02 Blood's Revolution by Angus Donald

Author:Angus Donald [Donald, Angus]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781785764042
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction
Published: 2018-10-17T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

18 May 1688: Palace of White Hall

‘Absolutely not!’ said Lord Dartmouth. ‘I must make clear my strongest opposition to the idea. As Admiral of the Fleet, I may tell you categorically that the Royal Navy needs no help at all from the French service. The idea is preposterous – indeed it is insulting. We are perfectly capable of patrolling the Channel without the assistance of even a single French sloop. No. Never. Joint operation, joint command, forsooth!’

The Red Audience Room was surprisingly hot. But it was not merely the dense crowd of courtiers and ministers around the King’s throne that made it so warm that spring morning. The twin fireplaces had been lit at dawn when it was chilly. But now, at eleven of the clock, the sun had come bursting through the clouds and, although it was only mid-May, the shafts of strong, bright sunlight lancing in through the big audience chamber windows made it feel more like the middle of a blissful August.

‘It was merely a suggestion, your lordship,’ said Monsieur Barillon, with a smile and a disarming Gallic shrug. ‘I was merely suggesting that a joint Anglo-French naval force would make a better job of guarding these busy sea lanes. Merely as a means of guaranteeing your protection, Majesty, if, for example, the Dutch were to attempt to raid England again, or even, Heaven forfend, to attempt an invasion.’

‘We are quite capable of protecting ourselves,’ snapped Lord Dartmouth, ‘if the Dutch – or, indeed, if any other nation – should attempt to breech our defences.’

King James frowned. He had listened carefully to the French Ambassador’s proposal and it had seemed quite reasonable. According to Sunderland’s spies, there was increased activity in the large port of Hellevoetsluis, the home of the Dutch grand fleet, twenty miles southwest of The Hague. It looked as if the United Provinces were fitting out ships and might be contemplating another raid on the coast of England, as they had done successfully in the past. But then, perhaps the Dutch were not planning anything of the kind: Sunderland’s agents were notoriously unreliable, indeed, some had been discovered to be supplying information to both King James’s chief minister and the Dutch Stadtholder, William of Orange; some grossly exaggerated the information they had; and some, apparently, fabricated their reports entirely to extract easy money from their gullible English paymasters.

In truth, James was not concerned about the threat of a Dutch raid: despite their continued rivalries, the two countries were not at war, nor were they particularly hostile to each other. More concretely, James had spent a good deal of money over the past three years improving the defences of the coastal forts in the Thames Estuary and in all the major ports along the eastern seaboard. If the Dutch fleet did decide to venture out of Hellevoetsluis and cross the North Sea in arms, they would receive a shock when they came into range of the powerful new cannon in the English fortresses.

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