Protestant Exiles from France/Book Second - Chapter 3 - Section XI
Sec. 11. — The Earl of Galway’s Command in Portugal and the Subsequent Advent of the Earl of Peterborough into the Field.
Upon the Duke of Schomberg’s resignation of his command in Portugal, Mr. Methuen (Lord Galway’s former colleague), our Ambassador at Lisbon, was convinced that no mere military officer could be successful in the difficult post. It is supposed that he pressed the ministry to send out Lord Galway. Queen Anne sent for “the wise and valiant Earl” to wait upon her at Windsor, and laid her royal commands upon him to accept the appointment. He requested leave to decline on account of infirm health; but his mental vigour, conciliatory manners and talents for negociation were considered fully to counterbalance that objection. He then objected to supersede Schomberg, his ancient comrade and acquaintance, and (it is said) offered to serve as a Lieutenant-General under him; this was declared to be impossible. “Only the Queen’s positive commands,” said Lord Galway, “could have drawn me from my retirement.” And Burnet says of him, as to the chief command in Portugal, that “he undertook it more in submission to the Queen’s commands than out of any great prospects or hopes of success.”
He was promoted to the rank of General on 25th June 1704. Luttrell says that the Queen gave him £10,000 for his outfit. He also pressed for, and received, a reinforcement of 4000 British troops, the States of Holland contributing a similar addition to the forces. A beautiful portrait [1] of him was published, the printer correctly styling him, “General Commander-in-Chief of all her Majesty’s Forces that are to act in concert with the Portuguese in Span.” He sailed from Spithead on the noon of Saturday, the 23d of July, in H.M.S. Tartar, “with a fresh and fair gale of wind,” and he arrived at Lisbon on the 30th. He there met the Duke of Schomberg, who resigned into his hands the command of the English forces. He lost no time in joining the two kings in the field; but inactivity until the spring of 1705 was the foregone resolution. King Pedro was quite charmed with the appearance and manners of the veteran warrior and courtier. Under the influence of those impressions he wrote a letter to Queen Anne, to be delivered by his ambassador in London, Dom Ludovico De Conha, who had express orders to repeat viva voce the written assurances of activity and constancy in the alliance, whatever vicissitudes might happen. Nevertheless, Lord Galway could not be sanguine of success. Two influences were at work, which he well understood, namely, the Romish confessional and French money. The priests preached lukewarmness in a contest supported by English and Dutch heretics. Bribery won over many of the King of Portugal’s ministers to recommend inaction, and to prevent combined operations. Then, as to the supplies both of men and material, both Portugal and Spain expected everything to be done for them, while they merely looked on. The Portuguese troops were irregularly paid, and consequently desertions were numerous and incessant. And though no ally but England could be depended on for punctuality in sending promised reinforcements, yet British commanders were kept down as much as possible. Besides this, the Portuguese armies not only retired into quarters in winter, but would not fight in the heat of summer. Then, in the British army, there was a party of malcontent officers, sympathizers with the Earl of Portmore who had expected to be Schomberg’s successor. The Earl of Peterborough, who “prayed for no one but himself,” was also prepared to contribute fault-finding to a literally unlimited extent. Notwithstanding many discouragements, Lord Galway threw his whole mind and soul into his duty.
His old friend, Churchill, now the great Duke of Marlborough, had a uniform respect for his abilities and services, and had a responsible share in appointing him to his new command. Lord Galway received from him the following letter:—
“Camp at Schonefeldt, 10th August 1704. — My Lord, I am very sensibly obliged to you for your kind letter of the 4th past, and do heartily rejoice at the honour Her Majesty has done your lordship in putting you at the head of her troops in Portugal. All that wish well to the public good, I am sure, join very sincerely with me; for, without the assistance of your good conduct and the succours Her Majesty is sending over, all our hopes on that side would soon vanish. I am very sensible the poor Duke of Schomberg has lain under great difficulties by the unaccountable ill-conduct and mismanagement of the Court of Portugal. But we flatter ourselves that your lordship’s prudent care and foresight may soon put everything in a better posture. — I am, with much truth, &c, &c.
It has been lightly alleged that having no relatives, Lord Galway adopted his refugee countrymen as “his children,” and preferred them to British officers in the distribution of his patronage. It was only fair to the refugee officers, who, having been trained in the French service, were generally better officers than those of the English army of that time, that he should give them appointments for which they were qualified, as a conscientious and patriotic English general would have done in the case of his own sons. But the gallant exiles got no more than their fair share. Lord Galway was equally anxious to do justice to meritorious British officers. One of his first acts in Portugal was to give the adjutant-generalship, with the rank of colonel, to George Wade, an officer who, by his subsequent career, and by at length earning the rank of field-marshal, did justice to Lord Galway’s exercise of patronage.
