1681
In a short period after the above engagement, his Majesty was pleased to appoint Lieutenant-Colonel Sackville to be Lieutenant-Colonel of the Queen's Regiment of Foot Guards, by which he was removed from service at Tangier.
1682
The Government of Tangier was next conferred upon Colonel Piercy Kirke[15], who, on the death of the Earl of Plymouth, had been promoted, on the 27th of November 1680, to the Colonelcy of the 2nd Tangier Regiment, with which Regiment he had embarked for Africa as Lieutenant-Colonel in September of that year. He was removed to the Colonelcy of the Queen's Regiment on the 19th of April, 1682, in succession to Colonel Sir Palmes Fairborne, deceased.
During Colonel Kirke's services at Tangier, he had been frequently employed upon missions to the Emperor of Morocco. In Ockley's 'Account of South-west Barbary,' there is a letter from the Emperor to him, dated the 27th of October, 1682, which shows that there was a mutual interchange of civilities between them; it is written to acknowledge the receipt of a present of three English horses, which, however thankful he might be, the Emperor seems to think might have been improved upon, for he remarks, 'everybody knows that a carriage requires four horses to travel.'
The support of the colony of Tangier appears to have been a matter of serious dispute between the King and the Parliament: repeatedly the King urged upon the House of Commons the importance of the place, and the House as often acknowledged it; but still withheld the supplies necessary for its defence.
The advantage derived from the Levant trade, the fact that two millions of money had been expended on the works, and various arguments in favour of maintaining Tangier, were at length fully set forth in a speech from His Majesty on the 17th of November, 1680: a reply was made to it in eighteen articles, but the following remarks will sufficiently explain the whole affair, and account for the final sacrifice of the colony:—
'It was said by the Parliament that the money granted for works had been misapplied;—that the same thing might happen again; and although they were, indeed, afraid of Tangier, they were more afraid of a popish successor.—It was a nursery, not only for popish soldiers, but also for priests and religious persons too, and that there had been sometimes a popish governor of the place, so that to succour it was but to augment their present evils.'
In December, 1680, and again, in a Royal Declaration, dated the 8th of April, 1681, its great importance was urged. At length, in 1683, the King, finding the expense of maintaining the garrison and fortifications greater than he was willing, or, unassisted by Parliament, able to bear, came to the resolution of recalling the one, and demolishing the other.
1683
1684