French and British on land: 1744-1745
The French and British often act in an uneasy alliance after the War of the Spanish Succession. The primary reason is that Cardinal Fleury and Robert Walpole, the political leaders of both nations, consider peace to be an essential component of national prosperity. However, Fleury passes away in 1743 and Walpole resigns in 1742.
There isn’t anything now to control the well-established ill will between these two Atlantic countries, each with a creating realm abroad. In March 1744, the French declared war on Britain and planned an invasion across the Channel with the help of Charles Edward Stuart, a Jacobite pretender.
Terrible weather conditions harmed the French armada and caused the arrangement for an attack in 1744 to be deserted. The French turned their attention to an assault on the Austrian Netherlands the following summer. Maurice Saxe, directing a French armed force that incorporates an Irish unit, wins a triumph at Fontenoy in May 1745 over a joined power of English, Hanoverian, Austrian and Dutch soldiers under the Duke of Cumberland, child of the English lord.
By the end of 1746, Saxe had conquered the entire Austrian Netherlands, continuing his successful campaign. The British army did not oppose him for much of this time. In October 1745, in response to a new threat in Scotland, the regiments and the Duke of Cumberland were called back.
The Forty-Five: 1745
Charles Edward Stuart is the source of the threat to Scotland. He is abandoned by the French after the failed plans for an invasion in 1744, but in 1745, after Britain loses to France in the continent-wide campaign, he becomes convinced that he can succeed in Scotland even with foreign support.
The Jacobite supporters affectionately refer to the prince as Bonnie Prince Charlie, while the English refer to him as the Young Pretender. He arrives in the Hebrides in the early part of August 1745. The prince marches south, gathering troops as he goes, as the Highland clans rally behind him. On September 16 he entered Edinburgh. He declared his father James VIII of Scotland the following day.
Charles must defend this claim on the battlefield within a week. On September 21, he meets and defeats an army led by Sir John Cope at Prestonpans. After this triumph (insight about which prompted the review of Cumberland and his military from the Netherlands) Charles walks south to attack Britain. He won Carlisle in November, and by the beginning of December, he had reached Derby in the south.
As of now, his supporters have lost heart. The French support that was promised to them has not materialized, and they are too far from safety in Scotland. On December 6 Charles heads back north, sought after now by the Duke of Cumberland.
On April 16, 1746, the two sides finally met in a pitched battle at Culloden. In an effort to surprise the larger army of the Duke of Cumberland, Charles had marched his approximately 5,000 Scots through the previous night. The fight, on an uncovered field, endures just 60 minutes. The Scots are thoroughly defeated.
It is the finish of the Jacobite cause. The Pretender is offered £30,000 for his head, but despite spending five months hiding, he manages to return to France thanks to Flora Macdonald’s romantic intervention. Because of his brutal treatment of Jacobite sympathizers, Cumberland gets the nickname “butcher.” In addition, severe measures are taken by the government to pacify the Highlands.
French and British at sea: 1745-1748
Under Marshal Saxe in 1745–1746, French victories in northern Europe proved to be less significant in the long run than Britain’s stranglehold on French maritime trade. When war was authoritatively proclaimed, in 1744, the English naval force bugs French vendor armadas on the way for the West Indies or India. Closer to home, France’s harbours are blocked off, making it impossible to transport goods up and down the coast (the most straightforward route in an era before decent roads).
France is prepared for peace by 1748, after four years of low-key naval warfare. Fundamentally the main significant regions that have changed hands are abroad.
In 1745 minutes men from English North America seized from France the harbour of Louisbourg, at the passage to the Bay of St Lawrence (of key significance comparable to French Canada). In 1746, the French took over British Madras in India.
Both are returned in 1748 in the settlement of Aix-la-Chapelle – reestablishing the norm, yet in addition deferring an unavoidable frontier struggle between the things that are currently Europe’s driving powers. Frederick the Incomparable says of France and England: ‘ They believe that they are the leaders of two opposing factions that all kings and princes must join. In the Seven Years’ War, the kings and princes will once more have to choose sides in less than a decade.
Pacifying the Highlands: 1715-1782
The unsuccessful Jacobite uprising of 1715 made the Whig government and the Hanoverian ruler very much aware that the High countries of Scotland required cautious control. A road construction program is the most significant response to the challenge. The new roads are of great economic benefit to Scotland, despite their sole purpose being to speed up troop movement.
