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IV Letters of Bolingbroke to the Earl of Orrery 1712-13

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2009

Extract

Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, was one of the Secretaries of State in Queen Anne's Tory administration of 1710–14 which sought to bring an end to the increasingly burdensome War of the Spanish Succession. Employing somewhat dubious means, he and his ministerial colleagues eventually made peace with France by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713; a treaty which paid more attention to the interests of Great Britain than to those of her allies, the Dutch and Austrians. In seeking peace at almost any price Bolingbroke and his colleagues faced a particular problem with the former Spanish territory of the Southern Netherlands (or Flanders). The Dutch were particularly interested in this territory because they hoped to secure possession of strong fortresses there which would provide them with a secure barrier against a sudden attack by the French. The Austrians, for their part, hoped to gain this territory as part of the Emperor's inheritance of former Spanish possessions. Britain herself was concerned to serve her allies in this territory at least. She also had commercial interests in Flanders and had long sought an effective barrier to French efforts to expand into the Low Countries. These concerns were reflected in Bolingbroke's correspondence with Charles, Earl of Orrery, one of his Tory friends, who was appointed in 1711 as the Queen's envoy-extraordinary to the States General in The Hague and to the Council of Flanders in Brussels. Orrery served in this capacity for most of 1711. In late 1712 he returned to these duties and served there for a further year

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1992

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References

page 353 note 1 Thomas Wentworth (1672–1739), 3rd Earl of Strafford, was a soldier and diplomat. He was made British Ambassador Extraordinary at The Hague and one of the two British plenipotentiaries at the peace negotiations at Utrecht in 1711.

page 353 note 2 Fabian, Count van Wrangel (d.1737), was a Swedish-born professional soldier who served first with the Dutch, then with the Imperial, forces. He was subsequently an Imperial Field Marshal and Governor of Brussels.

page 353 note 3 Anthonie Heinsius (1641–1720) was Grand Pensionary of Holland from 1689 and first minister of the States General.

page 354 note 4 François Eugène, Prince of Savoy-Carignon, was French in origin, but was the greatest general serving in the Imperial forces.

page 354 note 5 William Cecil, a kinsman of the Countess of Orrery, had fought at Malplaquet. Formerly a Captain in Orrery's regiment of foot, he was eventually made a brevet Lieutenant-Colonel on 1 July 1712. He was sent to the Tower in 1744 as a Jacobite conspirator.

page 354 note 6 James Butler (1685–1745), 2nd Duke of Ormonde, commanded the British forces in Flanders after the dismissal of Marlborough. In May 1712, he was given the notorious ‘restraining orders’ not to attack the French army.

page 354 note 7 George Granville (1667–1735), Baron Lansdowne, was made Secretary at War in 1710 and was one of the 12 Tory peers created at the end of 1711 to ensure that the peace negotiations were accepted by the House of Lords. An ally of Bolingbroke's, he became Comptroller of the Household in 1712 and Treasurer of the Household in 1713. He was later arrested as a Jacobite.

page 355 note 8 William Cecil had served as a Major General in Charles de Sibourg's regiment of foot since December 1710. Sibourg, said to be an illegitimate son of the Duke of Schomberg, had fought at Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudernarde and Malplaquet. He had replaced Orrery as Colonel in the Duke of Argyll's regiment of foot in 1710.

page 355 note 9 Elijah Fenton (1683–1730) was secretary to the Earl of Orrery in Flanders. He later gained some fame as a poet and as the headmaster of Sevenoaks grammar school.

page 355 note 10 Robert Harley (1661–1724), 1st Earl of Oxford, was Lord Treasurer and head of the Tory ministry 1710–14.

page 355 note 11 Charles VI (1685–1740) succeeded to the Imperial throne in April 1711 on the death of his brother. He was the Austrian claimant to the throne of Spain.

page 356 note 12 Ghent.

page 356 note 13 Mons. Dodigny and Mons. Davenish became governors of Ghent and Bruges respectively in 1713. Both were regarded as political upstarts with poor reputations. See John Drummond's letter to the Earl of Oxford, 30 Nov./10 Dec. 1713 in HMC, Portland Mss, v, 366.Google Scholar

page 356 note 14 Ferdinando, Marquis de Paleotti, an Italian adventurer, was the brother of the Duke of Shrewsbury's wife. Despite his poor reputation Orrery secured him the command of an Imperial regiment in British pay serving in Flanders.

