Here Vigo
In N.A.M. Rodger’s The Command of the Seas I may have found, in the battle of Vigo, the story through which I can introduce the Stuart navy.
First some background. After the exhausting wars of the 17th century, Europe had been divided by treaty. Then the King of Spain died and named the grandson of the King of France as his successor, a notion not welcomed by many in Spain or her colonies. The French, never too concerned about laws, or treaties on paper, saw a better outcome and, since Spain was now ‘in the family’, sent troops to the Spanish Netherlands and threatened the Dutch border.
Now to the story :-
In the Caribbean, silver, some of which was ‘legitimate’ and some, which had ‘fallen of a lorry’ and been bought by the senior officers to smuggle into Spain, was being loaded into a convoy. The French insisted on escorting the convoy across the Atlantic. The Spanish were suspicious, rightly, they would ‘escort’ it to Brest and it would vanish into the French grandfather’s pockets.
For the story plot, the Spanish would now pass word to the Dutch and English of the opportunity to catch the silver at Brest, while, at the same time, informing the convoy that the Dutch and English were blockading the port.
Now back to fact. The convoy made for Vigo and had time for the Spanish customs to offload the silver, including what would have been smuggled, before the Dutch and English discover where it had gone.
The attack on Vigo was successful and, while they left empty handed, the Dutch and English had enjoyed a good bonfire and taken several French ships as prizes.
The Spanish officers had lost their smuggled silver and it now turned out that the Spanish had borrowed heavily from the money lenders in Amsterdam using the silver as security.
When the Amsterdam Dutch ask for repayment, the Spanish tell them the invasion of Vigo nullified the deal.
Spanish self satisfaction is dented, however, when the French demand payment for the ships they lost.
It’s all so intermingled it’s farcical and makes one realise the worlds of finance, trade and international politics had no real connection in the days of the Stuarts. Not like today, what!
I don’t know what point of view this will be best from but it could link to the Spanish landing at Eilean Donan and Glen Shiel in 1719, eighteen years later.