TREATY BETWEEN THE EMPEROR AND THE DUKE OF SAVOY.
The emperor’s affairs at this juncture wore a very unpromising aspect. The Hungarians were fleeced and barbarously oppressed by those to whom he intrusted the government of their country. They derived courage from despair. They seized this opportunity, when the emperor’s forces were divided, and his councils distracted, to exert themselves in defence of their liberties. They ran to arms under the auspices of prince Ragotzki. They demanded that their grievances should be redressed, and their privileges restored. Their resentment was kept up by the emissaries of France and Bwaria, who likewise encouraged them to persevere in their revolt, by repeated promises of protection and assistance. The emperor’s prospect, however, was soon mended by two incidents of very great consequence to his interest. The duke of Savoy foreseeing how much he should be exposed to the mercy of the French king, should that monarch become master of the Milanese, engaged in a secret negotiation with the emperor, which, notwithstanding all his caution, was discovered by the court of Versailles. Louis immediately ordered the duke of Vendôme to disarm the troops of Savoy that were in his army, to the number of two-and-twenty thousand men; to insist upon the duke’s putting him in possession of four considerable fortresses; and demand that the number of his troops should be reduced to the establishment stipulated in the treaty of 1696. The duke, exasperated at these insults, ordered the French ambassador, and several officers of the same nation, to be arrested. Louis endeavoured to intimidate him by a menacing letter, in which he gave him to understand that since neither religion, honour, interest, nor alliances, had been able to influence his conduct, the duke de Vendôme should make known the intentions of the French monarch, and allow him four-and-twenty hours to deliberate on the measures he should pursue. This letter was answered by a manifesto: in the meantime the duke concluded a treaty with the court of Vienna; acknowledged the archduke Charles as king of Spain; and sent envoys to England and Holland. Queen Anne, knowing his importance as well as his selfish disposition, assured him of her friendship and assistance; and both she and the states sent ambassadors to Turin. He was immediately joined by a body of imperial horse under Visconti, and afterwards by count Staremberg, at the head of fifteen thousand men, with whom that general marched from the Modenese in the worst season of the year, through an enemy’s country, and roads that were deemed impassable. In vain the French forces harassed him in his march, and even surrounded him in many different places on the route: he surmounted all these difficulties with incredible courage and perseverance, and joined the duke of Savoy at Canelli, so as to secure the country of Piedmont. The other incident which proved so favourable to the imperial interest, was a treaty by which the king of Portugal acceded to the grand alliance. His ministry perceived that should Spain be once united to the crown of France, their master would sit very insecure upon his throne. They were intimidated by the united fleets of the maritime powers, which maintained the empire of the sea; and they were allured by the splendour of a match between their infanta and the archduke Charles, to whom the emperor and the king of the Romans promised to transfer all their pretensions to the Spanish crown. By this treaty, concluded at Lisbon between the emperor, the queen of Great Britain, the king of Portugal, and the states-general, it was stipulated that king Charles should be conveyed to Portugal by a powerful fleet, having on board twelve thousand soldiers, with a great supply of money, arms, and ammunition; and that he should be joined immediately upon his landing by an army of eight-and-twenty thousand Portuguese.
SIR CLOUDESLEY SHOVEL SAILS WITH A FLEET.
