Forces Engaged

Anglo-French: 6,000 infantry and 9,000 cavalry. Commander: Henri de la Tour d’Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne.

Spanish: 6,000 to 7,000 infantry and 8,000 cavalry. Commanders: Don Juan of Austria and Louis de Bourbon Condé.

Importance

Anglo-French victory forced a Spanish peace offer by the end of the year and ended Charles II’s last hopes of returning to the English throne on his own terms, thus confirming the ultimate ascendancy of Parliament.

Historical Setting

In January 1649, the Catholic House of Stuart lost its hold on the monarchy of Great Britain. In that month, King Charles I was executed by Parliamentary forces commanded by Oliver Cromwell who, since the battle of Naseby in 1645, had been expanding his military and political power. Charles II, next in line to the throne, attempted to continue the Royalist, or Cavalier, war against the Parliamentarians, or Roundheads, after his father’s death. Unfortunately for him, his forces lost to Cromwell on 3 September 1651 at the battle of Worcester; Charles was forced to flee for France. As Cromwell proceeded to act like a king (although he never took the title) in England, on the Continent Charles looked for supporters to aid his return to the throne. He finally threw his lot in with the Spanish, who controlled the Spanish Netherlands (modern Belgium and Flanders) at the time. The Spanish had long had hostile relations with England, ever since Protestant Queen Elizabeth I’s navy had defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588.

While the Spanish provided safe haven for Charles, he did what he could to gather loyal troops around him while encouraging Royalists in England to lay the groundwork for his return. Cromwell always maintained a firm grip on power, and his intelligence sources kept him informed of Charles’s activities. By cracking down on Royalist groups in England, Cromwell was able to keep Charles on the Continent, for Charles was convinced that, to execute a successful invasion, he needed a strong base of supporters in England to seize a harbor so he could bring his troops in-country. Thus, periodic plans for sneaking across the English Channel and reclaiming the throne had to be continually postponed.

While Charles was plotting, relations between France and Spain were growing increasingly hostile. The two countries had been on opposite sides of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), and conflict continued after that war ended. King Louis XIV was ambitious for his country and was always looking for ways to expand his borders at the expense of his neighbours, which included the Spanish Netherlands. In the months immediately after the Peace of Westphalia had ended the Thirty Years’ War, a short civil war in France between parliament and king threatened to bring Spanish troops into France. After the two sides agreed to terms, two of the major figures in the conflict argued: Prime Minister Mazarin and General Louis de Bourbon Condé. When a second civil war erupted in the spring of 1650, Condé left France and entered the service of Spain.

With the second civil war settled in the summer of 1652, the Franco-Spanish war continued. Condé, an outstanding general, was matched against the equally talented Vicomte de Turenne. Through 1657, they sparred along the frontier between France and the Netherlands, neither gaining the upper hand. That same year, the French entered into an alliance with their long-time rival England—which was at the time also engaged in hostilities with Spain—on the supposition that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Louis XIV and Mazarin were looking for extra troops, and Cromwell was looking for an entry onto the Continent, so he could possibly begin an anti-Catholic crusade.

In the fall of 1657, the Anglo-French forces captured the Flemish town of Mardyck and then aimed toward Dunkirk. This was under Spanish control, and the terms of Cromwell’s alliance with France stated that Dunkirk (on the English Channel coast) would become England’s property. Turenne led his army to Dunkirk and began a siege in May 1658. He was soon joined by 3,000 English troops under the command of William Lockhart. The English fleet arrived soon afterward, bringing the besieging force up to 21,000 (against the 3,000 defenders behind the city walls). The governor of the Spanish Netherlands, Don Juan of Austria, gathered together an army with Condé to lift the siege. The Spanish force of 5,000 cavalry and 8,000 infantry was supplemented by another 2,000 troops supplied by Charles and commanded by his son James, duke of York.

The Battle

During the second week of June 1658, the Spanish army marched from Ypres toward Dunkirk. On 13 June, Don Juan and Condé camped on the beach northeast of Dunkirk. Learning of their presence, Turenne decided to strike first, so he left a holding force at Dunkirk and marched 6,000 infantry and 9,000 cavalry toward the Spanish position. The Spanish army was deployed perpendicular to the shoreline, with the bulk of their troops among the sand dunes just off the beach. Their left flank (to the south) rested along a road running toward Dunkirk and a canal just south of it, both parallel to the shoreline. A line of Spanish regiments was on the right, English Royalists were in the center right, and a mixed force of Germans, Walloons, and French under Condé was on the left, with two lines of cavalry stretched behind the entire line. A further concentration of thirty cavalry divisions was on the road. They had marched quickly enough to outpace their artillery, so none was available.

Turenne placed his 6,000 infantry parallel to the Spanish, stretching them from the shoreline to the canal, but he divided his superior cavalry into two forces of forty divisions each on the flanks. The cavalry on the left was actually on the strand along the water’s edge. At first, the Spanish had a cavalry force there as well, but the arrival of English ships offshore, and the resulting threat of bombardment, convinced Don Juan to concentrate all his horse on the southern flank. Turenne also brought with him some artillery from the siege lines.

The strength of the Spanish position was a large dune, some 150 feet high, on the far right. A contingent of Spanish veterans was deployed there, with some of Charles’s infantry in support. The lay of the land was such that Don Juan considered himself to be in a sufficiently strong position that it was better to defend than attack. His entire line was positioned on higher ground than that of the attackers, with much more level ground behind it for the Spanish cavalry to deploy.

