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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 and their Commonwealth of England allies, under Turenne, one of the great generals of his age, over the Spanish army and their English Royalist and French Fronde rebels, 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 (Dutch for 'Church in the dunes') a fortified port city on the coast of the English Channel in what was then the Southern Netherlands that belonged to Habsburg Spain. The French army had laid siege to Dunkirk and the Spanish army was attempting to raise the siege. ==Prelude== A complex political situation resulted in both French and English forces fighting for both sides. When France's Louis XIV formed an alliance with Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, 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. 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. A renewal of a 1657 treaty between Cromwell and Louis XIV provided 6,000 Commonwealth infantry and a fleet to aid Turenne. Along with English forces, French forces fought on both sides with Condé, a French Prince of the blood, leading a contingent of French rebels of the Fronde. The 15,000 French supported by 6,000 troops from the English Commonwealth besieged Dunkirk. Dunkirk was Spain's greatest base for privateers, and these privateers had wreaked havoc of English merchant shipping.〔England had lost 1,500 to 2,000 ships to Spain that year .〕 It was defended by a garrison of about 3,000 in May 1658, while an English fleet of 18 ships, under Edward Mountagu, blockaded the port and prevented any reinforcement or supply by sea. The Spanish and their allies were caught by surprise as they were convinced that Turenne would attack Cambrai, while they thought Dunkirk was merely a diversion, and they responded belatedly and hastily. The approach to Dunkirk was made difficult as the inhabitants had opened the sluices and flooded the area, but Turenne persisted and opened the trenches on the night of 4/5 June. A Spanish army under the command of Don John of Austria, consisting of about 15,000 men, moved to raise the siege. It was divided in 2 corps, the Spanish Army of Flanders on the right and centre and the small corps of French rebels, of the Fronde, on the left under the command of Condé. The Spanish army included Spanish, German and Walloon troops, and 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. Leaving some 6,000 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 as the ''Battle of the Dunes'' because the Spanish army formed their line upon a line of dunes, or sand-hills, also called the Downs, perpendicular to the sea. Napoleon described the battle as Turenne's "... most brilliant action". 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 assault up a sand-hill high and strongly defended by Spanish veterans.〔The English had learnt a lot about war since two rabbles had met at the battle of the Battle of Edgehill in 1642 ( and ), by "the 1650s Cromwell's army was the best in the world" .〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of the Dunes (1658)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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