Beschreibung:

CROMWELL, Oliver (1599-1658). Document signed (as Lord Protector, 'Oliver P'), Whitehall, 3 April 1658, an order to the commissioners for the navy, giving detailed instructions for the transporting of 1200 or 1300 men to Mardyke (northern France), specifying the numbers of frigates required to transport the men from the Thames, Plymouth, Hull and Portsmouth, 1½ pages, folio (some wear to outer margin with minor loss of text, repaired on verso, strengthened at inner margin). Cromwell had renewed his alliance with France against the Spanish on 18 March, and the musters referred to were intended to reinforce the army of Marshal Turenne in besieging Dunkirk: at the Battle of the Dunes on 3 June, they were to find themselves directly confronting a British Royalist contingent in the Spanish army, under the Duke of York.