Sunday 28 December 2014

1658 Battle of the Dunes.



1658 Battle of the Dunes, fought on June14th. (Gregorian calendar)1658, also known as the Battle of Dunkirk, was a victory of the French army, under Henri de la Tour d' Auvergne,Vicomte de 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.
 1658 Prelude: 18,000 French supported by 3,000 troops from the English Commonwealth besieged Dunkirk's garr- ison of about 3,000 in May 1658. A Spanish army of about 15,000 men was divided in two 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 Louis II de Condé, the Spanish corps included a force of 2,000 English/Irish royalists–formed
as the nucleus of a potential army for the invasion of England by Charles II with Charles' brother James Duke of York)(James II) amongst its commanders was sent to relieve the town.
1658 Battle: June14th, leaving some men to continue the siege, Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne advanced to meet the Spanish army. The battle on 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, Lord-Protector Oliver Cromwell's ambassador at Paris, Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne's army astonished both armies by the stubborn fierceness of their assaults particularly with a successful assault up a sand hill 150 feet high and strongly defended by Spanish veteran, 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 Louis II de Condé retreated in good order.
English involvement: When the Lord-Protector Oliver Cromwell formed an alliance with France's Louis XIV, 

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