Lably
Skip to content

Battle of Stromboli

  • 8 min read
  • 4 chapters

Explore on Lably

ToursExplore Lably’s 3D tours

Background

At the end of the Franco-Spanish War, the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 provided for Louis XIV to marry Maria Theresa, the eldest daughter of Philip IV of Spain, who was to bring a substantial dowry to Louis and who renounced her right to inherit the Spanish throne. The dowry was never paid. On the death of Philip IV in September 1665, his infant son Charles II of Spain the child of Philip's second wife Mariana of Austria was proclaimed king. Mariana's nearest male relative, the Emperor Leopold might therefore have had a claim to the Spanish throne if Charles died childless, so Louis therefore claimed that, since Maria Theresa's dowry had not been paid, her renunciation was invalid, and under an obscure Netherlands law, that as child of Philip IV's she rather than Charles II should have inherited, and that Maria Theresa's rights "devolved" to him as her husband. The French invasion of the Spanish Netherlands in 1667 in the War of Devolution was initially very successful, with the ending of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch began discussions with England and Sweden on creating a diplomatic alliance to protect Spain against France. The subsequent the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle signed in May 1668 gave Louis XIV much less Spanish territory than he had expected, and his resentment of the Dutch intervention decided him to detach England and Sweden from their alliance with the Dutch and prepare for war against the United Netherlands.

France then invaded the United Netherlands in May 1672, initiating the Franco-Dutch War. Louis however refused a Dutch offer of very favourable peace terms made in June 1672, and the Dutch retreated behind the Dutch Water Line, a barrier of inundations, and prepared to resist the French by land and sea. In July 1674, the city of Messina in Sicily had revolted against Spanish rule and then asked for French protection. A small French squadron with a few troops and limited food supplies was sent to Messina in September 1674, but it withdrew before the year end in the face of a Spanish fleet of 22 ships and numerous galleys. A stronger French force of 20 ships, including nine ships of the line, and supply convoy managed to break through the Spanish blockade and defeat the more numerous Spanish fleet in a battle off the Lipari Islands on 11 February 1675, capturing one Spanish warship, and it brought the Spanish blockade of Messina to an end and provided considerable food supplies to the city. This battle is sometimes referred to as the First Battle of Stromboli.

The Spanish then asked for Dutch assistance. Michiel de Ruyter was sent to the Mediterranean with eighteen larger warships and a number of smaller vessels although, because Dutch resources had been strained by the continuing Franco-Dutch War, these were not fully manned and de Ruyter thought the force was insufficient. After waiting for two months on the Spanish coast for the supplies promised by the Spanish authorities and for a Spanish squadron to join him, de Ruyter sailed for Sicily at the year end with only one Spanish ship added to his fleet. This delay may have saved Messina, as its food supplies were short and, had de Ruyter not been delayed, the Dutch fleet may have prevented its reprovisioning. The news that de Ruyter was on his way prompted the French viceroy of Messina, firstly to send a force to attack Augusta by land and sea, as its capture would deny the Dutch a suitable harbour near Messina and, secondly, to send Duquesne to France to escort a convoy that would reprovision Messina.

At the time of de Ruyter arrival in Sicily in early January 1676, most of the larger French warships were absent from Messina with Duquesne, who was escorting the convoy to Sicily, and only the smaller ones remained at Messina under Lieutenant-Général Guillaume d'Alméras. However, de Ruyter was unable to attack Messina because of contrary winds and, on 7 January 1676, while cruising near the Lipari Islands, he encountered the French fleet led by Duquesne and the convoy it was escorting.

Sign in to keep reading

3 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Military leaders and theorists

PompeyRoman general and statesman (106–48 BC)Heinrich HimmlerGerman Nazi leader of the SS (1900–1945)Mark AntonyRoman politician and general (83–30 BC)Douglas MacArthurUnited States Army general (1880–1964)Ulysses S. GrantCivil War general, U.S. president from 1869 to 1877HannibalCarthaginian general and statesman (247–183/181 BC)