In Portugal, the interest of king Charles wore a very melancholy aspect. When he arrived at Lisbon, he found no preparations made for opening the campaign. The Portuguese ministry favoured the French in secret; the people were averse to heretics; the duke of Schom-berg was on ill terms with Fagel, the Dutch general; the Portuguese forces consisted of raw undisciplined peasants; and the French ambassador had bought up the best horses in the kingdom; so that the troopers could not be properly mounted. The king of Portugal had promised to enter Spain with Charles by the middle of May; but he was not ready till the beginning of June, when they reached Santaran. By this time they had published their respective manifestoes; Charles displaying his title to the crown of Spain, and promising pardon to all his subjects who would in three months join his army; and the king of Portugal declaring, that his sole aim in taking up arms was to restore liberty to the Spanish nation, oppressed by the power of France, as Avell as to assert the right of Charles to that monarchy. The present possessor, whom they mentioned by the name of the duke of Anjou, had already anticipated their invasion. His general, the duke of Berwick, entering Portugal, took the town of Segura by stratagem. The governor of Salvaterra surrendered at discretion; Cebreros was reduced without much opposition; Zode-bre was abandoned by the inhabitants; and the town of Lhana la Viella was taken by assault. Portugal was at the same time invaded in different parts by the marquis de Jeoffreville, prince Tserclas de Tilly, and the marquis de Villadarias. Two Dutch battalions were attacked and taken by the duke of Berwick at Sodreira Formosa. Then he passed the Tagus, and joined prince Tserclas. King Philip arriving in the army, invested Portalegre; and the garrison, including an English regiment of foot commanded by colonel Stanhope, were made prisoners of war. The next place he besieged was Castel Davide, which met with the same fate. On the other hand, the marquis Das Minas, in order to make a diversion, entered Spain with fifteen thousand men, took Feuenta Grimaldo in Castile, by assault, defeated a body of French and Spaniards commanded by Don Ronquillo, and made himself master of Manseinto. The weather growing excessively hot, Philip sent his troops into quarters of refreshment; and the allies followed his example. Duke Schomberg finding his advice very little regarded by the Portuguese ministry, and seeing very little prospect of success, desired leave to resign his command, which the queen bestowed upon the earl of Galway, who, with a reinforcement of English and Dutch troops, arrived at Lisbon on the thirtieth day of July. About the latter end of September, the two kings repaired to the camp near Almeida, resolving to invade Castile; but they found the river Aguada so well guarded by the duke of Benvick, that they would not attempt a passage. They therefore retired into the territories of Portugal, and the army was put into winter quarters. The Spaniards were now so weakened by detachments sent with the marquis de Villadarias towards Gibraltar, that the duke of Berwick could not execute any scheme of importance during the remaining part of the campaign.
The arms of England were not less fortunate by sea than they had been upon the Danube. Sir George Rooke having landed king Charles at Lisbon, sent a squadron to cruise off Cape Spartell, under the command of rear admiral Dilkes, who on the twelfth of March, engaged and took three Spanish ships of war, bound from St. Sebastian’s to Cadiz. Rooke received orders from the queen to sail to the relief of Nice and Villa Franca, which were threatened with a siege by the duke de Vendôme; at the same time he was pressed by king Charles to execute a scheme upon Barcelona, projected by the prince of Hesse d’Armstadt, who declared his opinion, that the Catalonians would declare for the house of Austria, as soon as they should be assured of proper support and protection. The ministry of England understanding that the French were employed in equipping a strong squadron at Brest, and judging it was destined to act in the Mediterranean, sent out sir Cloudesley Shovel with a considerable fleet, to watch the motions of the Brest squadron; and he was provided with instructions how to act, in case it should be sailed to the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, sir George Rooke, in compliance with the entreaties of King Charles, sailed with the transports under his convoy to Barcelona, and on the eighteenth of May appeared before the city. Next day the troops were landed by the prince of Hesse, to the number of two thousand, and the Dutch ketches bombarded the place; but by this time the governor had secured the chiefs of the Austrian party; and the people exhibiting no marks of attachment to king Charles, the prince re-embarked his soldiers, from an apprehension of their being attacked and overpowered by superior numbers. On the sixteenth day of June, sir George Rooke, being joined by sir Cloudesley Shovel, resolved to proceed up the Mediterranean in quest of the French fleet, which had sailed thither from Brest, and which Rooke had actually discovered, in the preceding month, on their voyage to Toulon. On the seventeenth day of July the admiral called a council of war in the road of Tetuan, when they resolved to make an attempt upon Gibraltar, which was but slenderly provided with a garrison. Thither they sailed, and on the twenty-first day of the month the prince of Hesse landed on the isthmus with eighteen hundred marines; then he summoned the governor to surrender, and was answered, that the place would be defended to the last extremity. Next day the admiral gave orders for cannonading the town; perceiving that the enemy were driven from their fortifications at the south mole-head, he commanded captain Whi-taker to arm all the boats, and assault that quarter. The captains Hicks and Juniper, who happened to be nearest the mole, immediately manned their pinnaces, and entered the fortifications sword in hand. The Spaniards sprung a mine, by which two lieutenants, and about a hundred men were killed or wounded. Nevertheless, the two captains took possession of a platform, and kept their ground until they were sustained by captain Whi-taker, and the rest of the seamen, who took by storm a redoubt between the mole and the town. Then the governor capitulated; and the prince of Hesse entered the place, amazed at the success of this attempt, considering the strength of the fortifications, which might have been defended by fifty men against a numerous army.
