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| Gibraltar was
taken by the English almost by accident during the War of the Spanish
Succession (1701-1714). At that time, Spain had control of a large number of territories in Europe including lands in Italy and in areas between France and the Holy Roman Empire. |
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Charles
II of Spain (nicknamed "el Hechizado" - "the Bewitched"
or "the Mad") was the last King of the Habsburg Dynasty.
He was was childless, so he had no-one to succeed him on the throne.
In 1700 he wrote a will leaving all the Spanish possessions to Philip, the Duke of Anjou, grandson of the French King, Louis XIV. |
| On November 1st 1700, Charles II died and in February 1701, Philip became Philip V of Spain - the first of the Spanish Bourbon Kings. |  |
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The
other powers (including England, Holland, Austria and some of the
German states in the Holy Roman Empire) opposed this since they felt
that it gave too much control over Europe to France. They formed an Alliance to put the Archduke Charles of Austria, second son of the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I, on the Spanish throne. |
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In July 1702, an Anglo-Dutch fleet commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke sailed for Cadiz to take it as a port of entry into Spain. Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt accompanied Rooke as the representative of the Archduke Charles. This attack failed; but on the way home, Rooke came across attacked and captured the Spanish treasure fleet which was sheltering in Vigo Bay. In 1703, Portugal joined the Alliance and this gave the Anglo-Dutch fleet an opportunity to base itself at Lisbon. The Archduke Charles himself travelled to Lisbon to direct operations from there. |
| Admiral Rooke
sailed for Barcelona where Prince George of Hesse landed with several
thousand men to try to persuade the Catalans to rebel against King
Philip V. The landing was opposed by a strong force loyal to King
Philip and the allies had to withdraw. Rooke then failed to get to
Toulon in time to prevent the French fleet from reaching the shelter
of the port. On the way back through the Straits Rooke decided that rather than return to Lisbon empty-handed, and seeing that Cadiz was too strongly defended to take with the few land forces he had, he would try to take Gibraltar to use as a base in Spain. |
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On 1st August 1704, the Allied fleet sailed into the Bay of Gibraltar. The Spanish Governor of Gibraltar, Don Diego de Salinas, refused to surrender the Rock without a fight. Poor wind conditions (the Levanter - a strong esaterly wind) did not allow the Allies to launch an attack till the morning of the 3rd August. |
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A heavy bombardment of the town and its defences was followed by land assaults from the north and from the south. In the morning of the 4th August, Don Diego de Salinas formally surrendered to Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt who took possession of Gibraltar in the name of the Archduke Charles as Charles III of Spain. At the end of the War of the Spanish Succession, the Archduke Charles was to succeed his father as Emperor of Austria; Philip V would remain King of Spain. However, under the terms of Article X of the Treaty of Utrecht at the end of the war, Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain. |