"Flanders, 1657-58" Topic

"Despite Lord-Protector Cromwell's dream of forging a grand alliance of European Protestant nations, the war against Spain led to closer ties with another Catholic nation: Spain's principal enemy France. It also led to an alliance between Spain and British Royalists exiled in Europe.

The Anglo-French Alliance

In 1654, negotiations between Cromwell and Cardinal Mazarin's ambassador M. de Bordeaux-Neufville resulted in the expulsion from Paris of the exiled Charles II and his entourage; France then agreed to withdraw all support from the Stuarts in a secret clause of a commercial treaty signed in October 1655. With Spain and England openly at war, Charles travelled to the Spanish Netherlands In March 1656 to negotiate with representatives of King Philip of Spain for help in regaining the throne of England. At the Treaty of Brussels, signed on 2 April 1656, the Spanish agreed to provide an army of invasion as soon as the Royalists could secure an English port for their disembarkation. In exchange, Charles agreed that on regaining the throne he would return England's newly-acquired territory in the West Indies to Spain and would also grant concessions to Catholics in his dominions. By a further agreement with Spain, Charles summoned all British subjects fighting in the French army to serve in the Spanish-Royalist force. This raised an additional 2,000 troops by the end of 1656: an English regiment, a Scottish regiment and two Irish regiments with Charles II's brother James, Duke of York, as commander of the British contingent. The two senior regiments of the British army originate in these forces: the Grenadier Guards and the Life Guards….."
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