America - Albion's Orphan - A history of the conquest of Britain - 1760

[Alt History Buff]

1760 - Fall

Paris

The French Treasury groaned with the weight of continued war. Though peace had returned to the continent itself (beyond occupied Portugal), the British government continued to wage war. Unofficial feelers would reveal the Duke of Newcastle desired peace but William Pitt did not.

French trade with continental Europe, including the Dutch Republic and Spain, had returned but many goods could only be transported by sea. The Royal Navy made such trade hazardous to say the least.

The duc de Choiseul knew as well as the Finance Minister that France could not keep up the war much longer. Years ago, if Louis XV had been offered the Austrian Netherlands, Minorca, a few petty West Indian islands etc for all of New France (Canada, Upper and Lower Louisiana) and Guadeloupe as well, he would have accepted in a heartbeat without a second thought.

Thus, if de Choiseul sought peace at the status quo, it may not have been a tragedy for France. But the British plainly believed that they could conquer more.

In truth, de Choiseul knew that may be possible. With the wealthiest colony in the Caribbean (San Domingue exported more sugar than ALL of the British colonies combined) under rebellion and its capital of Cap-Francais under occupation by Britain, there was a very real worry that France's Empire might soon be extinct.

And THAT was utterly unacceptable.

The fear of the Royal Navy was very real. The duc considered his country fortunate to have avoided very many large-scale battles at sea. Most French (and Spanish) Admirals tended to tack away when they saw a British fleet of any similar size (or even when they see a smaller British fleet). Though the population and resources of the Bourbon Alliance (with the new declaration of war by the Dutch Republic upon Britain after seizing the Dutch West Indies and with Denmark which occupied Hanover) vastly exceeded Britain's, a war abroad was most tangibly affected by naval power.

Not for the first time, the duc would bemoan the narrow bridge of water called the English Channel which separated Britain from the continent. Had even a modest causeway existed between Britain and France, the former would have spent the past 500 years as a petty northern province of France rather than a perennial thorn in the House of Bourbon's side.

For the past six months, de Choiseul had "demonstrated" against the British by billeting large numbers of soldiers across the channel in hopes of forcing Britain to the bargaining table or at least force it to utilize large amounts of its own limited manpower to guard southern England. That plan apparently failed as Pitt continued to dispatch more and more soldiers to the margins of the world.

De Choiseul determined to make the man pay for this. He summoned home two of France's most successful Generals, the duc de Belle-Isle and Count St. Germain. He would inquire if it were even remotely possible to breach that narrow gap to the enemy homeland.

In the meantime, he dispatched the largest fleet of ships and transports to the New World since the commencement of the war. The ridiculously valuable San Domingue could not be allowed to remain in enemy...or rebel...hands. A dozen warships, 30 transports carrying 8000 soldiers and nearly forty supply ships would sail in September, a time chosen to avoid the worst dangers of the Caribbean hurricane season as well as the yellow fever and malarial seasons.

Once they dropped their cargos, the fleet was ordered back immediately to France.

De Choiseul would also contact his counterpart in Spain, Ensenada, and demand to know what could be done to put an end to this damn expensive war.

 

[Alt History Buff]

Winter, 1760

Courland, West Prussia

For many years, the Duchy of Courland, a sliver of a nation sandwiched between the giant Russian Empire and Polish Commonwealth, had been dominated by the Czars and Czarinas of Russia. When one line ended, the "suggestion" of the Russian monarch would be responsible for selecting a successor. Decades before, Ernst von Biron had been selected as the Duke only to be removed when he fell from favor under Empress Elizabeth. In recent years, Ernst had been rehabilitated in Russia and, in 1756, his son Peter was installed as the new Duke.

Like many Czars and Czarinas, Elizabeth had long thought about just annexing the territory to her own realms. In 1760, she finally decided to do so. Peter was "advised" to cede his Duchy. In return, he would be shocked to find that the Czarina made him a King.

Since the defeat of Frederick II of Prussia, the Czarina had been given the determination of the fate of the Kingdom of East Prussia. Of similar size, wealth and population to Courland, this seemed an even trade though Biron now carried the title of "King". Thirty-six years old and still unmarried, Biron suddenly realized that he was the last male heir of his line and sought to marry quickly (and to reinforce his claim to Royalty). In 1762, he would select Princess Christianne of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, whom would be twenty-seven at the time.

Though this would not be a happy marriage, Queen Christianne, despite her advanced age, would prove fertile and produce four healthy sons and one daughter before her husband's violence prevented any further relationship between the two.

Duke Peter Von Biron, later King Peter I of East Prussia.






1760

Stockholm

For several years, the Riksdag of Sweden had hemmed and hawed about selecting an appropriate Protestant to take their throne. The House of Holstein-Gottorp was preferred but their former King, Adolf Frederick, would sour them upon that Royal Family. Still, a choice must be made. The youngest brother of the former King, George, would arrive in Sweden to "offer" to take the throne. There was something of a concern that he was part of a plot to put Adolf Frederick back on the throne. The middle brother, Frederick August, had been made Duke of Oldenburg. Neither particularly like their elder brother and soon George Ludwig was deemed an acceptable candidate. Ironically, he was also a former General of Frederick II of Prussia. Still, the man seemed to know his place and would be sworn in at the King of Sweden, Pomerania, Finland, etc even as his eldest brother fumed in Berlin.

1760

The Rhineland

Frederick II had inherited several territories in the northwest German region called the Rhineland. All were relatively small and predominantly Protestant. They included Cleves, Mark, Ravensburg, Linden, Minden and East Frisia. All were stripped by the victors after the war. However, it took several years before the allies came to an agreement as to who would inherit them. France ceded the decision to the Empress of Austria provided that they not be related to the House of Hanover (the British Kings) and "reflected the native religion". In other words, Maria Theresa could not put her Catholic sons on the thrones of the predominantly Protestant nations.

Maria Theresa, being besieged by dozens of requests from assorted Princes to inherit the properties, finally got sick of the matter and just picked who got what.


The younger brothers of Frederick II (uncles to the current Elector of Brandenburg) would eventually be offered the sovereignty of the other possessions of the former King of Prussia in the Rhineland. It turned out most didn't care for Frederick and didn't feel any particular loyalty to his memory (Frederick II huddled in his country estate, ignoring the rest of the world). They also rationalized that keeping the territories "in the Hohenzollern family" justified their actions. Though she despised the House of Hohenzollern, she was monarch enough to know that simply taking away god's rightful Royal Line could be extended to her domains as well and opted to be beneficent in victory. She did, however, break up the assorted little Counties and Duchies and Principalities among several Hohenzollerns to dilute their strength.

The younger brother of Frederick II was Augustus William, whom had died in 1758. His eldest son, Frederick William, now sat on throne of Brandenburg as Elector of the truncated Hohenzollern state. Augustus Williams' second son Prince Henry would become Duke of Cleves.

Frederick II's next younger brother Frederick Henry assumed the Counties of Minden, Lingen and Ravensburg.

Then, Frederick II's youngest brother Augustus Ferdinand was to take the County of Mark.

East Frisia was given to the Dutch Republic.

That left the little Principality of Neuchatel in the Swiss Cantons to be distributed. Having run out of Hohenzollern princes, she cast her gaze about for a Protestant whom had served her well over the years. Given that the Empress loathed Protestants, there weren't man.

Eventually, she just gave Neuchatel to the Swiss-born Financier, Industrialist and former mayor of Zurich Johann von Fries, whom had done well in helping the Austrian Empire regain its finances. The man was reportedly shocked to be informed he was now a Prince. Still, the people of Neuchatel were delighted to find that the Empress wasn't going to hand them over to one of her Catholic sons. Eventually von Fries would return to Neuchatel and take up residence.

 

[Alt History Buff]

 

[Alt History Buff]

1761 - January

The Goree and Senegal - West Africa

Spurred on by the recommendation of a Quaker Businessman, the Southern Secretary of Great Britain, William Pitt, would agree to dispatch an expedition to the small French trading factories of West Africa which supplied France with the bulk of the slaves for the French West Indies.

Guarded only by small "punishment garrisons", the ancient castles would fall quickly to the Royal Navy and modest contingent of Marines. In addition to a large quantity of slaves was a huge amount of dyes and other local goods. It proved to be a most profitable acquisition.

Though a damaging hit for the French, there was little major immediate impact as British raids at sea and rebellions in key French slave colonies had dampened the demand for years.

In what would be a more important decision, the British was forced to leave a full squadron behind to protect the new British colony.

1761 - February

Fort Mobile, Fort Biloxi

The small French garrisons were unprepared for the assault of the Anglo-American forces pinchering them by land from captured New Orleans and by the Royal Navy at sea. Admiral Keppel had leaked rumors that the latest dispatch of British soldiers from Canada would be to conquer Martinique (adjacent to the recently captured Guadeloupe). Instead, the Royal Navy fleet would circle around to the handful of small fortifications along the remnant of coastal French Louisiana. Fort Mobile and Fort Biloxi centered small settlements augmented by understrength French garrisons. They would fall easily to the British and Americans.

