Sale of Dunkirk

The  Sale of Dunkirk took place in 1662 when Charles II of England sold his sovereign rights to Dunkirk to his cousin Louis XIV of France. Dunkirk had been occupied by England since 1658 when it was captured from Spain by Anglo-French forces. At the time England had been a republican state ruled by Oliver Cromwell, but possession of the territory then passed to Charles following the Restoration in 1660. The merchant Edward Blackwell, who served as Treasurer of Dunkirk under both the Republican and Royal governments, was instrumental in the sale.

Since 1660 Dunkirk had been 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 they formed most of the initial Tangier Garrison.