1708 | Political Events
Political Events
James Edward Stuart turns 20 June 10 and renews his claims to the English and Scottish thrones (see 1701). He and his supporters embark for Scotland in French ships, but the Royal Navy drives off his little fleet before it can land (see 1715).
Austria annexes the duchy of Mantua, whose territory has been laid waste by various foreign invasions; a succession of dissolute dukes have proved inept in handling the duchy's affairs and have squandered its resources; Gonzaga family rule ends after 380 years, and its final duke, Ferdinand Carlos, dies at Venice July 5.
Ghent and Bruges resume their allegiance to France in early July. Fearing that other cities will follow suit, the duke of Marlborough defeats the French July 11 at the Battle of Oudenarde with help from Eugene of Savoy. He lays siege to Lille for nearly 4 months, and the citadel surrenders in December after 30,000 combatants have lost their lives in the continuing War of the Spanish Succession.
The 5-year-old city of St. Petersburg withstands a siege by Sweden's Karl (Charles) XII, who invades the Ukraine and lays siege to the Russian fortress of Poltava on the Vorskla River 85 miles southwest of Kharkov. Russia's Peter the Great responds with a scorched earth policy, burning crops and destroying anything that might be of value to the invaders. The Cossack hetman Ivan Mazepa brings his 5,000 men to the support of the Swedes in October, but he is unable to inspire a Ukrainian revolt against Russia, and the Russians intercept an auxiliary army carrying supplies to Karl, whose hungry army is stricken with plague (see 1709).
Dahomey's king Akaba dies after a 23-year reign in which Yoruba horsemen from neighboring Oyo have gained control of his realm (see 1698). He is succeeded by Agaja, who will reign until 1732 and conquer some adjacent territories on the Gulf of Guinea coast where Europeans have erected forts to exploit the slave trade on which Dahomey has thrived.
The provincial assembly of New York condemns the administration of the colony's governor, Lord Cornbury, who has used tax revenues for his own purposes and whose arrest of the Presbyterian minister Francis Makemie last year has antagonized many citizens (see 1702). Queen Anne recalls him, but as he is about to board ship in December, his creditors have him arrested and the sheriff puts him in the common jail in Wall Street, where he will continue for nearly a year to affect women's garb (he owes £8,000 to New York merchants and shopkeepers alone). Cornbury's successor, John lord Lovelace, baron of Hurley, arrives at New York in a snowstorm December 18 after a 9-week passage and is so weak from the bitter cold he will not be well enough to take up his duties until spring. "This Coast is so terrible in Winter," he writes home, "[that] I think no Ship ought to be sent hither from England after August."