The confederates reaped very little advantage from the naval operations of this summer. Sir George Rooke cruised in the channel, in order to alarm the coast of France, and protect the trade of England. On the first day of July, sir Cloudesley Shovel sailed from St. Helen’s with the combined squadrons of England and Holland: he directed his course to the Mediterranean, and being reduced to great difficulty by want of water, steered to Altea, on the coast of Valentia, where brigadier Seymour landed, and encamped with five-and-twenty hundred marines. The admiral published a short manifesto, signifying that he was not come to disturb but to protect the good subjects of Spain, who should swear allegiance to their lawful monarch the archduke Charles, and endeavour to shake off the yoke of France. This declaration produced little or no effect; and the fleet being watered, sir Cloudesley sailed to Leghorn. One design of this armament was to assist the Cevennois, who had in the course of the preceding year been persecuted into a revolt on account of religion, and implored the assistance of England and the states-general. The admiral detached two ships into the gulf of Narbonne, with some refugees and French pilots, who had concerted signals with the Cevennois; but the mareschal de Montrevil having received intimation of their design, took such measures as prevented all communication; and the English captains having repeated their signals to no purpose, rejoined sir Cloudesley at Leghorn. This admiral, having renewed the peace with the piratical states of Barbary, returned to England without having taken one effectual step for annoying the enemy, or attempted any thing that looked like the result of a concerted scheme for that purpose. The nation naturally murmured at the fruitless expedition, by which it had incurred such a considerable expense. The merchants complained that they were ill supplied with convoys. The ships of war were victualled with damaged provisions; and every article of the marine being mismanaged, the blame fell upon those who acted as council to the lord high-admiral.
ADMIRAL GRAYDON’S BOOTLESS EXPEDITION.
Nor were the arms of England by sea much more successful in the West Indies. Sir George Rooke, in the preceding year, had detached from the Mediterranean captain Hovenden Walker, with six ships of the line and transports, having on board four regiments of soldiers, for the Leeward islands. Being joined at Antigua by some troops under colonel Codrington, they made a descent upon the island of Guadaloupe, where they razed the fort, burned the town, ravaged the country, and reimbarked with precipitation, in consequence of a report that the French had landed nine hundred men on the back of the island. They retired to Nevis, where they must have perished by famine, had they not been providentially relieved by vice-admiral Graydon, in his way to Jamaica. This officer had been sent out with three ships to succeed Benbow, and was convoyed about one hundred and fifty leagues by two other ships of the line. He had not sailed many days when he fell in with part of the French squadron, commanded by Du Casse, on their return from the West Indies, very full and richly laden. Captain Cleland, of the Montagu, engaged the sternmost; but he was called off by a signal from the admiral, who proceeded on his voyage without taking-further notice of the enemy. When he arrived at Jamaica, he quarrelled with the principal planters of the island; and his ships beginning to be crazy, he resolved to return to England. He accordingly sailed through the gulf of Florida, with a view to attack the French at Placentia in Newfoundland; but his ships were dispersed in a fog that lasted thirty days; and afterwards the council of war which he convoked were of opinion that he could not attack the settlement with any prospect of success. At his return to England, the house of lords, then sitting, set on foot an inquiry into his conduct. They presented an address to the queen, desiring she would remove him from his employments; and he was accordingly dismissed. The only exploit that tended to distress the enemy was performed by rear-admiral Dilkes, who in the month of July sailed to the coast of France with a small squadron; and, in the neighbourhood of Granville, took or destroyed about forty ships and their convoy. Yet this damage was inconsiderable, when compared to that which the English navy sustained from the dreadful tempest that began to blow on the twenty-seventh day of November, accompanied with such flashes of lightning, and peals of thunder, as overwhelmed the whole kingdom with consternation. The houses in London shook from their foundations, and some of them falling buried the inhabitants in their ruins. The water overflowed several streets, and rose to a considerable height in Westminster-hall. London bridge was almost choked with the wrecks of vessels that perished in the river. The loss sustained by the capital was computed at a million sterling; and the city of Bristol suffered to a prodigious amount; but the chief national damage fell upon the navy. Thirteen ships of war were lost, together with fifteen hundred seamen, including rear-admiral Beaumont, who had been employed in observing the Dunkirk squadron, and was then at anchor in the Downs, where his ship foundered. This great loss, however, was repaired with incredible diligence, to the astonishment of all Europe. The queen immediately issued orders for building a greater number of ships than that which had been destroyed; and she exercised her bounty for the relief of the shipwrecked seamen, and the widows of those who were drowned, in such a manner as endeared her to all her subjects.