1761 - March

Pensacola, Spanish Florida

The last significant Spanish settlement in America was Pensacola, which stretched the definition of "significant". A chronically poor and ignored region would languish for decades before the same Georgian conquerors of St. Augustine arrived in Pensacola.

For several weeks, the Pensacola defenders would hole up in their old fort. The exhausted Americans possessed no siege artillery and had not British support.

Finally an agreement was reached. The Americans would allow all Spanish to withdraw from Pensacola by ship under full honors of war. That included the large contingent of escaped slaves residing in the area. Much like St. Augustine, the Spanish had harbored large numbers of escapees from South Carolina. Most of the newly free Blacks from St. Augustine escaped to Indian tribes. The lightly populated Georgians were less interested in regaining South Carolina slaves and reached an agreement with the local tribes which would not demand their return.

By summer of 1761, the Americans blew up the Pensacola fortifications and other buildings and returned St. Augustine as they lacked the manpower to hold Pensacola long-term.

1761 - March

Java

Though the British and Dutch Republic were not formally at war, that hadn't stopped the Dutch East India Company from intervening in Bengal and costing the British East India Company their most valuable conquest to date. William Pitt had dispatched a small squadron of Royal Navy ships the previous fall to India to aid the Company in regaining local superiority. Lacking the army to reinvade Bengal, Robert Clive, the CIC of the East India Company Army, would use the forces to invade the old Dutch stronghold on Java with an eye towards conquering the Spice Islands to the East for the BEIC.

1761 - April

Paris

Over the past six months, the French emissaries had failed to encourage any give in their British counterparts. Though losing Hanover had been embarrassing for the British government, in truth many were glad to see the King's other domain separated. And the string of conquests in the Americas and other parts of the world lent the impression of looming British domination at sea.

Pitt did not want the war to end.

Seeing more defeats than victories abroad, de Choiseul knew something must change and something dramatic indeed. For two years, he'd feinted at a potential invasion of Britain. Now, frustrated at the defeats and lack of hope to regain the initiative abroad against the foremost power at sea of the age, de Choiseul ordered the Admiralty to put into effect the plans created over the past two years. Plenty of soldiers were camped along the English Channel and large local stores of munitions and powder were available as well. Hundreds of transports were also sitting upon the northern French, French Netherlands and Dutch Republic shorelines. The problem, as always, was getting them to Britain.

De Choiseul had arranged a series of feints designed to fool the British into thinking that the Franco-Spanish fleet would soon be dispatched to India, West Africa, San Domingue, Gibraltar and Brazil. Instead, he had arranged for the Danish fleet to link with the "borrowed" Dutch fleet and board thousands of French soldiers. The bulk of the French and Spanish fleets would circle from the southern ports with and enter the English Channel from the west.

With luck, the British would find themselves too spread thin to maintain superiority in the channel long enough for the French and Spanish to cross.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1761 - May

London

Though many members of Parliament objected to the mere IDEA of colonial self-government, Pitt used the testimony of virtually every high-ranking British officer or Governor whom had the dubious privilege of dealing with the colonials.

They stated, without a single dissenting vote, that the colonials would battle every conceivable attempt to force them to pay taxes without a vote in Parliament...and maybe even then. Every commander-in-chief of North America, including those presdisposed towards the Americans, agreed that the only way to properly encourage colonial participation in the upcoming campaigns (both financially and materially) against the Spanish and French West Indies was to approve this limited Colonial Parliament suggested by Mr. Dickenson and Mr. Franklin of Pennsylvania.

So little direct taxation had ever been gleaned from America that there seemed little to lose. Meanwhile, the British campaigns in the West Indies could not possibly continue without tens of thousands of American volunteers...which would most certainly not be forthcoming without these reforms.

In truth, Pitt was happy to turn over local issues to a local governor. The Americans would handle their own customs, removing that duty from the Royal Navy. As the money would fund the central Parliament of America, the colonials would have less reason to resort to smuggling.

The Parliament would have limited powers though the American and British supposition would no doubt prove contradictory on exactly WHAT these powers were.

In the meantime, Pitt got back to the war. Rumor had it that the French were preparing to invade. Pitt laughed this off. They'd never get past the Channel fleet even with Spanish, Danish and Dutch support.

No, the posturing of the French at the Channel was merely that. Posturing. They were probably just hoping that the feint at the Channel would force the Royal Navy to keep too many resources close to home while the true French fleet was intended for the Americas or some such place.

Paris - May

The duc de Choiseul had hoped the final negotiations would come to some sort of reasonable peace which would return SOME, if not all, of the French possessions in the West Indies. He was resigned to losing Canada and was willing to withdraw from Portugal if the British would return most of the wealthy French sugar islands. He'd even been willing to give back Dominica to the British and pressure Spain to give back the Bahamas.

Britain could still come out ahead in this war...assuming they'd didn't count the King's loss of Hanover (most didn't) and the French command of the French Netherlands.

But no, Pitt utterly refused to compromise. Not a bit.

Thus de Choiseul ordered the Admirals and Generals to commit to the dangerous invasion by sea of southern Britain. He had no idea how this would go but knew that the French financial difficulties were reaching epidemic proportions. The war must end soon or de Choiseul would be forced to seek peace at any cost.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1761 - June

Ireland

Under the guidance of Francois Thuret, the small French squadron sailed into Belfast. Poorly defended (the Irish Army was spread throughout the island to prevent resistance), Belfast fell surprisingly easily to only 2000 French troops and a half dozen French warships.

The shock of this invasion would rock the entire island and, within two days, word was known in Britain.

Details were vague but the government believed a greater invasion of Ireland was afoot. The threat of Catholic insurrection in Ireland was long-standing and rumors of Irish Catholics flocking to French colors abounded. Over a dozen warships left Spithead and Nore to regain local superiority in Ireland.

This played directly into the duc de Choiseul's hands. The duc and his government had dispatched many contradictory false plans throughout the capital as to the target of French aggression in 1761.

The truth was that de Choseul always intended southern Britain to be the target. Over the past two years, he'd ordered his men to drill disembarkation from the 300+ transports built over the past years until the entire contingent per ship could be discharged within 10 minutes. Additional long boats were build per ship for those French being delivered to more remote areas.

Both the Duke de Belle-Isle and Comte de Germain, whom de Choiseul had put in charge of the expedition, were skeptical and only agreed to partake if the duc changed his plans to leave the transports undefended beyond a few small, well-armed escorts. De Choiseul intended for the allied Navies to bottle up the British fleets in Nore and Spithead thus giving the transports an easy path to Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight.

They also convinced the duc to allow them to handpick the Admirals in command. Specifically, they did not believe that Admiral Conflans was courageous or skilled enough to lead the expedition or react to the unexpected.

Le jour de debarquement (D-Jour as it was known in French history) was July 1st.

1761 - July

Northern ports of France

The bulk of the French and Spanish fleets had met along the Atlantic coast forming an armada of 32 ships-of-the-line and 10 frigates. The heavier ships would sail on towards Spithead and Nore, the preeminent British naval bases along the southern coast of England.

Naturally, the British were already getting wind of this and several frigates on patrol sped back north into the English Channel. The Easterly winds common to the Channel had been blowing for days and died down just in time for the British vessels to make better headway to warn the fleet to raise anchor.

However, the death of the easterlies also were the signal for the main French invasion fleet to sail. From the Dutch Republic ports, the Danish Navy would escort 10,000 French troops to Plymouth predominantly on Dutch transports.

From the French Netherlands, another 20,000 would sail under the protection of a small fleet of French frigates, sloops and other lighter (and more nimble) ships also bound for Portsmouth.

Finally, the third wave would depart from Le Havre to the Isle of Wight in the wake of the heavy French and Spanish warships.

In one great wave, the bulk of the effective French, Spanish and Danish fleets were gambled along with over 50,000 French soldiers.

 

[Alt History Buff]

July, 1761

Southern England

As would be common with the British government, the Pitt-Newcastle coalition would fear putting too many men in uniform lest the King take advantage to overthrow Parliamentary rule and establish a European-style tyranny. Though it was the middle of the 18th century, this was still a common fear with the British people and political classes.

Thus the British Army would remain small until times of war and then...and ONLY then...be built up to keep the King from temptation. The problem was that it normally took at least two years to turn a raw recruit to a usable soldier.

It didn't help that the original British establishment (nominally at 45,000 but the effective strength was closer to 35,000) had taken the brunt of the war thus far. This included the loss of 12,000 regulars on the continent (whom remained in prison in Hanover), another 3000 dead by battle in the Americas as well as perhaps another 5000 dead of assorted disease (the West Indies in particular).

Further, the British Army was split across the globe. Over 10,000 sweltered in the West Indies, perhaps another 4000 on North America proper, 2500 in Gibraltar, 5000 in Ireland (sent to stiffen the Irish Establishment, 4000 in Brazil guarding against what was looking to be a non-existent threat from Spain, 2000 on the Channel Islands, 2000 hired (meaning their expenses to be repaid) by the British East India company on the Subcontinent, etc, etc, etc.

All of this meant that perhaps only 20,000 British regulars were actually on the island of Great Britain. Even this number was misleading as perhaps 5000 were listed as "Invalids" doing light guard duty or in the Chelsea Hospital or various charities. Of the rest, a disproportionate number were recruits still being drilled into some semblance of skill. They were also spread along the length of the island with many in various defensive fortifications from Cornwall to Fife, guarding important harbors and bases.

