The loss of Gibraltar disconcerted the measures of Philip V., and of 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 fleets, and to co-operate in the recapture of Gibraltar. The hostile fleets engaged on the 24th of August, about eleven leagues south of Malaga, and, after each had suffered severely, they were separated in the night. The enemy retired to Toulon, and Sir George Rooke sailed to Gibraltar. Here, after having held a Council of War, it was determined to return home; and the confederate fleet sailed for England, arriving at Spithead on the 25th of September. Sir John Leake and Admiral Vanderdussen were left at Lisbon to protect the coast of Portugal, and relieve Gibraltar, if it should be besieged as was anticipated.
The Marquis de Villadarias commenced the siege of Gibraltar on the 22nd of October, and the garrison, composed of Marines, under the command of the Prince of Hesse, sustained a siege by seven thousand men. The purpose of the enemy was to have stormed from the South Mole, united with the desperate attempt of a Spanish forlorn-hope climbing the rock, and a general attack from the mainland. The fortress was maintained against very superior numbers; and the fire of the enemy’s batteries having damaged the works, a body of men was landed from the fleet to assist in the defence. Brigadier Fox, and several other officers and men, having been killed on the 5th of December, 1704, aid was solicited from the army in Portugal. Admiral Sir John Leake accordingly sailed from Lisbon on the 10th of December, with a fleet, having on board a battalion of the first and second foot guards; Barrymore’s regiment, now thirteenth foot; Donegal’s regiment, now thirty-fifth foot; the Dutch regiment of Waes; and a Portuguese regiment; amounting in all to upwards of three thousand men. On their passage they fell in with the enemy’s squadron under Monsieur de Pointi, but they succeeded in arriving at Gibraltar, although some of the transports had separated.
These corps were safely landed on the 18th of December, and the Prince, strengthened by this reinforcement, made a sortie on the 23rd, and destroyed the lines, that had been erected within a hundred and sixty paces of the palisade.
1705
The Marquis de Villadarias, having received a considerable reinforcement, evinced a disposition to storm the place, and on the 2nd of February, 1705, an attempt was made against the Round Tower, to ascertain what might be effected by a larger force. On the 7th the enemy attacked with five hundred chosen grenadiers, French and Walloons, commanded by Lieut.-General Thouy, and supported by one thousand Spanish troops. They ascended the hill in perfect silence at daybreak, and again attempted to storm the Round Tower, which was defended by Colonel Borr, of the Marines, now thirty-second regiment. The assailants, by throwing from above great stones and grenades on his men, at last obliged him to retire into that part of the works where the foot guards were posted. Flushed with success, they advanced too far; when they were gallantly charged by Colonel Moncall, of Barrymore’s (thirteenth) regiment, and driven from the Round Tower. Colonel Rivett, of the Coldstream foot guards, having got up the rock on the right of the covered-way with twenty grenadiers, favoured very much Colonel Moncall’s success. The garrison by this time had assembled, and kept up so destructive a fire that the enemy was obliged to make a precipitate retreat, losing seventy men killed on the spot; upwards of two hundred wounded; and one captain, four lieutenants, and forty men taken. The loss on the part of the garrison was twenty-seven men killed, and one hundred and twenty wounded.
Marshal de Tessé arrived with additional troops to carry on the siege; the garrison also received fresh reinforcements from Portugal, besides supplies of every description. Admiral Sir John Leake sailed from the Tagus on the 6th of March, 1705, and his arrival in the bay of Gibraltar on the 10th, was again so sudden, that he completely surprised the Baron de Pointi, together with the whole of his squadron, consisting of live ships of the line, three of which were captured, and two were driven on shore, and burnt by the enemy.
After a siege of seven months the enemy retired, in April, giving up all hopes of being able to make any impression on the fortress: his efforts were then confined to a very feeble blockade.
The fortress of Gibraltar, seated upon the territory of Spain, was thus rendered subject to the British crown by the bravery of its Navy and Marines: its possession was subsequently secured by the defence made against the renewed efforts of the Spaniards in 1727, and by the glorious defence sustained by the troops, under General Lord Heathfield, for three years, from 1779 to 1782, when it exhibited to the nations of Europe a brilliant instance of the combined exertions of the British navy and army against the repeated, but unsuccessful, attempts of Spain and France to recover this important fortress.
After the Spaniards and French had desisted from further attempts to retake Gibraltar, the Marine corps were distributed in the several ships of war which were collected in the Tagus, in order to co-operate with the land forces on the coast of Spain.
Towards the end of May, the English fleet, with about five thousand land forces on board, under the joint command of Admiral Sir Cloudesly Shovel and General the Earl of Peterborough, sailed from St. Helen’s, and arrived at Lisbon on the 20th of June. King Charles went on board the Ranelagh on the 23rd of July, and the Dutch fleet having joined in the Tagus, the confederate squadron sailed on the 28th, and anchored at Gibraltar on the 11th of August. The Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, with the battalion of foot guards, and the thirteenth and thirty-fifth regiments, embarked, and the fleet sailed for Altea Bay: form thence it again proceeded on its voyage, and anchored before Barcelona on the 22nd of August.