The winter of 1708 marked the zenith of English, and allied, military confidence. In December, the fortress of Lille fell, which brought about the hasty re-surrender of the towns of Ghent and Bruges67 and a
French withdrawal from an attempt to besiege Brussels. Lille, heavily fortified by Vauban, had been thought impregnable. Marlborough, aided by clement weather, had maintained the siege into December far beyond the normal campaigning season and had conjured logistical marvels to keep his forces
provisioned despite French flooding low-lying areas near Ostend and harassment from Ghent and Bruges behind his lines.68 The fall of Lille marked the advance of the war into Picardy. The “taking Lisle [sic] is
cutting a Nerve in the Body Politick, one of the largest and most useful Nerves, from whence his greatest Armies received their Nourishment, from when his Flanders forces were always paid.”69 Nonetheless,
allied casualties were high. In 1713, the Tory-leaning Canon Richard Eyre retrospectively identified the “[m]any Sieges, that have cost us more Blood, than the greatest Battles,”70 as the final straw in popular
support for the war.
The unseasonably mild autumn gave way to harsh frosts in January 1709, which lasted three months and were among the most severe in European history, bringing a financially precarious France to the brink of famine. While France assembled an army under Vendome’s successor, Villars, to retake Lille, in March Louis revived the informal peace proposals made in 1706.71 As may have been Louis’s
intent, the prospect of peace proved divisive. The Dutch desire to occupy a barrier of fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands was viewed with apprehension by the Habsburgs; potential Dutch hegemony in the Netherlands threatened trade competition with England, and any negotiations implied some compromise about the crown of Spain, as the Bourbon forces held the upper hand there. In particular, the Austrian
66 Marston, Feb. 1709, p. 16.
67 Ghent and Bruges surrendered to Marlborough’s forces in the aftermath of Ramillies in Jun. 1706. In Jul. 1708,
amid popular discontent with allied occupation, they surrendered themselves to French forces, only to recapitulate to Marlborough in Dec. 1708 following the fall of Lille.
68 General Webb fought off French forces at one important skirmish, which occurred at Wijendael in September. In
initial dispatches Marlborough mistakenly attributed credit to General Cadogan. In Parliament, later in the year, Tories accused Marlborough of favouring Cadogan – a Whig – rather than Tory generals.
69 Hare, 1708, p. 8.
70 Eyre, 1713, p. 14. Eyre’s political orientation was described by the Whiggish White Kennett description of the
sermon as “condemning the War, arraigning the General and running down the Bishop of the Church wherein he preached” (see below, p. Richard Eyre ).
71 Through Herman Van Petkum, an envoy of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp: Geikie and Montgomery, Dutch
150 Habsburgs feared that a settlement might involve a restoration of Spain to Charles with Philip being compensated with Italian Habsburg territory.72
In the event, the Dutch resisted Louis’s blandishments and in early March the allies endorsed a draft set of articles of peace, actually a maximalist set of war aims, to be put to the French. These included French recognition of the legitimacy of the Protestant Succession in Britain; banishment of the Pretender from French dominions; the establishment of the agreed Dutch barrier of fortresses and a demand that Louis encourage and, if necessary, enforce the restoration of Habsburg rule in Spain. The House of Commons had appended the destruction of the fortified harbour of Dunkirk, to prevent French naval marauding in the future. To further bolster Dutch resolve, the British – through their new
plenipotentiary, the ambitious but relatively inexperienced, Viscount Townshend73 – entered talks which
resulted in an Anglo-Dutch Barrier Treaty in October 1709. Its terms were generous to Dutch aspirations and thus alarmed the Habsburgs, who were already discommoded at having to cede the newly occupied island of Minorca to the British. Henceforth, Britain would have an all-year Mediterranean port.74 The
peace proposals, though ambitious, contained no demands concerning French or Palatine Protestants. Even a Whig-dominated ministry at the height of its powers did not see itself able to interfere in the plight of co-religionists in an enemy’s home territory.
Austrian forces had followed their 1706 victory in Turin with an occupation of the northern Italian principalities, and a contested march through the Papal States to subdue the Spanish Habsburg forces in Naples. With Austrian boots on papal soil and no French assistance forthcoming, the Pope recognised the Habsburg Charles as King of Spain in October 1709. On the Hungarian front, the Austrian victory at Trentschin, in August 1707, marked the end of a policy of negotiation with the rebels and the resumption of military suppression in Hungary and Transylvania and concomitant threats of repression to Silesian Protestants.75
In Spain, 1708 had been a year of consolidation and change. Britain had hoped that Austria would transfer Prince Eugene and sufficient manpower to Spain; however, in the end Guido, Count
72 Charles had been proclaimed King of Naples in Sept. 1707, following its defeat by Austrian Habsburg forces.
Nonetheless, Emperor Joseph, Charles’s brother, displayed a marked reluctance to exchange Italian territory for Spanish.
