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 of ...
Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.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 Versa ...
.
Context
Dunkirk was occupied by English forces of the
Protectorate
A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a State (polity), 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 m ...
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
The Royalist Army in Exile was the army formed by those loyal to Charles II from 1656 to 1660 during his exile from the throne. They were a mixture of Royalist troops from his three Kingdoms including men from England and Scotland, with the bulk ...
consisting of English, Scottish, and Irish Royalist Regiments: The English King's Guards (foot) under
Wentworth Wentworth may refer to:
People
* Wentworth (surname)
* Judith Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth (1873–1957), Lady Wentworth, notable Arabian horse breeder
* S. Wentworth Horton (1885–1960), New York state senator
* Wentworth Miller (born 1 ...
; 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
Muskerry ( ga, Múscraí) is a central region of County Cork, Ireland which incorporates the baronies of Muskerry WestTaaffe; and Farrell's (Irish) Regiment under
Lisagh Farrell
Lisagh Farrell or Lewis Farrell was an Irish soldier of the seventeenth century.
Confederate wars and exile
He was the younger brother of Richard Farrell, who had served as a General in the Irish Confederate Army during the 1640s. Following th ...
. 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 Re ...
. There was also a small contingent of James' own Life Guards. 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 (1635–1 ...
that Dunkirk and
Mardyck
Mardyck (Dutch: ''Mardijk'', vls, Mardyk) is a former commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is an associated commune with Dunkirk since it joined the latter in January 1980.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 Ha ...
, would be ceded to England. Mazarin honoured that pledge after the victory at The Dunes, and
Louis XIV
, 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 Vers ...
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
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
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 governme ...
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 o ...
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 ...
, 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 Restoratio ...
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 gr ...
. The banker
Edward Backwell
Edward Backwell (ca. 1618–1683) was an English goldsmith-banker, and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1673 and 1683. He has been called "the principal founder of the banking system in England", and "far and ...
, 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.