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Editor says, what if France, instead of Great Britain, had won the Battle of Quiberon Bay? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1759, on this day the home fleet of British admiral Sir Edward Hawke was destroyed off the French coast at Quiberon Bay (portrayed in "The Day After" by the artist Richard Wright). It was a strategic masterstroke for the French Government whose forces were facing impending expulsion from North America, West Africa and India. Because Foreign minister Duc de Choiseul's options had narrowed to the one significant reprisal on offer - an attack on Britain itself.
The Day AfterIronically, the tactical failures at St Nazaire were also the result of over-boldness. Because under full sail, Hawke had chased the French fleet through the rocks and shoals that stretch south from the end of the Quiberon peninsula into the confined waters of the Bay of Quiberon itself with night approaching in an onshore gale, despite having no charts, pilots or any foreknowledge of the waters.
"Where there was passage for the enemy, there was passage for me. We are so close, their pilots will be mine. If they go to pieces on the shore, they shall become our beacons" ~ Admiral HawkeAdmiral Conflans received fresh orders to transport a diversionary force of twenty thousand troops to Glasgow, luring English regiments north. Meanwhile, a further twenty thousand troops set sail for Maldon in Essex, whilst a third force descended upon Ireland. Had Duc de Choiseul received better military intelligence, he would have surely realised that a single assault upon Maldon would have sufficed.
"[Quiberon Bay] is the graveyard of our navy, the ruin of all our hopes" ~ King George II of EnglandPanic soon set in when news of the naval disaster arrived at the War Department in London. Due to the imperial overstretch placed on the one hundred twenty-five regiments of the British Army, only fourteen thousand regulars were immediately available for the defence of the realm. And the breathtaking news that Charles Stuart was aboard the French Flagship Soleil Royal prevented the War Office from raising militias for fear that a Jacobite Fifth Column would form.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Brian James, " The Battle That Gave Birth to an Empire" published in the December 2009 Edition of History Today MagazineStory Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: History Today Magazine Labels: Quiberon Bay, Hawke, Duc de Choiseul, France, Britain.
~ Under these circumstances, the Jacobites might have tried it again, and possibly even been successful.
~ Interesting, if you read Niall Fergusons alt, he proposes a Stuart England through to 1989, but I get the impression that the Jacobites would have blown it no matter how many chances they got at the thrown?
~ Well, Charlie wasn't exactly the sharpest sword in the cavalry, if you get my drift. ;)
~ Nor were the entire French army for that matter ;)
~ Issue remains would rabidly Protestant England have welcomed a Catholic king?
~ Acceptance of a Catholic monarch would have meant overturning the 1701 Act of Settlement, which decreed that only Protestant descendants of Sophia, Electress of Hanover, who have not married a Roman Catholic, could succeed to the English Crown--unless, of course, in this TL the Act was never passed, in which case, obviously, the POD is much further back than 1759.
~ The bloody war would have gone on. Britain had plenty of other warships and resources to build more. France had pretty much lost the war by then and had not the resources to do anything but push for a peace with which to retreat behind to lick its wounds as it had done previous war.
~ By this time the British had a very well armed and very well trained militia that was completely equipped with the very reliable Marine/Militia Short Brown Bess. Any invading army would have had to deal with it along with regulars. As for any possible support for the House of Stewart that had been pretty much crushed after the bloody 45. Many Irish Catholic lads that might have been recruited by any French invading Force were being recruited into the British regiments sent to America by this time. Britain also had plenty of Germans it had recruited either through Hannover or through various German princes such as the House of Hesse. Overall by this time the war was over for Louis and his mistress. On the other hand it would be interesting if France were to use its fleet to send troops across the Atlantic to New France to either lift the siege of Louisbourg or recover the taken city. But by this tiem Britain had a large fighting force in North America and a very well experienced and well motivated American militia with ample combat experience.
~ Did the French have 40,000 front line troops to spare at the time?
Even gathering aboard ships would have allowed Hanover to
attack Paris.
~ France calling for peace might be the best move. The war would be shorter and thus less expensive, so maybe all those taxes on the Colonials wouldn't need to be passed.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
