David McDowall Hannay

“ In despair Louis negotiated for peace, but the coalition offered such humiliating terms that not only the king, but—what in the 18th century was a rare and memorable thing—his people also, resolved to fight to the end. The ruinous winter gave force to the spirit of defence, for fear of starvation, inducing something akin to the courage of despair, brought tens of thousands of recruits to the colours. ”

“ In the 18th century British public men were not ashamed to say that Barbary piracy was a useful check on the competition of the weaker Mediterranean nations in the carrying trade. When Lord Exmouth sailed to coerce Algiers in 1816, he expressed doubts in a private letter whether the suppression of piracy would be acceptable to the trading community. Every power was, indeed, desirous to secure immunity for itself and more or less ready to compel Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, Salli and the rest to respect its trade and its subjects. ”

“ After 1063 he was assailed by Fernando El Magno of Castile and Leon, who marched to the gates of Seville, and forced him to pay tribute. His son, Mahommed Abd-ul-Qāsim Abenebet—who reigned by the title of El Motamid—was the third and last of the Abbadides. He was a no less remarkable person than his father and much more amiable. Like him he was a poet, and a favourer of poets. El Motamid went, however, considerably further in patronage of literature than his father, for he chose as his favourite and prime minister the poet Ibn Ammar. ”

“ This campaign, which was followed up by destructive attacks on the French coast, saved Catalonia from the invaders, and completely ruined the French naval power for the time being. No medieval admiral of any nation displayed an equal combination of intellect and energy, and none of modern times has surpassed it. The work had been so effectually done on the coast of Catalonia that Roger de Lauria was able to return to Sicily, and resume his command in the struggle of Aragonese and Angevine to gain, or to hold, the possession of Naples. ”

“ Marlborough at once realized what had happened, and giving up the siege of Mons brought his army to the south-east of the place. Preparing, as at Oudenarde, to attack as rapidly as his brigades came on the scene, he cannonaded the French working parties and drew the return fire of all Villars’s guns. At this crisis the duke submitted the question of battle—unwillingly, as one may imagine—to a council of war, and Eugene himself was opposed to fighting an improvised battle when so much was at stake. ”

“ Although in the same week Lieut.-General Médavy-Grancey inflicted a severe defeat on the Austrians who were still left in Lombardy (Castiglione, Sept. 9) the battle of Turin practically ended the war in Italy.
Both in the north and in the south the tide had now receded to the frontiers of France itself. Louis could now hope to gain the objects of the war only partially and by sheer endurance. But it is from this very point that the French operations cease (though only gradually it is true) to be the ill-defined and badly-joined patchwork of Changing Conditions of the War. ”

“ Alphonso VIII. (1158—1214) , king of Castile only, and grandson of Alphonso VII., is a great name in Spanish history, for he led the coalition of Christian princes and foreign crusaders who broke the power of the Almohades at the battle of the Navas de Tolosa in 1212. The events of his reign are dealt with under Spain. His personal history is that of many medieval kings. He succeeded to the throne on the death of his father, Sancho, at the age of a year and a half. Though proclaimed king, he was regarded as a mere name by the unruly nobles to whom a minority was convenient. ”

“ On the 12th Admiral Kempenfelt, who had been sent out by the British Government with an unduly weak force to intercept him, sighted the French admiral in the Bay of Biscay through a temporary clearance in a fog, at a moment when Guichen’s warships were to leeward of the convoy, and attacked the transports at once. The French admiral could not prevent his enemy from capturing twenty of the transports, and driving the others into a panic-stricken flight. ”

“ Rarely indeed had an 18th-century general so great an opportunity of finishing a war at one blow. But even Villars saw no better use for the Hochstett, victory than the unimpeded junction of his own army ,703 - and Tallard's and winter quarters in Wurttemberg, and the elector on the other hand was principally anxious to evict the margrave's army from his dominions. ”

“ Though he took a part in the work of the reconquest, this king is chiefly remembered by the difficulties into which his successive marriages led him with the pope. He was first married to his cousin Teresa of Portugal, who bore him two daughters, and a son who died young. The marriage was declared null by the pope, to whom Alphonso paid no attention till he was presumably tired of his wife. It cannot have been his conscience which constrained him to leave Teresa, for his next step was to marry Berengaria of Castile, who was his second cousin. ”

“ Eugene was wounded, and Marlborough, after the most terrible experience in any soldier's lifetime, had only enough energy remaining to take Mons before he retired into winter quarters. The loss of the French is given variously as 7000 and 12,000. The allies sacrificed no less, probably more, than 20,000 men, and if the English and Austrian survivors could count themselves the bravest soldiers alive, one considerable part of the allied army at least, the Dutch contingent, was ruined for ever. ”