73 Sent to aid Marlborough, who took almost no part in the negotiations. Any barrier which pleased the Dutch would
come at the expense of Habsburg sovereignty in the Spanish Netherlands: Geikie and Montgomery, Dutch Barrier, pp. 13-32.
74 Gibraltar was not ceded to the British until the Treaty of Utrecht. The agreement to cede Minorca to Britain,
though initially secret, caused tension when it was revealed to the Dutch during 1709. The Dutch viewed the agreement as Britain taking advantage of the war to gain commercial advantage; the British ministry felt obliged to concede maximum Dutch demands for the Barrier Treaty as a consequence.
151 Starhemberg, with laurels from the campaigns in Southern Italy, was chosen and Austria haggled for the maritime powers to finance the Austrian military effort in Spain. General James Stanhope, soon to become a Whig icon of ‘deed and word,’76 replaced the ageing Earl of Galway as commander of British
forces.77 In a sign of renewed political partisanship, Marlborough came under Tory criticism – primarily
from Rochester and Bromley – for lack of assertiveness in Spain, and for favouring Whig commanders for posts in the army in Flanders.78
For Queen Anne the winter of 1708 marked a personal nadir, for on 20 October Prince George, her spouse of twenty-five years, died after a series of respiratory illnesses. Even prior to her bereavement Anne led a solitary, debilitated existence. Sir John Clerk,79 in two audiences in late 1707 and 1708, noted
that she was afflicted by gout: “ill-dressed, blotted in her countenance, surrounded by plaisters,
catapalsims, and dirty-like rags … no court Attenders ever came near her.”80 Queen Anne succumbed to
continued Junto pressure and in November, Wharton and Somers were appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Lord President of the Council respectively. Anne’s bereavement and continued illness brought the issue of the succession into stark relief, reviving rumours of an invitation to the Hanoverians to set up court in England in order to be ready for the Queen’s death, potentially forming an alternative power structure, leading in January to a joint parliamentary address to the Queen: “not so far [to] indulge Your just Grief, as to decline the Thoughts of a Second Marriage.”81 While Anne had probably been made
aware that this was a parliamentary tactic to forestall another invitation to Princess Sophia, her son or grandson,82 the advice to the newly widowed, childless survivor of fourteen pregnancies must have
seemed presumptuous in the extreme. The Queen’s answer tersely addressed the kernel of the issue: “The Provision I have made for the Protestant Succession will always be a Proof how much I have at My Heart the future Happiness of the Kingdom … The Subject of this Address is of such a Nature, that, I am persuaded, you do not expect a particular Answer.”83
If the almost annual thanksgiving assemblies of the Queen, Lords and Commons at St Paul’s had represented the true glory of the sovereign,84 the thanksgiving of February 1709 represented the dimming
of that lustre. Whether through illness, alienation or aversion, the Queen held a thanksgiving service in
76 See Thomas Bradbury 1710 Thanksgiving sermon p. 13 (below p. 193).
77 A.D. Francis, The First Peninsular War 1702-1713 (London, 1975), pp. 260-263.
78 Of which the Webb-Cadogan contretemps was the most prominent example: Peter Wentworth to Lord Raby, 4
Jan. 1709, p. 69 in J.J. Cartwright, ed., The Wentworth Papers, 1705-1739 (London, 1883). See above p. 149 n.68.
79 Whose indefatigable efforts in the pro-Union cause are related following page 115 above.
80Memoirs of the life of Sir JohnClerk of Penicuik, Scottish History Society (Edinburgh, 1892), XIII, pp. 62, 72. 81L.J., 18, pp. 619-21.
82 Gregg, Queen Anne, p. 285. 83L.J., 18, pp. 622-24. 84 Trelawny, 1702, p. 15.
152 the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace – with the sermon given by a moderate Tory,85 Thomas
Manningham (who would be elevated to the see of Chichester later that year), while Parliament held two separate services, the Lords were addressed by Charles Trimnell, newly elevated Whig Bishop of Norwich, at Westminster Abbey, the Commons by Marlborough’s Chaplain-General, Francis Hare, in St Margaret’s.