A sufficient garrison being left with his highness, the admiral returned to Tetuan to take in wood and Water; and when he sailed, on the ninth day of August, he descried the French fleet, to which he gave chase with all the sail he could spread. On the thirteenth he came up with it, as it lay in a line off Malaga ready to receive him, to the number of two-and-fifty great ships, and four-and-twenty galleys, under the command of the count de Tholouse, high-admiral of France, with the inferior flags of the white and blue divisions. The English fleet consisted of three-and-fifty ships of the line, exclusive of frigates, but they were inferior to the French in number of guns and men, as well as in weight of metal, and altogether unprovided with galleys, from which the enemy reaped great advantage during the engagement. A little after ten in the morning the battle began, with equal fury on both sides, and continued to rage with doubtful success till two in the afternoon, when the van of the French gave way; nevertheless, the fight was maintained till night, when the enemy bore away to leeward. The wind shifting before morning, the French gained the weather-gage; but they made no use of this advantage; for two successive days the English admiral endeavoured to renew the engagement, which the count de Tholouse declined, and at last he disappeared. The loss was pretty equal on both sides, though not a single ship was taken or destroyed by either; but the honour of the day certainly remained with the English. Over and above the disadvantages we have enumerated, the bottoms of the British fleet were foul, and several large ships had expended all their shot long before the battle ceased; yet the enemy were so roughly handled, that they did not venture another engagement during the whole war. The French king, in order to raise the drooping spirits of his people, claimed the victory, and published an account of the action, which, at this distance of time, plainly proves that he was reduced to the mean shift of imposing upon his subjects, by false and partial representations. Among other exaggerations in this detail, we find mention made of mischief done to French ships by English bombs; though nothing is more certain than that there was not one bomb vessel in the combined fleet. The French academy, actuated by a servile spirit of adulation, caused a medal to be struck on the occasion, which, instead of perpetuating the glory of their prince, served only to transmit their own shame to posterity. After the battle, sir George Rooke sailed to Gibraltar to refit, and leaving a squadron with sir John Leake, set sail for England on the twenty-fourth day of August. He arrived in September, and was received by the ministry, and the people in general, with those marks of esteem and veneration which were due to his long services and signal success; but he was still persecuted with a spirit of envy and detraction. Philip king of Spain, alarmed at the reduction of Gibraltar, sent the marquis de Villadarias with an army to retake it. The siege lasted four months, during which the prince of Hesse exhibited many shining proofs of courage and ability. The place was supplied with men and provisions by convoys from Lisbon, until monsieur de Pointis put a stop to that communication, by entering the bay with a strong squadron; but he was obliged to retire at the approach of sir John Leake and admiral Vanderdussen; and the marquis de Villadarias, having made little or no progress on land, thought proper to abandon the enterprise.
The parliament of England meeting on the twenty-ninth day of October, the queen in her speech, observed, that the great and remarkable success with which God had blessed her arms, produced unanimous joy and satisfaction through all parts of the kingdom; and that a timely improvement of the present advantages would enable her to procure a lasting foundation of security for England, as well as a firm support for the liberty of Europe. She declared her intention was to be kind and indulgent to all her subjects. She expressed her hope that they would do nothing to endanger the loss of this opportunity; and that there would be no contention among them, but an emulation to promote the public welfare. Congratulatory addresses were voted and presented by both houses. They were equal in their professions of duty and affection to the queen; but the addresses imbibed a very different colour from the different sanctions by which the two houses were influenced. The lords congratulated her on the great and glorious success of her arms under the command of the duke of Marlborough, without deigning to mention sir George Rooke, who had defeated the French navy at sea, and added the important fortress of Gibraltar to the British conquests. On the other hand, the commons affected to mention the battle of Blenheim, and Rooke’s naval victory, as events of equal glory and importance. However they might be warped by prejudice against individuals, they did not suffer the war to languish for want of supplies. Having taken into consideration the services of the army and navy, they voted that the queen should be desired to bestow her bounty on the seamen and land forces who had behaved themselves so gallantly. Then they deliberated upon the different articles of national expense, and granted four millions six hundred and seventy thousand nine hundred and thirty-one pounds, for the occasion’s of the ensuing year, to be raised by a land tax, by the sale of annuities, and other expedients. These measures were taken with such expedition, that the land tax received the royal assent on the ninth day of December; when the queen, in a short speech, thanked the commons for their despatch, which she considered a sure pledge of their affection.
