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Were the Difficulties Faced by Charles Ii Due More to Financial Concerns Than Foreign Policy?

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Were the difficulties faced by Charles II due more to financial concerns than foreign policy in the years 1667-1678?

Charles II faced a vast amount of difficulties during his reign, but particularly during the period of 1667-1678. He suffered financial difficulties, foreign policy issues and religious problems. Finance became an obvious problem due to his lack of funds, however his foreign policy was constantly needing money, and a combination of both left Charles with many difficulties.
A substantial difficulty that Charles II faced was that of finance. Finance was a major issue between crown and parliament, especially in-between the years 1665 to 1667. The Crown’s income had dropped by £200,000, and MPs believed that the problems …show more content…

Almost echoing the problems faced with finance was Charles Foreign policy. Charles planned an attack on the Dutch in 1672 with help from the French. This required finance and with the payment of loans, Crown only had an income of £400,000. So, Charles declared the crown bankrupt, making it harder to secure future loans but making parliament give him £1.2 million to fund the attack on the Dutch. This shows the foreign policy being the reason for the difficulties faced by Charles, as a lot of the financial concerns were due to the need to fund wars.
From 1670 Charles had a new alliance with France and he wanted a third war against the Dutch to avenge the humiliation from the second one. Between the years 1673 – 1674 saw the Dutch war go badly and it proved costly. This again showed Charles as facing difficulties from the foreign policy as he was too proud to let the war lie, and therefore again need more funding, relying on finance. Charles was forced to sign the treaty of Westminster in 1674, which was to end the conflict and England kept New York, whilst the Dutch kept Surinam. In 1675 Parliament only voted £300,000 for the Navy, but due to continuing French success against the Dutch, parliament then voted £600,000. This again shows how the foreign policy was affecting the financial situation, which then continues to drive Charles and Parliament away.
The secret treaty also

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