because Louis hoped to gain control of the Spanish Netherlands in return for Charles receiving secret payments to make him financially independent of the British Parliament. Primarily a naval war, the French Fleet, supported by the British, first attacked the Dutch Republic in May, 1672. There were several, subsequent battles during which time Dutch territory was lost and regained. but the war ended inconclusively with the Second Peace of Westminster in February 1674.

In the colonies, the Dutch lost control of New Netherlands/New Amsterdam in 1664 to the English (see the note in other posts in this timeline). But during the war in 1673, a Dutch Fleet sailed to New York harbor where the assistant governor, Captain John Manning – Governor Francis Lovelace was away in Connecticut – surrendered control of the colony back to the Dutch. So for one year, Dutch government was restored to the former colonel, until it was permanently ceded back to the English in the Second Peace of Westminster in February 1674, which ended the war in Europe. Among other concessions, Charles II’s nephew, William of Orange, was made stadtholder of the Holland.