The first service in which the Queen's (now fourth) regiment was called upon to engage after it was constituted a corps of Marines, was embarking on board the fleet commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke, for the purpose of conducting to Portugal the Archduke Charles of Austria, who had been acknowledged by the British, Dutch, Imperial, and Portuguese governments as sovereign of Spain by the title of Charles III., an event which excited a lively interest at the time, and from which most important results were anticipated.
His Catholic Majesty arrived at Portsmouth on the 26th of December, and was received by the fleet and town with the honours paid to crowned heads; after visiting Queen Anne at Windsor, he went on board, and put to sea, but was driven back by a storm.
1704
The fleet again set sail on the 12th of February, 1704, arrived at Lisbon on the 25th of that month, and was followed by transports having a British and Dutch force on board under the command of Duke Schomberg, which force was designed to assist King Charles in his attempt to gain the throne of Spain.
It was customary at this period to employ marines occasionally in the field; but this regiment did not land. It remained on board the fleet, which, having put to sea, proceeded to the city of Barcelona, and expecting the Catalonians would declare in favour of King Charles III. as soon as they should be assured of protection and support, the governor was required to surrender; but he refused to receive the summons. Although the fleet was not prepared to capture the place, yet a body of Marines was landed, and the town was bombarded. This producing no alteration in the governor's resolution, and the people exhibiting no marks of attachment to the house of Austria, the Marines were re-embarked. The British and Dutch squadron subsequently proceeded in quest of the French fleet under the Count of Thoulouse, and, although the latter had the advantage in point of numbers and other particulars, yet the French admiral avoided an engagement.
Being unable to force the enemy to fight, the British and Dutch admirals resolved to make a sudden attempt on Gibraltar, and the Queen's Regiment of Marines, now the Fourth or King's Own Regiment of Foot, had the proud distinction of taking part in the capture of this stupendous fortress, a conquest from which the kingdom has probably derived as much advantage as from any previous achievement of the British arms, and which remains a monument of the national glory. The combined fleet arrived in the bay of Gibraltar on the 21st of July; a body of English and Dutch Marines were landed on the neck of land northward of the town under the orders of the Prince of Hesse d'Armstadt, to cut off the communication of the garrison with the country, and the governor was summoned to surrender the fortress for His Catholic Majesty King Charles III. This being refused, a heavy cannonade was opened on the 23d, by which the Spaniards were driven from their guns at the head of the south mole. The boats were manned, a body of men from the fleet, climbing up the difficult acclivity, with signal gallantry captured the fortifications on the mole, but had two lieutenants and forty men killed, and sixty wounded, by the explosion of a mine. Another body of men landed, and, urged forward by their innate valour and thirst for glory, captured a detached bastion between the mole and the town; and the governor, having been again summoned, agreed to surrender on condition of being permitted to march out with all the honours of war. On taking possession of the fortress, the seamen and Marines were astonished at their own success; and they viewed, with a mixed feeling of wonder and delight, fortifications which a comparatively small number of men might have defended against a numerous army. The capture of Gibraltar gave rise to new hopes and expectations to the friends of the house of Austria, and it derived additional interest from the fact that it preceded, but a very few days, the glorious victory gained by the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim.
The loss of Gibraltar disconcerted the measures of Philip II., and his grandfather Louis XIV. Eight thousand men, under the Marquis de Villadarias, were immediately detached from the Spanish army to retake the fortress; and the French admiral received orders to engage the British and Dutch fleet, and to co-operate in the re-capture of Gibraltar.
At this period the French monarch possessed a naval force of considerable magnitude, and his fleet under the Count of Thoulouse exceeded in numbers and power the combined British and Dutch squadron. The hostile fleets engaged on the 24th of August, about eleven leagues south of Malaga, and, after both sides had suffered severely, they were separated in the night.
