Battle of the Dunes (1658)
| Battle of the Dunes | |||||||
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| Part of the Franco-Spanish War | |||||||
 La Bataille des Dunes by Charles-Philippe Larivière. Galerie des Batailles, Palace of Versailles. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 France Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland United Provinces |
 Spain.svg){kind=small} Royalists of the British Isles |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Vicomte de Turenne | Juan José de Austria Louis II de Condé Duke of York |
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| Strength | |||||||
| 6,000 infantry and 9,000 cavalry[1] | 8,000 infantry: (Including 2,000 English Royalists) 5,000 cavalry[2] |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 400 dead [3] | 1,000 dead and 5,000 captured[3] | ||||||
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The Battle of the Dunes, fought on 14 June (Gregorian calendar), 1658, is also known as the Battle of Dunkirk. It was a victory of the French army, under Turenne, against the Spanish army, led by John of Austria the Younger and Louis II de Condé. It was part of the Franco-Spanish War and the concurrent Anglo-Spanish War, and was fought near Dunkirk.
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[edit] Prelude
The 18,000 French supported by 3,000 troops from the English Commonwealth besieged Dunkirk's garrison of about 3,000 in May 1658.[2]
A Spanish army of about 15,000 men was divided in 2 corps, the Spanish Army of Flanders on the right and the small corps of French rebels, of the Fronde, on the left under the command of Condé. The Spanish corps included a force of 2,000 English/Irish Royalists – formed as the nucleus of potential army for the invasion of England by Charles II, with Charles' brother James, Duke of York, amongst its commanders – was sent to relieve the town.
[edit] Battle
Leaving some men to continue the siege, Turenne advanced to meet the Spanish army. The battle on 14 June 1658 which resulted from this manoeuvre, became known in England as the Battle of the Dunes because the red-coats of the New Model Army under the leadership of Sir William Lockhart, Cromwell's ambassador at Paris, in Turenne's army astonished both armies by the stubborn fierceness of their assaults particularly with a successful assault up a sand-hill 50 metres (150 ft) high and strongly defended by Spanish veterans .[1][4][5][6][7]
The battle lasted for about two hours and ended with a rout of the Spanish forces, who lost about 6,000 killed, wounded, and captured with their opponents losing about 400. The French corps of rebels on the left under the command of Condé retreated in good order.
[edit] English involvement
When the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell formed an alliance with France's Louis XIV, the exiled Charles II of England allied himself with Philip IV of Spain. Charles set up his headquarters in Bruges. The Spanish supplied only enough money to form five regiments.[8][9] This was a disappointment for the Royalists who had hoped to be able to form an army large enough to contemplate an invasion of the English Commonwealth. The Grenadier Guards can trace their origins back to Lord Wentworth's Royal Regiment of Guards which was one of five regiments raised in 1656. The Life Guards can trace their origins back to two cavalry troops raised at this time His Majesty's Own Troop of Horse Guards and The Duke of York's Troop of Horse Guards.
English regiments were named after their colonels. In the French army the New Model Army on the left (by the coast): Cochrane, Alsop, Lillington and Morgan, on the right 200 Montgommery musketeers. Cavalry: Lockhart, Gibbons and Salmo[10][11] In the Spanish army, the English/Irish royalist consisted of three battalions made up of five understrength regiments: The first battalion was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Blague, of Lord Bristol's regiment combined with Lord Wentworth's regiment (also known as King Charles II's footguards). The second battalion was command by Lord Muskerry and consisted of the Duke of York's regiment. The third consisted of Lord Ormond's regiment of Irish commanded by Colonel Richard Grace, and Lord Newburgh's regiment of Scots under the command of Sir William Urry.[12]
