ground, whether to continue him as the British General, or to supersede him in favour of his junior, Lord Peterborough, was therefore anticipated by his waiting upon the latter Earl at Guadalaxara, and offering to serve under him until released himself. But Peterborough declined the offer, unless the Portuguese General also would consent to be under him, which was, of course, impossible. The British Government (as indicated in my last quotation from Marlborough’s correspondence) were, from the first, determined that Lord Galway should not be superseded. Sir Charles Hedges had written to him on the 2d July:—
“It is a great happiness to the common cause that your Excellency will, in all probability, be with the King of Spain, since it may receive great advantage by your good advice in settling affairs with him, as it has d me from your great care and prudent conduct, by which you surmounted difficulties with the Portuguese, which were thought impracticable.”
And the opinion, which Marlborough endorsed, is in Lord Godolphin’s letter of July 30:—
“Upon the joining of our Portugal and Catalonian troops with the King of Spain at Madrid, it has been thought proper for preventing disputes to settle in whom the superior command of the Queen’s troops should be lodged. The lords here have been unanimously of opinion that it ought to be in my Lord Galway, as having the elder commission from the Queen, and that the King of Spain’s commission to my Lord Peterborough ought not to interfere in this case. I think this is right for the service.”
Our Queen, confirming her advisers’ recognition, both of Lord Galway’s seniority and of his greater local experience, sent him a commission giving him the rank of Captain-General of her forces in Spain and Portugal. This commission and promotion his lordship would, if he could, have humbly declined, for he adhered to his conviction that Lord Peterborough should be preferred for the command. Peterborough, however, took his departure from Guadalaxara, “pretending [says Godolphin] that he had the Queen’s orders to go to Italy.” And besides this, Charles, who had extolled his former exploits in letters to Queen Anne, had now cast him off, and afterwards desired the Count de Gallas to lay before the British Queen a series of complaints against him. When Lord Peterborough returned home, the Queen refused to see him till these charges were refuted. The House of Commons found the case so complicated, that they indefinitely adjourned it. Peterborough thirsted for revenge, and, at a later date, recklessly retaliated upon Lord Galway.
“The Portuguese,” said Lord Galway in reply, “staid no longer time at Madrid than was necessary to get the king proclaimed there, which did not exceed ten days — then advanced as far as Guadalaxara, and afterwards to Guadaraxa, about 60 miles beyond Madrid, where we obliged part of the Duke of Anjou’s troops to repass the river, but were not willing to engage them, at a time when we had reason to expect we should have been joined in a few days by the forces with the King of Spain and Earl of Peterborough, which was the only secure method left us to augment our troops. For it would have been very imprudent to have attempted to have formed corps of the Castilians, who were entirely devoted to the Duke of Anjou’s interest. But all the officers of the army know, we were so far from wanting provisions ourselves, that we sent a convoy of 8000 loaves to meet the King and the Earl of Peterborough, which (by their delay in not advancing fast enough) grew mouldy, and was afterwards pillaged by the peasants. His lordship’s information of our want of intelligence of the enemy’s motions and of our disorder upon the retreat, are as great mistakes as the former. For the occasion of our advancing to Guadaraxa was purely to post ourselves in such a manner as to prevent the enemy from marching or sending detachments to intercept the King of Spain ; and when we had reason to believe him out of danger, we returned to Guadalaxara, there to be joined by the King and the Earl of Peterborough. Nor was it possible for his lordship to have seen our disorder, if there had been any, because (as I have already observed) he came not to Guadalaxara himself, till some days after we had been encamped there.
“Notwithstanding the Earl of Peterborough is pleased to say, ‘that we lost 5000 men in the retreat to Valencia without a blow, and entirely ruined our whole cavalry.’ ’Tis certain our loss upon that occasion was very inconsiderable, if any, and the retreat made in so good order that the enemy (superior as they were in number) never durst venture to attack us after the warm reception twenty-two of their squadrons met with from two battalions under the command of Colonel Wade in the town
