On the heels of Ramillies came the tidings of a still less expected defeat in Savoy. The Duke de Vendôme was recalled from Piedmont after the defeat of Ramillies to supersede Villeroi, and the Duke of Orleans, under the direction of Marshal de Marsin, was sent to Piedmont, with orders to besiege Turin. This siege was carried on through the summer; and when the Duke of Savoy had refused all offers of accommodation made by France, the Duke de Feuillade, having completed his lines of circumvallation, made the last offer of courtesy to the impassive Duke of Savoy. Eugene was beyond the Adige, and knew the formidable obstacles in his path; but at the call of the distressed duke he forced his way in the face of every opposition, crossed river after river, threaded his way between the lines, and at length formed a junction with the Duke of Savoy. After this union they advanced undauntedly on Turin, and reached its vicinity on the 13th of August. They crossed the Po between Montcalier and Cavignan, and on the 5th of September captured a convoy of eight hundred loaded mules. They then crossed the Doria, and encamped with their right wing on that river, and their left on the Stura. The entrenchments of the foe had the convent of the Capuchins, called Notre Dame, in their centre opposite. The Duke of Orleans proposed to march out of their entrenchments and attack the army of Savoy, but Marsin showed him an order from the Court of Versailles forbidding so much hazard. The Prince did not leave them long to deliberate, but attacked them in their entrenchments, he himself leading up the left wing, and the duke the centre. After some hard fighting both commanders forced the entrenchments, and drove the French in precipitation over the Po. The Savoyards had about three thousand men killed and wounded. Prince Eugene pursued the Duke of Orleans and the Duke de Feuillade to the very borders of Dauphiné. Unbroken gloom now hung over Versailles. Louis affected to bear his reverses with indifference; but the violent restraint he put upon himself so much endangered his health that his physicians were compelled frequently to bleed him. The only gleams of comfort which broke through the ominous silence of the gay Court of France were afforded by an advantage gained by the Count de Medavi-Grancey over the Prince of Hesse-Cassel in the neighbourhood of Castiglione, and the forcing him to the Adige, with a loss of two thousand men. Besides this, the mismanagement of King Charles in Spain, which prevented the success of the Earl of Peterborough, was calculated in some degree to solace the confounded French.
King Philip had made a great effort to recover the city of Barcelona. Early in the spring he appeared before that city with a considerable army of French and Spaniards, and invested it. He was supported by a fleet under the Count de Toulouse, and succeeded in re-taking the castle of Montjuich; and King Charles, who was cooped up in the town, sent urgent despatches to Lord Peterborough at Valencia to come to his assistance. Peterborough immediately marched to his relief with two thousand men, but found Philip's besieging army too numerous to engage with. On the 8th of May, however, Sir John Leake, who had sailed from Lisbon with thirty ships of the line, showed himself in the bay, and the Count de Toulouse sailed away for Toulon without attempting to strike a blow; and Philip no sooner saw himself abandoned by the French fleet, and in danger of an attack from both land and sea, than he made as hasty a retreat, leaving his tents with the sick and wounded behind him.
