Pauline on 23 Feb 2005  •  Link

from L&M Companion
...Two of [John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse (1614-89)]'s sons appear in the diary, principally as duellists--Sir Henry, his eldest, and John. Sir Henry, an Anglican convert and briefly an M.P. (Grimsby 1666-7) served on the committee in charge of a bill to stop duelling. He was killed in a drunken quarrel in 1667.

Bill on 15 May 2016  •  Link

BELASYSE, JOHN, Baron Belasyse (1614-1689), royalist; created baron, 1645; fought for Charles I in many engagements; after Restoration, appointed lord-lieutenant of East Riding, governor of Hull, and, subsequently governor of Tangier; first lord commissioner of treasury, 1687.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

San Diego Sarah on 7 May 2023  •  Link

John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse, 1615 - 1689, has a lengthy history of fighting for King Charles I in the first Civil War. I'm skipping past all that to his final stand:

At the end of November 1645, Parliamentarian and Scottish forces laid siege to Newark. Belasyse conducted a vigorous defence until May 1646 when he reluctantly surrendered on the orders of King Charles.

Belasyse spent the next 2 years abroad. He served with the Prince of Condé's army at the siege of Mardyke [and possibly met James, Duke of York there - James doesn't mention it, and there were many Englishmen dodging around The Dunes -- SDS], attended the French Queen Regent, Anne of Austria, and was granted a personal audience with Pope Innocent X.
After the execution of King Charles, Belasyse became actively involved in Charles II's attempts to regain the throne of England.
In 1651, he was intended to command forces raised in the north to support Charles' invasion from Scotland, but he was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower in April so was unable to participate in the campaign leading up to the second battle of Worcester.
He was released on bail in September 1651, and Belasyse continued to plot against the Commonwealth and Protectorate governments as the only Catholic member of the Sealed Knot conspiracy ring.
He was arrested shortly before Booth's Uprising in 1659 and again imprisoned in the Tower of London.

After the Restoration in May 1660, Belasyse was appointed lord-lieutenant of the East Riding of Yorkshire and governor of Hull.
He also served as governor of Tangier from 1665-6.
However, he was obliged to resign his offices when his Catholicism prevented him from taking the oaths required by the Test Acts of 1673.

Belasyse spent his fourth and lengthiest period of imprisonment in the Tower from 1678-84 on suspicion of involvement in the Popish Plot.
Cleared of all charges in May 1685, he served as a privy councillor and first lord of the Treasury under James II.

He died at Whitton in Middlesex in September 1689.

Belasyse married three times.
His first wife, the heiress Jane Boteler, died in 1657.
He married Ann Armyne, daughter and co-heir of Sir Robert Crane in July 1659; she died in 1662.
Belasyse lastly married Anne Paulet, daughter of the Marquis of Winchester.
His eldest son was killed during a drunken brawl in 1667 and he was succeeded by his grandson, upon whose death in 1692 the Belasyse title became extinct.
http://bcw-project.org/biography/…

For James' action at The Battle of the Dunes and for Dunkirk start at page 254: http://archive.org/stream/memoirs…