1662 transfer from England to France
The
Sale of Dunkirk
took place on 27 October [
O.S.
17 October] 1662 when
Charles II of England
sold his
sovereign rights
to
Dunkirk
and
Fort-Mardyck
to his cousin
Louis XIV of France
.
[1]
Context
[
edit
]
Dunkirk was occupied by English forces of the
Protectorate
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
; The Duke of York's (Irish) Regiment under
Muskerry
; The Duke of Gloucester's (Irish) Regiment under
Taaffe
; and Farrell's (Irish) Regiment under
Lisagh Farrell
.
[
citation needed
]
The regiments (except perhaps Ormond's) were seriously understrength and were all under the overall command of
James, Duke of York
. There was also a small contingent of James' own
Life Guards
. The English part of the Anglo-French force included regiments under
William Lockhart
,
Thomas Morgan
, Roger Alsop, Samuel Clark, Bryce Cochrane and Roger Lillingston.
[2]
France, effectively ruled by
Mazarin
, had promised, as part of the
Treaty of Paris (1657)
that Dunkirk and
Mardyck
, which were in the
Spanish Netherlands
, would be ceded to England. Mazarin honoured that pledge after the victory at The Dunes, and
Louis XIV
himself delivered Dunkirk over to Lockhart, who was Cromwell's Ambassador to France, on or about 24 June 1658.
[3]
Cromwell appointed Lockhart Governor of the town.
[
citation needed
]
Lockhart's regiment, much reduced in the battle, and Alsop's garrisoned Dunkirk and Mardyke (now
Fort-Mardyck
), taken in 1657, reinforced by Salmon's and Gibbon's regiments from England, but Morgan's, Clark's, Cochrane's and Lillingston's continued to serve with the French Army in Flanders. The Royalist regiments, even more reduced by the defeat, continued to serve with Spain.
[2]
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 and Cochrane's) returned to England in August 1659 in response to planned but discovered Royalist uprisings culminating in
Booth's uprising
.
[
citation needed
]
The
Treaty of the Pyrenees
in November 1659 confirmed English possession of Dunkirk, which then passed to Charles II following the
Restoration
in 1660. Dunkirk was garrisoned by an uneasy mixture of English former
New Model Army
troops of
republican
sympathies and several
Royalist
regiments who had served under Charles in exile, which included many Irish Catholics. Many of the garrison of Dunkirk were shipped to
English Tangier
, which had recently been acquired as part of the
Marriage Treaty
with
Portugal
, where it formed most of the initial
Tangier Garrison
.
Also, many from the garrison joined the
British brigade
to fight in Portugal to help with its
war of restoration
against Spain.
Sale
[
edit
]
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 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.
[7]
References
[
edit
]
Sources
[
edit
]
- Childs, John (1976).
The Army of Charles II
. Routledge.
- Riley, Jonathon (2014).
The Last Ironsides: The English Expedition to Portugal, 1662?1668
. Helion & Company.
ISBN
978-1909982208
.
- Uglow, Jenny (2009).
A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration
. Faber and Faber.