Chapter 6 - A BELEAGURED ISLAND
 

 After an occupation lasting forty-eight years, and in spite of a benevolent rule, Britain lost Minorca to the French in 1756, for reasons which both Stanhope and Armstrong had foreseen: Britain had failed to retain the trust and cooperation of Minorcans, largely through a difference in religion, and the strength of both naval and land forces on the island had been allowed to fall to danger level.
Writing in 1740, Armstrong pointed out that of the four regiments of foot and one of artillery totalling 2,400 men on the island the effective strength for defence of Fort St Philip was only 800, after allowing for detachments at Alayor and elsewhere, men on repair work and maintenance, sick and wounded. The fleet would therefore be a vital factor in defence, but that if  'a series of misfortunes be on our side, causing us to lose naval supremacy, I see no remedy but that this island must fall. . . in the common calamity'. The words were prophetic, for these were the conditions in which Admiral Byng failed to relieve beleaguered Minorca, which cost him his life.
The French invasion of Minorca ushered in the Seven Years War, which lasted from 1756 till 1763, but Britain was not actually at war when the French troops landed. This being so, certain eighteenth-century courtesies were first observed. General Blakeney, the British commander inside Fort St Philip, sent a drum-major to Alayor in full uniform to wait upon Marshal Rlchelieu, the French commander, demanding 'the reason of the French King's troops landing in a hostile manner, in His Majesty's island of Minorca'. (The drum-major was careful to note and report on the enemy's dispositions on his return.)

The Marshal dispatched his reply a few days later, sending Blakeney a gift of dried fruits. Blakeney responded with six bottles of English beer.
The Seven Years War was a world war, in which Britain and France continued their struggle for empire in North America and the East. At the time of the attack on Minorca, British fortunes were at a low ebb for she had suffered reverses in Canada, and lost Calcutta to Suraja Dowlah in the same year (1756). The loss of Minorca was a serious one for Britain. In 1756 the thirteen British colonies on the American seaboard faced a line of French forts in Canada designed to prevent the British from pushing farther west. Its loss weakened the ability of Britain to break France's long supply-lines by sea to Europe.
Britain broke the uneasy truce with France in Europe in 1755 and France replied by threatening to invade England, at the same time planning to reconquer Minorca. For the latter she amassed a large fleet and army at Toulon, and as this could not be kept secret it suited France to conduct a war of nerves against Britain.
At one moment she let it be known that this fleet was to reinforce the invasion of England, and at the next there was a 'leak' that they were destined for America. The third rumour was that Minorca was the objective, but so persistent was this that it was mostly disbelieved by the British government. During 1755 this incredulity was excusable, for it appeared the French did not know themselves. Their generals, like Hitler's in a later age, began to have doubts about an invasion of England; and Louis XV was unable to order an attack on Minorca until Madame de Pompadour had selected a commander.
The choice of Admiral Byng to take a relief force to Minorca in 1756 was made on seniority rather than merit. The Honourable John Byng was the son of a distinguished admiral - Lord Torrington - and it was not always easy to succeed the famous. At the time of his appointment he was fifty-three years of age, and had not fired a shot in anger for thirty years. He was described as plump, overbearing, and rather fussy.  In his portraits he looks pompous and overdressed. But the fatal trait in his character was his dislike of responsibility, and of taking decisions.

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