Editing Dunkerque (section)

===<FONT COLOR="#FFCC00">'''The Beginning'''</FONT>===

'''Dunkerque (Dunkirk)''' was first mentioned in 1067 as ''Dunkerk'' ('''Dutch language: “Church of the Dune” or ''Dune Church'''''). The area was much disputed '''between Spain, England, the Netherlands and France'''. In the Eighty Years' War the port was the base of the infamous Dunkirkers private shipowners (''reders'' in Dutch) operated whole privateer fleets to intercept merchants from countries hostile to the Spanish Habsburgs. The Dunkirkers briefly lost their home port, as the city was conquered by the French in 1646 but recaptured by the Habsburgs in 1652. <br/>
In 1657, as a result of war between Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth of England and the Kingdom of Spain, it was captured by English forces, and was awarded to England in the peace the following year. '''It became definitively French when Charles II of England sold it to France for £320,000'''. During the reign of Louis XIV of France, a large number of commerce raiders had again their base at Dunkirk; Jean Bart was the most famous, known for attacking Dutch ships. The Man in the Iron Mask was also arrested in Dunkirk.