page 356 note 15 For the prolonged negotiations on the Dutch Barrier see Geikie, Roderick and Montgomery, Isabel A., The Dutch Barrier (Cambridge, 1930).Google Scholar

page 357 note 16 Orrery went to act as joint governor of the Southern Netherlands, together with a Dutch diplomat.

page 357 note 17 Charles Talbot (1660–1718), 1st Duke of Shrewsbury, was married to Adelaide Paleotti. He was on good terms with Orrery.

page 357 note 18 An experienced professional soldier Captain John Platt served in Orrery's own regiment of foot (as did his son of the same name). On 1 January 1712 he had been promoted a brevet major, but by 1713 he was on half-pay after his regiment had been disbanded.

page 358 note 19 The official governing body in the Southern Netherlands.

page 358 note 20 The Dutch governor, serving in the Southern Netherlands as joint governor with Orrery, wasjohan van den Bergh. See note 37.

page 359 note 21 John Campbell (1680–1743), 2nd Duke of Argyll, who had fought with distinction in Flanders, was jealous of Marlborough and had drifted temporarily towards the Tory ministry. He was also on good personal terms with Orrery.

page 359 note 22 The Tory ministry's majority in the House of Lords was still insecure, and Tory peers who could not attend the House were asked to fill in proxies allowing political allies to vote for them in their absence.

page 359 note 23 Delays in the peace negotiations in fact resulted in parliament not being summoned until as late as 9 April 1713.

page 360 note 24 Charles II of Spain had died without a direct heir in 1700 and this had precipitated the War of the Spanish Succession.

page 360 note 25 General George Maccartney (1660?–1730) had been dismissed from his military command after the fall of Marlborough in 1711. He acted as second to Lord Mohun in the fatal duel with the Tory Duke of Hamilton on 15 November 1712. Fearing arrest he fled to the continent and did not surrender himself for trial until after the fall of the Tory ministry. See Dickinson, H.T., ‘The Mohun-Hamilton Duel: Personal Feud or Whig Plot?’, Durham University Journal, lvii (1965), 159–65.Google Scholar

page 360 note 26 The British plenipotentiaries at Utrecht were Strafford (see note 1) and John Robinson (1650–1723), who had been abroad for many years. He was made Bishop of Bristol in 1710 and Lord Privy Seal in 1711. A loyal supporter of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, he became Bishop of London in 1714.

page 361 note 27 Philipp Ludwig (1671–1742), Count Sinzendorff, was the Imperial ambassador at The Hague and was involved in the negotiations over the Dutch Barrier.

page 362 note 28 Johan van den Bergh. See note 37.

page 363 note 29 John Drummond, a Scots merchant who had lived many years in Amsterdam, acted as an unofficial agent for the British government from 1710. Fluent in Dutch, he later negotiated at Utrecht to secure British commercial interests in the Southern Netherlands. For his role, see many of his letters to the Tory ministers in Letters and Correspondence of Bolingbroke, ed. Gilbert Parke and HMC, Portland Mss, iv–v.

page 364 note 30 Edward Gatchell was head of one of the foremost cloth merchant families in Tiverton, where he had considerable political influence.

page 366 note 31 Charles II of Spain, king 1665–1700.

page 366 note 32 Sir William Wyndham (1687–1740) was a close friend and political supporter of Bolingbroke's. He became Secretary at War in June 1712 and Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1713.

page 367 note 33 Biaise-Henri de Corte (1661–1734), Baron de Walef, commanded the dragoons of Liège which were in the Queen's pay. He was the only mercenary commander to follow the Duke of Ormonde on the separation of the British army from the allies in 1712. He was awarded a pension on the Irish establishment by the Queen.

page 367 note 34 Maximilian II Emmanuel, Elector of Bavaria, fought on the French side in the War of the Spanish Succession. The French had hoped to reward him with the cession of the Spanish Netherlands.

page 368 note 35 The Earl of Strafford. See note 1.

page 369 note 36 Orrery had hoped to secure another diplomatic appointment after his services in the Southern Netherlands. Disappointed in his ambitions he began to drift into opposition to the Tory ministry in late 1713.

page 370 note 37 Johan van den Bergh (1664–1755), burgomeister of Leiden, a Dutch Field Deputy and, with Orrery, joint governor of the Southern Netherlands.