Manningham’s sermon86 noted that: “We are keeping the day of Thanksgiving in a Mourning
Chapel … Human Life, at the best, is but a sort of Chequer Work, and for the most part, the dark Colour abounds.” Even the great victory at Lille, that “master-piece of war” was “slowly carried on” and the “War, tho’ we have success in it, is so direful a Calamity.”
In Westminster Abbey, Charles Trimnell struck a more effusive tone. Associated with a group of Whig senior churchmen and politicians,87 Trimnell was described as: “[a] very good man whom even the
Tories valued, though he preached terrible Whig sermons.”88 Trimnell counted out the blessings of
providence: “every other year has been crowned with greater Blessings by far than we could ever expect.”89 Curiously omitting to mention the Queen’s recently deceased husband, he lamented William
“of Glorious Memory” and mourned his loss. Fortunately, God had facilitated Her Majesty and the increasingly Whiggish ministry in the: “Wise and Faithful Management of the Publick Supplies.”
Francis Hare, presided at the Common’s thanksgiving in St Margaret’s, and those gathered there were treated to a thorough hagiography of Marlborough. Hare had been tutor to Marlborough’s son, had participated in the Blenheim campaign, written the Life and Glorious History of Marlborough in 1705 and been appointed canon at St Paul’s by the Queen in 1707. His sermon went into the detail of the recent Flanders campaign and thirsted for more: “Louis’s kingdom and treasury were so exhausted,” that “the very Continuance of the War, in all Probability, would sink him.”90 Hare praised not just the general but
Her Majesty’s ministry, “the faithful and able Management of the Revenue, and the happy Administration of Affairs in other branches.”
The February 1709 Thanksgiving saw the publication of ten sermons, a number equal to the Oudenarde Thanksgiving. The number is inflated by the three separate official ceremonies that took place,
85 Sykes, Queen Anne and the Episcopate, pp. 433-464. 86Manningham, Feb. 1709, pp. 3, 4.
87The group was headed by Archbishop Tenison, included Bishops William Nicolson and William Wake, Deans
Francis Blackburne and White Kennett, and Archdeacon Edmund Gibson, closely associated were the Earl of Halifax, the Earl of Wharton, Lord Somers, and the 3rd Earl of Sunderland: W. M. Jacob, ‘Trimnell,
Charles (bap. 1663, d. 1723)’ Oxford D.N.B. [accessed 7 Mar. 2016].
88 S.H. Cassan, The lives of the bishops of Winchester (2 vols, London 1827) ii, p. 208. 89 Trimnell, Feb. 1709, pp. 11, 12.
153 before the Queen the Lords and the Commons, each of which produced an officially sanctioned
publication. Josiah Woodward in Whitechapel foresaw Louis’s complete overthrow; Deuel Pead, the blunt minster at Clerkenwell, gave a comprehensive tour d’horizon of the state of Europe, with particular disparagement for Pope Clement’s support for the Pretender; William Marston,91 Vicar of Redbourn near
St Albans, urged that the opportunity for peace be taken as soon as possible.
The Dissenter sermons92 come from prominent preachers: the Baptist Joseph Stennett; the
pugnacious Presbyterian Daniel Mayo, pastor in Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey; George Conway, minister in Wokingham who gave a moderate sermon, and Simon Browne, minister in Portsmouth, would later submit to and document a complete mental collapse.93
The preachers agreed that the length of the year’s campaign, which had extended well beyond the usual foraging season, was divinely ordained to facilitate the allied campaign. Josiah Woodward surmised that: “God’s providence was evident in a miraculous Serenity of the Season, for about Three Months together.”94 Charles Trimnell took a less detailed view: “No Place or Time, within the compass of a single
Campaign, did ever afford more eminent Instances … [of the] signal interpositions of the providence of God.”95 Daniel Mayo was explicit, about the unusual: “lengthening out the Season of Action.”96 In
London, Joseph Stennett commented that:“war is an Appeal to God to give, by his Providence, a Decision of such Controversy’s [sic] between Princes and States, as cannot be otherwise determined for want of sufficient Arbiters on Earth.”97 In Portsmouth, Simon Browne, setting a sombre tone which
pervaded his sermon, sought to dampen any self-congratulation his congregation might be feeling. “God hath wise and good reasons for those Donations to a very wicked people.”He warned that: “[God] may do great things to a Sinful nation for his names sake, tho’ not for their sake.”98
The Pretender’s invasion attempt had taken place eleven months previously, and most preachers took the opportunity to disparage it once more. William Marston emphasised that the attempt was an
91 Little is known about William Marston, M.A. He is listed in the frontispiece of the sermon as chaplain to His
Grace the Duke of Marlborough. Marston was a common land-owning name in the St Albans area. John Gape, High-Tory MP for the borough, is described as being a brother-in-law of a William Marston. Gape, in common with the Tories, became decreasingly enamoured of Marlborough through the decade, so it is possible Marston’s
chaplaincy dates from the early period.