Amongst the Cromwellian troops Lockhart's regiment of foot bore the brunt of the fighting. Its lieutenant-colonel, Fenwick, and two of its captains were killed, and nearly all the rest of its officers were wounded. Lillingston's lost a captain and thirty or forty killed, while the other regiments suffered only slight losses.[13] On the other side two out of the three royalist battalions were almost annihilated. The King's footguards stood their ground well, but were finally obliged to surrender. Bristol's and York's Irish regiments were routed and cut to pieces. Only the third battalion, commanded by Colonel Grace, succeeded in effecting an orderly retreat, and marched off the field intact.[14] The Duke of York's troop of guards, which charged several times with the Duke himself at its head, suffered severely, but also remained fit for further service. The King's forces after the battle numbered less than a thousand men, probably not more than seven or eight hundred.[15]
[edit] Aftermath
The defeat of the Spanish Army ended the immediate prospect of the intended Royalist expedition to England, while delaying the return of the English monarchy for two more years and at the same time necessarily entailed the fall of Dunkirk. It surrendered ten days after the battle on June 24, and Cardinal Mazarin honoured the terms of the treaty with Oliver Cromwell and handed the port over to the Commonwealth.[15]
The campaign of the English contingent in Flanders did not end with the battle of the Dunes and the capture of Dunkirk. Part of the English contingent was left to garrison Dunkirk and Mardyke under the command of Sir William Lockhart, whilst the rest, under Sir Thomas Morgan, continued to serve with Turenne's army in the field. Morgan's command consisted of four regiments, viz. his own, and those of Cochrane, Clarke, and Lillingston.[16] They distinguished themselves at the siege of Bergues, where Lieutenant-Colonel Hughes of Cochrane's regiment was killed, and still more at the siege of Ypres, according to Morgan's own story. At the close of the campaign, by which time their numbers were much diminished, they did not rejoin the rest of the English contingent but went into cantonment in and around Amiens for the winter.[17]
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Davis (2001), p. 223
- ^ a b Davis (2001), p. 222
- ^ a b Davis (2001), p. 225
- ^
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "The Fronde". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. - ^ Plant, David; Battle of the Dunes, 1658
- ^ The English had learnt a lot about war since two rabbles had met at the battle of the Battle of Edgehill in 1642.(Eric Niderost, English Civil War: Battle of Edgehill, retrieved 2009-02-03 and originally appeared in the October 1993 issue of Military History magazine)
- ^ Bruce Anderson, The British admire their Army but they don't understand it, The Independent, 20 July 2009. p.25 "In the 1650s Cromwell's army was the best in the world."
- ^ Staff East Kent Branch of the Grenadier Guards Association: Origins
- ^ A collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, volume 5: An abstract of the contents of several letters British History Online
- ^ Stuart Asquith.(1981) New Model Army 1645-60. Osprey Publishing ISBN 0850453852. Page 31. Asquith lists (alphabetically?): Foot Alsop, Clark, Cochrane , Lillington, Morgan, and Reynolds. Horse Lockheart.
- ^ Stephen C. Manganiello (2004). The Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland 1639-1660, Scarecrow Press, ISBN 0810851008, p.171. Commonwealth: Foot Alsop, Clark, Cochrane , Lillington, Morgan, and Reynolds, Horse Lockheart. Five Royalist regiments: Charles's Foot Guards, three Irish Muskerry, Ormonde, Willoughby and one of Scots (Duke of Gloster), Horse one troop under the direct command of the Duke of York
- ^ Firth, p.85 (PDF p. 19)
- ^ Firth, p. 86,(PDF 20). Cites: Clarke Papers, iii. 154; Thurloe, vii. 156, 160 ; Cal. S. P., Dam. 1658-9, P- 97-
- ^ Firth, p. 86,(PDF 20). cites Life of James II. i. 353, 354, 359.
- ^ a b Firth, p. 86,(PDF 20).
- ^ Firth, p. 86 footnotes "I finde the 4 regiments with mee and la Ferte, vir. my owne, Colone Lillingeston's, Sir Brice Cochron's, and Collonel Clarcke's, are much weakened by the losse of those wee have had killed and wounded both at the battaile, and seidges before Dunkerke and Bergin ; though I will assure you that nothing is wanting in mee to preserve them, yet our last recruits fell sicke verie fast." (Morgan to Thurloe, Thurloe, vii. 200; cf. Clarke Papers, iii. 160.) Lockhart sent 500 recruits to Morgan in August (Thurloe, vii. 305, 308).
- ^ Firth, p. 86,87 (PDF 20,21). citing Guizot, Richard Cromwell, i. 292; Merc. Polit.
[edit] References
- Paul K. Davis (2001). 100 Decisive Battles: From Ancient Times to the Present, Oxford University Press US. ISBN 0195143663, 9780195143669.
- C. H. Firth, Royalist and Cromwellian Armies in Flanders, 1657-1662, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Read November 20, 1902, journals.cambridge.org.
- Attribution
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Royalist and Cromwellian Armies in Flanders, 1657-1662" by C. H. Firth
