For centuries the Royal Marines have served Great Britain around the world, variously functioning as soldiers, sailors, commandos, and policemen. They played a central role in founding the British Empire and provided the Royal Navy with a power-projection capability that enabled Britannia’s realm to grow and be maintained. Watershed dates in the service’s history include 1755, when legislation established a permanent British corps of marines under clear Admiralty control, and 1802, when King George III bestowed the title Royal Marines.
But the Royal Marines’ lineage predates those important events—as does the service’s key early touchstone. In 1704–5 English marines played an instrumental role in seizing Gibraltar and withstanding a subsequent siege of the rocky prominence at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. Steely determination, great sacrifice, and outstanding leadership enabled them to accomplish the feat. Their actions helped give Britain a foothold in the western Mediterranean, a stepping-stone to the South Atlantic, and control of one of the world’s largest trade thoroughfares—the Strait of Gibraltar.
Early Sea Service ‘Souldjers’
The first chapter in the Royal Marines’ story began 40 years before the fight for Gibraltar with a royal decree. With England’s second naval war with the Dutch Republic looming, on 28 October 1664 King Charles II issued an Order in Council directing “that twelve hundred land Souldjers be forthwith raysed . . . to be distributed into his Mats [Majesty’s] Fleets prepared for Sea Service.” The new unit was named the Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime Regiment of Foot. James, duke of York, was the Lord High Admiral, and the unit therefore also became known as the Admiral’s Regiment. Unofficially it came to be called the Yellow Regiment because its resplendent uniforms included yellow coats as well as red breeches and stockings and hats trimmed in gold-colored braid.
The Admiral’s Regiment mainly served at sea during active campaigning seasons, providing small-arms fire and repelling enemy boarders in battle. During peacetime, the unit as well as infantry regiments that had been assigned to the fleet were occasionally parceled out to forts or strongpoints protecting England’s east coast. In 1672 the first reference to the regiment as “Marines” appeared in official records.
When the duke of York became King James II in 1685, control of the regiment passed to George, prince of Denmark, and it became known as the Prince’s Regiment. While the unit’s loyalty to James during the Glorious Revolution led to its disbandment in 1689, other marine units were being created. Two were large regiments, each comprising 15 companies of 200 men. Bayonet-tipped flintlock muskets and primitive hand grenades were their main armaments, and uniforms included blue coats with white facings and tall grenadier, or mitre, caps. Beginning in 1694, marines were trained to man shipboard cannon during battle, and four years later the first regulations dictating how soldiers were to be employed for sea duty were established. But in 1699 a cost-cutting Parliament, freed from the threat of foreign war, reduced England’s marine force to a paltry 3,770 men.
Soon after the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1701, however, the English crown mustered-in an additional “Six Regiments of Marines, and six other Regiments for Sea-Service.” The likely distinction was that the former were to assault enemy shores while the latter would serve on board ships. The marines’ uniforms included scarlet frock coats with different color facings for each regiment and buff waist belts and gaiters. Their leather grenadier caps were covered with cloth, with the front panels displaying the crest, or arms, and motto of the regiment’s proprietary colonel embroidered on cloth matching their coat facings.
Action with the Fleet
During the war, Anglo-Dutch fleets embarked on many operations, including one that left England in early July 1702. Led by 54-year-old Admiral of the Fleet George Rooke, the expedition to capture the Spanish port of Cadiz failed because of half measures and hesitation. English marines, part of a 10,000-man amphibious force, landed near the city but were soon recalled to their ships after engaging in a few minor skirmishes.
The humiliating episode at Cadiz was somewhat softened by Rooke’s subsequent annihilation of a Spanish treasure fleet at Vigo Bay on 11 October 1702. During the battle, 2,000 marines and soldiers from the Anglo-Dutch fleet landed and neutralized 40 pieces of enemy artillery, 8,000 Spanish troops, and fortifications overlooking the bay manned by 300 French sailors.
