Henry Nugent | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ireland |
| Died | November 1704 Gibraltar |
| Service/ | Austrian Army |
| Rank | Major General |
| Commands held | Governor of Gibraltar |
| Battles/wars | Williamite War in Ireland, Siege of Limerick (1691) |
Henry Nugent, Count of Valdesoto and Viscount Coolamber (died November 1704), was an Irish military man. He was the second Governor of Gibraltar during the Habsburg occupation. He served in this military position during the period of 6 August 1704 to November 1704.
Nugent was born at Coolamber, County Longford. [1] His father was Thomas Nugent, who descended from James Nugent, the younger brother of Richard Nugent, 13th Baron Delvin (died 1559). Henry's older brother was James Nugent of Coolamber. [1] [2]
In 1690–91, Nugent fought in the Irish campaign, in support of King James, during the Williamite War in Ireland. After the siege of Limerick in 1691, Nugent joined the Imperial regiment of Irish under Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1692, [3] entering into service for the Habsburgs, as being a Roman Catholic, he was unable to be commissioned in the British Army. [4]
In 1697, he distinguished himself while defending Barcelona against the French during the Siege of Barcelona at the orders of Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt. Once the War of the Spanish Succession started, he was created Count of Val de Soto [3] (Conde de Valdesoto) in Spain by Archduke Charles, pretender to the Spanish throne.
On 4 August 1704, Gibraltar was captured by an Anglo-Dutch force after a short siege which ended when Governor Diego de Salinas surrendered Gibraltar to Prince George, who took it in the name of the Archduke, as Charles III, king of Castile and Aragon. [5] Two days later, on 6 August 1704, Nugent was appointed Governor of Gibraltar, [6] with the rank of Major General. [1] [6] He was described as "an Irish Catholic, not well regarded by the English" (Spanish : un católico irlandes, mal visto por los ingleses). [7] Brigadier Fox, commander of the English Marines, and junior to Nugent, demanded to go home. Hesse gave a refusal to Fox, prompting antagonism between Nugent and Fox.
During the Twelfth Siege of Gibraltar in November 1704, Nugent was mortally wounded on 9 November [8] and died soon thereafter. His death was caused by wounds sustained at San Pablo Battery (North Bastion). He was succeeded as Governor by Brigadier John Shrimpton of the Royal Marines. [4]
Nugent was survived by his wife and children.
Thomas' son, Francis, became the 3rd Count of Valdesoto. [1]
The history of Gibraltar portrays how The Rock gained an importance and a reputation far exceeding its size, influencing and shaping the people who came to reside here over the centuries.
Prince George Louis of Hessen-Darmstadt was a Field Marshal in the Austrian army. He is known for his career in Habsburg Spain, as Viceroy of Catalonia (1698–1701), head of the Austrian army in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1705) and governor of Gibraltar in 1704. He was killed during the Siege of Barcelona the following year. He was known in Spanish as Jorge de Darmstadt and in Catalan as Jordi Darmstadt.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Leake was a Royal Navy officer and politician. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of Texel during the Third Anglo-Dutch War. He then distinguished himself when he led the convoy that broke the barricading boom at Culmore Fort thereby lifting the siege of Derry during the Williamite War in Ireland. As a captain he saw action in some of the heaviest fighting at the Battle of Barfleur and was also involved in a successful attack on the French ships at the Battle of La Hogue during the Nine Years' War.
The Battle of Cabrita Point, also known Battle of Marbella, was a naval battle that took place while a combined Spanish-French force besieged Gibraltar on 10 March 1705 during the War of Spanish Succession. The battle ended in an allied victory which effectively ended the Franco-Spanish siege of Gibraltar.
The Capture of Gibraltar by Anglo-Dutch forces of the Grand Alliance occurred between 1 and 4 August 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession. Since the beginning of the war the Alliance had been looking for a harbour in the Iberian Peninsula to control the Strait of Gibraltar and facilitate naval operations against the French fleet in the western Mediterranean Sea. An attempt to seize Cádiz had ended in failure in September 1702, but following the Alliance fleet's successful raid in Vigo Bay in October that year, the combined fleets of the 'Maritime Powers', the Netherlands and England, had emerged as the dominant naval force in the region. This strength helped persuade King Peter II of Portugal to sever his alliance with France and Bourbon-controlled Spain, and ally himself with the Grand Alliance in 1703 as the Alliance fleets could campaign in the Mediterranean using access to the port of Lisbon and conduct operations in support of the Austrian Habsburg candidate to the Spanish throne, the Archduke Charles, known to his supporters as Charles III of Spain.
