Capture of Gibraltar

Capture and siege of Gibraltar

Part of: War of the Spanish Succession

Gibraltar conquered Darmstadt from the Prince of Hesse through the exiled Militz von Engel = u. Holland under Admiral Roock u: Callenberg d: 4th Aug: 1704

date	August 1704 to April 1705
place	Gibraltar
output	Allied victory

Parties to the conflict
England Netherlands Imperial Portugal Spain Habsburg	Spain France
Commander
Army: Georg von Hessen-Darmstadt Fleet: during the capture: George Rooke George Byng during the siege: John Leake	while the capture: Diego de Salinas during the siege: Francisco del Castillo y Fajardo René de Froulay de Tessé
Troop strength
during the capture: 1,800 men (excluding ship's crew) during the siege: a maximum of 4,000 men	during the capture: 200-300 men (including approx. 80 regular soldiers) during the siege: maximum 20,000 men
losses
unknown	during the siege: 12,000 men

The information on troop strength and losses can vary in the literature.

The capture of Gibraltar took place between August 1st and 4th, 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession . The Allies on the side of the Habsburg pretender Karl took the city and the fortress. Georg von Hessen-Darmstadt became the first governor as the representative of Charles. Since he was not able to occupy the city with a sufficient number of soldiers after the victory, it was placed under the protection of the English Queen Anna . As a result, the city was besieged by the troops of the Bourbon Spanish King Philip V and by French units for months until 1705, with heavy losses. Since then, Gibraltar has been in English and since 1707 in British hands.

prehistory

For the anti-French allies and especially for the Habsburg pretender Archduke Charles, Portugal's entry into the coalition in 1703 was of great importance. Karl appointed Georg von Hessen-Darmstadt captain general of the army to be deployed in Portugal and Spain. Originally the allies of Portugal wanted to march towards Madrid , where Charles was to ascend the Spanish throne. From there they wanted to advance to Barcelona in order to prevent the French from crossing the Pyrenees . However, this plan turned out to be unfeasible. Instead, they wanted to sail to Barcelona, ​​take the city and start an uprising in Catalonia against Bourbon rule. Since the main army was supposed to avert the threatening attacks on Portugal, Georg von Hessen-Darmstadt had only few forces available. The expedition failed and the fleet returned to Lisbon . Instead it was decided to try to take Gibraltar, Cadiz or another city.

The Anglo-Dutch fleet consisted of seventy ships. Georg von Hessen-Darmstadt represented the interests of the Archduke. He knew the situation in Spain well from previous campaigns in the service of the Spanish kings from the House of Habsburg. The command of the fleet was held by the English admiral George Rooke . On July 27th, the Anglo-Dutch fleet reached Tetuan . In a council of war, Georg von Hessen-Darmstadt proposed to take Gibraltar in one go. Admiral Rooke and the rest of the participants agreed.

The defenses in Gibraltar had been strengthened under Charles V and later. The fortress was well supplied with food supplies. The system was equipped with around 100 cannons. However, there was a lack of the necessary operating teams. Overall, the number of soldiers stationed there was also low. The crew consisted of about 200 to 300 men. It consisted of about 80 regular soldiers and otherwise of militias .

Capture of Gibraltar

Plan of taking

Georg of Hessen-Darmstadt

René de Froulay de Tessé

Unexpected for the crew of the fortress, the fleet arrived off Gibraltar on August 1st. A landing force of 1,800 English and Dutch marines went ashore under the command of Georg von Hessen-Darmstadt . These blocked the land access to the city while the fleet blocked the sea side. Georg von Hessen-Darmstadt asked the governor of the fortress to hand it over in vain. On August 2, some armed sloops broke into the harbor and destroyed a French ship anchored there. On the morning of August 3, the ship guns of the combined fleet began to occupy the defenses with an intense fire. 15,000 rounds were fired in just a few hours. The batteries at the new pier were destroyed and abandoned by the crews. Admiral Rooke ordered all the armed sloops to be rowed towards the pier and taken. In addition, some units advanced against the left side of the embankment. A mine at the pier killed around 40 attackers without preventing the capture of the large port battery and a fort.