When the army was in winter quarters, information was received that Gibraltar was in danger of being retaken by the enemy, that the garrison under the Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt was too small, and especially that there were too few officers. Lord Galway accordingly resolved to send reinforcements, in advance of whom he despatched three officers. Colonel Lundy and Lieut-Colonels Rientore and Darcourt arrived at Gibraltar on the 24th December, having run a race with a French privateer that pursued their ship to the mouth of the Bay. In the spring he sent four foot regiments, and a large supply of ammunition and provisions. The siege was raised, and the enemy’s infantry was entirely ruined. A letter to him from the Duke of Marlborough, dated St. James’s, 25th March 1705, ends thus:— “We hope the succours you have sent with Sir John Leake may come in time to the relief of Gibraltar, and are daily expecting some good news from thence. I heartily wish your lordship a successful campaign, &c.”
Coxe, in his “Life of Marlborough,” relates that in Portugal, in 1705, “the campaign opened with more than usual activity, arising chiefly from Lord Galway, whose spirit seemed to infuse energy into the Portuguese.” The chief command was taken by one general for a week at a time, and so by each of the confederate generals week after week in rotation. Much credit was given to Lord Galway for overruling the delays of the Portuguese, so that the troops took the field by the 24th of April near Estremos. On the 26th the investment of Valencia d’Alcantara was commenced, and it was successfully terminated on the 8th of May. The surrender of Albuquerque took place on the 20th May. The garrison spoke of surrendering the town only, and not the castle. Lord Galway rejected the proposal with scorn, and threatened to put them all to the sword. The besiegers prepared to second the threat with a roar of artillery; but this was rendered unnecessary by the capitulation of the besieged. “The Annals of Queen Anne” say, “The garrison obtained a piece of cannon, which the Earl of Galway granted (as was expressly mentioned in the articles) as a mark of the esteem and value he had for the Spanish nation.” He was formally complimented by the Spanish governor for his honourable observance of all the articles. It being now summer, the Portuguese sank into inaction; and Lord Galway returned to Lisbon. Here he was met by the Earl of Peterborough (formerly known as Viscount Mordaunt and as Earl of Monmouth), whose mendacity has been used to assail Lord Galway’s conduct and veracity.
Lord Peterborough was a brave officer. In him was revived the prowess of Blake and Prince Rupert, when generals were not confined to the land, but commanded at sea. He was well known to Lord Galway. During King William’s campaign in Ireland in 1690, he was the torment of Queen Mary and her council, promoting every kind of alarm, with a view to his being quieted by obtaining command of the fleet. As a statesman he had failed; Lord Godolphin, coming into the Treasury, by his superior abilities snuffed him out at once. His conduct regarding the prosecution of Sir John Fenwick was censured by the House of Lords as false and fraudulent. And it was only at the intercession of the Duchess of Marlborough that he was entrusted with the temporary command in Spain, which he trumpeted so long and loudly. All the books that made him the sole hero of the War of the Spanish Succession were written at his dictation. And it was he who put Lord Galway in the background of his autobiographical word-pictures, as an unknown upstart and adventurer.
The restoration of Lord Galway’s reputation as a man of high position, intrepid courage, and acknowledged talents, we owe to Lord Macaulay. It is true that, in an Essay written in 1833, Macaulay says, “the sluggish Galway,” instead of “the sluggish Portuguese;” but this was before he had paid any attention of his own to Lord Galway’s career, and when he was giving only a summary of a History of this war by Lord Mahon, who had culled from the Peterborough fictions the glaring misstatement that Lord Galway hampered and restrained the Portuguese general.
The Peterborough squibs placed Peterborough first in the field, wishing us to believe that Galway was a new-comer, and ultimately a supplanter; whereas Peterborough was the last comer, and latterly aimed at supplanting Galway. Under the Methuen treaty, Lord Galway had succeeded Schomberg as the British general; but he was consulted as a statesman also. His policy was that Charles must hasten to Madrid, and lose no time in assuming the throne of Spain proper; this was the true anti-French policy of Britain. Austria and Savoy cared nothing for Spain proper. The Emperor and the Duke were always in covetous imagination dividing the foreign dominions of Spain as their spoils. The former had delayed too long to send his son, Charles, to push for Madrid; so that of the two rival princes, Philip, in the eyes of Spaniards, had long been the one who really cared for Spain. Lord Peterborough, having none of the ballast of a true statesman, could easily be tempted by Austria and Savoy to throw the British policy overboard, and to ridicule the steady head of Lord Galway.
