Gibraltar and its Sieges

THE year 1704 was the year of Blenheim, that wonderful victory of Marlborough’s which dissipated Lewis the Fourteenth’s dreams of universal empire. As stars are extinguished in the light of dawn, so in the lustre of this great triumph England’s minor successes by sea and land were forgotten. And to this day, while most men remember when Blenheim was won, few are mindful of the year in which Gibraltar was taken.