ABSTRACT
At the outbreak of war in 1702, when the British government decided to support the Austrian claim to the throne of Spain, a joint army and naval force was dispatched on a mission to capture Cadiz. In January 1706 Peterborough went on to capture Valencia, thereby clearing his road to Madrid from the east. Galway, advancing from Portugal, achieved his main objective when he captured Madrid four months later. This major achievement should have placed the allied cause in the ascendant but, instead, Galway discovered that the sympathies of the local population were almost entirely with the Bourbons. Certainly many senior officers returned to England at that time. On 1 February 1707 the hospital officers were called forward for the coming season's campaign and ordered to join a convoy preparing to sail from Portsmouth. The Secretary at War's correspondence with senior officers who had been present in Spain at the time of Almanza continued for many months.