Philip had recalled to his service the Duke of Berwick, who had only been dismissed because he was no favourite with the queen, and he was posted on the Portuguese frontiers. But, notwithstanding this, the Earl of Galway crossed these frontiers with an army of twenty thousand men, took Alcantara, and made prisoners of the garrison, numbering four thousand men. He then advanced on Madrid, Lord Peterborough engaging to meet him, with King Charles, at the capital. At his approach Philip fled with his queen to Burgos, carrying with him all the valuables he could convey, and destroying what he could not take. About the end of June the Earl of Galway entered Madrid without resistance; and had the Earl of Peterborough, with the king, met him, according to agreement, the war would have been at an end. But Peterborough, who, had he been at liberty to act as he pleased, would have soon been in Madrid, was sorely hampered by the king. Charles had reached Saragossa, and been acknowledged sovereign of Aragon and Valencia; but he was afraid of advancing towards the capital, lest they should be cut off by the enemy. In vain did Peterborough urge and entreat, and show the necessity of despatch to meet Galway. The wretched monarch had made his chief councillor the Prince of Lichtenstein, who had none of the brilliant dashing qualities of Peterborough, and against that dead German weight Peterborough strove in vain. The timid stupid king was immovable, till Galway—finding that he was unsupported in Madrid, and that the Spaniards looked with indignation on an army of Portuguese with a heretic general in possession of their capital—took his departure. Meanwhile King Philip and the Duke of Berwick had met, and, on the frontier, had received fresh reinforcements from France. They therefore returned and availed themselves of Galway's unfortunate position to recover the capital. Galway evacuated the place on their approach without a blow, and retreated towards Aragon to form a junction with Peterborough and the king. On the 6th of August Charles and Peterborough came up with Galway at Guadalaxara; but, notwithstanding this increase of force, nothing could persuade the dastard Austrian prince to advance. Peterborough, who had all the fiery temperament of a hero of romance, instead of the patience of Marlborough, which had so often triumphed over German pride and Dutch phlegm, lost all patience and gave up the enterprise. He returned to the coast of the Mediterranean, and with him went all chance of Charles of Austria securing the Spanish throne. Peterborough set sail with a squadron to endeavour to aid the Duke of Savoy, the victory of Eugene not yet having occurred.
When Peterborough was gone, nothing but distraction raged in the camp of the confederates. Lord Galway could assert no supreme command against the Prince of Lichtenstein and the Portuguese general; every one was at variance with his fellow-officer, and all were disgusted with the Austrian counsellors of Charles, and with his inert and hopeless character. The Duke of Berwick, availing himself of their divisions, marched down upon them, and they made a hasty retreat towards Valencia and the mountains of New Castile. After incredible sufferings they reached Requena, the last town of New Castile, where, considering themselves secure, from the nature of the country, they went into winter quarters at the end of September, and Charles and his attendants proceeded to Valencia, where he wrote to the Duke of Marlborough, recounting his misfortunes—the result of his own incapacity—and vehemently entreating for fresh forces and supplies from England and Holland. Could a large army have been sent under the Earl of Peterborough, with authority for his undisputed command, there is no doubt but that he would very speedily have cleared Spain of the French; but against this was supposed to operate the influence of Marlborough himself, who did not wish to see another English general raised to a rivalry of glory with him.
The victory of Prince Eugene rendering the presence of the Earl of Peterborough unnecessary in Piedmont, he made a second voyage to Genoa, to induce that republic to lend King Charles and his Allies money for his establishment. The English fleet in the Mediterranean continued sailing from place to place with six or eight thousand men on board, seeking some occasion to annoy the coast of France, whilst these men might have been of the utmost service in Spain if commanded by Peterborough. As it was, half of them are said to have perished in this objectless cruise; and another squadron under the Earl of Rivers, sent to join Lord Galway at the siege of Alicante, suffered as much. In short, no campaign ever appears to have combined more mismanagement than this in Spain, including the movements of the fleet to support it.
