Siege of Malta (1798–1800)
Siege of Malta | |||||||||
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Part of the naval operations and the Mediterranean campaign during the War of the First Coalition | |||||||||
Watercolour depicting French-occupied Valletta and Manoel Island as seen from Għargħar Battery, a rebel artillery position during the blockade | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Maltese irregulars Great Britain Portugal Naples | France | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Emmanuele Vitale Francesco Caruana Vincenzo Borg Horatio Nelson Alexander Ball Domingos de Nisa |
Claude Vaubois Jean Perrée † Pierre-Charles Villeneuve | ||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
Maltese – 10,000 ~ British – 16 ships[1] Portuguese – 5 ships[2] | 6,000–7,000[1] | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
Maltese – 300[3] British – light |
4,000 surrendered 2,000 – killed, wounded, sick or dead to disease | ||||||||
20,000 Maltese civilians dead to disease[3] |
The siege of Malta, also known as the siege of Valletta or the French blockade (
In February 1800, a significant convoy under Contre-Admiral
Background
French invasion of Malta
On 19 May 1798, a French fleet sailed from
On receiving this reply, Bonaparte immediately ordered his fleet to bombard Valletta and on 11 June General
Battle of the Nile
Bonaparte's convoy was pursued across the Mediterranean by a British fleet of 14 ships under Rear-Admiral
Siege
Maltese uprising
On Malta, the French had rapidly dismantled the institutions of the Knights of St. John, including the
In mid-September, a squadron of Portuguese ships had arrived at the island. They included the
Late in September, a British convoy consisting of 13 battered ships under Captain
On 12 October, the British ships of the line
Capture of Gozo
On 24 October, after a ten-day passage from Naples,[20] Nelson joined the blockade squadron in HMS Vanguard accompanied by HMS Minotaur.[19] On 28 October, Ball successfully completed negotiations with the French garrison on the small island of Gozo, the 217 French soldiers there agreeing to surrender without a fight and transferring the island, its fortifications, 24 cannon, a large quantity of ammunition and 3,200 sacks of flour to the British.[17] Although the island was formally claimed by King Ferdinand of Naples, it was administered by British and Maltese representatives, whose first action was to distribute the captured food supplies to the island's 16,000 inhabitants. Malta and the surrounding islands were not self-sufficient and quickly the challenge of feeding the population became a strain on the islands' resources, particularly with so many men under arms. Although now formally in command of the islands, King Ferdinand refused to assist with supplies, and the responsibility was left to Ball and his captains to arrange for the transport of supplies from Italy.[16] By the end of the year, the number of Maltese troops in the field had fallen from 10,000 to 1,500, supported by 500 British and Portuguese marines from the blockade squadron.[21] The blockade fleet, consisting of five British and four Portuguese ships, operated from St. Paul's Bay and Marsa Sirocco (now Marsaxlokk) on the island of Malta itself.[16]
Blockade
1799 was a frustrating year for the British and Maltese forces deployed against the French forces, as efforts to secure sufficient forces to prosecute the siege were repeatedly denied. Major-General
However, despite these occasional supply ships, the French garrison was rapidly running out of food. To conserve resources, the French forced the civilian population out of the city; the civilian population dropped from 45,000 in 1799 to 9,000 by 1800.
Convoy battles
At the beginning of February 1800, the Neapolitan government, reinstated in Naples after being expelled the year before, finally agreed to participate in the siege and 1,200 troops were embarked on a squadron led by Vice-Admiral Lord Keith's flagship HMS Queen Charlotte and landed on Malta.[22] For a time, both Keith and Nelson remained with the blockade squadron, which consisted of six ships of the line, along with a few Neapolitan ships of the line, and several British and Neapolitan frigates. On 17 February a message arrived with the squadron from the frigate HMS Success, which had been stationed off Sicily to watch for French reinforcements. Captain Shuldham Peard reported that he was shadowing a squadron of six or seven French ships sailing in the direction of Malta.[26] These vessels were a relief squadron, sent from Toulon with extensive food supplies and 3,000 additional troops under Contre-Admiral Jean-Baptiste Perrée in Généreux, one of the ships of the line that had escaped at the Nile two years earlier.[27] On 18 February, the convoy was sighted by lookouts on Alexander. In the ensuing chase, Success captured a French transport and attacked the much larger Généreux.[28] Although the frigate was damaged in the exchange, Success' second broadside mortally wounded Perrée and delayed the ship of the line long enough for HMS Foudroyant, under Lord Nelson, and HMS Northumberland to join the battle. Heavily outnumbered, Généreux surrendered.[29]
Shortly after the capture of the Généreux, Keith returned to the Italian coast in Queen Charlotte, where his flagship was lost in a fire that killed more than 700 of its crew, although Keith was ashore at the time.