The undertaking of building them is shared with George Swim, who was president of North England from 1724 to 1740. He oversees the construction of forty bridges and 240 miles of roads across the Highlands at a very high standard for the time.
The British government took harsher measures following the much more serious rebellion of 1745. The 1747 Act of Proscription prohibits Highlanders from wearing Highland dress and Tartan, which is the most symbolic and well-known gesture. Estates are forfeited, Highlanders cannot carry arms, and the restriction is lifted in 1782).
The emergency of 1745, despite the fact that in the idea of a nationwide conflict, is utilized by the Hanoverian greater part to work up an enthusiasm of public feeling. In September 1745, one month after the Young Pretender landed in Scotland, a British crowd singing the national anthem for the first time is recorded at Drury Lane.
This time, George Wade gets a place in the lyrics thanks to his efforts in Scotland. “Like a torrent rush, rebellious Scots to crush,” the crowd sings, hoping that the famous general will “confound their politics, frustrate their knavish tricks.”
The emergency was never just about as extraordinary as such emotional treatment makes it appear. Most Scots, living an undeniably prosperous presence in the more agreeable Marshes, have little compassion for wild and perilous High country plans. As the home of the Scottish Enlightenment, they are busy making Edinburgh one of the most intellectually and architecturally sophisticated 18th-century cities.
The fight for empire: 1754-1759
The decisive years of the British-French colonial struggle occurred in the 1750s. In 1751, Robert Clive dared to take small-scale action against French interests in India at Arcot. He took control of Bengal by the end of the decade, following the battle of Plassey in 1757. This allowed him to significantly increase the British presence in India.
1754 marks the beginning of armed conflict in the United States on the border between British and French territories. The French had the upper hand for the first three years, but then things turned around, culminating in the events that made 1759 a memorable year in British history.
Annus mirabilis: 1759
1759 becomes referred to by the English as annus mirabilis, the magnificent year, due to a staggering run of triumphs. The best is Wolfe’s catch of Quebec in September, yet there are two victories adrift that are similarly significant. They shield England from the French invasion threat.
This summer, French troops have been accumulating along the English Channel, waiting for a fleet to bring them across. Both of the two armadas could do as such, and England’s endurance in the conflict relies upon annihilating both. Toulon has one. It slips out of the Mediterranean in August and heads north, passing Gibraltar. Edward Boscawen captures it off the coast of Lagos in northern Portugal and defeats it.
Brest is where the other fleet is. In November, Edward Hawke confronts it in Quiberon Bay after it sets sail. The fleets battle for three hours on November 20 afternoon. The English lose two boats, which steer into the rocks. When they escape into shallow waters, the majority of the French fleet is either destroyed or irreparably damaged.
David Garrick wrote a song called “Heart of Oak” in response to the victory. Its title is a reference to the brave sailors and the wood that British ships are made of: Our ships and personnel are made of oak hearts.
The letter-essayist and mind Horace Walpole answers drowsily to this surge of uplifting news in 1759: ‘ He makes the observation that “we are forced to ask what victory there has been every morning for fear of missing one.”
With battles on land and sea in America, and Europe, and even a simmering conflict in Asia, the Seven Years’ War is history’s first attempt at a global conflict. The most encouraging news for Britain right now comes from America, the conflict with France’s original and most disastrous starting point.
Peace treaties: 1763
In February 1763, two separate peace treaties were signed. Britain, France, and Spain agreed in Paris to the earlier of the two by five days. At Hubertusburg in Saxony, the second agreement between Austria and Prussia was signed.
Both Manila and Havana, which were taken from Spain the previous year, were returned to Spain as part of the settlement between Britain and Spain. However, it rewarded Britain by acquiring Florida, which Spain regained from 1783 to 1819. This completes the British territory that stretches from the Caribbean to the entire east coast of the American continent. In the one major change in these treaties, Britain acquired from France the northern portion of this stretch in Canada.
France surrendered to England all the region which it had recently asserted between the Mississippi and Ohio waterways, along with the first domains of New France along the St Lawrence. This ended the French empire in America; the treaty kept only New Orleans and its district in French hands. One of the major turning points in history saw the British establish themselves as the unmistakable power in the northern half of the continent.
Spain received the lands between the Mississippi and the Rockies that the French had more conceptually claimed. The United States later acquired them as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.)