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Valdesoto is a parish located in the southeastern part of Siero, a municipality (conceyu) in the province and autonomous community of Asturias in northern Spain. It is consecrated to Saint Felix. There are 15 villages within Valdesoto. The population as of 2005 was 1967 inhabitants. The postcode is 33938.
The siege of Gibraltar of 1727 saw Spanish forces besiege the British garrison of Gibraltar as part of the Anglo-Spanish War. Depending on the sources, Spanish troops numbered between 12,000 and 25,000. British defenders were 1,500 at the beginning of the siege, increasing up to about 5,000. After a five-month siege with several unsuccessful and costly assaults, Spanish troops gave up and withdrew. Following the failure the war drew to a close, opening the way for the 1728 Treaty of El Pardo and the Treaty of Seville signed in 1729.
The siege of Barcelona took place between 14 September and 19 October 1705 during the War of the Spanish Succession when a multinational Grand Alliance army led by Lord Peterborough, supporting the Habsburg pretender to the Spanish throne, captured the city of Barcelona from its Spanish Bourbonic defenders, most of whom then joined the Habsburg army.
The House of FitzJames is a noble house founded by James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick. He was the illegitimate son of James II & VII, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, a monarch from the House of Stuart. After the Revolution of 1688, the 1st Duke of Berwick followed his father into exile and much of the family's history since then has been in Spain and France, with several members of the family serving in a military capacity.
Simón Rodríguez Susarte, commonly known as Simón Susarte, was a Spanish goatherd from Gibraltar, who in 1704 aided a Bourbon Spanish attempt to seize Gibraltar during the Twelfth Siege of Gibraltar by revealing a concealed path to the attackers which led to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar. Susarte then guided a Bourbon contingent along this difficult trail, aiming to surprise the Grand Alliance garrison in hopes of recovering the town.
Major-General John Shrimpton was Governor of Gibraltar.
The North Bastion, formerly the Baluarte San Pablo was part of the fortifications of Gibraltar, in the north of the peninsula, protecting the town against attack from the mainland of Spain. The bastion was based on the older Giralda tower, built in 1309. The bastion, with a mole that extended into the Bay of Gibraltar to the west and a curtain wall stretching to the Rock of Gibraltar on its east, was a key element in the defenses of the peninsula. After the British took Gibraltar in 1704 they further strengthened these fortifications, flooding the land in front and turning the curtain wall into the Grand Battery.
The twelfth siege of Gibraltar was fought between September 1704 and May 1705 during the War of the Spanish Succession. It followed the capture in August 1704 of the fortified town of Gibraltar, at the southern tip of Spain, by an Anglo–Dutch naval force led by Sir George Rooke and Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt. The members of the Grand Alliance, Holy Roman Empire, England, the Netherlands, Pro-Habsburg Spain, Portugal and the Savoy, had allied to prevent the unification of the French and Spanish thrones by supporting the claim of the Habsburg pretender Archduke Charles VI of Austria as Charles III of Spain. They were opposed by the rival claimant, the Bourbon Philip, Duke of Anjou, ruling as Philip V of Spain, and his patron and ally, Louis XIV of France. The war began in northern Europe and was largely contained there until 1703, when Portugal joined the confederate powers. From then, English naval attentions were focused on mounting a campaign in the Mediterranean to distract the French navy and disrupt French and Bourbon Spanish shipping or capture a port for use as a naval base. The capture of Gibraltar was the outcome of that initial stage of the Mediterranean campaign.
Hesse's Demi Bastion is a demi-bastion in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It is part of the Northern Defences of Gibraltar. The bastion forms a link in a chain of fortifications which ascend the lower north-west slopes of the Rock of Gibraltar, below the King's Lines Battery and Bombproof Battery. The Moorish Castle's Tower of Homage is at the top of the same incline.
The sieges of Ceuta were a series of blockades by Moroccan forces of the Spanish-held city of Ceuta on the North African coast. The first siege began on 23 October 1694 and finished in 1720 when reinforcements arrived. During the 26 years of the first siege, the city underwent changes leading to the loss of its Portuguese character. While most of the military operations took place around the city walls, there were also small-scale penetrations by Spanish forces at various points on the Moroccan coast, and the seizure of shipping in the Strait of Gibraltar. The city was placed under a second siege in 1721 until 22 April 1727. The engagements are considered to be the longest siege in history.
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