Nelson's cruise
In the aftermath of these French defeats at sea, and with the food supply in Valletta dwindling, the British sent another demand for capitulation. Vaubois again refused, with the reply "Cette place est en trop bon état, et je suis moi-même trop jaloux de bien servir mon pays et de conserver mon honneur, pour écouter vos propositions." ("This place is in too good a situation, and I am too conscious of the service of my country and my honour, to listen to your proposals").[35] In reality, the situation was dire: during February, prices of basic foodstuffs stood at 16 francs for a fowl, 12 francs for a rabbit, 20 sous for an egg, 18 sous for a lettuce, 40 sous for a rat and six francs per pound for fish. For the civilian typhus patients, the only food available was horse-flesh soup.[32]
On 23 April, Nelson departed Palermo in Foudroyant, with both Sir William and Emma Hamilton on board as his guests. The party visited Syracuse and then travelled on to Valletta, where Berry took Foudroyant so close to the harbour that the ship came under fire from the French batteries. It was not hit, but Nelson was furious that Emma had been taken into danger and immediately ordered Berry to withdraw. His anger was exacerbated by Emma's refusal to retire from the quarterdeck during the brief exchange.[36] From there, Foudroyant anchored at Marsa Sirocco, where Nelson and Emma lived together openly and were hosted by Troubridge and Graham. Sir William Hamilton, a prominent antiquarian as well as a diplomat, spent his time exploring the island.[37] By early June, Nelson and his party had returned to Palermo, the beginning of a lengthy overland journey across Europe to Britain. Nelson also detached Foudroyant and Alexander from the blockade, again in defiance of Keith's explicit orders, to assist the Neapolitan royal family in their passage to Livorno.[38] Enraged at Nelson's disobedience, Keith publicly remarked that "Lady Hamilton has had command of the fleet long enough".[39] In May, Troubridge returned to Britain and was replaced in command by Captain George Martin, while Graham was succeeded by Major-General Henry Pigot.[40]
Surrender
The British blockade continued to prevent French efforts to resupply Valletta during the early summer of 1800, and by August the situation was desperate: no horses or pack animals, dogs, cats, fowls or rabbits still lived within the city, the cisterns had been emptied and even firewood was in short supply. So desperate was the need for wood that the frigate Boudeuse, trapped by the blockade, was broken up for fuel by the beleaguered garrison. With defeat now inevitable, Vaubois gave orders that the frigates Diane and Justice were to attempt a breakout for Toulon, with minimal crews of approximately 115 men each.[35] On 24 August, when the wind was favourable and the night dark enough to obscure their movements, the frigates put to sea. Almost immediately, lookouts on HMS Success sighted them and Captain Peard gave chase, followed by HMS Genereux and Northumberland. Diane under Captain Solen was too slow and Peard soon overhauled the under-strength French ship, which surrendered after a brief exchange of shot.[41] The frigate later became HMS Niobe. Justice, under Captain Jean Villeneuve, was faster, however, and outran its pursuers, eventually making Toulon, the only ship from Malta to do so during the siege.[34]
On 3 September, with his men dying of starvation and disease at the rate of more than 100 a day, Vaubois called a council of his officers at which they unanimously decided to surrender.
