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Charles Wills
General Sir Charles Wills (October 166625 December 1741) was a British Army officer and politician who served as Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance from 1718 to 1741. He also sat in the British House of Commons from 1718 to 1741, representing the constituency of Totnes. He began his military career in 1689, serving successively in the Williamite War in Ireland, the Nine Years War and the War of the Spanish Succession. During the Jacobite rising of 1715, he commanded government troops at the Battle of Preston, which ended the rising in England. Wills was rewarded with promotion to lieutenant-general and returned for Totnes, a seat controlled by the Duke of Bolton, a prominent Whig. Despite making little impact on Parliament, he was a reliable supporter of the government and appointed Privy Councillor in 1719. George I made him one of the first members of the newly revived Order of the Bath in 1725, but Wills failed to gain a peerage as expected. He died in London on 25 Decem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Order Of The Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior British Armed Forces, military officers or senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servants, and the monarch awards it on the advice of His Majesty's Government. The name derives from an elaborate medieval ceremony for preparing a candidate to receive his knighthood, of which ritual bathing (as a symbol of Ritual purification, purification) was an element. While not all knights went through such an elaborate ceremony, knights so created were known as "knights of the Bath". George I constituted the Knights of the Bath as a regular Order (honour), military order. He did not revive the order, which did not previously exist, in the sense of a body of knights governed by a set of statutes and whose numbers were replenished when vacancies occurred. The Order consists of the Sovereign of the United King ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Aughrim
The Battle of Aughrim () was the decisive battle of the Williamite War in Ireland. It was fought between the largely Irish Army (Kingdom of Ireland), Irish Jacobitism, Jacobite army loyal to James II of England, James II and the forces of William III of England, William III on 12 July 1691 (Old Style and New Style dates, old style, equivalent to 22 July new style), near the village of Aughrim, County Galway. The battle was one of the bloodiest ever fought in the British Isles; 7,000 people were killed. The Jacobite defeat at Aughrim meant the effective end of James's cause in Ireland, although the city of Limerick held out until the autumn of 1691.G.A. Hayes McCoy, p. 244 Background By 1691, the Jacobites had adopted a defensive position. In the previous year they had retreated into Connacht behind the easily defensible line of the River Shannon, Shannon, with strongholds at Sligo, Athlone and Limerick guarding the routes into the province and the western ports. William Siege ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Preston (1715)
The Battle of Preston (9–14 November 1715) was the final action of the Jacobite rising of 1715, an attempt to put James Francis Edward Stuart on the British throne in place of George I. After two days of street-fighting, the Jacobite commander Thomas Forster surrendered to government troops under General Charles Wills. It was arguably the last battle fought on English soil. Background The Jacobites moved south into England with little opposition, and by the time they reached Preston, Lancashire had grown to about 4,000 in number. Their cavalry entered Preston on the night of 9 November 1715, and as they approached two troops of dragoons and part of a militia regiment retreated to Wigan. General Charles Wills was ordered to halt their advance, and left Manchester on 11 November with six regiments, arriving on 12 November. The Jacobite leader was Thomas Forster, a Northumberland squire with minimal military experience, selected largely because he was a Protestant; learn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacobite Rising Of 1715
The Jacobite rising of 1715 ( ; or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Francis Edward Stuart, James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland and Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland for the exiled House of Stuart, Stuarts. At Braemar, Aberdeenshire, local landowner the John Erskine, Earl of Mar (1675–1732), Earl of Mar raised the Jacobite standard on 27 August. Aiming to capture Stirling Castle, he was checked by the much-outnumbered Hanoverians, commanded by the John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, Duke of Argyll, at Sheriffmuir on 13 November. There was no clear result, but the Earl appeared to believe, mistakenly, that he had won the battle, and left the field. After the Jacobite surrender at Battle of Preston (1715), Preston (14 November), the rebellion was over. Background The 1688 Glorious Revolution deposed James II and VII, who was replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary II of England, Mary II a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Brihuega
The Battle of Brihuega took place on 8 December 1710 in the War of the Spanish Succession, during the Allied retreat from Madrid to Barcelona. A British Army rearguard led by James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope was cut off and trapped within the town of Brihuega before being overwhelmed by a Franco-Spanish army under the command of Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme. The battle, along with other events, brought an end to British participation in the war. Prelude In 1710, victories at the Battle of Almenara (July 27) and the Battle of Saragossa (August 20) allowed the Grand Alliance army supporting Archduke Charles to occupy Madrid for the second time. On 21 September the Archduke—Charles III of Spain, according to the Allies—entered his prospective capital. But the invasion of 1710 proved to be a repetition of the invasion of 1706: The Alliance's 23,000 men, reduced by a loss of 2,000 in the actions at Almenara and Saragossa, by constant skirmishes with the '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Saragossa