The Anglo-French force arrived opposite the Spanish about 0800. Turenne’s plan was to pause about 600 yards away from the Spanish lines and take stock of their position before making any final adjustments to his battle plan. He had not counted on the enthusiasm of the British redcoats on his left. Seeing that they were opposite the strong position held by the Spanish, Cromwell’s Protestant troops refused to stop short, but continued to march forward to within musket range of the Spanish. When a few Spanish rounds fell among them and caused some casualties, the redcoats decided not to await orders but charged on their own volition. Some French musketeers were sent forward to provide some fire support against the large dune, but the English were not about to wait on others to begin the fight. The front of the hill was steep, so much that the attackers had to crawl up it, but they pressed on in spite of taking heavy fire. The Spanish troops on top were formed into a defensive square, or tercio, of pikemen supported by musketeers on the corners. The English closed with them, and with their own musket fire and pikes, and then swinging muskets as clubs, they broke the Spanish square and sent the survivors back down the back side of the hill. The duke of York led a cavalry assault against the redcoats, but their position on the dune now gave them the high ground, and the charge was beaten back. A second charge, made up of cavalry and rallied Spanish infantry, flanked the redcoats, and for a time a melee ensued. The arrival of the French cavalry along the beach, however, turned the tide in favor of the English.

As the battle for the Spanish right flank was being fought, the rest of the army had closed on the Spanish and the fighting was now general. Condé’s command on the Spanish left held its own, but the Germans and Walloons in the center began to give way. As the right flank was collapsing, though, it is not surprising that the center buckled; soon Condé’s flank was forced to retreat as well.

The Royalists put up a good fight, as did the Spanish on the right, but the aggressiveness of the English in seizing that flank gave the Anglo-French force an advantage that could not be overcome. “In his dispatch Turenne did justice to the vigour with which the English stormed the sand-hill: ‘They came on like wild beasts,’ said a Spanish officer. ‘The English have such a reputation in this army as nothing can be more,’ wrote Colonel Drummond1/4. ‘The English are generally cried up for their unparalleled courage,’ reported Lord Fauconberg when he returned from the French court” (Firth, The Last Years of the Protectorate, 1656–1658, p. 199). By noon the battle was over, which had been Turenne’s intention. He wanted to fight the battle in the morning to take advantage of the low tide that would allow his cavalry to operate on the beach. That cavalry, unopposed, was able to sweep the flank in support of the redcoats and roll up the Spanish line. It was such a large force that the drawn-out Spanish cavalry lines could not concentrate and resist. After the close pursuit was completed, the casualty count was impressive. Don Juan and Condé lost 1,000 dead and 5,000 taken prisoner. The Anglo-French force lost about 400 men, mainly redcoats.

Results

Within a matter of days after the Battle of the Dunes, the Spanish garrison surrendered the city of Dunkirk. According to the agreement between Cromwell and the French, Dunkirk became an English possession. For a time, Spain and France remained at war, but Spain finally pled for negotiations, which resulted in the Peace of the Pyrenees in November 1659. This treaty ceded Spanish control over much of Flanders to Louis XIV, hampering Spain’s long-established role as a power in Europe. When Louis married the daughter of Spanish King Philip IV, Maria Theresa, Spain from that point forward was, if not a vassal of France, certainly a poor relative.

To this point, Charles II had been banking on Spanish aid to assist him in his return to power in England; after the Battle of the Dunes, it was impossible to return to the throne by force. Charles, however, did get his chance when Oliver Cromwell died in 1658, just weeks after the battle. Cromwell’s son Richard tried to fill his father’s shoes and failed. The following May, Parliament reconvened, after having been suspended by Oliver Cromwell in 1653 in a dispute over the size of the English army. When Richard Cromwell found he could control neither army nor Parliament, he resigned. A struggle for power between the Parliament and the English army (commanded by Generals Charles Fleetwood and John Lambert) ensued over the suppression of Royalist uprisings. This resulted in the army in October 1659 ending Parliament’s brief session.

Members of Parliament appealed to General George Monck, commanding English forces in Scotland, to save them. Monck had been a supporter of Charles I and spent time in prison for it during Cromwell’s time in power, but became a Roundhead and served Cromwell’s cause well. At heart, though, he seems to have remained a monarchist; his wife certainly was. Feeling that the only way to restore order to English politics and society was with a king, Monck led his army out of Scotland in January 1660 and occupied London 5 weeks later. Lambert tried to stop him, but his troops were so badly supplied and paid that they deserted him wholesale; that resulted in Parliament reconvening.

Although some members of Parliament distrusted Monck, others supported the idea of re-establishing the monarchy. Monck contacted Charles II, who was beginning to feel some threat from his former Spanish allies. Ultimately, at the urging of some royal advisors and General Monck, Charles released the Declaration of Breda. This pronouncement dealt with three major topics: what to do about those who had been instrumental in the execution of Charles I, what to do about the army (especially its pay), and what to do about the English people’s religious views vis-à-vis those of Charles. The Declaration stated that there should be a general amnesty for regicides (with a few exceptions), that the army should be awarded all its back pay, and that in England there should be “liberty of conscience.” All of that, however, should be subject to the wishes of Parliament. That was the key. The only way Charles could again sit on the English throne was if Parliament was to be a permanent and respected part of the government. Until the removal of Charles I, and even during Cromwell’s rule, Parliament served at the pleasure of the chief executive. From 1660 forward, Parliament became the senior partner in the constitutional monarchy. Never again would any English monarch pretend to absolute rule, and the supremacy of parliamentary rule had a major effect on the development of government in the British colonies in North America, and through them the United States. The Stuart line continued in England for less than 30 years afterward, for Charles’s brother James II was too aggressive with his Catholicism and was deposed in 1688 in favour of William and Mary of the House of Orange in Holland. The power of the people to remove an unjust king in 1688 also had after-effects in the North American colonies.