Aftermath
The terms of the surrender were absolute: the island, its dependencies, fortifications and military supplies were all turned over to British control. This included the ships of the line Athenien and Dégo and the frigate Carthagénaise (these were all French ships previously captured from the Order), although only Athenien was of sufficient standard to be incorporated into the Royal Navy, becoming HMS Athenienne. The other ships were broken up in their berths. The British also took two merchant ships and a variety of smaller warships.[43]
The capture of Malta gave control of the central Mediterranean to Britain and was an important step in the invasion and liberation of Egypt from French rule in 1801.[44]
An essential condition of the Treaty of Amiens in the same year, which brought an end to the French Revolutionary War, was that the British leave Malta. The Napoleonic Wars with the French Empire began soon afterwards, in part due to the unwillingness of the United Kingdom to comply with this clause of the treaty. The Russian Tsar Alexander I had a long-standing claim to the island as titular head of the Knights of St. John, and demanded that it be turned over to Russian control before agreeing to any alliance with Britain. Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger flatly refused, and the Russians backed down, agreeing to an anti-French alliance.[45]
The island remained in British hands until
References
- ^ a b Montgomery, Robert (1837). History of the British Possessions in the Mediterranean: Comprising Gibraltar, Malta, Gozo, and the Ionian Islands. Martin Whittaker & Company. pp. 148–50. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
- ^ a b c d James, Vol. 2, p. 188
- ^ a b Castillo 2006, p. 122.
- ^ Cole, p. 13
- ^ James, Vol. 2, p. 151
- ^ a b Cole, p. 10
- ^ Cole, p. 8
- ^ Cole, p. 9
- ^ Gardiner, p. 21
- ^ Adkins, p. 13
- ^ Mostert, p. 254
- ^ Bradford, p. 187
- ^ James, Vol. 2, p. 159
- ^ Mostert, p. 272
- ^ Gardiner, p. 58
- ^ a b c Gardiner, p. 67
- ^ a b c d James, Vol. 2, p. 189
- ^ Clowes, p. 376.
- ^ a b c Clowes, p. 374
- ^ Bradford, p. 222
- ^ a b c d Gardiner, p. 68
- ^ a b c d e James, Vol. 3, p. 14
- ^ Clowes, p. 390
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1210. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Mostert, p. 365
- ^ Bradford, p. 245
- ^ Clowes, p. 419
- ^ Woodman, p. 141
- ^ Bradford, p. 247
- ^ Grocott, p. 92
- ^ Mostert, p. 366
- ^ a b James, Vol. 3, p. 16
- ^ Clowes, p. 421
- ^ a b Woodman, p. 143
- ^ a b James, Vol. 3, p. 20
- ^ Bradford, p. 249
- ^ Bradford, p. 250
- ^ Mostert, p. 374
- ^ Bradford, p. 251
- ^ James, Vol. 3, p. 21
- ^ "The lifting of the 1565 Siege of Malta – Joseph F. Grima". Times of Malta. 4 September 2022. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
- ^ Clowes, p. 422
- ^ Clowes, p. 423
- ^ Gardiner, p. 78
- ^ Mostert, p. 461
- ^ Gardiner, p. 70
Bibliography
- Adkins, Roy & Lesley (2006). The War for All the Oceans. Abacus. ISBN 0-349-11916-3.
- ISBN 1-84022-202-6.
- Castillo, Dennis Angelo (2006). The Maltese Cross: A Strategic History of Malta Issue 229 of Contributions in military studies. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313323294.
- ISBN 1-86176-013-2.
- Cole, Juan (2007). Napoleon's Egypt; Invading the Middle East. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781403964311.
- Gardiner, Robert, ed (2001) [1996]. Nelson Against Napoleon. Caxton Editions. ISBN 1-86176-026-4.)
{{cite book}}
:|author=
has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - Grocott, Terence (2002) [1997]. Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Era. Caxton Editions. ISBN 1-84067-164-5.
- ISBN 0-85177-906-9.
- ISBN 0-85177-907-7.
- Mostert, Noel (2007). The Line upon a Wind: The Greatest War Fought at Sea Under Sail 1793–1815. Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-7126-0927-2.
- ISBN 1-84119-183-3.