in the king’s name, and it was formally incorporated with the domains of the crown.  After Ferdinand and Isabella were both dead the duke, Don Juan, tried in 1506 to recover possession, and added a tenth to the list of sieges.  Thirty-four years afterward the garrison had to defend itself against a much more formidable attack (eleventh siege)—­the pirates of Algiers having determined to recover the rock for Mahomet and themselves.  The conflict was severe, but resulted in the repulse of the besiegers.  After this the Spaniards made great efforts to strengthen the place, and they succeeded so well that throughout Europe Gibraltar was regarded as impregnable.

In the course of the war of the Spanish succession, however, it was taken by a combined English and Dutch fleet under Sir George Rooke, assisted by a body of troops under Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt.  The captors had ostensibly fought in the interests of Charles Archduke of Austria (afterward Charles III.), but, though his sovereignty over the rock was proclaimed on July 24, 1704, Sir George Rooke on his own responsibility caused the English flag to be hoisted, and took possession in name of Queen Anne.  It is hardly to the honor of England that it was both unprincipled enough to sanction and ratify the occupation and ungrateful enough to leave unrewarded the general to whose unscrupulous patriotism the acquisition was due.  The Spaniards keenly felt the injustice done to them, and the inhabitants of the town of Gibraltar in great numbers abandoned their homes rather than recognize the authority of the invaders.  In October, 1704, the rock was invested by sea and land; but the Spanish ships were dispersed by Sir John Leake, and the Marquis of Villadarias fared so ill with his forces that he was replaced by Marshal Tesse, who was at length compelled to raise the siege in April, 1705.  During the next twenty years there were endless negotiations for the peaceful surrender of the fortress, and in 1726 the Spaniards again appealed to arms.  But the Conde de la Torres, who had the chief command, succeeded no better than his predecessors, and the defense of the garrison under General Clayton and the Earl of Portmore was so effectual that the armistice of June 23 practically put a close to the siege, though two years elapsed before the general pacification ensued.  The most memorable siege of Gibraltar, indeed one of the most memorable of all sieges, was that which it sustained from the combined land and sea forces of France and Spain during the years 1779-1783.  The grand attack on the place was made on the 13th September, 1782, and all the resources of power and science were exhausted by the assailants in the fruitless attempt.  On the side of the sea they brought to bear against the fortress forty-six sail of the line and a countless fleet of gun and mortar boats.  But their chief hope lay in the floating batteries planned by D’Arcon, an eminent French engineer, and built at the cost of half a million sterling.