Add MS 78401

EVELYN PAPERS. Vol. CCXXXIV. Notes and `minutes' for Evelyn's History of the Second Dutch War, headed `Excerpta &c. Periodus III . . . The Thirde Booke', with `Progresse of the Dutch War' added; [1671-1673]. Autograph draft. Consisting partly of his own notes and partly of notes from other sources, and including a chronological summary and a narrative of the naval campaign in 1666. According to an account the History in Evelyn’s letter to Lord Clifford of 31 Aug. 1671 (Diary and Correspondence, III, p. 229), the first part or `period’ covered Anglo-Dutch relations from 1586 till 1660, and `herein a deduction of all the notorious injuries and affronts which the English have suffered from the Dutch'; the second part covered the period 1660 to 1666, in 169 paragraphs, and third continued the narrative until the Treaty of Breda in 1667. In December 1681 Evelyn lent the unfinished text of the History and related papers on the fishery to Samuel Pepys (see Add. MS 15948, f. 156, and Particular Friends, ed. Guy de la Bédoyère (1997), pp. 123, 129). The latter are still in his archive (see below); the text of the history is not known to survive. See Add. 78393, ff. 21-43, for some further papers relating to this project. Beal EvJ 68. Formerly Evelyn MS 134.

The progress of the history is as follows: having pointed out to Clifford that the Dutch government had licensed histories of the War which were critical of England, Evelyn was commissioned by the King in June 1670 to compose a rival work, and told to `make it a little keen' (Diary, pp. 527, 540, 545). He was given access to state papers, including `ten paper-bookes of Dispatches & Treaties' (Diary, III, pp. 562-563; CSPD 1670, p. 490), and in January 1671 he presented the King with a synopsis of the work (Beal EvJ 73, `The Chiefe Heads or Titles, which I propose to my Selfe, in the Contexture of the late Warr with Holland', 7 folio leaves; see also CSPD 1671, pp. 54-55). In August he presented Clifford with a draft of the preface, `in obedience to a suggestion of My Lord Arlington's, requiring of me a complete deduction of the progress of navigation and commerce, from its first principle to the present age ... since all our contests and differences with the Hollanders derive only from that source'; but he warned that the history itself would run to 800 or 1000 folio pages (Diary and Correspondence, ed. Bray, III, pp. 228-231). His heart was not in the task. After the outbreak of the Third Dutch War in March 1672 he was more in sympathy with the Dutch than the French allies, and Clifford's resignation in 1673 deprived him of his main patron and source of information. On 9 Jan. 1674 he was asked by the King to write something for rapid publication `against the Hollanders, about the Duty of the flag & fisherie' (Diary, IV, p. 30). The result was `A succinct but full deduction of his Majesties indubitable Title to the Dominion and Sovereignty of the British Seas, and consequently the Fishery and Duties thereunto' and `A letter written to a Friend concerning the Interest of his Majestye and the nation in the Fishery and Duties appendant to it' (Magdalene College, Cambridge 2504, item 673, 649; HMC Pepys MSS, pp. 267-268; Beal EvJ 96, 97). The first was published together with the preface under the title Navigation and Commerce, their Original and Progress in 1674. But before it could appear a peace treaty was signed and the Dutch ambassador complained abou the hostile tone of the work. It was suppressed by order of the King to the Stationers’ Company, although he assured Evelyn that he approved of it and had the copies restored to the printer (Keynes, Evelyn: a Study in Bibliophily, pp. 202-204). Evelyn then abandoned the History altogether; `in summ I had no thankes for what I had don, and have ben accounted since (I suppose) a useless fop, and fit onely to plant coleworts' (Particular Friends, p. 130: 28 April 1682).

ff. ii + 66. British Library binding. 190 x 150mm.