Battle of Toulon (1707)

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Toulon


caption=
partof=the War of the Spanish Succession
date=July 29 - August 21, 1707
place=Toulon, France
result=Franco-Spanish victory
combatant1=flagicon|Habsburg Monarchy Austria
flagicon|Netherlands|pri United Provinces
flagicon|Savoy Duchy of Savoy
flagicon|UK|1606 Great Britain
combatant2=flagicon|France|restauration [George Ripley, Charles Anderson Dana, "The American Cyclopaedia", New York, 1874, p. 250, "...the standard of France was white, sprinkled with golden fleur de lis...". * [http://www.anyflag.com/history/fleur23.htm] The original Banner of France was strewn with fleurs-de-lis. * [http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgdisplaylargemeta.cfm?strucID=585779&imageID=1236061&parent_id=585395&word=&s=&notword=&d=&c=&f=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&lword=&lfield=&num=0&imgs=12&total=98&pos=1&snum=] :on the reverse of this plate it says: "Le pavillon royal était véritablement le drapeau national au dix-huitième siecle...Vue du chateau d'arrière d'un vaisseau de guerre de haut rang portant le pavillon royal (blanc, avec les armes de France)." [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Flag] from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica: "The oriflamme and the Chape de St Martin were succeeded at the end of the 16th century, when Henry III., the last of the house of Valois, came to the throne, by the white standard powdered with fleurs-de-lis. This in turn gave place to the famous tricolour."] France
flagicon|Spain|1701 Spain
commander1=Victor Amadeus II of Savoy
Prince Eugene of Savoy
commander2=René de Froulay de Tessé
strength1=35,000
strength2=15,000
casualties1=10,000 dead or wounded
casualties2=UnknownThe Battle of Toulon was fought from 1707-07-29 to 1707-08-21 at Toulon, France during the War of the Spanish Succession. The forces of Austria, the Dutch Republic and Great Britain fought with the French, Spanish and Savoy forces. The French side won.

In 1707 Prince Eugene tried to take the French naval port of Toulon. Eugene had crossed the Var on July 11, and, although hampered by the negligence and inefficiency of Victor Amadeus II of Savoy, had reached Frejus, and was in touch with Shovell and the British fleet, by the 16th. But the Duke's procrastination caused further delays, and gave time for the troops which Berwick was sending home from Spain to reinforce Marshal Tessé at Toulon before the arrival of the Allies (July 26).

On August 14, Tessé retook the crucial heights of Santa Catarina, which the Allies had stormed a week earlier; and Eugene, finding his retreat menaced and little chance of taking Toulon, had to abandon his attempt (August 22), and fall back across the Var, having lost 10,000 men in this ill-fated enterprise.

The campaign's only fruit was that, in order to prevent their ships falling into the enemy's hands, the French had sunk their whole squadron of more than 50 sail in the harbour, and thereby put it quite out of their power to contest the English control of the Mediterranean.

References

External links

* [http://www.scholares.net/index.php?Gazetteer-Toulon Gazetteer Entry]