The high church party took this occasion to promote the bill against occasional conformity, which was revived and brought into the house in a new model by Mr. William Bromley, who moved that it might be tacked to the land-tax bill, and sent up to the lords for their concurrence. The court no longer espoused this measure, and the violent party was weakened by defection. After a warm and tedious debate, the tack was rejected by a great majority. The bill, however, passed the house of commons, and was sent up to the lords on the fourteenth day of December, when it would hardly have excited a debate had not the queen been present, and desirous of hearing what could be said on both sides of the question. For the information and satisfaction of her majesty the subject was again discussed, and all the arguments being repeated, the bill was rejected by a majority of one-and-twenty voices. The next subject on which the house of lords employed their attention, was the late conduct of the Scottish parliament. The lord Haversham, in a set speech, observed, that the settlement of the succession in Scotland had been postponed, partly because the ministry for that kingdom were weak and divided; partly from a received opinion that the succession was never sincerely and cordially intended by those who managed the affairs of Scotland in the cabinet-council. He expatiated on the bad consequences that might attend the act of security, which he styled a bill of exclusion, and particularly mentioned that clause by which the heritors and boroughs were ordained to exercise their fencible men every month. He said the nobility and gentry of Scotland were as learned and brave as any nation in Europe, and generally discontented: that the common people were very numerous, very stout, and very poor; and he asked who was the man that could tell what such a multitude, so armed, and so disciplined, might do under such leaders could opportunities suit their intention. He recommended these circumstances to the consideration of the house, and concluded with these words of Lord Bacon, “Let men beware how they neglect or suffer matter of troubles to be prepared, for no man can forbid the sparks that may set all on fire.” The lords resolved to consider these subjects on the twenty-ninth day of November, when the queen repaired to the house of peers to hear the debates, and by her presence moderate the heat of both parties. The earl of Nottingham reflected so severely on the memory of king William, that he would have been sent to the Tower, had not the lords declined any such motion out of respect to her majesty. After much declamation on the Scottish act of security, the grand committee of the peers, by the advice of lord Wharton, resolved that the queen should be enabled by act of parliament on the part of England, to name commissioners to treat about an union with Scotland, provided that the parliament of Scotland should first appoint commissioners on their part for the same purpose; that no Scotsmen should enjoy the privileges of Englishmen, except such as were settled in England, Ireland, and the plantations, and such as were or might be in the sea or land service, until an union could be effected, or the succession settled as in England: that the traffic by cattle from Scotland to England should be prevented: that the lord admiral should issue orders for taking such vessels as should be found trading from Scotland to France, or to the ports of any of her majesty’s enemies: and that care should be taken to prevent the exportation of English wool into Scotland. On these resolutions a bill was formed for an entire union, and passed the house on the twentieth day of December. The lords presented an address to the queen, representing that they had duly weighed the dangerous and pernicious effects that were likely to be produced by divers acts of parliament lately passed in Scotland: that they were of opinion the safety of the kingdom required that speedy and effectual orders should be given to put Newcastle in a posture of defence, to secure the port of Tynemouth, and repair the fortifications of Hull and Carlisle. They likewise advised her majesty to give directions for disciplining the militia of the four northern counties; for providing them with arms and ammunition; for maintaining a competent number of regular troops on the northern borders of England, as well as in the north of Ireland; and for putting the laws in execution against papists. The queen promised that a survey should be made of the places they had mentioned, and laid before parliament, and that she would give the necessary directions upon the other articles of the address. The commons seemed to concur with the lords in their sentiments of the Scottish act of security. They resolved that a bill should be brought in for the effectual securing the kingdom of England from the apparent dangers that might arise from several acts lately passed in the parliament of Scotland, and this was formed on nearly the same resolutions which had been taken in the upper house. The bill sent down by the lords was thrice read, and ordered to lie on the table, but they passed their own, to take effect at Christmas, provided before that time the Scots should not settle the succession. When it was offered to the lords they passed it without any amendment, contrary to the expectation and even to the hope of some members who were no friends to the house of Hanover, and firmly believed the lords would have treated this bill with the same contempt which had been manifested for that which they had sent down to the commons.