On 5 January 1704, a fresh naval expedition left England for the friendly port of Lisbon, Portugal, carrying 5,000–6,000 marines and soldiers. Rooke was again in command, while Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt, who had served with distinction with England’s King William III in Ireland and at the head of German troops in Catalonia, was land-force commander. In early July the Anglo-Dutch fleet disembarked 900 English and Dutch marines and sailors near the Spanish town of Málaga to secure water and wood. A series of brisk actions between them and local Spanish troops ensued, the former usually prevailing.
Rooke was considering another attempt to take Cadiz but hesitated after learning that a powerful French fleet under King Louis XIV’s illegitimate son Louis Alexandre, the comte de Toulouse, was approaching the Strait of Gibraltar. Prince George recommended seizing Spanish-held Gibraltar in lieu of hazarding another attack on Cadiz. Gibraltar was a two-mile-square, 1,400-foot-high limestone promontory overlooking the 15-mile strait separating Europe and North Africa. It had been occupied by Muslims in 711, and in 1068 the Arab governor of Gibraltar ordered the first fortifications there to be built. In 1501, about 40 years after Christian forces gained control of Gibraltar, it became a possession of the Spanish Crown.
In making his argument, Prince George pointed out that possession of “the Rock” meant the ability to control mercantile and military traffic passing to and from the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. Further, reports indicated that resistance had been light when an English squadron under Admiral George Byng had recently bombarded Gibraltar. Agreeing with the prince, Rooke sailed to the Bay of Gibraltar.
The Capture
On 21 July, while Rooke and about half his vessels remained at the entrance to the bay, 22 warships (16 under Rooke and Byng and 6 commanded by Dutch Rear Admiral Paulus van der Dussen) and scores of accompanying supply and transport vessels entered it. They anchored two miles from the Rock’s major town, also called Gibraltar. Rooke’s flagship, the Royal Katherine, would serve as the command center for the upcoming operation. That afternoon 1,900 English marines and 400 Dutch marines, all led by Prince George, prepared to land along the bay’s northern shoreline. Each English marine carried 18 rounds of ammunition for his musket and two hand grenades. Shovels, hatchets, and crowbars for tearing away man-made obstructions on shore were also handed out.
The attackers then clambered down from transports floating 1,000 yards offshore into a variety of barges, launches, and skiffs as gunfire from allied warships suppressed any enemy resistance on the beaches. The amphibious assault would be the largest the English had ever attempted.
With the booming guns of warships providing covering fire, the marines were rowed to shore. Once on land, they brushed aside a small Spanish cavalry unit and quickly marched eastward, occupying the isthmus connecting Gibraltar to the mainland and isolating its Spanish garrison. Meanwhile, a party of marines commanded by Captain Edward Whitaker, from the British warship Dorchester, captured a French privateer moored at the Old Mole that had been firing on the marines on the isthmus.
Prince George then summoned the governor of Gibraltar, Don Diego de Salinas, to surrender. Defiantly, Salinas declared that he was prepared “to die like a gentleman.” Privately the Spaniard had good reason to doubt his own resolve. He only had about 500 men: 150 regulars, 50 cavalry, and the rest untrained militiamen, many of whom deserted on the first sighting of the Anglo-Dutch fleet. He was short of trained men to fight as infantry or man the 100 mostly antiquated artillery pieces on Gibraltar. On the other hand, while Gibraltar’s fortifications had deteriorated over the years, they were still formidable, and craggy heights shielded much of the Rock’s narrow northern side and all of its eastern side. At its southern end, swift ocean currents, sea cliffs, and soft, sandy beaches made any attack from that direction difficult.
The next day Byng’s heavy warships, deployed in a line parallel to Gibraltar’s bayside fortifications, began warping themselves closer to shore while Dutch bomb vessels commenced shelling the town. On the 23rd, Byng’s squadron opened a six-hour bombardment of the town and fortifications. When the Spanish appeared to abandon the New Mole, near the southern end of the peninsula, a landing party of sailors was organized and disembarked into boats.