Thus, in the absurd event of a successful enemy landing, the actual number of capable soldiers on hand to repel an invasion were modest indeed.

Of course, there was always the yeomanry. The British militia numbered in the tens of thousands...but so rarely drilled and were so dismally organized that it seemed unlikely to be effective in battle. Worse, there were an abject lack of modern weapons available even if any significant number had previous occasion to fire a musket. The militia was made up of leading men whom were selected for their social standing and only those truly interested in their task (a rarity) would bother to call the militia to assembly after church on Sundays. If this happened once or twice a year, an occasion marked by heavy drinking than martial training, that was considered adequate.

 

[Alt History Buff]

July, 1761


Spithead and the Nore

The combined 42 French and Spanish ships-of-the-line would descend upon Spithead and the Nore, the primary British naval bases in southern England with shockingly little resistance. While Britain had been warned of a POSSIBLE French invasion, the heavy winds of the previous week had forced the Fleet back into the naval bases. When the winds died down, the aging Admiral whom had been deskbound for the past 20 years was slow to order his fleet to sea. Only 10 ships even made it out of the harbors and estuaries prior to the arrival of the bulk of the Franco-Spanish fleet.

Under Orvilles, the allies’ main fleet possessed the bulk of the heaviest ships in the French and Spanish Navy. While both had undergone some reform in the past decade, there remained still a perception of inferiority to the Royal Navy.

The benefit of the alliance between French, Spanish and Danish nations against Britain ensured that the British strategy of blockading the entire enemy coastline was utterly impossible. With the Royal Navy spread out across the world, the enemy resources had hit a breaking point and the decision was made that Britain could not dispatch an entire squadron to blockade over a dozen major ports. Maintaining blockades exhausted seamen and wore out vessels while exposing the ships to the hazards of weather. Blockades worked when there were a limited number of objectives and the blockading nation had such superiority that they could rapidly replace and rotate ships.

The French and Spanish vessels descended upon the handful of British ships which managed to escape on the morning tide. Within hours, the ships were subdued or forced to flee through the gauntlet. The French and Spanish then opted for a unique plan. Rather than sail into the naval bases and absorb punishment from both the fleet and shoreline defenses, Orvilles chose to chain several of his heaviest ships together into a line showing their broadsides to the Royal Navy as they emerged one at a time. Behind this line was another line of chained ships, then a third.

In the meantime, the lighter frigates and other class of vessels would sail to Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight to disgorge their human cargoes onto shore.

This was the first successful landing of enemy troops since the last time a French conqueror arrived: William the Bastard in 1066.

Meanwhile, the Danish fleet which sailed predominantly from the Dutch ports would arrive as well, though with more trouble than the French and Spanish. The British were not completely unprepared as large number of patrols scoured the English Channel. However, as naval vessels could not remain at sea for long periods without a loss of efficiency and impacting the health of the crew, these patrols tended to be lighter and faster than the larger ships in harbor.

By a stroke of luck, once such vessel had been lured towards the French fleet and captured before it could give warning. Another sighted the Danish fleet on the move and summoned several other patrol ships east to confront the invaders (whom the British still assumed must be bound for Ireland). The larger Danish ships managed to fight them off, but then another convoy of six British warships escorting trading vessels from the northeast happened to be sailing through the Channel at the same time and blundered directly into the Danes. The British commander would ordered the merchant ships back while plunging into the large Danish fleet escorting the French soldiers. Still outgunning this enemy, the heavy Danish ships would successfully see off challenge as well.

This, however, cost two days and the Danes and their charges (a dozen transports and supply ships would return to the Netherlands in the confusion) would lumber into the beachheads established by the French.

At Spithead and the Nore, the British commanders would realize that a direct attack upon French and Spanish ships chained together, their broadsides aimed for the narrow estuaries was not the ideal battle tactic. But word of the successful landing had already reached the headquarters and the Admiralty did not need to wait for an admonishment from the King to break out.

While the Royal Navy preferred battles of maneuver to utilize their superior seamanship, that did not mean they were not also well-versed in gunnery. Brave ships would take several broadside volleys from the French and Spanish before they successful navigated the tight confines of the harbors and estuaries so they could trade blows. Little by little, at great cost to themselves, the Royal Navy ships would batter or set aflame the enemy ships. The first line of four ships outside of Spithead were broken after 11 hours of furious battle on day 2 of the invasion. The lead British ships, battered themselves, retreated and allowed the next wave to assault the next French and Spanish line.

As it was impossible to cut off the entire escape routes from the naval bases, some of the lighter Royal Navy ships were able to sneak through shallow channels which hindered the lumbering first and second-rate behemoths. However, Orvilles had anticipated this and left a small squadron of French frigates with the assignment of immediately engaging any lighter British vessel which escaped.

It would be day four before the 2nd line of French and Spanish chained ships were defeated (again at great cost to the British whom were not fighting the battle they wanted).


The third line was far enough out to sea that it proved impossible to maintain a linked blockade and the Franco-Spanish commander would order “General Melee”. He determined that allowing his ships to fight one on one would possess better odds of victory in this war of attrition than a mass war of maneuver in which the British would likely hold and even greater advantage.

More importantly, this would consume additional time. Even allowing for a general British victory, it would scatter and confuse the Royal Navy fleet long enough for the insertion of the French army to the island to be completed.


Historians would point to two critical losses to the British before this battle ever began would lead to this atypically dismal performance:

1. Admiral Hawke, perhaps the best sailor in the fleet, had been the one dispatched with a dozen vessels to cut off the French incursion into Belfast.
   
   
2. Admiral Jervis, whom had served so well in the West Indies, had died of a fever in the months after the seizure of Guadeloupe.
   
   

These men represented the best of the Royal Navy commanders and their loss severely reduced efficiency.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1761 - July 4th

Portsmouth

Despite the anticipation of such a landing, the British Army and Militia were woefully unprepared. Only 3000 Regulars were in the immediate vicinity of Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. Most of these remained in fortifications which were besieged by the French Navy or so out of the way that no one bothered.

Given the disparity of numbers, it would have been difficult to even consider contesting the landings but no serious attempt was made.

The summoning of the Yeomanry was perhaps even more embarrassing. Over 5000 militiamen were called to action in the region…but only 2400 actually showed up. And there were no arms, no munitions, no food or water and seldom anything resembling leadership. Directions tended to be something like “Militia Assembly in the town center”. But beyond that, the British militia was so poorly trained, organized and armed that they proved to be nearly useless. Many showed up with fowling weapons or other antiquated arms which would prove impossible to provide munitions.

Despite months of warnings, Great Britain proved utterly unprepared for actual invasion. The political classes had long been so assured of their naval superiority that it was considered laughable that any enemy would breach the English Channel. However, contrary winds, over-extension of resources and pure bad luck conspired for what proved to be the first successful invasion of Britain in nearly ¾’s of a millennium.


Scotland

Invasions of Southern England and Ireland would not be the only points by which the French intended to invade George II’s dominions.

A small French flotilla would carryover arms and munitions and 250 French soldiers to Scotland. They also carried the Young Pretender, Charles Stuart. Better known to history at Bonnie Prince Charlie, he had attempted to invade Britain in a previous war. After failing miserably, he was promptly forced into flight, leaving his supporters to be slaughtered.

Having descended into a pathetic drunk in the ensuing decades, barely communicating with his father. Both men lived off of the charity of the King of France and the Papacy. When the invasion was being planned, the Prince was summoned to Paris to discuss a role for him in the invasion. He showed up late, drunk and arguementative and was promptly discarded by de Choiseul as a potential puppet King in Britain.

However, later de Choiseul relented and agreed to dispatch the Prince to Scotland. The duc did not believe that Charles Stuart would raise significant support in Scotland or elsewhere in Britain. However, he was a demonic figure throughout Britain and the mere word of his presence may split the enemy response to the invasion, pulling precious Regiments north away from the main invasion.


It turned out this worked quite well. Bonnie Prince Charlie, whom failed to remain sober for five minutes would make speeches in various western Scottish towns, enough to prove to the locals he was the real thing.

However, this did not work out well for him. Only a few hundred Catholics or arch-Stuart supporters rallied this time and he was forced into flight one more time. The French forces, which had dumped him on shore, never alighted onto Scottish territory other than to assure he was going be recognized. The French then reboarded and sailed away, stranding the Prince and his party.

Within 48 hours, the Prince was fleeing throughout the highlands where even those clans whom supported him decades before hunted him like an animal.

As predicted by de Choiseul, several key Scottish regiments would be delayed in marching or sailing south to assist against the main invasion.

Though it would take two weeks, Bonnie Prince Charlie was captured. Unfortunately for him, it was not British regulars but militia that caught him. He was strung up and hanged like a criminal.