The duke of Marlborough, at his first appearance in the house after his return to England, was honoured with a very extraordinary eulogium, pronounced by the lord-keeper, in the name of the peers of England; and a compliment of the same nature was presented to him by a committee of the house of commons. Doctor Delaune, vice-chancellor of Oxford, accompanied by the principal members of the University, attended the queen with an address of congratulation upon the success of her arms in Germany, under the admirable conduct and invincible courage of the duke of Marlborough; and at sea, under the most brave and faithful admiral sir George Booke. He received a civil answer from her majesty, though now she took umbrage at Booke’s being raised upon a level with the duke of Marlborough, whose great victories had captivated her administration, and whose wife had alienated her affection from the tories. The commons perceiving how high he stood in her majesty’s esteem, and having been properly tutored for the purpose, took into consideration the great services of the duke; and, in an address, besought her majesty to consider some proper means to perpetuate the memory of such noble actions. In a few days she gave them to understand, by a message that she was inclined to grant the interest of the crown in the honour and manor of Woodstock and hundred of Wooton, to the duke of Marlborough and his heirs; and that as the lieutenancy and rangership of the parks, with the rents and profits of the manors and hundreds, were granted for two lives, she wished that incumbrance could be removed. A bill was immediately brought in, enabling the queen to bestow these honours and manors on the duke of Marlborough and his heirs, and the queen was desired to advance the money for clearing the incumbrances. She not only complied with this address, but likewise ordered the comptroller of her works to build in Woodstock-park a magnificent palace for the duke, upon a plan much more solid than beautiful. By this time sir George Rooke was laid aside, and the command of the fleet bestowed upon sir Cloudesley Shovel, now declared rear-admiral of England. Mareschal de Tallard, with the other French generals taken at Hochstadt, arrived on the sixteenth of December in the river Thames, and were immediately conveyed to Nottingham and Lichfield, attended by a detachment of the royal regiment of horse guards. They were treated with great respect, and allowed the privilege of riding ten miles around the places of their confinement.
ANNE, 1701—1714
While the house of commons, in two successive addresses, thanked the queen for the treaty which the duke of Marlborough had concluded with Prussia concerning the troops to be sent to the duke of Savoy, and desired she would use her interest with the allies that they might next year furnish their complete proportions of men by sea and land; the lords examined into all the proceedings at sea and all the instructions of the admiralty, and presented an address to the queen, explaining all the different articles of mismanagement. She promised to consider them particularly, and give such directions upon them as might be most for the advantage of the public service. The remaining part of the session was consumed in disputes and altercations between the two houses on the subject of the Aylesbury constables, who were sued by five other inhabitants for having denied them the right of voting at the election. These five persons were committed to Newgate by order of the house of commons. They moved for ahabeas-corpusin the King’s Bench, but the court would take no cognizance of the affair. Two of the prisoners petitioned the queen that their case might be brought before her majesty in parliament. The commons, in an address, besought the queen to refuse granting a writ of error in this case, which would tend to the overthrowing the undoubted rights and privileges of the commons of England. She assured them she would not do any thing to give them just cause of complaint, but this matter relating to the course of judicial proceedings being of the highest importance, she thought it necessary to weigh and consider very carefully what might be proper for her to do in a thing of so great concern. They voted all the lawyers, who had pleaded on the return of thehabeas-corpusin behalf of the prisoners, guilty of a breach of privilege, and ordered them to be taken into custody. They likewise ordered the prisoners to be removed from Newgate into the custody of their serjeant-at-arms, lest they should have been discharged by the queen’s granting writs of error. The prisoners, finding themselves at the mercy of the exasperated commons, petitioned the lords for relief. The upper house passed six different resolutions against the conduct of the commons, as being an obstruction to justice, and contrary to Magna Charta. The lower house demanded a conference, in which they insisted upon the sole right of determining elections: they affirmed that they only could judge who had a right of voting, and that they were judges of their own privileges, in which the lords could not intermeddle.