Mistaking some warning shots as the signal to land, many of the boats headed to shore and their sailors seized the mole. But its landward end was protected by 22 enemy cannon in the Tuerto Tower and surrounding fort. About 150 sailors were killed or wounded when a nearby blockhouse serving as the garrison’s powder magazine blew up, perhaps because a careless attacker dropped a burning match in the structure. Panic ensued, and many of the sailors rushed back to their boats.
Order was restored by officers and the timely arrival of the rest of the landing party, and the sailors encircled the tower, capturing part of it, and occupied surrounding heights. Some headed to the southern end of the peninsula, taking possession of the Chapel of Europa, where many of Gibraltar’s women and children had taken shelter. Others advanced to the fortifications at the southern end of the town, capturing a redoubt and eight-gun battery along the way.
While sailors were attacking in the south, the English and Dutch marines prevented Spanish reinforcements on the mainland from reaching Gibraltar. Prince George led his forces within musket range of Gibraltar’s strong northern fortifications, where they opened fire on defenders manning the parapets.
On the 24th, Admiral Byng came ashore with several hundred more sailors to invest the southern part of the town. At the same time Prince George continued solidifying his hold on the isthmus. Later that day, Don Diego de Salinas surrendered the garrison. The defenders had sustained about 100 killed and wounded by the time hostilities ended.
After securing his prize, Rooke had little time to enjoy his success; a Franco-Spanish fleet of 66 warships commanded by the comte de Toulouse was approaching from the east. Rooke embarked some of the marines and set out with 53 men-of-war to meet the enemy. Although no ships on either side were lost in the ensuing 13 August Battle of Málaga, the largest naval action of the war, the menace to Gibraltar was momentarily lifted. After the fight Rooke sailed back to Gibraltar, where he disembarked the marines.
Enduring the Siege
Determined to reclaim its lost territory, the Spanish government began raising a military force under the marquis de Villadarias. Meanwhile on 25 August, Rooke withdrew his ships from Gibraltar for much needed repairs, leaving behind 2,000 marines; 100 gunners, armorers, and carpenters; 42 cannon; and provisions for six months. The garrison, under the command of Prince George, spent the next six weeks strengthening its position, which was a wise move because Villadarias was soon assembling troops north of the isthmus. The Spanish general’s force was augmented when a French squadron appeared in the bay and landed 3,000 soldiers. According to a contemporary source, Villadarias’ command consisted of 4,500 French, 1,200 Walloon, and 9,000 Spanish soldiers, who were supported by 36 heavy cannon and 13 other pieces of artillery.
On 9 October Villadarias’ troops began digging a system of approach trenches and gun emplacements, starting about 2,400 feet from Gibraltar’s northern walls. Reacting to the threat, British cannon maintained a stinging fire against the sappers, and marines repeatedly attacked the enemy trenches as they drew closer to the English defenses. On the 15th, artillery fire badly damaged the main Anglo-Dutch strongpoint—the Round Tower—threatening the entire northern perimeter.
In early November Prince George was able to summon help from Admiral John Leake at Lisbon. A navy squadron under Leake’s command arrived at Gibraltar, bringing a seven-month supply of food and 200 barrels of desperately needed gunpowder. The squadron’s surprise appearance resulted in its destruction of several enemy ships. It also frustrated an attack on Gibraltar’s lower northern defenses by 3,000 French and Spanish troops newly arrived from Cadiz.
Meanwhile, fighting raged on the northern heights. Five hundred Spanish soldiers, using a narrow goat path, were able to capture the eastern side of the Rock’s summit. Reacting to the unexpected advance, 500 English marines led by Prince Henry of Hesse-Darmstadt, brother of Prince George, overpowered the enemy after a bitter fight. The Spaniards’ heavy casualties included 200 men killed and 190 taken prisoner. Overall, marine losses were light; however, Prince Henry was wounded and Gibraltar’s military governor, Henry Nugent, and Colonel Henry Fox were killed.
