After the Great Pirate War, France made nice with the Swedes and started poking around west, where they ran into the British. The British were on a path to (allegedly) restore the Danes to power (at the expense of the Swedes) and to additionally claim some "traditional" British ports in the Antilles, perhaps not coincidentally putting them within easy striking distance of France.   Long story short, this did not work out for the British. They also liked to set their port defense timers to 12-1