92 Three of the four dissenting ministers have Oxford D.N.B. entries.
93 His writings and the testimony of fellow ministers give an early insight into mental illness: D.Berman, ‘Simon
Browne: the Soul-Murdered Theologian’, History of Psychiatry, vii (1996), pp. 257-263.
94 Woodward, Feb.1709, p. 16. 95 Trimnell, 1709, p. 12. 96 Mayo, 1709, p. 10.
97 Stennett, Feb.1709, pp. 17, 16, 22. Stennett had stated the same belief in war being an appeal to providence
before. In his 1704 Thanksgiving sermon, he used ‘Nations’ as the entity performing the appeal, in this thanksgiving he used the rather more politically neutral ‘Princes and States.’
154 “unnatural enterprise … attempted by some of Her Own Subjects, assisted by a French Power, supported and encouraged by the precarious Title of a spurious and Unjust Pretender.”99 Addressing his noble
peers, Bishop Trimnell perhaps ascribed too much malevolence to the twenty-year-old Chevalier100 by
claiming that had his attempt succeeded: “instead of a Nursing Mother have [would have] had a Furious Oppressor.”101 Deuel Pead, unvarnished as usual, noted that the Jacobites: “had numerous of Friends in
Scotland ready to assist them,” before veering off into an extended excoriation of the Pope for: “his Approbation by a free Contribution of a vast sum of Money together with his benediction”102 to the
invasion attempt. Conversely, Francis Hare was dismissive of the extent of the threat: “In truth all they did was little more than Noise or it was impossible they could succeed, without a great deal more Treachery than they could with any assurance hope for.”103
The Dissenting ministers were also conscious of the threat. Daniel Mayo was more discourteous than dismissive; the French King was a pharaoh, who had insolently “proclaimed a Pretender, whose Father is unknown.” However, there were enemies within:“who repine whilst we rejoice at our Successes and have yet a hankering towards the Garlic and Onions of Egypt as some of the Murmuring and
Infatuated Israelites had, when at the same time they despised Manna.”104
Joseph Stennett was altogether more strategic, realising that the Scottish attempt could have resulted in the diversion “of a great part of the Confederate forces” to England’s northern border, which would have allowed the French to execute “their great projects in the Netherlands.” He was even more astute in recognising that the target had been public confidence as much as territory. He reminded his listeners of: “the Shock which was given to the Publick Credit on that occasion, ought to put us mind how much we owe to the Hand of God for frustrating the main Design of our enemy’s at that Time.”105
The clerics’ topics ranged from societies need for reformation to exhortations on the observation of a certain decorum in the aftermath of the thanksgiving services. George Conway focused on the immediate:
99Marston, Feb. 1709, p. 15.
100 James Francis Edward was known at the Chevalier de St George, among less dignified titles: Edward Gregg,
‘James Francis Edward (1688–1766)’, Oxford D.N.B. [accessed 7 Mar. 2016].
101 Trimnell, Feb 1709, p. 4. 102 Pead, 1709, p. 8. 103 Hare, Feb. 1709, p. 14. 104 Mayo, Feb 1709, p. 11.
105 Joseph Stennett, Feb 1709, p. 21. On 20 Mar. 1708, in the midst of the invasion scare, the Commons had resolved
to charge “anyone who reduces public credit” with a high crime and misdemeanour. For a more detailed view of the impact of Jacobite invasion scares on Public Credit, see John Wells and Douglas Wills, ‘Revolution, Restoration, and Debt Repudiation: The Jacobite Threat to England’s Institutions and Economic Growth’, Journal of Economic History, lx (2000), pp. 418-41.
155
Our returns of gratitude too frequently sink into Formality, our Days of Thanksgiving are commonly filled up with large Harrangues of our Policy, Strength and Riches; and uncommon liberty taken for Persons to indulge themselves in Intemperance; as if gratitude only consisted in a cheerful Air, and pleasant discourses about our Victories, and drinking briskly to the Successes (as they term it) of the next Campaign. 106
The Whig-leaning Josiah Woodward107 saw the other side of the coin: “But if our Divisions will
admit no Cure, and our Wickedness of no Reformation, we shall yet be a miserable people.108 The
combative Dissenter, Daniel Mayo, delimited the extent of unity which could be realistically expected,