Cromwell died two months after the battle of the Dunes and the protectorship passed to his son, Richard, but ended 9 months later and the Commonwealth fell into confusion whereupon Charles II returned to the throne in May 1660. While the French received all of Artois, England had eliminated the greatest Spanish privateering base and the number of captured English merchant ships carried into Flemish ports was halved in 1657–58. Charles would sell Dunkirk back to the French in 1662 for £320,000.