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QINGDAO TODAY
在线翻译:
szdaily -> Speak Shenzhen -> 
The Battle of the Dunes
    2019-03-19  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

James Baquet

Many know the name Dunkirk — the beach town in the very north of France; the military operation that took place there in 1940, during World War II; and perhaps also the film about that evacuation, released in 2017.

But fewer may realize that Dunkirk has been the site of a half-dozen battles, the second of which, in 1658, is called “The Battle of the Dunes.” (“Dunkirk” is Dutch for “church in the dunes.”)

In those days, Dunkirk lay in the Spanish Netherlands (even today it is only 10 kilometers from the Belgian border). And the battle that took place there was peculiar in that it was part of not just one, but two different wars, with distinct combatants and separate goals.

First, the Franco-Spanish War, which lasted from 1635 to 1659. After the Thirty Years’ War, the French were concerned that they had been left surrounded by the Habsburgs (who at the time were Spanish), so France declared war on Spain.

Meanwhile, across the English Channel, England had been split in two by the English Civil War (1642-1651), which pitted the Royalist supporters of King Charles I and his son, Charles II, against various Parliamentarian parties.

By 1658, when the Battle of the Dunes took place, Charles II was in exile on the European continent. Turning to Spain for aid in his cause, he ended up supporting their side of the struggle with France.

At the same time, the Parliamentarians (called “The Commonwealth” under Oliver Cromwell) sided with the French. And so it was that, on June 14, 1658, Spanish troops with the small army of Charles II’s Royalists faced the French with support from the Commonwealth. Spanish and English against French and English!

The French were victorious after a fierce two-hour battle, which set the Spanish on the run. However, Cromwell died in September of that year, and by May of 1660 — less than two years later — Charles was restored to the throne of England. In 1659, the Spanish and the French had signed the Treaty of the Pyrenees; the Bourbon French had ended the hegemony of the Habsburg Spanish. The English received Dunkirk, but Charles sold it back to the French in 1662.

Vocabulary:

Which words above mean:

1. believing the Parliament should rule, not the king

2. strange, odd

3. took the side (of)

4. put back in place

5. sand hills

6. removal of people from a dangerous area

7. support of a king or other monarch

8. six

9. domination

10. having on all sides

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