Additional forces were sent to Flanders, and the Earl of Marlborough was appointed to command the confederate troops with the rank of Captain-General.
The expedition, which had been planned by King William against Spain, was carried out by the Ministers of Queen Anne. It was arranged, accordingly, that a combined fleet of English and Dutch ships, consisting of fifty sail of the line, besides frigates, under Admiral Sir George Rooke, and a land force amounting to nearly fourteen thousand men, under the command of the Duke of Ormond, should proceed to the coast of Spain. The following corps were employed on this service, namely:—
| Officers and Men. | ||||
| Lloyd’s Dragoons, now 3rd Light Dragoons (detachment.) | 275 | |||
| Foot Guards, the Grenadier and Coldstream | 755 | |||
| Sir H. Bellasis’s | now 2nd | Foot | 834 | |
| Churchill’s | 3rd | ” | 834 | |
| Seymour’s | 4th | ” | 834 | |
| Columbine’s | 6th | ” | 724 | |
| O’Hara’s, 3 companies | 7th | Royal Fusiliers | 313 | |
| Erle’s | 19th | Foot | 724 | |
| Gustavus Hamilton’s | 20th | ” | 724 | |
| Villiers’s Marines, 5 Companies. | 31st | ” | 520 | |
| Fox’s Marines | 32nd | ” | 834 | |
| Donegal’s | 35th | ” | 724 | |
| Charlemont’s | 36th | ” | 724 | |
| Shannon’s Marines | 834 | |||
| —— | ||||
| 9653 | ||||
| Dutch Regiments commanded by Major-General Baron Sparre and Brigadier Pallandt | } 3924 | |||
| ——— | ||||
| 13,577 | ||||
Colonel Villiers’s Corps of Marines, now the THIRTY-FIRST regiment, soon after its formation was thus called upon to supply five Companies for embarkation for active service on board the fleet destined against Spain: these Companies embarked in the latter part of May from Plymouth, and proceeded to join the fleet at Portsmouth, from whence the expedition sailed to Cadiz in the month of July, 1702.
The armament appeared off Cadiz on the 12th of August, and the Duke summoned the place; but his terms being refused, he landed on the 15th at the Bay of Bulls, between Rota and Fort St. Catherine, under great disadvantages and a well conducted opposition: he marched upon Rota, where the horses and stores were disembarked, and in two days afterwards he advanced to the town of St. Mary. Rota was retaken by a coup-de-main, and the British garrison of 300 men was captured. The attempt on Cadiz failed; the troops were re-embarked, and sailed from Cadiz on the 30th of September.
In alluding to this expedition, Bishop Burnet remarks,—“It is certain our Court had false accounts of the state the place was in, both with relation to the garrison, and to the fortifications; the garrison was much stronger, and the fortifications were in a better state, than was represented.”
Conspicuous as the bravery of the troops had been in the expedition against Cadiz, still the failure of the attempt naturally caused painful feelings to arise among the British soldiers, who were disappointed of reaping the well-earned fame of a successful enterprise, when victory appeared almost within their grasp. The receipt of information of the arrival of a Spanish fleet from the West Indies, under a French convoy, at the harbour of Vigo, speedily dissipated these feelings, and gave renewed hopes to the troops. The allied fleet immediately bent its course thither, and arrived before Vigo on the 22nd of October, 1702. The French admiral Count de Chateaurenaud had placed his shipping and the galleons within a narrow passage, the entrance to which was defended by a castle on one side, and by platforms mounted with cannon on both sides of the inlet; a strong boom was thrown across the harbour.
To facilitate the attack on this formidable barrier, the Duke of Ormond landed a portion of his army six miles from Vigo on the 23rd of October, and took, by assault, a battery of forty pieces of cannon, situated at the entrance of the bay. A British flag, hoisted on this fort, was the signal for a general attack. The fleet in full sail approached, broke the boom at the first shock, and became closely engaged with the enemy’s ships, while the British troops that had landed, stormed and captured the batteries. After a vigorous defence, the French and Spaniards, finding they could not escape, set fire to some of their vessels, and cast their cargoes into the sea; but the British exerted themselves nobly in extinguishing the flames, and succeeded in saving six galleons and seven ships of war. Two thousand of the enemy are stated to have perished, and the Spaniards sustained a loss in goods and treasure exceeding eight million dollars, more than one-half of which fell to the captors, whose loss in this victory was inconsiderable. Queen Anne, attended by the Lords and Commons, went in state to St. Paul’s Cathedral to return thanks for this success, and each of the regiments of infantry received 561l. 10s. prize-money.
Villiers’s Marines (THIRTY-FIRST regiment) did not land at Vigo, but served on board the fleet in this gallant enterprise.
The troops under the Duke of Ormond subsequently returned to England, and on their arrival in November, 1702, were stationed as follows, namely:—