Charles II of England
Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651, and King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685.
Charles II was the eldest surviving child o ...
sold his
sovereign right
Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person ...
s to
Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.
and
Fort-Mardyck
Fort-Mardyck (; ; vls, Fort-Mardyk) is a former commune in the Nord department in northern France. It has been part of the commune of Dunkirk since 9 December 2010. In 2019 it had 3,403 inhabitants.Louis XIV of France
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of ...
.
Context
Dunkirk was occupied by English forces of the
Protectorate
A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over most of its in ...
in 1658, when it was captured from Spain by Anglo-French forces following the Battle of the Dunes. The Spanish forces included the Royalist Army in Exile consisting of English, Scottish, and Irish Royalist Regiments: The English King's Guards (foot) under Wentworth; a Scottish regiment under Newburgh; The Marquis of Ormond's (Irish) Regiment under
Richard Grace
Colonel Richard Grace (–1691) was an Irish Royalist soldier who fought for Charles I, Charles II and James II. He served in the Royalist Army in Exile during the 1650s.
Biography
Grace, the younger son of Robert Grace, feudal baron of ...
; The Duke of York's (Irish) Regiment under Muskerry; The Duke of Gloucester's (Irish) Regiment under
Taaffe Taaffe can refer to:
*Viscount Taaffe (title and family)
*Theobald Taaffe, 1st Earl of Carlingford (died 1677), Irish-born courtier and soldier in England
*Francis Taaffe, 3rd Earl of Carlingford (died 1704), Irish-born courtier and soldier in Lorr ...
; and Farrell's (Irish) Regiment under Lisagh Farrell. The regiments (except, perhaps, Ormond's) were seriously understrength and were all under the overall command of
James, Duke of York
James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious ...
. There was also a small contingent of James' own
Life Guards
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy transf ...
. The English part of the Anglo-French force included regiments under
William Lockhart William Lockhart may refer to:
* William Lockhart of Lee (1621–1675), Oliver Cromwell's ambassador at Paris
* William Lockhart (surgeon) (1811–1896), medical missionary and fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons
* William Lockhart (priest) (18 ...
, Thomas Morgan, Roger Alsop, Samuel Clark, Bryce Cochrane and Roger Lillingston.
France, effectively ruled by Mazarin, had promised, as part of the
Treaty of Paris (1657)
The Treaty of Paris signed in March 1657 allied the English Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell with King Louis XIV of France against King Philip IV of Spain, merging the Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660) with the larger Franco-Spanish War (163 ...
Spanish Netherlands
Spanish Netherlands ( Spanish: Países Bajos Españoles; Dutch: Spaanse Nederlanden; French: Pays-Bas espagnols; German: Spanische Niederlande.) (historically in Spanish: ''Flandes'', the name "Flanders" was used as a '' pars pro toto'') was the ...
, would be ceded to England. Mazarin honoured that pledge after the victory at The Dunes, and
Louis XIV
Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was List of French monarchs, King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the Li ...
himself delivered Dunkirk over to Lockhart (who was Cromwell's Ambassador to France) on or about 24 June 1658. Cromwell appointed Lockhart Governor of the town.
Lockhart's regiment, much reduced in the battle, and Alsop's garrisoned Dunkirk and Mardyke (now
Fort-Mardyck
Fort-Mardyck (; ; vls, Fort-Mardyk) is a former commune in the Nord department in northern France. It has been part of the commune of Dunkirk since 9 December 2010. In 2019 it had 3,403 inhabitants. In early 1659, most of Salmon's regiment was sent back to England, as was Gibbon's, and three regiments of the Protectorate force (Morgan's, Clark's, Cochrane's) returned to England in August 1659 in response to (planned, but discovered) Royalist uprisings culminating in
Booth's uprising
Booth's Uprising, also known as Booth's Rebellion or the Cheshire Rising of 1659, was an unsuccessful attempt in August 1659 to restore Charles II of England. Centred on North West England and led by George Booth, it took place during the politi ...
.
The
Treaty of the Pyrenees
The Treaty of the Pyrenees (french: Traité des Pyrénées; es, Tratado de los Pirineos; ca, Tractat dels Pirineus) was signed on 7 November 1659 on Pheasant Island, and ended the Franco-Spanish War that had begun in 1635.
Negotiations were ...
in November 1659 confirmed English possession of Dunkirk, which then passed to Charles II following the Restoration in 1660. Since 1660, Dunkirk had been garrisoned by an uneasy mixture of English former
New Model Army
The New Model Army was a standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War, then disbanded after the Stuart Restoration in 1660. It differed from other armies employed in the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Th ...
troops of
republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
sympathies and several
Royalist
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gov ...
regiments who had served under Charles in exile, which included many Irish Catholics. Many of the garrison of Dunkirk were shipped to
English Tangier
English Tangier was the period in Moroccan history in which the city of Tangier was occupied by England as part of the English colonial empire from 1661 to 1684. Tangier had been under Portuguese control before King Charles II acquired the c ...
, which had recently been acquired as part of the
Marriage Treaty
The Marriage Treaty, or Anglo-Portuguese Treaty, was a treaty of alliance that was agreed between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Portugal and concluded on 23 June 1661.
It led to the marriage of Charles II of England and Catherine of ...
with
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...
, where they formed most of the initial
Tangier Garrison
The Tangier Garrison was the land force which oversaw the defence of English Tangier between 1661 and 1684 when it was evacuated. It was part of the English Army, the de facto standing army that Charles II established following the Restoration ...
In 1662, Charles II, short of money and concerned that Dunkirk was a potential liability for international relations, sold it to France. The purchase price was five million
livres
The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France.
The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 g ...
. The banker Edward Backwell, who served as Treasurer of Dunkirk under both the Republican and Royal governments, was instrumental in the sale. Many in England were opposed to the loss.