The Battle of Saragossa, also known as the Battle of Zaragoza, took place on 20 August 1710 during the War of the Spanish Succession. A Spanish Bourbon army loyal to Philip V of Spain and commanded by the Marquis de Bay was defeated by a Grand Alliance force under Guido Starhemberg. Despite this victory, which allowed Philip's rival Archduke Charles to enter the Spanish capital of Madrid, the allies were unable to consolidate their gains. Forced to retreat, they suffered successive defeats at Brihuega in November and Villaviciosa in December, which effectively ended their chances of installing Archduke Charles on the Spanish throne. Background The 1710 Spanish campaign opened on 15 May when the Spanish Bourbon army commanded by Philip V in person and Francisco Castillo Fajardo, Marquis of Villadarias, advanced on the town of Balaguer.Cust, p. 114 Guido Starhemberg, commander of the Allied forces in Catalonia, halted this attempt by preventing the Spanish from f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Almenar
The Battle of Almenar took place near Balaguer in Catalonia, on 27 July 1710, during the War of the Spanish Succession. In June 1710, the Bourbon-Spanish army of Phillip V crossed into Catalonia in an attempt to capture Balaguer; an Allied force of British, Portuguese, Dutch and Austrian troops supporting Archduke Charles countered these moves and the two armies met in battle just to the north of Lleida on the afternoon of 27 July. Philip's army was defeated and forced to withdraw behind the Ebro but remained intact. Prelude By the spring of 1709, France was financially exhausted, the severe winter of 1708/09 led to widespread famine and Louis XIV was forced to withdraw French troops from Spain to reinforce his northern frontier. However, although the Battle of Malplaquet in September 1709 was technically an Allied victory, the casualties shocked Europe and halted their advance into France. In Spain, forces loyal to the Bourbon candidate Philip V recaptured Alicante ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingdom Of Sardinia (1700–1720)
The Kingdom of Sardinia, also referred to as the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica among other names, was a country in Southern Europe from the late 13th until the mid-19th century, and from 1297 to 1768 for the Corsican part of this kingdom. The kingdom was a member of the Council of Aragon and initially consisted of the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, sovereignty over both of which was claimed by the papacy, which granted them as a fief, the (Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica), to King James II of Aragon in 1297. Beginning in 1324, James and his successors conquered the island of Sardinia and established '' de facto'' their ''de jure'' authority. In 1420, after the Sardinian–Aragonese war, the last competing claim to the island was bought out. After the union of the crowns of Aragon and Castile, Sardinia became a part of the burgeoning Spanish Empire. In 1720, the island and its kingdom were ceded by the Habsburg and Bourbon claimants from the Spanish throne to the Duke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Barcelona (1705)
The siege of Barcelona took place between 14 September and 19 October 1705 during the War of the Spanish Succession when a multinational Grand Alliance army led by Lord Peterborough, supporting the Habsburg pretender to the Spanish throne, captured the city of Barcelona from its Spanish Bourbonic defenders, most of whom then joined the Habsburg army. An attempted landing had been repulsed the previous year at the Landing at Barcelona. Following the city's capture by Peterborough, the Bourbons launched a concerted attempt to recapture it the following year during the 1706 siege of Barcelona, which failed. The city and Catalonia remained in Allied hands until reconquered by the Bourbons in 1714. Background Following the outbreak of the war, Catalonia had been regarded as a base of support by the Allies in their campaign to put Archduke Charles on the Spanish throne in opposition to the rival French candidate Philip V. Barcelona was recommended as a potential target by the r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Guadeloupe
The siege of Guadeloupe took place from March to May 1703 during the War of the Spanish Succession, when an English expeditionary force led by Christopher Codrington landed on Guadeloupe in the French West Indies, and laid siege to the capital of Basse-Terre. Charles Auger, the French governor, received reinforcements from Martinique led by Nicolas de Gabaret. The latter opted for a Fabian strategy and scorched earth tactics, destroying resources and Fort St Charles in the process. A lack of supplies and heavy losses from disease forced the English to lift the siege in May. Siege In March 1703, the English landed on the western part of Guadeloupe, in the French West Indies, near the main settlement of Basse-Terre. Codrington laid siege to Fort St Charles, held by a garrison under Charles Auger, while sending out parties of troops to burn and destroy houses, farms, works and plantations. They were also ordered to forage and plunder, because provisions were in short supply. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Cádiz (1702)
The Battle of Cádiz was an attempt by English and Dutch forces to seize the southern Spanish port of Cádiz in 1702 during the War of the Spanish Succession. The Andalusian port of Cádiz served as the centre of Spanish trade with its American colonies. As such, the port's capture would not only help to sever Spain's links with her empire in the Americas, but it would also provide the Allies with a strategically important base from which the English and Dutch navies could control the western Mediterranean Sea. The military build-up was accompanied by Allied diplomatic measures in Portugal aimed at enticing King Peter II to join the Grand Alliance. The Allies also intended to garner support in Spain for an insurrection in the name of the Austrian pretender to the Spanish throne, the Archduke Charles. The battle was the first of the war in the Iberian Peninsula, but due to interservice rivalry, ill discipline, poor co-operation, and a skilful defence from the Marquis of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
War Of The Spanish Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between supporters of the French House of Bourbon, Bourbons and the Austrian House of Habsburg, Habsburgs. Charles had named as his heir Philip V of Spain, Philip of Anjou, a grandson of Louis XIV of France, whose claim was backed by Kingdom of France, France and most of Habsburg Spain, Spain. His Habsburg rival, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, Archduke Charles, was supported by the Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg), Grand Alliance, whose primary members included Habsburg monarchy, Austria, the Dutch Republic, and Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain. Significant related conflicts include the Great Northern War (1700–1721) and Queen Anne's War (1702–1713). Although by 1701 Spain was no longer the predominant European power, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
