The Reign of George VI/Chapter 3
CHAP. III.
Two such glorious victories seated George with security on the throne, But his success did not occasion the least neglect in his military preparations; he was now superior to the enemy at sea, and was determined, at all events, to preserve his superiority. Ten sail were fitting out with all expedition at Milford Haven, and other squadrons were getting ready at Portsmouth, Plymouth, Chatham, Hull, and Lynn. The King had particular reasons for not suffering his preparations to relax. The King of France was at this time busied in fitting out a large fleet, and all the ports of that kingdom, from Amsterdam to Bayonne, resounded with naval armaments. George looked on these with a very jealous eye; the Court of Versailles, indeed, gave out that they were intended against the Emperor of Morocco, who had lately insulted his Ambassador; but it was evident that preparations so very great indicated some further design in view: however, a trifling accident soon explained the views of the French court
An English privateer in the Channel having attacked another carrying Russian colours, and disabled her; she hung out French colours. It seems a merchant at Rotterdam had fitted her out to cruise upon the English, and gave the Captain orders, that if he met with an enemy too strong for him to show French colours. This affair, in which the French were evidently aggressors, was made a pretence for a quarrel; the French Ambassador at London demanded satisfaction for the damage done the French ship; the King returned a most spirited answer: and in short, after many memorials and replies, the King of France declared war against Great-Britain, and was answered by his Britannic Majesty.[1] Charles, jealous of the British power, had entered into an offensive and defensive treaty with Peter, and had agreed to receive the Russian ships into the ports of France; and by combining their respective fleets, to overpower the naval force of George at once.
Fortunately for the King, Peter was dilatory in his preparations; the British fleet, to the amount of ninety sail of the line, was ready for action, and saw no enemy that could look it in the face. But the King was determined to lose no time; collecting a large fleet of transports, he embarked twenty thousand men on board them, and resolved to form an invasion of France: He gave out that he designed to attack Brest; and to deceive the enemy the better, sent vessels to sound the depth of water on several parts of the coasts of Britany. The enemy marched down troops from all parts of France to defend themselves where they thought the descent was intended; but the King's plan was well laid, and unsuspected by the Court of Versailles. Instead of steering to the coast of Britany he directed his course to that of Flanders, and, without the least opposition, landed his whole army on the beach of Blankenburg.
He immediately published and dispersed a memorial to the Dutch, exhorting them to take this favourable opportunity of regaining their liberty, promising to do every thing for them that could be any way conducive to so salutary an end; but their spirits were too much depressed, and they were kept too much in awe by the garrisons that were in their several fortresses to listen to a deliverer. George marched towards Bruges, which capitulated without the firing a gun. Ostend, Ypres, and Newport cost him some days; but his progress was so rapid before the French had an army to oppose him, that his difficulty in these conquests was not very great. The Marshal Duke de Vivione at last appeared near Dunkirk, after a forced march, at the head of forty thousand men. The King was no sooner informed of his approach than he determined to fight him directly; delays to him were dangerous; whereas, the enemy would every day increase in strength. Vivione was encamped at Winox, and entrenching himself, waited for reinforcements; but George having sent spies to reconoitre his situtuation, found that his piquets were placed in a very negligent manner, and that it would be no difficult circumstance to surprise him in the night.
In pursuance of this opinion, about one in the morning, of the 10th of September, at the head of ten regiments, forming the first line of his army, he attacked the enemy's entrenchments; the onset was no sooner made than they were forced; the French soldiers ran naked to their arms; several of their Generals did all in their power to rally them, but in vain; the Duke de Vivione had his head shot off by a cannon-ball in the beginning of the attack, and before day-light their army was defeated and totally dispersed. The enemy being pursued, and great numbers made prisoners, the King presented himself before Dunkirk, and the cowardly Governor gave up the town, to his astonishment, without attempting any thing for its defence. Calais opened its gates to the conqueror, and St. Omer surrendered after a week's siege.
These rapid successes terrified the court of Charles; they were surprised at the boldness of George's attempt, to make a regular attack on so powerful a monarchy as that of France, with such a handful of men. But it was a maxim with the King to despise numerous armies: forty thousand men, he often said, under a good General, were a match for any number; and wtth some favourable circumstances even twenty-five or thirty thousand. Charles, to stop the progress of his Britannic Majesty, placed the Duke of Ventadour at the head of a prodigious army (collected from all parts of France) of near one hundred thousand men; a force, if well managed, by being divided into two or three armies, strong enough to overwhelm George at once: but numerous as this body of troops were, they came only to be spectators of the success of the King of England. Without a single blow his Majesty made himself master of Bologne, and, slipping by the French army in the night, surprised Monstrevil. The road to Paris was now open to him; the Royal Family retired from Versailles; Charles would have tryed the fortune of the war himself, but a violent fit of the gout confined him to his palace. The Duke de Ventadour, by his injudicious motions, was incapable of stopping the King's progress; he laid siege to Amiens, and it surrendered before the Duke could arrive to protect it. Neufchatel had the same fate; and the King, astonished at his own success, had thoughts of making a flying march to Paris. The French army formed such an unweildy body, that it was for ever exposed to the sudden attacks of the English; Ventadour was but an indifferent General, and had to oppose a young Monarch, whose late actions rendered him the most celebrated commander in Europe.
In the mean time the attention of Peter was called off, in a great measure, from the English war, by a new enemy, that had made a formidable attack upon his dominions. Bajazet, Emperor of the Turks, an old enemy of the Czar's, thought this a fair opportunity to recover Crim Tartary, which the Russian Monarch had conquered from him in the last war; in this situation he listened, with pleasure, to the remonstrances of the English Ambassador, who left no stone unturned that could engage the Emperor in the war. Bajazet thought the moment so fair, when Peter was engaged in a most expensive war with Great Britain, that the Grand Visier, Selim, at the head of two hundred thousand men marched into Russia. The Czar collected his forces to oppose this inundation of Turks; and just as the two armies were beginning the war, the Russian fleet of near one hundred sail of the line appeared in the Channel.
The British fleet, under the Duke of Grafton, (who, though he had sometimes met with ill success, was one of the greatest Admirals Britain had ever produced) was about equal in force to that of the Russians. It was not long before the two Admirals found an opportunity to engage. It would be tedious to give the particulars of this furious battle, it lasted a whole day without being decisive; the Russians lost five ships of the line, and the English four; if any thing, the advantage was for the latter; but before morning the two fleets parted, and, the wind blowing a violent storm for the two next days, nineteen Russian men of war were driven ashore on the coast of Norfolk, and were there burnt; the English lost only two, but had several dismasted.
This stroke secured to George his superiority at sea. This navy was so powerful that the French fleets were blocked up in their ports, and were not strong enough to look the English in the face; so that Charles now saw all his hopes blasted, and the King of England at the head of a victorious army ready to march to Paris itself. In this critical situation he determined to sue for peace. George, whose conduct was guided by justice not inordinate ambition, readily listened to the proposal. He appointed Ambassadors to meet those of France at Beauvais, where a peace was soon agreed to; the Czar sent an Ambassador on his part, so it became general between the three nations. The principal article was, That Charles should cause to be paid to the King of Great Britain two millions of pounds sterling; for the expences of the war, at three equal payments, six months between each. The treaty being signed by the two Monarchs and the Russian Ambassador, George withdrew his forces out of France, and evacuated all his conquests.[2]