Dunkirk

Dunkirk began as a fishing settlement on the Flemish coast, amid marshes gradually drained and cultivated by the monks of nearby Bergues. Its harbour grew under the counts of Flanders, serving maritime trade across the narrow sea. The town's position made it a valuable port and a frequent object of conflict among the powers of northern Europe.

During the Hundred Years' War, a prohibition on maritime trade helped provoke revolt, but trade revived under Count Louis II and the harbour was enlarged. In the Eighty Years' War Dunkirk became a base for privateers serving Spain. France took it in 1646, Spain recovered it in 1652, and a Franco-English army captured it after the Battle of the Dunes in 1658. The port passed to England, whose king Charles II sold it to France in 1662. Louis XIV's government expanded and fortified the harbour, building a basin for warships and a channel through the coastal sands. Dunkirk again sheltered commerce raiders, among them Jean Bart. British fears of its use as an invasion base helped bring about the demolition of its harbour works under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.