The upper house demanded a free conference, which proved ineffectual. New resolutions were taken by the commons, diametrically opposite to those of the peers; who, on the other hand, attended the queen with along representation of all the particulars relating to this affair. They affirmed that the proceedings of the house of commons against the Aylesbury men, were wholly new and unprecedented: that it was the birthright of every Englishman, who apprehended himself injured, to seek for redress in her majesty’s courts of justice: that if any power could control this right, and prescribe when he should, and when he should not, be allowed the benefit of the laws, he ceased to be a freeman, and his liberty and property were precarious. They requested, therefore, that no consideration whatever should prevail with her majesty to suffer an obstruction to the known course of justice, but that she would be pleased to give effectual orders for the immediate issuing of the writs of error. The queen assured them that she would have complied with their request, but finding an absolute necessity for putting an immediate end to the session, she knew there could be no further proceedings on that matter. On the very day, which was the fourteenth of March, she went to the house of lords and passed the bills that were ready for the royal assent. Then she thanked the parliament for having despatched the public business: she warned them to avoid the fatal effects of animosity and dissension: and ordered the lord keeper to prorogue them to Thursday the first of May; but on the fifth of April they were dissolved by proclamation, and another was published for calling a new parliament. The queen, accompanied by the prince of Denmark, made an excursion to Newmarket, and afterwards dined by invitation with the university of Cambridge, where she conferred the honour of knighthood upon Dr. Ellis the vice-chancellor, upon James Montague, counsel for the University, and upon the celebrated Isaac Newton, mathematical professor. The two houses of convocation still continued at variance. The lower house penned petulant representations, and the archbishop answered them by verbal reprehension and admonition. The tory interest was now in the wane. The duke of Buckinghamshire was deprived of the privy-seal, and that office conferred on the duke of Newcastle, a nobleman of powerful influence with the whig party. The earl of Montague was created marquis of Mounthermer and duke of Montague; the earl of Peterborough and lord Cholmondeley were chosen of the privy-council; and lord Cutts was sent to command the troops in Ireland under the duke of Ormond.
The ministry of Scotland was now entirely changed. The marquis of Tweedale and Johnston having been found unequal to the undertaking, were dismissed. The duke of Queensberry resumed the management of affairs in that kingdom under the title of lord privy-seal, and the office of commissioner was conferred upon the young duke of Argyle, who succeeded to his father’s influence among the presbyterians. He was a nobleman possessed of good natural talents, which had not been neglected; candid, open, and sincere; brave, passionate, and aspiring; had he been endued with a greater share of liberality, his character would have been truly heroic. At this juncture he was instructed to procure an act of the Scottish parliament, settling the protestant succession, or to set on foot a treaty for the union of the two kingdoms. At the opening of the session in June, the members were divided into three parties, namely, the cavaliers or Jacobites, the revolutioners, the squadrone volante, or flying squadron, headed by the marquis of Tweedale, who disclaimed the other two factions, and pretended to act from the dictates of conscience alone. The parliament was adjourned to the third day of July, when her majesty’s letter was read, earnestly recommending the settlement of the succession in the protestant line, and an act for a commission to treat of an union between the two kingdoms. The marquis of Annandale proposed that the parliament should proceed on the limitations and conditions of government: that a committee should be appointed to consider the condition of the coin and the commerce of the nation. The earl of Mar moved that the house would, preferable to all other business, consider the means for engaging in a treaty with England. After a long debate they resolved to proceed on the coin and the commerce. Schemes for supplying the nation with money by a paper credit were presented by Dr. Hugh Chamberlain and John Law, but rejected. The house resolved that any kind of paper credit, by the circulation of bills, was an improper expedient, and appointed a council to put the laws relating to trade in execution. The duke of Hamilton proposed that the parliament should not proceed to the nomination of a successor until the treaty with England should be discussed, and the limitations settled. This proposal being approved, a draft of an answer to her majesty’s letter was presented by the marquis of Tweedale. Two different forms of an act for a treaty with England were offered by the earl of Mar and the marquis of Lothian: others were produced concerning the elections of officers of state, and the regulation of commerce.
1705
The chief aim of the cavaliers was to obstruct the settlement of the succession, and with that view they pressed the project of limitations, to which they knew the court would never assent. A motion being made to grant the first reading to an act of commission for a treaty with England, the duke of Hamilton insisted on the limitations, and a vote being stated in these terms, “Proceed to consider the act for a treaty of limitation,” the latter was carried in favour of the cavaliers. On the twenty-second day of August an act for this purpose was approved; and next day an act for a triennial parliament, which the courtiers were enabled to defeat. They likewise passed an act, ordaining, that the Scottish ambassadors representing Scotland should be present when the sovereign might have occasion to treat with foreign princes and states, and be accountable to the parliament of Scotland. Fletcher of Saltoun, presented a scheme of limitations that savoured strongly of republican principles. He afterwards enlarged upon every article, endeavouring to prove that they were absolutely necessary to prevent the consequences of English influence; to enable the nation to defend its rights and liberties; to deter ministers of state from giving bad advice to their sovereign; to preserve the courts of judicature from corruption, and screen the people from tyranny and oppression. The earl of Stair having argued against these limitations, Fletcher replied, “It is no wonder he opposed the scheme; for, had such an act subsisted, his lordship would have been hanged for the bad counsel he had given to king James; for the concern he had in the massacre of Glencoe; and for his conduct since the revolution.” The next subject on which the parliament deliberated was the conspiracy. A motion being made that the house might know what answer the queen had returned to their address in the last session, the chancellor delivered to the clerk register the papers relating to the plot, that they might be perused by the members: but these being copies, and the evidences remaining at London, no further progress was made in the affair. Yet the duke of Athol, in a distinct narrative of the pretended conspiracy, boldly accused the duke of Queensberry of having endeavoured to mislead the queen by false accusations against her good subjects. When the act for a treaty of union fell under consideration, a draft for that purpose, presented by the earl of Mar, was compared with the English act, importing, that the queen should name and appoint not only the commissioners for England, but likewise for Scotland.
