Articles in the early modern category

Mahan on King William's War

The importance of seapower was growing in the later 17th century. Mahan begins his classic The influence of sea power upon history with this era. Over the next century great-power war would become increasingly global, making command of the seas all the more vital.

A few extracts from Mahan covering the 1690s. From Chapter IV on the war of the League of Augsburg.

War of the League of Augsburg

(FP note) The war of 1688 - 1697 has many names. The prosaic Nine Years War, or the more traditional War of the League of Augsburg. The latter has fallen out of favour, in that there was a League of Augsburg, but the war was fought by a wider alliance, and the name does not shed light on the war's reasons or aims. In the north American theatre, where English and French settlers recruited rival groups of native forces, it has generally …

English navy under the later Stuarts

James Stuart, Duke of York, was Lord High Admiral from 1660 to 1673 and had taken a close personal interest in the Navy. But he was required to step down from this post in 1673 after the passing of the Test Act. Interestingly, he remained Lord High Admiral of Ireland and of the Plantations, which allowed him a share of profits from prizes and wrecks in those jurisdictions. He had also, shortly before his resignation in England, managed to succeed to the same responsibility for Scotland. The previous holder of the post, a distant Stuart cousin, drowned in the icy waters off Copenhagen while attempting to get on board his own ship - having enjoyed rather too much Danish hospitality. (Davies 2017, p. 108)

For the next six years (1673 - 1679), James continued to play a considerable role behind the scenes while the Admiralty was technically in commission (overseen by a …

Dutch and St Thomé

By the latter half of the seventeenth century, conflicts between nations in Europe had their counterparts in far corners of the world. At this period, such actions were generally of minor importance to the main course of any war. In peacetime, the English, Dutch, French and Danes mostly got along well in India. They kept largely to their own bases, but visited and did business with each other. The company shore personnel were not militarised, except that the forts and larger settlements housed troops of armed guards as a combination of garrison and police.

When war was declared, despatches would arrive from each company headquarters (London, Amsertdam, etc) giving orders to stop enemy vessels doing business or obtaining services in ports under the control of that company. The ships were armed and could chase or be chased as prizes, which incentivised a certain amount of sea combat. However, the number …

Hume on the events of 1688

Stirrings of unease

The English, prepossessed against their sovereign, firmly believed, that he had concerted a project with Lewis [Louis XIV] for their entire subjection. Portsmouth, it was said, was to be put into the hands of that ambitious monarch: England was to be filled with French and Irish troops: and every man who refused to embrace the Romish superstition, was by these bigoted princes devoted to certain destruction.

[Footnote:] That there really was no new alliance formed betwixt France and England, appears both, from Sunderland’s Apology, and from D’Avaux’s Negotiations, lately published: see vol. iv. p. 18. Eng translation, 27th of September, 1687; 16th of March, 6th of May, 10th of August, 2d, 23d, and 24th of September, 5th and 7th of October, 11th of November, 1688.

These suggestions were every where spread abroad, and tended to augment the discontents of which both the fleet and …

Year 1688

The so-called 'Glorious Revolution' in England in 1688 was a pivotal event in the country's history. It also began a train of events leading to almost twenty years of war in Europe and the emergence of Britain as a major power. This is why elsewhere I cover the life of Thomas Pitt who, living from 1653 to 1726, straddled this period of rapid social and economic change in Europe and the world.

Wills, 1688: a global history

To take an overview of the deepening connections between parts of the world, I will often go back to a short but highly interesting book, John Wills' global history of the year 1688. He speculates that: In 1688 a full sense of the variety of the world's places and peoples, of their separations and their connections, was confined to a few, referring to the small number of travellers as well as the literate …