ance. As he did not judge it fafe to ftay long in Arragon, 1710. he marched into. Catalonia, and the duke of Vendofme, general Carpenter, who was kil led at one of the breaches: we have loft above three hundred men killed, and as many wounded: among the killed are fome field-officers, whofe names and ranks I do not know. In the battle, my lord, our greatest lofs has been fuftained on the left, where colonel Richards and colonel du Bourgay's regiments have been entirely cut off; and of my regiment above one hundred private men are fill miffing, and feven officers. Of the other nations, the regiments of St. Amand, Dutch, Lucini, Neapolitan, Albuquerque, Portuguese, and Umada, Spanish, are totally deftroyed. lieutenantgeneral Belcaftel and major-general St. Amand killed. The enemy's lofs is modeftly computed to amount to above fix thousand men killed on the fpot. By this great turn of affairs, my lord, the command of the remnant of her majefty's troops is devolved on me. I am endeavouring, by the marshal's directions and defire, to make up the regiments of Richards and Du Bourgay, out of the few people that are come off, and thofe that were left in the hofpitals. The greateft difficulty at tends my own, which is reduced to betwixt eighty and a hundred men, and as many horfes, and no fund to go upon; but if I can get money from Mr Mead, or credit, I fhall ufe my beft endeavours to get men and horfes to repair my regiment, and put it in a condition to ferve next camVGL. XVII. with paign, if my defigns are approved of. This I humbly pray your lordship to lay before her majefty, that fpeedy fupplies may be fent to us, to keep up the few bodies that are left, if it be thought fit for the fervice: for Mr. Mead complains very much for want of money and credit, by which we are already reduced to great freights here, where our credit is very indifferent, and our wants extremely great, having loft all our equipages in the battle, and fived nothing but what we had on our backs; and, as my lofs in particular is very confiderable, I hope your lordship will be fo kind as to reprefent it as fuch, that her majefty will be pleafed to confider me in it, and grant me fome compenfation, which may enable me to ferve next campaign with fome fatiffaction. To this letter, our author has added the memorial fent to the queen, by the officers of the two regiments commanded by the colonels Richards and Du Bourgay, which begins thus : That the faid two regiments were the only English battalions that were at the battle of Villaviciofa: that, being posted on the left of the two lines, the horfe, who were on cur flanks, gave way, and left us naked, and expofed to the weight and fhock of the whole right wing of the enemy; who, like a torrent not to be refifted, foon over bore us. Many of your majesty'sfaithful officers loft their lives upon the 171c. with his army, came and took poffeffion of Saragoza, two days after, to the inexpreffible grief and great lofs of the Arragonese. The marshal, though clofely pursued by feveral parties of the enemy, paffed the Cinea and Noguera, and, leaving a fmall garrifon in Balaguer, came, in the beginning of February, to Barcelona, with the remains of his army. Some days before his arrival, count Tattenbach, governor of Gironne, was obliged to capitulate. The French, under the command of the duke of Noailles, had invefted that place in December, the very day king Charles came to Barcelona, and had carried on the fiege with great refolution, notwithftanding the difficulties they met with, both from the badnefs of the weather, and the vigorous defence of the garrifon, who obtained very honourable terms. Not long after, upon the approach of the marquis de Valdecannas with a body of troops, in order to attack Balaguer, the garrison, which count Staremberg in his march had left there, confifting of two battalions and one hundred horse, thought fit to abandon the place; fo that king Charles's affairs had now a very ill afpect, being confined within the narrow bounds of the principality of Catalonia, which, by the lofs of Gironne, was open to the enemies on all fides. On the other hand, king Philip gained this fummer a very material advantage, by having unqueftionable demonftrations of the affection of the Caftilians, which neither his defeats at Almanara and Saragoza, nor his retreat from Madrid, nor the the fpot; many more were wound- may be truly faid, Their very tender mercies were cruel. For, af.er their officers had taken from us what money, or whatever elfe of value we had about us, and had promifed us their protection, they fuffered, nay, encouraged their foldiers to ftrip us of our cloaths, to infult, and to wound us. In this miferable condition were we found, when fome of us were reftored to our liberty; and, in this condition, we retreated with the body of the army, having loft the entire baggage of the two regi ments. prefence prefence of king Charles, with a veteran victorious army, 1710. were able to shake. The Spanish grandees feemed indeed to be in fome ap- Disgrace prehenfion of their being given up by the French; and there of the was a fufpicion of fome caballing among them: upon which duke of the duke of Medina Celi, king Philip's chief minifter, was Medina fent a close prisoner to the caftle of Segovia, and was kept Celi. there very ftrictly, none being admitted to fpeak with him. Burnet. He was not brought to any examination; but, after he had been fome months in prifon, being often removed from one place to another, it was at laft given out, that he died in prifon, not without the fufpicion of ill prac tices. Nothing material happened this year in Portugal, except Campaign only that, about the beginning of July, the marquis de in PortuBay, who commanded the Spanish forces in Eftremadura, gal. made himself matter of the town of Miranda de Duero, by Hift. of furprize; took in it four hundred men of regular troops and Europe. militia; and then formed the blockade of Bragança, which was raised by the marquis de Rifbourg, upon the news of the battle of Saragoza: and, foon after, the Portuguese took from the Spaniards Xeres-de-los Cavaleros, Barcarota, Alcanza, and Puebla, places of no great confideration. Some The earl time before, the earl of Galway, who found himself ufelefs of Galway in Portugal, had defired and readily obtained leave to