The rest of Britain would pay little notice as, by this time, they had more important things to worry about.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1761 - August

London

It was a short march from Portsmouth to London and the British resistance was shockingly non-descript. If anything, the only reason the French didn't reach London within days would be the fact that the French invasion was SO successfully swift that there was mass confusion. Fortunately for the French, the Naval Battle along the Channel had so thoroughly exhausted the Royal Navy's Channel Fleet. Facing the brunt of the French, Spanish, Danish and (leased) Dutch Fleet, the Channel Fleet would be unable to truly unite against the mass of ships facing them and was forced to break out of Spithead and the Nore as French artillery began to be emplace upon hills landward of the naval bases.

Though a disaster for the Royal Navy (over 15 British warships were lost in battle and another 10 were seized at the docks) while many, many others sustained various levels of damage from modest to severe), the delay would allow the dismal British Army and militia time to form some semblance of resistance.

On the positive side for the French, this would allow the French time to carry thousands more soldiers across the Channel. However, here the French preparations came up short as there appeared to have been no plan for which French forces throughout the larger country would march to the northern ports. Despite have local superiority for several weeks, only about 10,000 more French troops and a surprisingly small amount of supplies (though it did include several dozen key pieces of siege artillery and the best French artillerymen in the country as well as several regiments of French and hired German cavalry) would reach England's shores in July.

Having been forced to leave 20,000 soldiers around Portsmouth, the Isle of Wight and the Southampton region in southern Britain, the French invaders managed only 25,000 men to march forward London, 73 miles away through Sussex and Surrey. This seemed an impossibly low number to gain control over a huge city. However, the British had yet to form much of a resistance and would not fight a pitched battle until the French were 20 miles from the London gates.

By the time the British would finally organize their limited forces into an army of 10,000 regulars (most of the British establishment on the island) and 15,000 moderately well armed militia, the French regulars had been reinforced with adequate artillery and cavalry, which would prove decisive in future battles.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1761 - August

America

The length of America, the colonials were rejoicing as they toasted the seemingly endless string of victories from Quebec to New Orleans to the tip of Florida. Though the relations with the British Army and their colonial counterparts had always remained strained, this did not prevent a working partnership to develop after William Pitt ascended to the defacto leader of the British government. He'd offered subsidies to the various colonial assemblies like allies rather than subservient peoples.

Then, when William Pitt's government approved the new inter-colonial Parliament (though details were vague as to what power it would really have), the colonies viewed this as a victory for their local rights. The Parliamentarians would be elected by the popularly elected lower houses of the various colonies. Had Pitt determined that the Parliamentarians would be selected by Royally appointed governors, there probably would have been riots the length of the continent as the provincials viewed this new Parliament as a sham.

Thus, toasts were raised in honor of William Pitt, George II and his heir, George, Prince of Wales.

They did not realize in July, 1761 that Britain had been invaded...and that all three of those men were already dead.

1761 - August

London

Though Parliamentary rule had brought a level of peace to the nation compared to continental counterparts whom seemed to continuously seethe with rebellion, the divisiveness in Britain's Parliament had made for a dysfunctional government when Britain was invaded from the south. Rather than allow the government to react as best they could, Parliament remained in session for weeks after the French invasion and opposition leaders condemned the Pitt-Newcastle coalition roundly. Feuds and rivalries boiled over as faction leaders placed all the blame upon Pitt's shoulders and those of his weaker ally, the Duke of Newcastle.

Pitt, though deeply shaken by the fact that the Royal Navy had failed to defeat the allied armada, would nevertheless utilized his superhuman confidence to vow that the French would quickly be pushed back into the sea. He ordered the Admiralty to concentrate their strength into one massive push to regain the English Channel, thus cutting off the French invasion force.

The Southern Secretary was fully aware of the martial weaknesses of the army defending Britain. He just never believed that it would matter.

George II, whom had been in mourning over the loss of his beloved Hanover, stopped caring about British governance and merely signed whatever the Ministry put before him. Having learned of the invasion, the old man shrugged and called for his morning coffee.

To George II's surprise, his much-loathed grandson, the Prince of Wales, and his equaled obnoxious tutor, the Earl of Bute, requested an audience and the Prince requested to serve the country in whatever capacity the government saw fit. For once, the King actually felt a smidgeon of respect for the youth and directed him to his uncle, the Duke of Cumberland. The Duke had recently reconciled to an extent with the King after failing to protect Hanover. Both the King and the Duke were in poor health and bonded over their shared loss.

When General Ligonier died in 1760, there seemed to be no better choice for commander-in-chief of the forces in Britain (Cumberland's previous position before falling from favor) especially when considered that the post would be little affect to the overall war effort given it was assumed no enemy would ever alight to British soil.

The Duke was not a military genius and spent much of the past few months putting his old subordinates back in positions of power. This included men like Lord Loudon, General Abercrombie, General Webb and General Monro. These were men known best as being political cronies of the Duke whom had supported him in the previous war against the Young Pretender in Scotland. Indeed, when he learned that Charles Stuart had returned, the Duke panicked and ordered three regiments of Scottish regulars back to Scotland even after the call to arms in the south was raised.

Cumberland retreated most of his southern-most forces to defend London, perhaps wisely, in hopes of forming an army capable of defending the capital. Here, the Duke received word that the Prince of Wales had been granted a commission by the King. William Pitt was not even informed but that certainly didn't bother the Duke. Proud of his nephew, for whom he had no personal animosity, the Duke would grant the Prince a commission as a Captain of a fashionable regiment. Originally, he'd intended the Prince for a staff position, maybe with a higher honorary rank, but opted to grant the youth's request to serve in combat. The Duke felt risking one's life for one's Kingdom, as his own father George II had done, prepared the boy for his eventual in heritance.

Thus, as the Duke marched forward southwest of London, the Prince was in the vanguard. As the British defenders stumbled forward, the Prince was among the first killed as a bullet struck him between the eyes. In due time, the confused mass of British regulars and militia would be routed and sent running west of London, leaving the city largely defenseless. The King would never know that his grandson was dead as he expired earlier that morning while taking his daily bowel movement. George III would never know he'd been Britain's legal monarch for about six hours.

William Pitt's government would also be forced to flee London. Having not accepted the possibility of defeat, the Southern Secretary hadn't bothered to evacuate the mint, the museums, the Royal collections (though some of the crown jewels were saved), the museums, the precious records of the war departments, etc. A large number of private banks also were taken with deposits still within their vaults. Millions of pounds sterling of gold and silver as well as countless valuables were inexplicably still present when the French marched into the city. Despite their best efforts, the French commanders were not capable of fully preventing the looting of the city.

Perhaps more importantly, several key shipyards, arms manufactures and powder factories in southeastern England fell. This would severely constrain the ability of the British to resist the invasion.

Having been shifted from London, Parliament was unable to sufficiently organize and the onus was upon the government to fight back without significant Parliamentary input (which would likely cause more division than anything else). Wealthy Parliamentarians instead fled to their country houses outside of London, leaving their servants to hide the silverware.

At least with Pitt, there seemed the chance of a decisive leadership by the broken British government. However, the man grew sick while fleeing London and his gout grew so severe he could not ride a horse. Instead, he was carried north in a carriage...which flipped over when it collide with a column of London refugees. Pitt's neck was snapped and he died instantly.

By August, the true leaders of the British resistance were the marginally competent Duke of Cumberland and the Duke of Newcastle, whom now was called upon to lead the government in a time of crisis. As his specialty was parliamentary procedure and forming majorities, he lacked the skillset which defined a man like Pitt, whom could rally a nation.

In the meantime, it was announced to the nation that the new King was the former Prince Edward, Duke of York. Something of a silly chatterbox, Edward was more popular than his late elder brother, George. He showed an interest in naval affairs and had participated in several naval campaigns over the previous years. Unlike many other Royals in the Army or Navy, Edward would...more than most...actually serve his country. When he was promoted to Captain of the HMS Phoenix, most doubted the youth would actually take command, rather he would remain on shore and his rank would be mainly honorary. Instead, to the horror of the admiralty, the 22 year old would assume command directly. Immediately, the admiralty ordered several highly regarded officers to staff the fifth rate ship "should the young captain require advice".

In truth, for all his defects, Edward was at least a competent sailor. Unfortunately, he proved to be unlucky as the HMS Phoenix was captured early in the Battle of Spithead and the then-Prince taken prisoner. This was not generally known for several weeks and the Duke of Newcastle, days after announcing Edward's ascension to the throne, would have to announce the King's capture by the enemy.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1761 - August

Belfast

When the initial distracting invasion of Ireland succeeded beyond expectations, the French government would have a dilemma upon their hands. Do they reinforce the Irish invasion force and their Irish allies or does the government dispatch ALL forces available to southern Britain?

There was a great amount of skepticism regarding the prospects for the British invasion but the Catholic majority island of Ireland may well rise up en masse and cause a catastrophic loss to Britain long term even if the invasion of Southern England is repulsed. Stiffened by a strong spike of French troops, a Catholic-Majority Ireland with all resources pressed towards independence which would prove impossible for Ireland to reconquer.

The duc de Choiseul would opt to hedge his bets and send another 6000 French troops and large amounts of munition to Ireland. Belfast, the center of the invasion/rebellion, had been momentarily blockaded by Admiral Hawke but abandoned by the Royal Navy when news of the invasion of Southern Britain reached him. This allowed the French convoy a relatively safe transport to Ireland.

