The Treaty of the Pyrenees in November 1659 confirmed English possession of Dunkirk, which then passed to Charles II following the Restoration in 1660. Since 1660, Dunkirk had been garrisoned by an uneasy mixture of English former New Model Army troops of republican sympathies and several Royalist regiments who had served under Charles in exile, which included many Irish Catholics. Many of the garrison of Dunkirk were shipped to English Tangier, which had recently been acquired as part of the Marriage Treaty with Portugal, where they formed most of the initial Tangier Garrison. Also many from the garrison joined the British brigade to fight in Portugal to help with her war of restoration against Spain.