A renewed request to surrender the city was connected with the threat of "letting the occupation jump over the edge" after a conquest. The commander then began negotiations. An honorable capitulation was concluded on August 4th. There were anti-Catholic attacks by the Allied soldiers. Churches were devastated and nuns evicted. Most of the residents left the city. Georg von Hessen-Darmstadt only managed to restore order with difficulty.

siege

Georg von Hessen-Darmstadt took over the command of the fortress and the city as governor. She was manned with 2000 men under the Portuguese General Marquis Valsetto. It was clear to the new governor that sooner or later the Spaniards would try to retake Gibraltar. He therefore had the partially dilapidated fortifications and the artillery repaired. New factories were also built. He contacted the Sultan of Morocco, Mulai Ismail , and bought supplies and horses from him.

Both the Portuguese King Peter II and Archduke Charles found it difficult to ask for troops to be sent . The former had hoped for the conquest of Cadiz instead of Gibraltar, and for the latter the capture was of little use, as he had hardly any supporters in the hinterland. Georg von Hessen-Darmstadt therefore asked the English Queen Anna to take Gibraltar under English protection.

The courts in Madrid and Versailles actually planned to quickly regain Gibraltar. Francisco del Castillo y Fajardo , Marquis Villadradis, was to block Gibraltar with 8,000 men on land. Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse was to take over the naval blockade and hand over some of his marines to support the siege on land. In fact, the only blockade was from the land side. There was no sea support because the battle of Vélez-Málaga had come and the French fleet had returned to Toulon . Admiral Rooke disembarked 2000 men and some artillery on the return voyage in Gibraltar and returned to England on September 5th with the main English fleet.

On October 4th, a French fleet appeared to support the besiegers and reinforced the attackers by 3,000 marines. The Spanish commander had the trenches opened on October 21 , but the condition of the soil made the work difficult. On October 26th, the artillery began bombarding the defenses. Work on the siege complex continued despite great difficulties, and on November 8th the walls of the San Pablo Bastion were destroyed. An attack from the seaside failed due to the arrival of John Leake's fleet . This also delivered provisions. As a result, the Spaniards almost managed to secretly invade the city. But they were discovered and most of them killed.

In addition, the bombardment of the fortifications continued and part of it was destroyed. Various casualties by the besieged could not stop the attacks. In the meantime the number of siege troops had grown to 14,000 men. A transport fleet arrived in Gibraltar on December 17th, bringing 2,000 soldiers and other supplies.

On the Spanish side, the Pastelillo tower was identified as a crucial obstacle to a successful storm. The attempt to storm the tower failed on January 11th and 12th, 1705. When the Spaniards tried to storm the San Pablo Bastion on January 27th, the attackers were driven back from the tower by gunfire. On February 7th, another attempt to conquer the tower failed due to the personal efforts of Georg von Hessen-Darmstadt.

The command of the attackers was given to the French Marshal René de Froulay de Tessé . A related fleet company failed due to the weather and the English fleet under Leake. Incidentally, this brought further reinforcements and provisions to Gibraltar.

End of the siege

Then it was clear to the French commanding officer that the city was not to be taken. At the end of April, the siege facilities were destroyed and the siege turned into a blockade. The main contingent of troops withdrew and only 4,000 men remained to maintain the blockade.

After the siege was over, Georg von Hessen-Darmstadt joined Archduke Karl and died while conquering Barcelona . The command in Gibraltar passed to an English governor, who was appointed by Archduke Charles. Great Britain was awarded Gibraltar in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.

literature

• Jaromir Hirtenfeld : Austrian Military Conversation Lexicon. Volume 2, Vienna 1852, pp. 727-732.
• Gustav Ratzenhofer: Spanish Successions War. Campaign 1704. Campaigns by Prince Eugene of Savoy. Volume 6, Series 1, Verlag des k. k. General Staff, Vienna 1879. Reprint: LTR-Verlag, Starnberg 1988, ISBN 3-88706-276-0 .
• Tony Jaques, Dennis Showalter: Dictionary of battles and sieges. A guide to 8500 battles from antiquity through the twenty-first century. Volume 2, Greenwood Press, Westport (Connecticut) 2007, ISBN 978-0-313-33536-5 , p. 393.
• Darren Fa, Clive Finlayson: The fortifications of Gibraltar: 1068-1945. Osprey, Oxford 2006, ISBN 978-1-84603-016-1 , pp. 23-30.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The information here is based on: Gaston Bodart: Militär-Historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618–1905) . Vienna 1908, p. 142.