Like Britain, the Irish Army was spread out throughout the island. However, unlike Britain, this was intended to suppress the Catholic majority. The army was not intended or designed to combat European Continental-style armies but to battle insurgents. The Irish militia (like the army units banned any Catholic participation) was probably in far better shape than the British militia due to the omni-present threat of rebellion by the Catholics. Still, they were not fit to battle the French forces mustering in Belfast.

1761 - August

Galway

To the astonishment of the duc de Choiseul, the Spanish were not idle as they waited for the Battle of the Channel to determine the outcome of the war. The Spanish, despite being heavily involved in the occupation of Lisbon and Porto as well as having provided a large portion of their navy (about 50%) to the Battle of the Channel, actual acted without prompting by the French and dispatched their own invasion fleet of western Ireland. A small flotilla Spanish naval vessels escorted 6200 Spanish regulars to Western Ireland and the port of Galway. As expected, there were no significant Royal Navy ships in the area as, by August, every available British ship in European waters was being hastily recalled to expel the allied navies from the Channel.

This allowed for an easy landing by the Spanish forces. Western Ireland was lightly populated compared to the east and even more heavily Catholic. Remote from the rest of Ireland and with the advantage of most of the British and Irish regulars present on the island already gravitating towards Belfast.

Like in Belfast, large numbers of Irish, mainly Catholic but some Presbyterians as well, would flock to the Spanish colors. They brought along tens of thousands of muskets and large quantities of powder and shot to arm the Irish insurgents.

1761 - August

Madrid

Ferdinand VI of Spain had, after the death of his beloved Queen Barbara, been a shell of his former self. The man was emotionally dependent upon the Portuguese princess whom was the power behind his throne until her death in 1756. Since then, the King basically left his Ministers to conduct policy (much as the late King Joseph of Portugal had done). Had the Queen lived longer, it was unlikely that the conflict with Portugal would ever have taken place.

Ironically, the leader of the "war" faction in Madrid, the Minister of State Ensenada, had been a favorite of the late Queen. Seeing Portugal's weakness after the earthquake of 1755, Ensenada would take advantage to press Spanish claims in assorted border conflicts between New Spain and Brazil. On the whole, Spain had done well in the war, though whether any of this was worth the material costs was up for debate.

Ensenada was the true power in Spain...until the King finally, mercifully, died. As Ferdinand and Barbara had failed to produce living issue, that meant that the King's half-brother, King Carlos of Naples and Sicily, would assume the Spanish throne.

By prior agreement by the great powers after a previous war, it was determined that the thrones of Naples and Spain would never be reunited (as it had been under the Spanish Habsburgs of the 17th century). However, King Carlos loved Naples and never wanted to give it up.

After the war, Spain, France, Austria and Britain had agreed that, should the Spanish Bourbons (Ferdinand VI) die out and King Carlos ascend to the throne, that one of King Carlos' younger sons would be given Naples in full sovereignty.

However, in 1761, King Carlos would find that Britain could do nothing to enforce this, France would have to agree to whatever Spain wanted if they desired the alliance to continue and, in the east, Austria seemed more interested in Germany, Poland, Russia and the Balkans than what happened in southern Italy. It seemed unlikely that the Empress would intervene militarily should Carlos renege on this agreement.

Carlos, upon reaching Madrid, would unilaterally announce that the previous settlement regarding the separation of his inheritance to be "illegal" and would be put aside. The King of France would hardly argue and, it was found, that the Empress certainly DID have other focuses of her attention.

1761 - August

Vienna

King Carlos' pronouncement of unifying his two Kingdoms did not come at any particular sense of surprise in Vienna. The Empress would find the debate of Naples' future relatively unimportant and never considered intervening militarily.

In truth, Austria had her own economic problems and was starting to view the Czarina Elizabeth as her primary rival in the east now that the Hohenzollerns had been laid low. Elizabeth was raiding into the Ottoman Empire (no loss there) and she had her own designs in destroying Ottoman power (though little desire to control much of the Predominantly Orthodox Balkan region.

But perhaps more importantly, the Empress was becoming more and more enamored with the idea of expansion within Germany. The Elector of Bavaria, after fourteen years of marriage, had yet to produce an heir and seemed unlikely to do so. The House of Wittelsbach in Bavaria would go extinct at the death of the Elector (now in his thirties). Adjacent to her other domains, Bavaria would give the Empress and her descendants an unassailable position in the Holy Roman Empire. Just as importantly, the vote of the Electorate of Bavaria would give the Habsburgs control over a third vote for the position of Holy Roman Emperor, thus virtually ensuring continued Habsburg domination of that position.

The rightful inheritors of the Elector Max Joseph of Bavaria was his cousin in the Palatinate (northwest Germany) by any reasonable view on the laws of inheritance. But Maria Theresa did not care much about that. If she could snag Bavaria, the risk would be worth it.

Maria Theresa began to plot and realized that she may still have several bargaining chips to get what she wanted.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1761 - August

London

Great Britain was not in a terribly good financial condition even at the start of the war. In debt nearly 70,000,000 pounds sterling, the average annual tax revenues in 1755 were 8,000,000 pounds sterling. Over 5,000,000 pounds of this was already being used to pay past debts.

By 1761, when the French invasion crossed the Channel, the British debt had tripled. Witnessing French troops marching on London, the primary capital market of Britain (and the world) was catastrophic for the government. Accustomed to accepting all direction from the capital, the loss of this financial apparatus of state was even more devastating than the political and bureaucratic one.

New York

Even as the assorted colonial assemblies prepared to send their representatives to the still-vaguely-defined colonial assembly in New York (though the official capital had yet to be determined), the shocking news of the invasion of Britain rocked America from Quebec to Florida.

The colonies were in a subordinate relationship with Great Britain, whose merchantilism would prevent the colonies from gathering adequate access to liquid capital. This had long been one of the greatest grievances for the Americans whom believed it retarded their growth. Many turned to smuggling to the French and Spanish Empires (whose West Indian possessions required barrel staves, fish, wheat and other goods while providing rum or hard currency in exchange) to provide what Britain could not or would not.

Great Britain, from King to Parliament to commoners, resented the colonies for paying so little in taxes compared to the British public. The average American paid one shilling per head while the British paid twenty-seven shillings during the course of the war. Of course, with the Americans, they lacked the currency in circulation to pay these taxes anyway.

Like the British themselves, the colonials never imagined that the French would ever manage to make it across the English Channel and feared for their King and country. They would not know that their King George II and his heir had died on the same day as William Pitt. Their new rightful King was currently in the custody of the nation of France.

Paris

The duc de Choiseul was getting tired of his Finance advisors. He knew damned well that the nation's debt had reached 2,000,000,000 livres (about half during the past six years of war and half inherited debts from previous wars). Over a third of the nation's tax revenues were being dispersed to service the debt. Soon that may reach half of the tax revenues.

While losing 80-90% of their colonial trade (the declining Canadian fur industry and, vastly more importantly, the bulk of the French West Indian sugar trade) cost the exchequer hundreds of millions of livres in taxes as well as damaging the trading sector by reducing nearly 200,000,000 livres in goods were per year (with very high tax rates on the highly controllable goods coming from the West Indies), the key source of the financial pain was the direct huge expense of the war. Even temporarily increasing taxes on luxury goods did little to help offset the balance.

Indeed, so many private French banks went under that a panic struck the Parisian capital markets. Only two events saved the French government from collapsing for lack of capital:

1. In 1759, an emergency Spanish loan had kept the French government solvent and able to pay their soldiers' wages and for their upkeep.
2. In 1761, despite the euphoria over the initial success of the invasion, the immediate effect in Paris was the effective looting of London, the largest capital market on Earth. Over the summer and fall of 1761, the French army seized at least 4,000,000 pounds sterling throughout London alone (mainly in assorted banks). At an exchange rate of 13 to 1, this amounted to 52,000,000 livres, enough to pay nearly a third of the year's war related costs. Several million more livres were raised in the next year by selling off the assorted pillage including much of the British Royal Art Collection to the highest bidder and hundreds upon hundreds of British merchant vessels (and cargoes) captured along southern Britain's shores.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1761 - August

London

The apparent collapse of leadership among the British government (the King, the Prince of Wales and the defacto Prime Ministers, William Pitt) would utterly cripple the British defenses. Though man for man, the British regulars were as capable as any soldier on earth, the fact was that only about 20,000 existed on Great Britain itself. Many of these had been recruited in recent years and had yet to reach the full capable state of a true soldier. Few had ever been in combat despite the nation being at war for years.

More importantly, the soldiers were split throughout the country in remote billets. With the lack of central command, many of these regiments remained in place for lack of orders or received confusing or contradictory orders from multiple sources as local commanders sought to augment their own forces.

After six weeks of invasion, only about 6000 of the British regulars had even been engaged by the French. That was enough for London to fall.

It didn't help that London had, over the past 75 years, built a number of bridges over the Thames River. In the 17th century, only one such bridge existed as the Company of Watermen defeated proposal after proposal to build them in order to preserve the livelihoods of their 60,000 ferrymen. The 18th century, though, saw a wave of new bridges which adequately forded the north and south shores of the Thames.



