In my Britannica '98 I read an article (included below). It has one sentence I have no knowledge of:
“A contemplated invasion of England did not take place, but for a short while the French navy had control of the high seas.”
I cannot locate ANY additional information on this.
Is it fact?
Where can I find out more details?
France
Foreign policy and financial crisis.
A contemplated invasion of England did not take place, but for a short while the French navy had control of the high seas.
The real victor of the battle of Yorktown, Pa. (1781), in which the
British were defeated, was less General George Washington than Admiral Francois-Joseph-Paul de Grasse (1722-88), whose fleet had entered Chesapeake Bay. Thus, on balance, France more or less succeeded in holding its own in Europe while preserving its colonial empire.
I refuse to take seriously any historical account that totally fails to appreciate that England ceased to exist as a soverign state in 1707, and then goes on to use the terms “English” & “British” interchangably.
(Not to mention the SDMB regulations on posting copyright articles.)
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By mid 1779 the British navy had to contend with the forces not only of France but also of Spain, and even before the Spanish declaration of war on 16 June, ships of the line were being held back from the western theatre in order to secure the Channel. Spanish statesmen hoped for a short war which would secure them Gibraltar, Minorca, Jamaica and the Honduras, and believed that the only way to achieve this was an invasion of England which would rock British commercial credit and destroy the country’s capacity to fight. From their insistence sprang the invasion project of 1779, and as the combined French and Spanish fleets greatly outnumbered the British home fleet in ships of the line, the threat of it imposed stringent restrictions on British naval deployment, and set a pattern that was to be repeated in succeeding years. So long as the Channel was menaced ships could not be sent in adequate numbers to the West Indies or North America, any naval superiority established in those areas proved to be only temporary, and in the long run the safety of British possesions could not be guaranteed. A further strain was placed upon the navy by the need for an expedition each year to revictual and reinforce Gibraltar. In 1779 the allied invasion project collapsed through bad timing and the inefficieny of the Spanish fleet, but the general pattern of the war became increasingly adverse to Great Britain.
From Wars and Revolution:* Britain, 1760-1815* by Ian R. Christie ( 1982, Harvard University Press ), pgs. 119-120.
FTR, the last occasion when any part of mainland Great Britain was occupied by foreign forces was when France landed at Fishguard, Wales in 1797. You might be amused to discover that they were led by an American, William Tate.
The linked article also mentions French privateers landing at Newcastle, England in 1794.
xash: My apologies for excessive text in copyrighted article reproduction.
Perhaps my question was imprecise, or perhaps it lost something. I’ll try to refine the information I seek.
Was there a plan prepared, or in preparation during the period 1778 throught 1783 for French military forces to invade the English coast [England, being a part of Great Britain]?
If yes, what department, or what people, was charged with creating the plan? When die planning begin? Where – for example, was it the Ministry of Marine?
If yes, was any [no longer serving] British naval officer assisting with the French plannig in any way? If yes, who was this person, and what were his rank and duties when in Royal Navy?
I found another reference to an invasion plan – this time it is in a novel. Wonderful detail, replete with names and dates. But, as I wrote, in a novel. So I figure what I read is verisimilitude, not fact.
*When the naval and army needs for each objective ot the Convention are considered, it is clear that it was a Europe-centered approach to the war. The United States was not directly mentioned. The plans to invade England were a central feature and had been drawn up by French officials Sartine and Montbarey, and had been ready since 19 March, with 20,000 troops to occupy the Isle of Wight and subsequently to land at Gosport from which the Portsmouth naval arsenal and hopefully the British fleet could be destroyed by mortar fire…
…When the Spanish made clear they would not provide troops, but only limited naval support, Vergennes began to consider alternative invasion plans. This went on all through the summer of 1779. One plan after another was studied and put on hold. The situation was finally resolved in August, 1779, when the combined French and Spanish fleet could not find and destroy the English fleet protecting the British Isles, such destruction being the prerequisite for invasion. *
His reference is found in the end note - 3. Dull, Jonathan R., The French Navy and American Independence: A Study of Arms and Diplomacy, 1774-1787, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1975.