While Lord Galway was on foreign service, Lord Peterborough and others at home heard of the growing unpopularity of Philip in Spain, and rumours of readiness for revolution in Catalonia. Secretary Sir Charles Hedges wrote to the Right Hon. Richard Hill, our ambassador at Piedmont, on the 2d March 1705,[3] that Mr. Mitford Crowe, who was to reside at Genoa, was to have a frigate placed at his disposal by Mr. Hill, “the intention being chiefly for him to give an account from time to time to the Earl of Galway, the Prince of Hesse, or the fleet, how the Catalans are disposed, &c.” In the following summer, Lord Peterborough was sent to Lisbon, as general of some troops, and as (with Sir Cloudesly Shovel) joint-admiral of a fleet, where he was met by Lord Galway. Here there was unanimity and a cordiality which, in after times, the “eccentric and unscrupulous” Peterborough chose to forget; but his word cannot be believed when contradicted by Lord Galway, to whom Lord Mahon justly attributes “high honour” as well as “great personal courage.”
King Charles agreed to accompany Lord Peterborough on an expedition to Barcelona, the Catalan capital. The result of the consultations is given in that Earl’s note to Admiral Sir George Rooke:—[4]
“Upon the letter of my Lord Godolphin and the Secretary of State, the King of Spain, his ministers, my Lord Galway, and myself have concluded there was no other attempt to be made but upon Catalonia, where all advices agree that 6000 men and 1200 horse are ready expecting our arrival with a general good-will of all the people.
“The Portuguese have entirely refused to join in any design against Cadiz; and by a copy of my Lord Galway’s letter, writ when under sail, you will find he is in an utter despair of their attempting anything this year; so that by our instructions it will appear that there is no other enterprise left for our choice. — I am, &c.
The cordial co-operation of both Lord Galway and Mr. Methuen in this project had better be given in Lord Peterborough’s own account of it, addressed to Mr. Hill:—
“28th Aug. 1705. — My Lord Galway, without orders, upon the King of Spain’s embarking, and the intelligence received from you and Mr. Crowe, ordered six regiments, two of dragoons and four of foot, with money for three months for their subsistence; and the Ambassador Methuen advanced ,£30,000, without any orders from home, upon so extraordinary an expedition.” And returning to the subject, on the 28th October, he adds, “To get an old minister to draw bills without order, to get a general to part with troops from his own command, are things not easily obtained.”[5]
The royal flotilla having arrived at Gibraltar, the Prince of Hesse, and the infantry granted by Lord Galway, were taken on board. Lord Peterborough’s brilliant successes at Barcelona are matters of history, and he might well be proud of them. But for want of a true policy, it was in spite of himself that the one glory of his life was earned. When they were all embarked off Gibraltar, deliberations were re-opened, and (to quote Lord Mahon) Lord Peterborough “considered it of greater (or at least of more immediate) importance to relieve the Duke of Savoy from the pressure of the French, and to postpone till afterwards any attempt on Spain. But the Prince of Hesse, as a German, soon obtained a great ascendancy over the mind of his countryman, the Archduke; and that young Prince so warmly espoused his idea of besieging Barcelona, that at length a reluctant consent was wrung from the English general, and the expedition set sail for this momentous enterprise.”
- ↑ “John Simon [engraver] was born in Normandy, and came over some years before the death of Smith, who disagreeing with Sir Godfrey Kneller, Simon was employed by him to copy his pictures in mezzotinto, which he did, and from other masters, with good success. He was not so free in his manner as Smith, but now and then approached very near to that capital artist, as may be seen in his plate of Henry Ruvigny, Earl of Galway. . . . Simon died about the year 1755." — Walpoles Catalogue of Engravers.
- ↑ The “Marlborough Despatches,” edited by Sir George Murray: from this collection the letters from Marlborough to Galway are taken. The letters from Lord Galway to the English Government are (unless otherwise described) taken from Coxe’s “Life of Marlborough.”
- ↑ Hill’s Diplomatic Correspondence, p. 186.
- ↑ Warburton’s Life of Peterborough.
- ↑ Hill, pp. 219 and 232.