Had such an invasion been attempted a hundred years earlier, the invaders would have found the stately and slow-moving river a difficult barrier to ford, especially given the large amount of material which modern armies must carry in a huge and vulnerable baggage and artillery train. Had these bridges been severed, the effect would be the same. However, the chaos now infesting the higher command (many regimental commanders were getting orders from the Southern Secretary, the Minister of War the Board of Ordinance, multiple Generals and assorted political hacks) would prevent a single one of these bridges being destroyed in time. Astonished, the French were able to march almost unopposed across the structures into northern London.

By the end of August, 1761, several counties had fall and the capital was entirely in French hands. Perhaps more importantly, the dockyards of Chatham, Harwich, Deptford, Sheerness, Woodwich, Portsmouth and others had been taken along with the Naval Bases of Spithead (in the south of England) and the Nore (southeast England at the Thames estuary).

The loss of these bases would make the task of retaining the Channel nearly impossible.

September, 1761

The English Channel

Admiral Edward Hawke had not enjoyed his war. Though he'd attempted to engage the enemy multiple times, he had been put off by bad luck relating to contrary winds, stout enemy harbor defenses and French Admirals too cowardly to face him in battle and fled at the first sight of his forces.

As a young and aggressive Admiral, Hawke was a natural choice to lead an expedition of twelve warships to blockade the port of Belfast. This he temporarily did...only to discover that the French had invaded his nation across the Channel. Hawke immediately ordered his squadron south...only to discover that he was too late and the Channel Fleet had been destroyed or forced to flee. Hawke would stop several Royal Navy vessels sailing west past Cornwall towards Liverpool and inquire as to how this could have happened.

It was explained that the bulk of the Channel fleet at Spithead and Nore had been trapped by French, Spanish, Danish and Dutch vessels (Hawke wondered why the Dutch were partaking given they had not, to his knowledge, declared war). This plugged the Channel fleet as the French transports delivered an army three times that remaining in Britain. Eventually, the Channel Fleet was forced to fight their way through the blockade. Rather than battles of maneuver in which superior British seamanship would hold the day, these were slogfests in which the British were forced to charge into the guns of the enemy broadsides. Though they acquitted themselves well in adverse conditions, over 40 Royal Navy warships from First Rate Ships-of-the-Line to frigates were lost. About half of these were not lost in battle but had been captured or destroyed (by either the British or French) while awaiting repair or crews in the shipyards. Though the Royal Navy had 250 warships of Frigate and above, only about 150 were usually in service at any given time due to refitting or lack of crew.

Of the 20 (out of the 60) frigate class and above ships at Spithead and Nore which managed to escape, most sustained heavy damage and needed repair in the other assorted British shipyards. Some of the Channel fleet escaped west towards Cornwall and Liverpool while others, aided by an uncommon westerly wind, had fled east towards Newcastle.

Over 5000 sailors and assorted shipyard personnel were draft into the infantry and ordered to man defensive fortifications. However, the French fleet would not enter the harbors until the Army had landed and taken them from the landward side. A few of these bastions would last for weeks under French siege but would fall one by one until the last succumbed in September.

Hawke would lead his twelve ship fleet on a raid against the Channel only to determine that the enemy forces were, indeed, far too powerful for his fleet to challenge. By most estimates at the time, over 200 allied warships of frigate class and above were in the Channel. In truth, it was closer to 125, still a great number despite a fifth of these already too heavily damaged (or destroyed) to be of use.

The true allied Naval Advantage lay in their control over the ports both north and south of the Channel. With heavy fall weather coming, trying to navigate a full fleet into the face of the easterly winds was always dangerous and added an element of risk for a force attempting to invade the region. The French and their allies, meanwhile, could easily taken shelter in protected harbors both north and south of the harbor.

Hawke was forced to retreat to Plymouth, the largest naval base remaining in southern England.

This allowed the French Army to shuttle twelve thousand more soldiers across the Channel in September, 1761 and another 10,000 in October, mostly to the captured port of Portsmouth.

Similarly, the King of Denmark, still irate at the British attack on Copenhagen, would agree to dispatch 15,000 soldiers to the Thames estuary. Only about 6000 were actual Danes (or Norwegians or from his German domains). Instead, the other 9000 were hirelings from northwest Germany, most notably Hesse. Ever since the "allies" of Britain and Prussia had "leased" their armies to King George II early in the war, the occupation of their countries by the French led to an international agreement that no forces would be leased within the Holy Roman Empire. This was as much demanded by Austria as France as the predominantly Protestant petty Princes would more often than not lease their armies to Britain or France (depending on the situation) and rarely directly to Austria.

France desired the neutrality of these petty states due to their position near the French border.

When the Kingdom of Denmark was offered another "Subsidy" by France to become more gainfully employed in the war, Denmark hired these soldiers to fight for them as the Danish army was weak.

Thus, by September 1761, over 65,000 allied troops were in Britain and another 20,000 in Ireland.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1761 - September

Cities of Lagos and Faro, Southern Portugal

For several months, the Portuguese Army (a charitable designation) had done little more than harass the French and Spanish troops which occupied their primary cities of Lisbon and Porto. Then a wave of modest attacks followed which led to nothing more than the slaughter of some poorly armed Portuguese patriots. The French and Spanish were hardly impressed and would soon see the Portuguese focus split even further when a Spanish-Italian fleet (Carlos III of Spain had not yet given up Naples as promised per previous treaty) would seize the southern cities of Lagos and Faro.

The reasoning behind this was plain: King Carlos, whom would be more involved in the war effort than his late half-brother Ferdinand, wanted to start off his reign with the capture of Gibraltar and seizing these southernmost ports in Portuguese would help cut off the flow of ships to the bastion.

Carlos also reasoned (he would not blindly take instruction from his Minister Ensenada as Ferdinand had) that the Spanish could leverage these gains in Portugal for overseas possessions within the Portuguese Empire.

1761 - September

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

For the past several months, the 5000 men of the British army would sit in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo waiting for an attack from Spain which would never come. The Brazilian militia was moderately well organized and the Spanish forces in theater were less than exceptional. Though many Spaniards would speak of "conquering Brazil", no forces sufficient to the task would be dispatched from Spain. Even if all the forces occupying the Portuguese main cities had been sent to South America, it likely would not have altered the truth. Spain lacked the capacity to conquer Brazil and France was disinclined to help.

More out of boredom, one Spanish officer would come upon a useful tactic to unsettle the Brazilian/Portuguese/British hold on the core regions of Brazil (I.E. the northern sugar areas to the southern mining regions). Brazil held the largest slave population in the new world, larger even than Saint Domingue. With a few minor incursions, the Spanish would arm the slaves of Minas Gerais' mines and among the coastal sugar plantations outside Salvador.

By September, much of Brazil was engaged in the greatest slave rebellion in Brazilian history. This was being repeated in Saint Domingue, Martinique and Jamaica.

1761 - September

New York

Having received word that their new Colonial Union plan had been approved (and the shocking news of Britain's invasion by France), the assorted colonial assembly lower houses (elected by popular vote) would dispatch three representatives each to New York. This city had been largely selected due to the presence of the acting commander-in-chief of Britain's North American Army, George Howe.

As little word had been cascaded to the colonials as to the actual powers of the Assembly, there seemed to be no reason to gather so quickly. Yet most of the colonies, fearful of being left behind in key decision, hastened to send representatives to New York in early September.

Within days, Benjamin Franklin was selected as the Speaker of the Colonial Assembly. Perhaps the most famous of Americans, the man held a gravitas which could not be replaced and would allow him to negotiate with King George's British metropolitan minions in the eye.

Among the first actions by the Colonial Assembly would be renaming itself His Majesty's North American Parliament, with "Colonial Assembly" sounding perhaps a bit demeaning.

A swift ship in late September would bring news of the death of George II. Toasts were raised in his memory and in favor of George III. It would be October before the Americans learned that George III died on the same day as his grandfather (though no one was sure if George III even technically reigned as no one knew which died first, grandfather or grandson). In early October, new toasts were raised in George III's memory and to the new King Edward VII (the former Duke of York whom had received his Duchy by writ of his grandfather in 1760). It was later October when they learned "King" Edward was actually in French custody.

By this point, no one in America had the slightest idea whose health they should be toasting.

As it turned out, no one in Britain knew either.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1761 - October

East Anglia

The French would take most of September consolidating their control over London. Initially, mobs formed of patriotic Londoners intended to evict the French, Danes and German hirelings. However, patriotism was less powerful than bayonets and, in a few days, thousands of dead Londoners would break the will of the people and the French occupation of the capital was soon relegated to being harassed by petty skirmishers rather than a full-blown revolt. Immediately, hundreds of thousands of Britons would be put out of work by the war as trade plunged, harvests were not collected and tradesmen found no market for their goods.

The chaos would not result in the allies being evicted but would delay the primary French forces for nearly the full month of October. This gave the Duke of Cumberland time to consolidate what he could.

By October, 1761, the British government had effectively collapsed. Technically, no Parliament could be called without the King nor any elections. The routine matters of state were handled by the Ministers to be approved by Parliament. However, with this invasion, the routine was no longer valid.

