![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
Abstract
After the losses sustained at Cherbourg and La Hogue following the battle of Barfleur in 1692, Louis XIV remained keen to continue building up his navy to a size equal to or exceeding in strength the combined English and Dutch fleets. Within a few days he authorized six replacement First Rank ships (three-deckers) and five Second Rank (large two-deckers); more followed with a year. By 1694, however, the economic crisis in France brought this expansion to an end. Louis was forced to choose between his battlefleet and his army, and strategic realities determined that he chose the latter. This article explores the changing nature of the French navy in the period between 1702 and 1719 and examines in detail the reduction of the French Mediterranean fleet, the flotte du Levant.
Notes
1 Most annual listings are taken from the États Abregés de la Marine, which were produced annually from 1669 onwards. These documents summarize the basic details, including current location, of every vessel in service with or building for the French Marine Royale. Most years’ États are in the Archives Nationales in Paris (Series G), and all those for the years mentioned in this article relate to the situation as at 1 January for the year cited. They detail the situation from 1704 to 1712 (1705 and 1711 are missing, but their content can be deduced from other records) and from 1716 to 1719. Lambert, Histoire du siège de Toulon and Meirat, ‘Le Siège de Toulon en 1707’ provide additional detail. For fuller analysis see Winfield and Roberts, French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626–1786, 38.
2 The 26-year-old Comte de Toulouse and Amiral de France had been appointed to this post in November 1683, at the tender age of five. He was the sole member of the Bourbon dynasty ever to command in action afloat. He retained his title until his death in 1737, to be succeeded in it by his 12-year-old son Louis Jean-Marie de Bourbon, Duc de Penthièvre, who in turn held the title until it was abolished by the new revolutionary government in 1791.
3 As given in Clowes, The Royal Navy, vol. 2, 399–400. Other contemporary listings have slight differences, but other evidence backs up Clowes's table. The Spanish galleys which served with the French fleet are excluded here.
4 However, many were badly damaged on both sides, and the Dutch (Noorderkwartier Admiralty) 64-gun Graaf van Albemarle (launched 1699), which had been the flagship of the Allied rear squadron under Lieutenant-Admiraal Gerard Callenburgh, blew up on 27 August on its way back to Gibraltar, with almost all of the crew lost (although Callenburgh had already moved his flag to another ship since the battle).
5 Tunstall, Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail.
6 10 Mar., Old Style
7 The Couronne had originally been built (at Brest) in 1669 as a First Rank three-decker, but was demoted to the Second Rank in 1687 after rebuilding. She was restored to the First Rank in 1706 even though she carried only 76 guns.
8 Savoy and Austria were part of the Allies.
9 Both ships were deployed against the besieging fleet, the Tonnant being badly damaged and partly burnt.
10 The livre tournois (of 20 sols), was valued from 1706 to 1709 at 0.446 grams of gold.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Rif Winfield
Rif Winfield is author, among other works, of the four volumes of British Warships in the Age of Sail describing warships from 1603 to 1863, and co-author with Stephen Roberts of the two-volume equivalent French Warships in the Age of Sail covering warships from 1626 to 1861. Stephen Roberts also assisted with material for this paper.