ABSTRACT
The Bourbon armada, the combined forces of the French Marine Royale and the Spanish Real Armada, had its roots in the Bourbon Family Compacts, a series of three treaties between France and Spain that lasted from 1733 until 1792. In early 1761, Louis XV and the new Spanish king Carlos III agreed to revive their alliance against Britain. France’s foreign minister Choiseul and the Spanish ambassador Jeronimo Grimaldi signed the Third Bourbon Family Compact in Paris on August 15, 1761. Grimaldi’s task was to rebuild the Spanish fleet along the same lines as the French fleet, so they could operate in unison. Jean Maritz followed the new French guidelines for gun sizes and calibers, so that the older Spanish hodge-podge of naval guns was replaced by a standardized set of cannon that could fire more accurately and at longer ranges.