Realizing the dire need for leadership, Lord Newcastle would pass on authority to someone whom, unlike Newcastle himself, was willing to take it. Though he may be a supreme political organizer, the Duke of Newcastle lacked a powerful will or decisiveness. Nor were the rest of his Cabinet capable of making such decisions. The Secretary of War was considered a nominal position with little direct power while authority over artillery was left to the Board of Ordinance. The militia was paid and led by another group. This left the nation's military forces totally...and purposefully...divided so one person could not assume dictatorial power.

This worked fine most of the time. But with an enemy army alighting onto British soil, the deliberate chaos regarding British land-forces would cause no end to trouble.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the only true man bearing the will and personality to control the situation was the Duke of Cumberland. While Newcastle technically needed the approval of the Crown to make such decisions, even the timid Duke knew that legalisms didn't matter much now. He granted the late King George II's favorite (until he lost Hanover) son power to reclaim the nation from the Papist hands.

If no longer considered a military genius (though few thought that in the first place), the Duke was at least willing to take the responsibility, especially given that the Ministry had given him carte-blanch to win the war.

The Duke understood and enjoyed the idea, perhaps having more autocratic tendancies than the rest of the House of Hanover. He commanded every army unit within reach to march to his base in the town of Cambridge, East Anglia where Parliament had flocked (many having matriculated there) over the past two months. For his own part, Cumberland just ignored them, something Newcastle could hardly do.

But, in the end, Parliament would not settle the future of Britain...it would be the army.

Beyond summoning most of the remaining regulars in Britain (10,000 out of the remaining 16,000 regulars, fully trained or not), a picked 15,000 of the militia (Cumberland dismissed those he could not arm or considered a waste of rations and ammunition) and impressed 10,000 sailors from the Royal Navy and civilian fleet. These latter were preferred to most landsmen as sailors, both navy and merchant, were accustomed to discipline. As such, he managed to assembled 35,000 men in East Anglia to oppose the invaders by late October. This was probably something no one else in Britain could manage.

However, the Duke would still make the vital error in choosing his subordinates solely based upon their loyalty to the Crown and Cumberland himself. Key lieutenants were Sir John Mordaunt, the Earl of Loudon, Thomas Webb and others whom had performed poorly in the New World. Younger, more talented, officers were brushed aside for political reasons.

In one colossal battle, the Duke of Cumberland would pit the bulk of Britain's available soldiers at the invaders. Despite his patriotism, the 30,000 French and German mercenaries (the term "Hessians" would go down in British history in infamy) would crush the Duke's forces, forcing him to retreat with 6000 casualties, 4000 desertions, 5000 captured and without most of the British army's effective artillery and baggage train.

The Battle of Cambridge (actually 10 miles southwest of Cambridge) would see Parliament scattered before the guns of the French. Within weeks, the weather in normally balmy Britain would turn frigid. The plotting march northward was slowed the point that little more was accomplished by the French invaders in 1761 beyond seizing the rest of East Anglia and consolidating their hold over southern Britain.

Perhaps more importantly, the French would manage one more major wave of troop disembarkation across the English Channel as 10,000 more French regulars and 2500 mercenaries (mainly from Waldeck and Lippe) hired by the Dutch Republic would manage to cross again.

Interestingly, the regulars were not the only Frenchmen to arrive. Thousands more men were deposited on shore with the intent of Freebooting. During the Hundred Years War, the English had dispatched wave after wave of scavenging and pillaging pseudo-military men whom fell upon France like locusts, ravaging the nation for generations. Now, the French had determined to repay that old debt.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1761 - December

New York

The North American Parliament would meet throughout the fall and winter of 1761, though it would accomplish few tangible benefits to the nation's defense. Pledges were made for "donations" from the various colonies but Benjamin Franklin had lived far, far too long to believe he could rely upon the colonies to merely provide what the Parliament of North America demanded in provisions and funds. The central Parliament must have its own revenue streams. In order to ease the transition to this new mode of thought, Franklin bypassed for now the idea of direct taxation. Instead, he proposed that all customs collections and those taxes previously imposed by Britain (direct or indirect) to the coffers of the central government. This was perhaps the fairest way to do it as most of these were fees on trade or excise taxes. If one decided one didn't want to pay any taxes, then one simply did not have to purchase any of these goods. No one could force a man to buy foreign goods, could they?

But all of this was still a mere proposal approved by the Parliament for the King's approval. Normally, this would have taken years of debate and the King would have been informed long before of the intent in order to gage his opinion. But, by 1761, George II and Prince George of Wales (possible George III if his grandfather predeceased him) were dead and "Good King Edward" had only recently been generally acknowledged to be a prisoner of the French.

George Howe, the Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's forces in North America, similarly didn't know what to do. However, he was at least politically adroit enough to work WITH the new Parliament in North America as every predecessor of his had echoed the same complaints regarding the American provincial assemblies: they were impossible to deal with and often deliberately obstructed any appointed official whom offended them (which was most).

The new Parliament was Howe's best hope for sustaining his forces in North America for the immediate future. Granted, these forces were modest overall as most of the British regulars had been withdrawn from the mainland in order to invade Saint Domingue and Guadeloupe (where many more would die of disease or at the hands of the slaves than by French soldiers).

In the end, both Howe and Franklin could only manage as well they could.

And wait.

1761 - December

The English Channel

Though the weather in the English Channel would often by dangerous, the commanders of the Royal Navy dare not wait any longer. Several dozen warships had finally been accumulated from other ports in Britain and abroad and massed along western British ports and the sole remaining major harbor along the southern coast of Britain, Plymouth, was being encroached by the French army. Should Britain be expelled totally from this southern base, then it would become almost impossible to regain control over the Channel due to the harsh, prevailing easterly winds. Any British fleet would always have to tack into the wind and would have no avenue for shelter with the French controlling the lands on both sides of the Channel.

It was determined that, above all else the French supply line to the army occupying southern must be cut, no matter the cost, else so many French troops would be stationed in Britain that the Navy would cease to matter in the equation.

Though it took months to accomplish, over 45 warships from 1st Rate Ships of the Line to frigate class (and a few below that), would mass along the Irish Sea and sail past Cornwall.

Historians would argue what may have happened if that winter gale had not suddenly shot up in the Channel. But emerge it did. While over a hundred French, Spanish, Dutch and Danish warships huddled under cover, the assorted British Admirals doggedly attempted to rail against the winds in order to gain advantage of positioning.

The result, when the winds finally died, was the loss of 6 ships to the storms and severe damage to 9 others. The remainder of the fleet had been unable to stay united and, as the French and Spanish ships emerged from the harbors of Southern Britain or Northern France, they fell upon the exhausted and battered Royal Navy suppliers.

In the ensuing battle, another 8 British ships were sunk or taken (compared to 9 French and Spanish). Most of the remaining British ships sustained damage and were forced to retreat. The allies, though, could afford the loss. The British could not.

To make matters worse, a French army had marched west to Plymouth and seized the naval base from the shore. Most of the local fleet had already fled to rendezvous in the Irish Sea. But many of the Royal Naval vessels damaged in the gale and later in the battle had been forced to limp into Plymouth. Many of these ships were taken by the French army while several others looked on impotently from the harbor. These were later scuttled as the French fleet arrived in Plymouth to cut them off and complete the job.

The Channel had fallen.

By February, another 30,000 French, German and Danish troops had crossed the now secure Channel.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1762 - March

The Midlands, Britain

Long an agricultural bastion, the Midlands region would provide a bounty of wheat and other goods for centuries before slowly turning into an industrial powerhouse based around her meandering rivers. Small towns grew into larger cities producing textiles and other manufactured goods. The population boomed as workers from the surrounding countryside would migrate.

By spring of 1762, it was apparent that the British government was barely functional, both the bureaucracy and Parliament. Indeed, the House of Lords hadn't even managed to form a quorum in the temporary capital of Birmingham while the House of Commons spent most of their time shouting at one another. The Duke of Newcastle and his Cabinet would struggle to even maintain the tax collection and other regulatory practices necessary to maintain law and order. The entire country had been under Martial Law since the invasion, making Newcastle's job easier.

In truth, not by nature a decisive man good in a crisis, Newcastle was happy to allow the Duke of Cumberland whatever hand he needed to expel the invaders.

1761 had been an unmitigated disaster for Britain. The capital had fallen and god only knew how many French and allied soldiers now infested Britain. Every many battle had been lost and the enemy was only slowly by an atypically harsh British winter. Now, as spring peeked out between the omnipresent clouds overhead, the enemy was on the move again.

Cumberland had not been idle. He maintained his retinue of cronies - Mordaunt, Webb, Loudon, Monro and others like Peregrine Hopson - not because he believed them to be brilliant soldiers but because they were loyal to HIM, to the Whig Party and to the House of Hanover. In the end, trust was more important than skill to Cumberland.

This would prove to be a poor decision.

Cumberland's army had swollen to 60,000 men. Only about 10,000 remained of the regulars whom had been stationed in Britain at the commencement of the invasion. Secure in the believe that the Royal Navy, not the army, protected Britain, former (defacto) leader of the government William Pitt had dispatched much of the British Army across the globe to America, Brazil, Africa, India, Gibraltar, the West Indies, Ireland, the Channel Islands, etc.