Fletcher did not fail to inveigh against the imperious conduct of the English parliament in this affair. He exhorted the house to resent such treatment, and offered the draft of an address to her majesty on the subject, but this the house rejected. Duke Hamilton proposed that a clause might be added to the act, importing, that the union should nowise derogate from any fundamental laws, ancient privileges, offices, rights, liberties, and dignities of the Scottish nation. This occasioned a long debate; and a question being put, was carried in the negative. Another clause was proposed, that the Scottish commissioners should not begin to treat until the English parliament should have rescinded their clause enacting that the subjects of Scotland should be adjudged and taken as aliens after the twenty-fifth day of December. The courtiers, considering the temper of the house, would not venture to oppose this motion directly, but proposed that the clause should be formed into a separate act, and the expedient was approved. Though the Duke of Athol entered a vigorous protest, to which the greater part of the cavaliers and all the squadrone adhered, comprehending four-and-twenty peers, seven-and-thirty barons, and eighteen boroughs, the act for the treaty of union was, after much altercation, finished, empowering commissioners to meet and treat of an union; but restraining them from treating of any alterations of the church government as by law established. Whilst this important subject was under consideration, the duke of Hamilton, to the amazement of his whole party, moved that the nomination of the commissioners should be left to the queen. Fourteen or fifteen of the cavaliers ran out of the house in a transport of indignation, exclaiming that they were deserted and basely betrayed by the duke of Hamilton. A very hot debate ensued, in the course of which the duke was severely handled by those whom he had hitherto conducted: but at length the question being put whether the nomination should be left to the queen or to the parliament, the duke’s motion was approved by a very small majority. He afterwards excused himself for his defection, by saying he saw it was in vain to contend, and that since the court had acquired a great majority, he thought he might be allowed to pay that compliment to his sovereign. He was desirous of being in the commission, and the duke of Argyle promised he should be nominated. The queen refusing to honour him with that mark of distinction, Argyle would not suffer himself to be named, and threatened to oppose the union, but means were found to appease his resentment. Two drafts of an address being presented by the earl of Sutherland and Fletcher of Saltoun, beseeching her majesty to use her endeavours with the parliament of England to rescind that part of their act which declared the subjects of Scotland aliens; and an overture of a bill being offered, ordaining that the Scottish commissioners should not enter upon the treaty of union until that clause should be repealed; the courtiers moved that the parliament should proceed by way of order to their commissioners, and by address to her majesty. After some debate, the house assenting to this proposal, the order and address was drawn up and approved. The great and weighty affair of the treaty being at length happily transacted, though not without a protest by Athol and his adherents, the parliament granted a supply of fifty thousand pounds, and the house was adjourned to the twentieth day of December; then the queen declaring the earl of Mar secretary of state in the room of the marquis of Annandale, who was appointed lord president of the council.
In Ireland, the parliament met at Dublin on the fifth day of March, and voted one hundred and fifty thousand pounds for the support of the necessary branches of the establishment. A dispute arose between the commons and the lower house of convocation, relating to the tithes of hemp and flax, ascertained in a clause of a bill for the better improvement of the hempen and flaxen manufactures of the kingdom. The lower house of convocation presented a memorial against this clause as prejudicial to the rights and properties of the clergy. The commons voted the person who brought it in guilty of a breach of privilege, and ordered him to be taken into custody. Then they resolved that the convocation were guilty of a contempt and breach of the privilege of that house. The convocation presuming to justify their memorials, the commons voted that all matters relating to it should be razed out of the journals and books of convocation. The duke of Ormond, dreading the consequences of such heats, adjourned the parliament to the first day of May, when the houses meeting again, came to some resolutions that reflected obliquely on the eon-vocation as enemies to her majesty’s government and the protestant succession. The clergy, in order to acquit themselves of all suspicion, resolved in their turn that the church and nation had been happily delivered from popery and tyranny by king William at the revolution: that the continuance of these blessings were due, under God, to the auspicious reign and happy government of her majesty queen Anne: that the future security and preservation of the church and nation depended wholly, under God, on the succession of the crown as settled by law in the protestant line: that if any clergyman should by word or writing declare anything in opposition to these resolutions, they should look upon him as a sower of divisions among the protestants, and an enemy to the constitution. They levelled another resolution against the presbyterians, importing, that to teach or to preach against the doctrine, government, rites, or ceremonies of the church, or to maintain schools or seminaries for the education of youth, in principles contrary to those of the established church, was a contempt of the ecclesiastical laws of the kingdom; of pernicious consequence; and served only to continue and widen the unhappy schisms and divisions in the nation. In June the parliament was prorogued to the same month of the following year: then the duke of Ormond embarked for England, leaving the administration in the hands of sir Richard Cox, lord chancellor, and lord Cutts, the commander-in-chief of the queen’s forces, who were appointed lords-justices during the duke’s absence.
