Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/34

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Massue
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Massue

duct rendered his condition so critical that he was compelled to solicit a pass from Marshal Tessé to proceed to Olivenca. Tessé not only complied with his request, but sent his own physicians to attend on him, and in November he began to recover. In the following spring, 1706, he was anxious to take advantage of Tesse's attempt to recapture Barcelona to advance straight on Madrid. The scheme, though a bold one, was approved by Marlborough and the English ministers, but the Portuguese interposed so many obstacles that it was only by a singular admixture of firmness and address that he accomplished his purpose. Though so weak that he had to be lifted on horseback he drove the Duke of Berwick from the Guadiana to the Henares, wrested from him eight thousand Spanish troops and a hundred pieces of artillery, besides an immense amount of ammunition and provisions, and reduced the fortresses of Alcantara and Ciudad Rodrigo. On 27 June he entered Madrid, and for six weeks maintained his position there. On 6 Aug. he was joined by King Charles at Guadalaxara, but meanwhile reinforcements had reached Berwick, the Spaniards had returned to their allegiance to the Bourbons, and the opportunity created by Gal way had passed away. Finding it impossible to reoccupy Madrid, Galway, after spending a month at Chinchon, determined to fall back on Valencia. The retreat was conducted by him in a masterly fashion, and on 28 Sept. he gained the Valencian frontier without much loss. Perceiving the importance of occupying Madrid, he was anxious to renew the attempt in the following spring. At a council of war on 15 Jan. 1707 his plan, which had already been sanctioned by the English ministry, was approved by a majority of the generals, but King Charles, acting on the sinister advice of Noyelles, refused to adopt it, and shortly afterwards withdrew, with the Dutch and Spanish troops, to Barcelona. Though greatly weakened by this defection, Galway, who had recently been appointed commander-in-chief of all the English forces in Spain, was confirmed in his original intention by expectation of assistance from Lisbon. But feeling it necessary to provide in the first place for the defence of Valencia, he opened the campaign by destroying the French magazines on the Murcian frontier. At Villena he heard that Berwick, expecting to be joined by Orleans, was marching towards Almanza. With the unanimous concurrence of the generals he determined to attack before the junction was effected. Considering his great inferiority, the resolution was a daring one, but an offensive policy had been determined upon, and an offensive policy, all things being considered, was probably the best course that could have been taken. He was compelled to yield the right to the Portuguese, but otherwise his arrangements for the battle were made with care, and in order to strengthen his cavalry he adopted the novel plan of interposing battalions of foot. The battle was lost through the cowardice of the Portuguese cavalry. Galway himself received a sabre wound near his right eye, which, depriving him of sight, obliged him to quit the field. But undismayed by his defeat, and after making what arrangements he could for the defence of Valencia, he retired into Catalonia, in order 'to make up another army,' and within less than five months after his defeat he was able to take the field with 14,600 well-equipped troops. He was unable to avert the fall of Lerida, but his energy had saved the situation. He had long desired to be relieved from his post. He had lost an arm and an eye, and had become partially deaf. In December his wish was complied with, but the English ministers, in order to mark their approbation of his conduct, appointed him envoy extraordinary to the court of Lisbon, and commander-in-chief of the English forces in Portugal. He sailed on 8 Feb. 1708 for Lisbon. During that year the state of his health confined him entirely to his diplomatic duties, but in 1709, though disapproving strongly of Fronteira's determination to attack the Marquis de Bay, he commanded the English contingent at the battle on the Caya. He displayed great personal bravery. His horse was shot under him, and he narrowly escaped capture. But age and his infirmities pressed heavily upon him, and he was glad when he was recalled in the following year.

He returned to England shortly after the accession of Harley and the tories to power. In January 1711 the management of the war in Spain formed the subject of several acrimonious debates in the House of Lords. On 11 Jan. a motion censuring Galway for fighting the battle of Almanza was carried by sixty-four to forty-three, and a subsequent motion, that the Earl of Galway, in yielding the post of her Majesty's troops to the Portuguese in Spain, acted contrary to the honour of the imperial crown of Great Britain,' by sixty-four to forty-four. The votes were a mere party manoeuvre, and cannot be held to affect either the wisdom or unwisdom of Galway's conduct at Almanza. On his return to England he retired to Rookley, and about the same time resigned his colonelcy of the Dutch guards. In 1715 it was felt dvisable, in view of the Jacobite