return returns to England. home. The czar of Mufcovy made a very confiderable improve- Affairs in ment of his great victory at Pultowa; for, in this year's cam- the north. paign, he reduced to his obedience Elbing in Polish Pruffia; Hiftory of Wyburgh, the capital of Carelia; Kinholm in Finland; Europe. Arembergh, in the island of Oezel; Pernau, Revel, Riga, the Dunamunder fort, and, in a word, all Livonia, the most valuable province in the Swedish dominions. It is very probable, the united forces of the czar and king Auguftus would have made a greater progrefs; but the allies having, with great wisdom, taken early measures, and interpofed their good offices and power, to prevent the northern war from fpreading into the empire, the Province of Pomerania, where general Craffau had retired out of Poland, enjoyed a perfect tranquillity. The treaty, or project of neutrality, which was made for that purpose, was accepted by the czar and king Auguftus, and by the king of Denmark, with fome exceptions; as it was by the-regency of Stockholm for the Swedes; though the laft did it only to ferve a turn. For their czarifh and Polish majefties demanding that the troops U 2 under 1710. under general Craffau fhould be either disbanded, or put into the fervice of the allies; this laft was not agreed to by the Swedes, though a treaty was fet on foot for that purpose. At the fame time the Swedish minifters at Vienna, Ratisbon, and other places, notified, that their mafler, who still continued at Bender, was diffatisfied with that neutrality: and, on the other hand, notwithstanding the earneft endeavours of the Pritifh and Dutch minifters at the Ottoman port to baffle the artifices of the French and Swedes, the grand fignior, by the advice of the cham of Tartary, refolved, at laft, openly to efpoufe the quarrel of the king of Sweden. The Muscovite ambaffador at Conftantinople was seized and confined; and not long after the grand fignior declared war against the czar, having, for that purpofe, fent circular letters by way of manifefto to the bafha's and governors in his dominions. About the beginning of April the Swedes publifhed likewife a manifefto, in anfwer to one put out fome months before by the king of Denmark, upon his landing in Schonen, and pretending to fhew, that the reafons, alledged by the Danes to juftify that invafion, were fo far from being a fufficient caufe of war, that they did not amount even to a plaufible pretence. Not long after, both the Swedes and Danes fent out their feets to fea; and the Danish fleet having, on the 14th and 15th of September, N. S. met with a violent form, by which they were feparated, and feveral of their fhips damaged in their rigging, they were obliged to return to the Eioger-Bogt. The Swedes, imagining their Jofs to have been much greater, went in queft of them; and, on the 4th of October, attack.d them with twentyone thips of the line of battle, and ten frigates. Upon this furprife, the Dares immediately cut their cables, and endeavoured to gain the wind, fo as to get between Copenhagen and the Swedish feet, whilst the Swedes endeavoured to intercept them. This occafioned a cannonading between the foremost fhips; during which, a Danifh fhip of ninety guns, called the anebrag, blew up. But, tho' the Swedes gained their point, yet, advancing too far towards the Danish coaft, two of their fag fhip, an admiral and rear admiral, ftruck upon a fand-bank near the island of Amack, where the whole Swedish feet came to an anchor, to endeavour to recover them. This being impracticable, they faved the men, and fet fire to their two fhips, as they did to a Danish tranfport. In the mean time, the Danish feet returned to their former pofts before Keeg; and, the wind bearing bearing hard on the coaft, the Swedes were unwilling to at- 1710. tack them a second time; and, on the 7th of October in v the morning, weighed anchor, and failed towards the caft fea. The Danes purfued them, but at fuch a diftance, as fhewed they had no mind to another engagement. The imperial arms were this year attended with great fuc- Campaign teffes in Hungary, where they reduced feveral important in Ifuntowns. Some of the chief of the malecontents confidering, gary. that their affairs were defperate, inclined to confult their fafety, by making their fubmiffion to the emperor. But, upon the Turks declaring war against the Mufcovites, prince Ragotfki encouraged them to ftand out to the lat, by giving them hopes, that the Turks would affift them with men, and the French with engineers and money. The imperial court perfifting in their refolution not to grant the exercife of the proteftant religion in Silefia, upon pretence, that they were not included either in the treaty of Weft-Phalia, or in the convention of Alt-Rantadt; the queen of Great-Britain ordered lieutenant-general Palmes, her envoy extraordinary to the emperor, to make new inftances in their favour. And the ftates general ordered the fieur Bruyninx, their envoy, to ufe his good offices, in concert with the British minifters. They prefented a jointmemorial to the emperor, which, however, had but little effect; though, at this time, the imperial court had more reafon than ever to keep measures with the proteftant powers. Thefe were the tranfactions abroad this campaign, during which great changes had happened in England. The trial of Dr. Sacheverel had given, as was obferved, Addreffes great advantages to the tory party, who fet on foot addrefles of diffefrom all parts of the nation, in which the abfolute power of rent ftiles. our princes was afferted, and all refiftance was condemned, Burnet. under the defignation of anti-monarchical and republican principles; the queen's hereditary right was acknowledged; and yet a zeal for the proteftant fucceffion was likewife pretended, to make thofe addreffes pafs the more eafily with the unthinking multitude. Mol of thefe concluded with an intimation of their hopes, that the queen would diffolve the prefent parliament, giving affurances, that in a new election they would chufe none, but fuch as fhould be faithful to the crown, and zealous for the church. Thefe were at first more coldly received; for the queen either made no anfwer at all, or made them in very general words. Addreffes were brought up on the other hand, magnifying the conduct of the parliament, U3 |