Major Jacob Bor, who distinguished himself during the fight, was promoted to colonel of Fox’s Regiment of Marines and would act as second in command to Prince George. Colonel Bor would prove tireless in strengthening and repairing the garrison’s defenses by having palisades erected, mines planted, and breaches in the lines blocked. He also employed the tactic of rolling fire barrels into no-man’s-land at night to illuminate enemy soldiers attempting to advance their trenches closer to the British lines.
Much of the recent damage to the defenses in and around the town was repaired with the help of 500 tars sent by Leake. At this point in the siege, casualties and illness had reduced the strength of the English marines to 1,000 men. The garrison included an additional 2,000 effectives—sailors, gunners, and Dutch marines. Meanwhile, the Franco-Spanish besiegers numbered 7,000.
In mid-December about 2,000 English army reinforcements from Lisbon—the Coldstream Guards and parts of Lord Barrymore’s and Lord Mountjoy’s regiments—arrived at Gibraltar after their transports barely avoided interception by blockading French warships stationed in the Strait of Gibraltar. Wishing to put his newfound strength to use, over the next ten days Prince George twice ordered night sallies from his northern defenses to destroy enemy entrenchments. While English losses in these raids were light, Franco-Spanish forces suffered more than 100 casualties.
Toward the end of January 1705, the situation for Gibraltar’s defenders was once again perilous. The garrison was down to 2,000 men, 900 of whom were sick or wounded, and had only 12 days worth of gunpowder left. Moreover, the besiegers’ trenches were now only 30 feet from the Round Tower. Seeking to exploit a breach in the battered tower defenses made by Spanish artillery fire, 80 French grenadiers attacked on 5 May but were repulsed by marines. Two days later 600 French and Walloon grenadiers, supported by 1,000 Spanish troops, rolled forward. The plan was for 300 men to storm the breach above the Round Tower while the remainder struck at the bastion itself.
Guarding this vital part of the Gibraltar defenses were 180 marines in the Round Tower and 30 more at the breach. The French attacked the area above the opening with grenades, while 200 grenadiers stormed the tower, forcing defenders led by Colonel Bor to retreat. Seeing the collapse of the line, marine Captain Fisher and 17 of his men counterattacked, temporarily stalling the enemy’s advance before they were overwhelmed and Fisher captured. Launching a desperate counterattack, Colonel Mark Antony Moncall and 500 members of Lord Barrymore’s Regiment retook the Round Tower an hour later. Following that up with a general assault, the British then secured the Tower’s nearby defenses and sealed the breach. The attackers lost 70 men killed, 200 wounded, and 40 taken prisoner, while English losses totaled 20 dead and 46 wounded.
Later in February the Franco-Spanish forces launched the siege’s last major ground assault. Spanish batteries effected a break in the northern fortifications beside the Landport Gate into the town. Knowing he was to be replaced by a French marshal, the comte de Tessé, Villadarias wanted to exploit what seemed like a favorable opportunity before he was superseded, and ordered an immediate assault. With grenadiers leading the way, 18 companies of French and Spanish infantry advanced at dawn but were repulsed by a storm of cannon and musket fire. The French retreated after suffering 200 casualties; the Spaniards quickly followed suit.
The arrival of Tessé and 4,000 reinforcements prompted planning for a combined sea and land thrust at the end of February. But before it could be executed, Admiral Leake’s warships returned to Gibraltar Bay and crushed Admiral Jean Pointis’ French squadron. Deprived of naval support, crippled by sickness and desertions, and with their supply lines severed, the besiegers withdrew all but a thin screening force from in front of Gibraltar. By late April, after seven months of grueling combat, miserable wet weather, and manpower and provision shortages, the siege was over.
Two years later, in describing the Anglo-Dutch defense of Gibraltar, the author of a chronicle of English achievements in the war in Spain wrote, “the garrison did more than humanly could be expected and the British Marines gained immortal honour.” Royal Marines need look no farther than their crest for a reminder of that achievement.
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