But whilst these various fortunes of war were taking place on the Continent, a victory greater than that of Ramillies or of Turin was achieved at home. This was the accomplishment of the Union of the two kingdoms of Scotland and England, and with it the extinction of those heartburnings and embarrassments which were continually arising out of the jealousies of Scotland of the overbearing power of England. In the last Session nothing appeared farther off; nay, a Bill—the Bill of Security—had passed, which threatened to erect again two thrones in the island, with all the rivalries and bloodshed of former years. The provisions of this Bill, which practically excluded the House of Hanover from the throne of Scotland, were much resented in England, and the two nations seemed to be on the brink of war. The Commissioners, however, appointed by England and Scotland to decide the terms of this agreement, met on the 16th of April in the council-chamber of the Cockpit, near Whitehall, and continued their labours till the 22nd of July, when they had agreed upon the conditions, and on that day mutually signed them. In discussing the proposed plans of this Union, the Scots were found to incline to a federal Union, like that of Holland; but the English were resolved that, if made at all, the Union of the two kingdoms should be complete—a perfect incorporation of Scotland, so that there should be for ever an end of the troubles and annoyances of the Scottish Parliament. The last reign, and the present, had shown too clearly the inconveniences of that Parliament, the means it gave to disaffected men—and especially to such as were disappointed of their ambitious aims by the Government—of fanning up feuds and stopping the business of the country; nay, of threatening, as of late, to establish again their own independent state, and their own king. Therefore the English Commissioners would listen to nothing but a thorough amalgamation. The Lord Keeper proposed that the two kingdoms should for ever be united into one realm by the name of Great Britain; that this realm should be represented by one and the same Parliament; and that the succession to the Crown should be such as was already determined by the Act of Parliament passed in the late reign, called "An Act for the Further Limitation of the Crown and the Better Securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject." The Scots, whilst seeming to comply with this proposal, endeavoured to introduce various clauses about the rights and privileges of the people of Scotland in England, and of the English in Scotland, and that the Crown should be established in the same persons as those mentioned in the Act referred to; but the Lord Keeper declined to enter into any consideration of any proposals, but simply for a full and complete Union of the two kingdoms into one, with the same universal rights, declaring that nothing but such solidification would effect perfect and lasting harmony. The Scots gave way, and the terms agreed upon were mutually signed on the 22nd of July, 1706.
GREAT SEAL OF ANNE.
The conditions of this famous treaty were—That the succession to the throne of Great Britain should be vested in the Princess Sophia and her heirs, according to the Act passed by the English Parliament for that purpose; that there should be but one Parliament for the whole kingdom; that all the subjects should enjoy the same rights and privileges; that they should have the same allowances, encouragements, and drawbacks, and lie under the same regulations and restrictions as to trade and commerce; that Scotland should not be charged with the temporary duties on certain commodities; that the sum of three hundred and ninety-eight thousand one hundred and three pounds should be granted to the Scots as an equivalent for such parts of the customs and excise charged upon that kingdom in consequence of the Union as would be applicable to the payment of the debts of England, according to the proportions which the customs and excise of Scotland bore to those of England; that as the revenues of Scotland should increase, a fair equivalent should be allowed for such proportion of the said increase as should be applicable to payment of the debts of England; that the sums to be thus paid should be employed in reducing the coin of Scotland to the standard and value of the English coin, in paying off the capital, stock, and interest due to the proprietors of the African Company, which should be immediately dissolved, in discharging all the public debts of the kingdom of Scotland, in promoting and encouraging manufactures and fisheries under the direction of Commissioners to be appointed by her Majesty, and accountable to the Parliament of Great Britain; that the laws relating to public right, policy, and civil government, should be alike throughout the whole kingdom; that no alteration should be made in laws which concerned private right, except for the evident benefit of the people of Scotland; that the Court of Session and all other courts of judicature in Scotland should remain as constituted, with all authority and privileges as before the Union, subject only to the power of the Parliament of the United Kingdom; that all heritable offices, superiorities, heritable jurisdictions, offices for life, and jurisdictions for life, should remain the same as rights and properties as then enjoyed by the laws of Scotland; that the rights and privileges of the royal boroughs in Scotland were to remain unaltered; that Scotland should be represented in Parliament by sixteen peers and forty-five commoners, to be elected in a manner to be settled by the present Parliament of Scotland; that all peers of Scotland and the successors to their honours and dignities should, from and after the Union, take rank and precedency next and immediately after the English peers of the like orders and degrees at the time of the Union, and before all English peers of the like orders and degrees as should be created after the Union; that they should be tried as peers of Great Britain, and enjoy all privileges of peers of England, except that of sitting in the House of Lords and the privileges depending thereon, and particularly the right of sitting upon the trials of peers; that the crown, sceptre, and sword of State, the records of Parliament, and all other records, rolls, and registers whatsoever, should still remain as they were in Scotland; that all laws and statutes in either kingdom inconsistent with these terms of Union should cease and be declared void by the Parliaments of the two kingdoms.