During these transactions in Great Britain and Ireland, the allies had not been remiss in their preparations for the ensuing campaign. The duke of Marlborough had fixed upon the Moselle for the scene of action; and magazines of all sorts were formed at Triers. On the thirteenth day of March the duke embarked for Holland, where he prevailed upon the states-general to contribute their troops for the execution of his project. Having concerted with the deputies of the states and the Dutch generals the necessary measures for opening the campaign, he set out for Maestricht in order to assemble his army. On the fifth day of May the emperor Leopold died at Vienna, and was succeeded on the imperial throne by his eldest son Joseph, king of the Romans, a prince who resembled his father in meekness of disposition, narrowness of intellect, and bigotry to the Romish religion. On the fifteenth of June the English troops passed the Maese, and continued their march towards the Moselle, under the command of general Churchill; and the duke set out for Cruetznach, to confer with prince Louis of Baden, who excused himself on pretence of being much indisposed. Marlborough visited him at Castadt, where in a conference they resolved that a sufficient number of German troops should be left for the security of the lines of Lauterburg and Stolhoffen, under the command of general Thungen, and that prince Louis of Baden should march with a large detachment towards the Saar, to act in concert with the duke of Marlborough. The confederate army passed the Moselle and the Saar in the beginning of June, and encamped at Elft in sight of the enemy, who retired with great precipitation, and intrenched themselves in the neighbourhood of Coningsmarcheren. The duke’s design was to besiege Saar-Louis; but prince Louis failed in the performance of his engagement: he feigned himself sick, and repaired to the bath at Schlangenbacle, leaving the small number of imperial troops he conducted as far as Cruetznach, under the command of the count de Frize. He was suspected of treachery; but probably acted from envy of the duke’s military reputation.*
* The duke of Marlborough finding himself obliged to retreat, sent a note with a trumpeter to Villars, containing an apology for decamping:—“Do me the justice, said he, to believe that my retreat is entirely owing to the failure of the prince of Baden; but that my esteem for you is still greater than my resentment of his conduct.”
While this nobleman sustained such a mortifying disappointment on the Moselle, the French did not fail to take advantage of their superiority in the Netherlands, where general d’Auverquerque was obliged to stand on the defensive. They invested Huy, and carried on their operations so vigorously, that in a few days the garrison were obliged to surrender themselves prisoners of war; then Villeroy undertook the reduction of Liege, and actually began his works before the citadel. Marlborough was no sooner informed of the enemy’s progress than he marched to Triers, where, in a council, it was resolved that the army should return to the Netherlands. The troops were in motion on the nineteenth of June, and marched with such expedition that they passed the Maese on the first day of July. Villeroy having received advice of the duke’s approach, abandoned his enterprise, and retired to Tonegren, from whence he retreated within his lines, that reached from Marche aux Dames on the Mouse, along the Mehaigne as far as Lenuive. Marlborough having joined d’Auverquerque, sent general Scholten with a detachment to invest Huy, and in a few days the garrison surrendered at discretion. The English general, resolving to strike some stroke of importance that should atone for his disappointment on the Moselle, sent general Hompesch to the states, with a proposal for attacking the French lines; and obtained their permission to do whatever he should think proper for the good of the common cause. Then he explained the scheme in two successive councils of war, by which at length it was approved and resolved upon, though some Dutch generals declared themselves against the undertaking. The enemy were posted along the lines, amounting to one hundred battalions, and one hundred and forty-six squadrons. The allied army did not much exceed that number. In order to divide them, d’Auverquerque made a false motion, and passed the Mehaigne as if he had intended to attack the lines about Messelin. The stratagem succeeded. The French weakened the other parts by strengthening that which was on the side of the Gerbise towards Namur. The duke of Marlborough having made the disposition, the army began to march in the night between the seventeenth and eighteenth of July, in order to force a passage of the French lines at Heylesem, the castle of Wauge, and the villages of Wauge, Neerhespen, and Oostmalen. These posts were taken with very little difficulty; but before the infantry could come up, the enemy advanced with fifty squadrons and twenty battalions, and began to fire from eight pieces of cannon with triple barrels, which did considerable execution. The duke perceiving that they were continually reinforced from the other parts of the lines, ordered the horse to charge their cavalry, which were soon broken and routed; but