The Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean (93 page)

¹⁶⁷
Cadiz is technically an Atlantic port rather than a Mediterranean one, but close enough to the straits to provide a base from which to control them.
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¹⁶⁸
Formerly the Marquis de Ruvigny and member of an old Huguenot family, Galway had commanded a French regiment before settling in England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 and becoming a British subject. Five years later he had entered the English service as a major-general of horse. In 1692 he had been appointed commander-in-chief in Ireland, and had soon afterwards been awarded a peerage.
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¹⁶⁹
This is probably the only battle in history in which the British forces were commanded by a Frenchman, the French by a Briton.
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¹⁷⁰
Cagliari itself was forced to surrender, but the British never conquered Sardinia as a whole. It was to become a major bargaining counter in the years following the Treaty of Utrecht.
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¹⁷¹
Queen Anne had succeeded to the English throne on the death of William III in 1702.
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¹⁷²
‘We have the promise of the King of Spain to leave Gibraltar to the English as a true safeguard for their commerce in Spain and in the Mediterranean.’
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¹⁷³
It is this subtle distinction that forms the basis of the Spanish claim to the Rock: that it has been part of the sovereign territory of Spain since the days of Ferdinand and Isabella, and that this status was not affected by the Treaty of Utrecht. The Spanish position is often accused of being hypocritical because of a supposed parallel between Gibraltar and the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla on the North African coast. Spaniards reply that these two cities are not colonies but have always been Spanish territories, just as much as the Balearics or the Canaries; they have never formed part of the Moroccan state.
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¹⁷⁴
There was a brief interregnum in 1724, when in a fit of religious mania Philip abdicated in favour of his eldest son Luís; but he resumed the throne when Luís died of smallpox seven months later.
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¹⁷⁵
Holland was technically a party to it, but in name only; the anti-war policy of the Dutch merchant class was too powerful.
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¹⁷⁶
It was transferred during the British occupation of the island to its present position on the Esplanade.
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¹⁷⁷
Prussia had become a nation in 1701, when Frederick, son of the Elector of Brandenburg, had crowned himself king at Königsberg.
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¹⁷⁸
London in particular was delighted with the declaration. Frederick Prince of Wales, roistering with his friends in the Rose Tavern, drank lustily to the confusion of the Papists, and the church bells rang from all the steeples. This was the occasion on which the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, was guilty of the lamentable pun by which he is chiefly remembered: ‘They now ring the bells; soon they will be wringing their hands.’
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¹⁷⁹
She became Empress only in 1745. On the death of her father Charles VI the Empire had passed to her distant cousin from the Bavarian side of the family, who became Charles VII; only on his death was her husband Francis of Lorraine elected to the imperial throne.
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¹⁸⁰
The Presidency of Charles de Brosses (1709–77) was only that of the
parlement
of Dijon; but he has somehow always managed to keep his title. President or not, he is a consistently interesting and amusing writer, whose views are always worthy of respect.
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¹⁸¹
Some of the islands in the Caribbean were to be again redistributed by the terms of the Peace of Versailles in 1783.
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¹⁸²
One of the ships, the
Prince George
, numbered among its midshipmen Price William Henry, second son of George III and the future King William IV.
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¹⁸³
Away in St Petersburg, Catherine the Great–advised by her counsellor-lover Prince Potemkin–is said to have suggested to George III that he might cede Minorca to Russia on condition that a Russian fleet went at once to its assistance: one of the many instances in history of Russia’s longing for a presence in the Mediterranean.
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¹⁸⁴
Jack Russell,
Gibraltar Besieged
, from which much of the present account has been taken.
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¹⁸⁵
‘Crisis, contradiction, quarrel, jealousy!’
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¹⁸⁶
East and West Florida extended well beyond the borders of the present state, comprising also parts of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
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¹⁸⁷
He would sign his name Napoleone Buonaparte until 1796, when he translated it into French. It seems simpler however to stick to the French form for him and his family throughout this book.
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¹⁸⁸
‘Commanding character, imperious and opinionated,’ noted the examiner.
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¹⁸⁹
The original Jacobin Club had been founded to protect the gains of the revolution against possible aristocratic reaction, but it soon became identified with extreme egalitarianism and violence, leading to the Revolutionary Government from mid-1793 to the fall of Robespierre in July 1794. By July 1790 there were 152 affiliate Jacobin Clubs all over France.
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¹⁹⁰
Pozzo di Borgo, colleague of Paoli and mortal enemy of the Bonapartes.
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¹⁹¹
‘Reward this young man, and promote him; for if his services are not recognised, he will promote himself.’
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¹⁹²
Roughly comparable to a modern Cabinet, it was composed of thirteen members including the Doge himself. It functioned as the executive arm of the government. The chairman–a post which rotated weekly–was thus effectively Prime Minister of the Republic.
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¹⁹³
The sole distinction of this otherwise footling state was to have chosen for its standard the red, white and green tricolour. It is curious indeed that one of the earliest manifestations of French conquest should have given rise to the Italian national flag.
