Glorious First of June

Battle context

The Glorious First of June was the first and largest fleet action of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought between the British fleet under Howe and the French fleet under Villaret de Joyeuse during the War of the First Coalition. British casualties numbered approximately 1,200 against French losses of roughly 4,000, indicating a tactical advantage for the British in the exchange. As the opening major fleet engagement of the wider conflict between Britain and Revolutionary France, the battle established the scale and character of naval confrontation that would define the maritime dimension of the coalition wars throughout the 1790s.