rallying behind their infantry, interlined with foot, and joined by fresh squadrons, they advanced again towards the allies, who were now sustained by their infantry, and moved forward to renew the charge. After a warm though short engagement, the enemy’s horse were defeated with great slaughter. The infantry, seeing themselves abandoned in the plain, retreated in great disorder, between the villages of Heylesem and Golsteven, where they were joined by the rest of their army, and formed again in order of battle. Meanwhile the duke of Marlborough ordered all his troops to enter the lines; and extended his right towards the great Geete before Tirlemont, where the enemy had left the battalion of Montluc, which surrendered at discretion. In this action the confederates took the marquis d’Alegre and the count de Home, lieutenant-generals, one major-general, two brigadier-generals, with many other officers, and a great number of common soldiers; a large heap of standards, four colours, one pair of kettle-drums, and ten pieces of cannon. In the action, as the duke of Marlborough advanced to the charge at the head of several squadrons, a Bavarian officer rode up to attack him sword in hand; but in raising himself on his stirrups to strike with the greater advantage, he fell from his horse and was immediately slain.
The body of troops commanded by monsieur d’Alegre being thus defeated with little or no loss to the confederates, the elector of Bavaria and the mareschal de Villeroy passed the great Geete and the Deule, with great expedition, and took possession of the strong camp at Parck, their left extending to Eoselser, and their right to Winselen against the height of Louvain. Next day the duke of Marlborough, marching through the plain of Parck, took twelve hundred prisoners, who could not keep pace with the rest of the enemy’s forces; and in the evening he encamped with the right at the abbey of Vliersbeck, and the left before Bierbcek, under the cannon of Louvain. He detached lieutenant-gen-carl Henkelum, the duke of Wirtemberg, and count Oxienstiern, with a considerable body of forces, to attack some posts on the Deule which were slenderly guarded. Their advanced guard accordingly passed the river and repulsed the enemy; but for want of timely support, they were obliged to pass it and retire. On the third of August baron Spaar, with a body of Dutch troops, marched to Raboth on the canal of Bruges, forced the French lines at Lovendegen, and took four forts by which they were defended; but receiving advice that the enemy were on their march towards him, he retired to Mildegem, and carried with him several hostages as security for the payment of the contributions he had raised. On the fifteenth the duke moved from Mildert to Corbais; next day he continued his march to Genap, from whence he advanced to Fischer-mont. On the seventeenth general d’Auverquerque took the post of Waterloo; and next day the confederate army was drawn up in order of battle before the enemy, who extended from Overysche, near the wood of Soignies, to Neerysche, with the little river Ysche in their front, so as to cover Brussels and Louvain. The duke of Marlborough proposed to attack them immediately, before they should recollect themselves from their consternation; and d’Auverquerque approved of the design; but it was opposed by general Schlangenburg and other Dutch officers, who represented it in such a light to the deputies of the states, that they refused to concur in the execution. The duke being obliged to relinquish the scheme, wrote an expostulatory letter to the states-general, complaining of their having withdrawn that confidence which they had reposed in him while he acted Germany. This letter being published at the Hague, excited murmurs among the people, and the English nation were incensed at the presumption of the deputies, who wrote several letters in their own justification to the states-general; but these had no effect upon the populace, by whom the duke was respected even to a degree of adoration. The states being apprised of the resentment that prevailed over all England, and that the earl of Pembroke, lord-president of the council, was appointed as envoy-extraordinary to Holland, with instructions to demand satisfaction, thought proper to anticipate his journey by making submissions to the duke, and removing Schlangenburg from his command. The confederate army returned to Corbais, from whence it inarched to Perwitz, where it encamped. The little town of Sout-Leeuwe, situated in the middle of a morass, and constituting the chief defence of the enemy’s lines, being taken by a detachment under the command of lieutenant-general Dedem, the duke ordered the lines from this place to Wasseigne to be levelled, and the town of Tirlemont to be dismantled; then passing the Demer, he encamped on the nineteenth day of September at Aerschot. About the latter end of the month he marched to Heventlials; from hence the duke repaired to the Hague, where he had several conferences with the pensionary. In a few days he returned to the army, which decamping from Heventlials, marched to Clampthout. On the twenty-fourth day of October, the count de Noyelles invested Santvliet, which surrendered before the end of the month.
ANNE, 1701—1714