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Wikipedia said:
When a Dutch mission arrived suing for peace, Louis demanded only Delfzijl, by far the least important port Charles desired, for the English. Yet, when he was offered the southern fortresses of the Republic — the French possession of which would make the Spanish Netherlands indefensible[19] — and ten million guilders, he refused. Knowing that the mission was not allowed to make any concessions on the point of religion and the territorial integrity of the provinces themselves (the southern fortress cities of Breda, 's-Hertogenbosch and Maastricht were in the Generality Lands), Louis demanded – besides twenty million guilders and an annual embassy from the States General to Louis asking pardon for their perfidy – either religious freedom for the Catholics or lordship over Utrecht and Guelders, his sole motivation being to humiliate the Dutch a bit further.[20] But he did not continue his military advance, fearing to drive the Dutch into the hands of Charles. Louis waited while the mission returned to ask for new instructions, which would take some time given the decentralised nature of the Dutch administration; all the city councils would have to be consulted on the issue. Meanwhile the water gradually filled the polders of the defence line. On 7 July, the inundations were fully set and the province of Holland was safe from a further French advance.

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So let's say Louis XIV accepts the offer of the Dutch peace mission and takes the Generality Lands from the Republic and calls that a victory (which it would be since his lands would completely surround the Spanish Netherlands). What would the consequences be? He promised Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I that he would leave the Spanish Netherlands alone, but agreements can be broken of course. Personally, I could see Louis XIV do that in order to establish the Rhine as his border.

In the meantime, how would England's concomitant war against the Dutch go? I imagine that because France (and presumably the Bishopric of Münster and the Archbishopric of Cologne) has just signed a separate peace with the Dutch Republic, England would do the same. I don't see France's separate peace butterflying away De Ruyter's naval victories. Also, I suppose the anti-Catholic parliament would distrust Louis even more than IOTL for breaking their agreement and force Charles to abandon the costly, fruitless war like they did historically.

And where does that leave the Republic? They've lost lands, yes. But their naval and mercantile assets remain intact, although their position vis-à-vis France has seriously weakened. They're surrounded by France and its allies, so perhaps a foreign policy of Finlandization would follow, unless William III still manages to cobble together an anti-French alliances. That's assuming he holds onto the office of Stadtholder to begin with after such a defeat and loss of prestige. His anti-Orangist republican opponents could blame him for the Republic's defeat since it occured under his tenure and use that to assault his position.

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions?


Here is a map to visualize what France would be getting. The Generality lands are in purple and pink:

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