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¹⁹⁴
Talleyrand had dissociated himself from the revolution after the execution of the royal family in 1793 and gone into voluntary exile in America. He had returned in 1795 after the fall of the Jacobins and became Foreign Minister in 1797.
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¹⁹⁵
Ships of the line were the largest category of naval vessels, being those fit to stand in the line of battle. They were three-masters, and were subdivided into six rates, only the first three of which, by the end of the eighteenth century, were considered solid enough for warfare. A first-rate ship of the line carried a hundred or more guns, a second-rate eighty-four to ninety-eight and a third-rate seventy to eighty, all with armaments on two or more decks. Frigates, corvettes and brigs were normally two-masted, with diminishing numbers of guns.
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¹⁹⁶
It actually lasted less than fourteen months, owing to Napoleon’s indignation that the British had not left Malta immediately, and British concern at his having annexed Piedmont, Elba, Parma and Piacenza in 1802.
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¹⁹⁷
The pillar in fact dates from the time of Diocletian at the end of the third century. The obelisk, dating from the reign of Thutmose III–nearly 1,500 years before Cleopatra’s day–was given to the British government by Mohammed Ali in 1819, although it did not reach London’s Embankment until 1878.
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¹⁹⁸
In his despatches Nelson had reported that the engagement had taken place not far from the (Rosetta) mouth of the Nile, hence the slightly misleading name. It would have been more accurate to call it the Battle of Aboukir.
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¹⁹⁹
The news of Napoleon’s victory at Marengo reached Rome some hours after the reports of his defeat. The sudden change from celebration to lamentation lends additional drama to Act II of Puccini’s
Tosca.
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²⁰⁰
Of Sicily he was Ferdinand III, of the Two Sicilies he was Ferdinand I. The historian–and his readers–must tread warily indeed.
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²⁰¹
‘Er ist ein recht guter Narr,’
(‘He’s a right good fool’) she remarked to her brother, the Emperor Joseph, when he came to Naples. Joseph left a hilarious account of his visit. (See H. Acton,
The Bourbons of Naples
, pp. 135–49.)
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²⁰²
His body was later exhumed and returned to Rome, where Canova designed him a splendid tomb.
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²⁰³
Parthenope was an early Greek settlement on the site of Naples in the sixth century
BC
.
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²⁰⁴
P. Mackesy,
British Victory in Egypt, 1801
, from which much of the material in this chapter has been taken.
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²⁰⁵
It was in one of the towers of this fort that the French had discovered in 1799 the famous Rosetta Stone–now one of the most popular exhibits of the British Museum–which provided the key to the deciphering of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.
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²⁰⁶
On 17 June Menou had indulged his imagination still further, assuring the Minister of the Interior that Belliard had won a major victory over the British just outside Cairo and that Hely-Hutchinson had been killed.
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²⁰⁷
Before condemning Nicol and his fellows as vandals, we should remember that ten years later Lord Byron was to do precisely the same at the Temple of Poseidon at Sunion.
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²⁰⁸
The body was first taken to Kléber’s native city of Strasbourg, where it was kept for twenty years in the cathedral. It was then brought to Paris and buried beneath the monument in the
Place
that bears his name.
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²⁰⁹
‘When armies believe it possible to escape from a critical position with a convention that does them no dishonour, all is lost.’
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²¹⁰
When Pius VII registered a somewhat nervous protest, he was put firmly in his place by a personal message from the Emperor: ‘Your Holiness will show the same respect for me in the temporal sphere as I bear towards him in the spiritual…Your Holiness is the Sovereign of Rome, but I am its Emperor.’
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²¹¹
Until a few years ago there stood at the southern end of Maida Vale a pub named The Hero of Maida, with a portrait of General Stuart on its sign.
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²¹²
See Chapter VI.
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²¹³
Such was the prevailing Anglophilia that the swells of Palermo affected to speak the Sicilian dialect with an English accent.
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²¹⁴
He was married to the Emperor’s youngest sister, Caroline.
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²¹⁵
After his departure it would be returned to Tuscany, with which it would pass in 1860 to a united Italy.
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²¹⁶
Talleyrand, by now sixty, had had an astonishing career. Having first entered the Church, he had risen to the rank of bishop. Later he had represented his government in London, working hard in the cause of Anglo-French relations; but after the execution of the King and Queen he had sought refuge in America, where he had remained for two years. Returning to Paris, he was appointed Foreign Minister under the Directory, and soon became Napoleon’s principal adviser on foreign policy; eventually, however, disgusted by the Emperor’s insatiable ambition, he began secretly to plan for a Bourbon restoration. With the return of Louis XVIII in 1814, he had found himself once again Foreign Minister.
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²¹⁷
Their joint membership of the Orthodox Church has always provided a close emotional link between Russia and Greece.
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²¹⁸
For a fascinating summary of the lives of the previous seven, see Patrick Leigh Fermor,
Mani
, p. 49.
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