machinations, the tide of success began to turn in favour of King Charles, whose army, commanded by General Stanhope, (ancestor of the present Earl Stanhope,) defeated King Philip at Almanera, in Catalonia, on the 16th of July, when the French, having lost about 1,500 in killed and wounded, were obliged to retire to Lerida; but, being closely pursued by the confederates, fell back upon Saragossa. On the 10th of the ensuing month, August, King Charles being then with the army, another brilliant victory was obtained over King Philip near Saragossa, which city immediately opened its gates to the conquerors; and so powerful did Charles then feel himself in Castile, that he immediately superseded the form of government established by Philip, restored the ancient rights of the Castilians, and reinstated their former magistrates. Indeed, the French power was at this juncture so weakened, that Philip, not feeling him. self safe at Madrid, retired to Valladolid; and the confederates marching towards the capital, General Stanhope advanced with the cavalry, and took pos. session of it on the 10th September, 1710.

About a fortnight afterwards Charles made his appearance in his capital; but soon found that the inhabitants were more attached to his rival than to him

self: he soon left it, therefore, and placed his troops in quarters to the southward of it, and in the vicinity of Toledo, in full confidence that, notwithstanding the disaffection of the capital, he might still be enabled to spend the winter thus in the very heart of Spain by the aid of the Portuguese; but they having disappointed him, and King Philip again collecting some forces, he was obliged to retire into Arragon, where, in the succeeding November, Major General Stanhope, with a British force of 2,000 men at Brihuega, was surprised and made prisoner of war, by the unexpected junction of the French and Spanish armies.

The imperial general, Count Stahremberg, hearing of his danger, marched immediately to his relief, but was too late to prevent the disaster; he was fortunate enough, however, to fall in with the enemy under King Philip and the Duke of Vendosme, about one league from Brihuega, when he brought them to action at Villaviciosa, and defeated them, although their forces amounted to 25,000 men. After this Stahremberg advanced to Saragossa; but, for some reason never explained, soon retired into Catalonia, thereby enabling Philip to return to Madrid, where the inhabitants received him with open arms;

and, on the 16th December, Gerona, the key of Catalonia, was permitted to fall into the hands of the French army, after a gallant resistance of six weeks, so that Charles was obliged to retire to Barcelona.

This disastrous and unexpected turn of the campaign naturally produced a great sensation at home: and in the commencement of 1711, the house of lords having entered into an inquiry on the cause of our losses, Lord Peterborough succeeded in throwing the blame upon the Earl of Galway, whilst he himself received public thanks. Instead, however, of sending him out again to Spain, he was appointed plenipotentiary to the Austrian court, and the Duke of Argyle was intrusted with the high commissions of ambassador extraordinary, and plenipotentiary, and of commander in chief in Spain. These proceedings were followed up by a vote of the upper house, that the Earl of Galway, in yielding up the post of honour to the Portuguese at the battle of Almanza, had acted contrary to the honour of the imperial crown of Great Britain.

In Spain affairs began to take a more disastrous turn; for in August, the Portuguese having entered into a separate negotiation with King Philip and the French court, King Charles found it necessary in the ensuing month to embark at Barcelona for Italy. On

his arrival in Italy, he was elected King of the Romans, and Emperor of Germany; and, on being crowned at Frankfort on the 11th of December, 1711, seems to have given up all further thoughts of the Spanish crown. In order to do away some of the objections to his establishment on the throne of Spain, King Philip, now settled at Madrid, published his renunciation of all claims to the succession of France; and in September of the same year, Lord Lexington, having proceeded to Madrid to receive the fore-mentioned renunciation, the English forces, then in Catalonia, commanded by Brigadier Pearce, were embarked on board the squadron under the orders of Sir John Jennings, who immediately proceeded for Minorca, where the colours of King Charles were haled down, and those of the English substituted in their stead.

On the 5th of November the act of renunciation took place in the presence of the English ambassador, and was registered by the Cortes, and from that period we may consider the war at an end.

To draw a parallel between those events and the transactions of a later date would here be premature; but we shall have occasion to notice them more fully, and shall now proceed to the principal design of the

work.