But Cumberland had impressed huge numbers of British militia into his forces though he preferred to utilize sailors (both Royal Navy and civilian) as they were "accustomed to discipline". Sailors Britain had in large numbers and they would largely willingly march forward to protect their nation. When the Admirals objected, stating that Britain could not win a land war with nations bearing a combined 4X to 5X the population of Britain and usually held standing armies 5X the size of Britain, Cumberland scoffed that the Navy had its chance and failed. Now the army must do its job. Having impressed the crews of dozens of ships into the Army, the Royal Navy would not have the capacity to make another attempt at the English Channel.

Cumberland had managed to summon home 4000 Regulars from Ireland as well as 1500 (mostly sick) soldiers from Saint Domingue. The latter Britain had invaded almost two years earlier but only managed to incite a slave insurrection in France's wealthiest colony. This was certainly a boon to Britain but most of that army had been decimated by tropical disease and slave rebellion more than the official enemy (as was the case in Jamaica, Martinique and Guadeloupe). Cumberland had considered ordering the British regulars remaining in Guadeloupe, Quebec and other locales (he even considered recalling the Channel Islands and Gibraltar garrisons) but eventually realized the numbers would be modest and the men would be too late to affect the outcome of the Battle of Britain anyway.

Thus with an only partially trained and poorly equipped army, the Duke marched through the rolling hills of the midlands towards the gathering French army. Though he outnumbered the invaders 60,000 to 50,000, he was critically short of skilled artillery and most of his army had never actually shot a musket before. Many were sick due to endless and urgent drilling in the frigid winter in hopes to getting them up to speed.

With Peregrine Hopson and Sir John Mordaunt, two aged warriors in their sixties, manning the left and right wings of his army (mainly militia and impressed sailors), the Duke of Cumberland would march forward. As his adjutant, Cumberland chose his nephew, the dim-witted Prince William (third son and second surviving son of Prince Frederick) whom was arguably his only potential contender to replace the Duke as the face of the House of Hanover to the exiled British government in Birmingham. Though he had no designs to make himself King, the Duke wanted to impress that he would represent the monarchy during this crisis.

The battle went as expected. The Duke charged in the center with most of the Regulars. He pushed the French and allies back in several places but French artillery would soon force the British back to their original line. Neither side had a great advantage in positioning. Rolling hills rather than hard geographic positions would dominate the area.

The French then counterattacked...not in the center but along BOTH flanks at once. Predictably, the flanks collapsed and the amateur militia and sailors were broken. Cumberland seeing that he'd lost the field, retreated too late and much of his force of regulars was cut off, including his own headquarters, by a troop of Hessian cavalry. The Duke and the teenaged Prince William were captured. Lacking direction from his subordinates, the militia eventually collapsed and fled, abandoning precious supplies, weapons, artillery and other irreplaceable goods.

With a week, the French were in Birmingham and by mid-summer, they had forced the remnant of the government even further north.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1762 - May

Madrid

King Carlos III of Spain had spent years in Naples, enjoying his Italian Kingdom. However, as his elder brother the King of Spain aged without legitimate issue, Carlos would come to realize that he would someday inherit Spain and be required to leave Naples. He loved Naples dearly but could not countenance the idea of giving up the greater Kingdom to remain in a place he was comfortable.

The arrangement after the previous wars was that the House of Bourbon would remain split between Naples and Spain (and, of course, France). But with the map of Europe being redrawn according to the whims of Great Powers, why should Carlos III give up lands in Italy that he loved (and unique among Italian rulers, was loved by his people in return)?

It was at this time, when war continued to dominate the attention of western Europe that Carlos caught wind of Maria Theresa's plans with Bavaria.

He was willing to go along with them provided that assorted agreements could be made to the Spanish favor.

1762 - May

Vienna

The Spanish Emissary would reach the Court of Maria Theresa with his demands. Initially, the Empress and her ministers would be amused. When was the last time that Spain mattered on the continent? Then she realized that the House of Bourbon looked increasingly like they would lay low the British. In truth, she didn't care much about that anymore. The British no longer mattered on the Continent either.

While France had not made any threatening moves into the Empire for some time, that did not preclude this in the future. The last thing she needed was a long-lasting Bourbon alliance. And victory over the British may spell the end of this alliance as neither France nor Spain would have any particular reason to continue as allies...and would probably shortly turn upon one another.

She realized that merging Spain and Naples would be no threat to her in the short, medium or likely even long term. But it could spell danger in for the Bourbon alliance.

Thus, Maria Theresa was willing to overlook Carlos III uniting his dominions (at least not militarily oppose this) as Great Britain (or even France) may have done. Beyond those nations, no one else in Europe that mattered even cared about the dispensation of southern Italy. Certainly not Russia or the crumbling wreck of the Ottoman Empire. Both Austria and Russia had designs on Poland and the Balkans. The last thing Maria Theresa needed was opposition from the west.

Thus she made the deal. Carlos III of Spain AND Naples in return for Empress Maria Theresa of the Habsburg Empire...PLUS Bavaria.

As it so happened, her envoys were en route to Paris.

1762 - May

Paris

The duc de Choiseul both admired and deplored the Empress' brazen land grab. She wanted Bavaria and, if France did not agree to it, she was more than capable of gathering a coalition against France. Even the mere THREAT of this would force France to withdraw forces from Britain to the Rhine.

Bavaria's childless Elector was popular among his people, whom would not take well to an attempted conquest. This could bring the rest of Germany into the war on Bavaria's side. France did not need that.

Instead, as Maria Theresa expected, the duc was willing to accept a compromise. When the Emperor Francis I was Duke of Lorraine, he was forced to give this up in a previous war to the King of France's father-in-law. Once the latter was dead, Lorraine would revert to France.

In exchange, the Duke of Lorraine would be granted the Duchy of Tuscany, whose ruling clan had also expired without issue. It was agreed that Tuscany would go to one of Francis and Maria Theresa's younger sons. Maria Theresa (again barely consulting her husband) would give up Tuscany to the rightful inheritors of Bavaria, the Elector of the Palatinate, another branch of the House of Wittelsbach. These seemed a reasonable trade and maintained the balance of power.

As it turned out, the Elector of the Palatinate didn't particularly want Bavaria and was willing to make a public deal. Maria Theresa would be handed Bavaria when Elector Maximilian died. In the meantime, the Elector Palatinate would "govern" Tuscany in the name of Francis II. It would turn out he enjoyed this more than he ever would have Bavaria.

France, for whom the Palatinate was but a client state near the French border, would accept this or Maria Theresa would make King Louis XV's remaining reign very difficult.

In the end, diplomacy would rule. Those other states of central Europe - Brandenburg, Denmark-Norway-Hanover-Schleswig-Holstein, Venice, the Papal States - were but bystanders as, once again, the great nations redrew the map of Europe.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1762 - August

Yorkshire

By late summer of 1762, the French Army had reached Yorkshire and the government of Great Britain had utterly collapsed. The Ministers would flee all the way to Edinburgh.

Though the British army had largely collapsed after the capture of the Duke of Cumberland and Prince William, that did not mean that the British had given up. The patriot militias would continue to harry the French and German invaders. Even with over 120,000 French, German, a few Spanish and now Danish soldiers occupying most of the country, the invaders could hardly manage to restrain the partisans.

The remnant of the British Army, Government and even Navy had retreated into Cumbria, Northumberland and Scotland.

The Duke of Newcastle still nominally led the government and he managed to retreat along with the remnant of the army under General Daniel Webb. Even as Lancashire and Newcastle (the northeastern city, not the Duke himself) fell to the invaders, the Duke did not stop running. Just praying for a miracle, he called upon the people of Scotland and the North of England to carry on the fight.

Meeting with several leading Scottish clan leaders and assorted high nobility, the somewhat panic-stricken Webb would promptly arrest the stunned Duke of Newcastle and order the remnant of the army to retreat to the Scottish lowlands, abandoning the last of the north of England.

Then a dispatch was sent to the French commander, the Duke of Belle-Isle, to inquire of an armistice.

Outraged, several English officers (and several Scots along with them) in the army attempted to overthrow General Webb. However, some quick-thinking junior officers foiled this and it became readily apparent that the majority of the army (mainly Scottish regiments by this point) and the Scottish militia wanted this to end. Indeed, the ghosts of the English pillaging of Scotland over the past centuries reignited and many Scottish clansmen would proceed to murder leading Englishmen still residing in the north and those turncoats whom had sided with the House of Hanover in wiping out those too close to the monarchy.

If England had not yet made peace, Scotland was willing.

The bulk of the remaining Royal Navy in Europe could do nothing to halt this. Furious, several captains bombarded the Scottish ports as they chose to retreat west, first to Irish ports still loyal to the King...then on to America. They were joined by hundreds of British merchant ships whom feared confiscation by the French. They carried off their valuables and anything else of value...including tens of thousands of refugees.

By winter, only Wales, Cornwall and parts of Ireland remained out of French hands. By spring the following year, the former two would make their own accommodation with France while the latter would finally see all Hanoverian influence crushed.