“ By 9 a.m. on the 24th Villars's army had completely deployed on the north bank of the Scheldt. Eugene himself saw them and galloped away to bring up his army from Landrecies. But, long before it arrived, Villars's troops, without wasting precious moments in formal preparations, stormed the lines. The Dutch — spiritless since Malplaquet — were huddled into the narrow avenue between the two entrenchments and forced back on Denain. Their generals were taken. ”

“ On the Rhine Villars, with a force reduced to impotence by the losses of Blenheim and the detachments sent to Villeroy, carried on a spiritless campaign about Hagenau and Weissenburg against the margrave Louis. In Italy alone was there any serious encounter. Here Veridome's army and a fresh corps from France were engaged in the attempt to subdue Victor Amadeus and his new Austrian allies (Starhemberg's, originally Eugene's army) , and they were so far successful that the duke implored the emperor to send a fresh army. ”

“ The turban and the spear became the banner of the Spanish Omayyads. The long reign of Abd-ar-rahman I. was spent in a struggle to reduce his anarchical Arab and Berber subjects to order. They had never meant to give themselves a master, and they chafed under his hand, which grew continually heavier. The details of these conflicts belong to the general history of Spain. ”

“ Chiari no opposition so long as his troops behaved well, Eugene began his march by paths that no army had used since Charles V.’s time, and on the 28th his army was on the plains. His first object was to cross the Adige without fighting, and also by ravaging the duke of Mantua’s private estates (sparing the possessions of the common people) to induce that prince to change sides. ”

“ It is quite obvious that Villeneuve had from the first no confidence in the success of an operation requiring for its execution an amazing combination of good luck and efficiency on the part of the squadrons concerned. He knew that the French were not efficient, and that their Spanish allies were in a far worse state than themselves. It required a very tart order from Napoleon to drive him out of Paris in October 1804. ”

“ Spain in self-defence began to conquer the coast towns of Oran, Algiers and Tunis. Arouj having fallen in battle with the Spaniards in 1518, his brother Khair-ed-Din appealed to Selim, the sultan of Turkey, who sent him troops. He drove the Spaniards in 1529 from the rocky island in front of Algiers, where they had a fort, and was the founder of the Turkish power. From about 1518 till the death of Uluch Ali in 1587, Algiers was the main seat of government of the beylerbeys of northern Africa, who ruled over Tripoli, Tunisia and Algeria. ”

“ But the savage robber powers which, to the disgrace of Europe, infested the commerce and the coasts, not only of the Mediterranean but even for a time of the ocean; who were not finally suppressed till the 19th century was well advanced; and who are properly known as the Barbary pirates, arose in the 16th century, attained their greatest height in the 17th, declined gradually throughout the 18th and were extinguished about 1830. ”

“ Portugal having now joined the Alliance, it was decided to make a serious effort in Spain. A combined fleet carrying 4000 Dutch and 8000 British troops, and conveying the archduke Charles, claimant of the Spanish throne, sailed from Spithead on the 11th of February 1704. Portugal undertook to provide 30,000 troops to co-operate with the British and Dutch who were landed at Lisbon on the 8th of March. The operations on land were for the most part languid. The duke of Berwick who commanded the Bourbon forces on the Spanish frontier formed a vigorous plan for the invasion of Portugal. ”

“ As the fleet carried no considerable body of troops, Rooke and Hesse-Darmstadt failed to persuade the Catalans to act. They were embarrassed by the knowledge that the count of Toulouse, a natural son of Louis XIV., the admiral of France, who had sailed from Brest on the 6th of May with 23 sail-of-the-line had entered the Mediterranean, and had reached Toulon in June. In expectation of an attack by the united fleets of Brest and Toulon, the allies fell back to the straits. ”

“ The centre of gravity was therefore in Villeroy's camp. If that marshal followed Tallard, even Eugene's junction with Marlborough would not give the latter enough force. If Tallard alone joined the elector and Eugene Marlborough, the game was in the hands of the allies. But none of the possible combinations of two armies against one were attempted by either side. Eugene did not venture to leave Villeroy's front to attack Tallard, who was marching by Kehl-Villingen-Ulm on Augsburg, but when he knew that Tallard was on the move he slipped away from Villeroy to join Marlborough. ”

“ BARBARY PIRATES. The coast population of northern Africa has in past ages been addicted to piratical attacks on the shores of Europe opposite. Throughout the decline of the Roman empire, the barbarian invasions, the Mahommedan conquest and the middle ages, mere piracy always existed by the side of the great strife of peoples and religions. In the course of the 14th century, when the native Berber dynasties were in decadence, piracy became particularly flagrant. ”

“ The French authorities were compelled to allow him to levy customs dues on all goods imported into Spain, except contraband of war, which he would not allow to pass without fighting. The money thus obtained was used to pay his bands a regular salary. He was able to avoid levying excessive contributions on the country and to maintain discipline among his men, whom he had brought to a respectable state of efficiency in 1812. Mina claimed that he immobilized 26,000 French troops which would but for him have served with Marmont in the Salamanca campaign. ”