John Byng's execution stood out as an interesting case in the development of the Royal Navy during the mid 18th century, and for good reason. Byng was the last admiral of the British fleet to have been executed in such a manner, and from the moment he stepped foot back in England after his failure at Minorca in 1756 the public had been raptured by his case. A 'political storm' is how Andrew Lambert terms the resulting press releases and public discussions, and these primary sources make for an interesting study in of themselves. We shall indulge some of that analysis of the sources, but also pay more attention on the impact of Byng's execution on the nature of the Royal Navy's admirals and their appointment. Let's begin.

An Admiral at Court

"Dans ce pays-ci, il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres." (in this country, it is good to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others)

When Voltaire wrote those words in Candide, Admiral John Byng had been laid to rest after an execution by firing squad on the Monarch in Portsmouth Harbour. He had been the subject of much attention in the previous months, and a court case had drawn involvement from all over the realm. What had Byng done to deserve such attention, and why was his trial contentious within the Royal Navy itself?

Byng had been head of the Mediterranean fleet in 1756 during the Seven Years War, when it sailed in an attempt to secure the British island of Minorca from a French invasion force. When he arrived off Gibraltar on the 2nd of May that year, he found that the French had not only managed to land an army on the island, but that they were currently besieging Fort St. Philip. Under such circumstances, Byng found it difficult to decide on his course of action. The Lieutenant-General of Gibraltar Thomas Fowke had refused Byng's request to provide a battalion to lift the siege, fearing that the French would set their sights on Gibraltar after Fort St. Philip had fallen. Gibraltar's own shore facilities were in no state for prolonged campaigning, so Byng made the decision to sail for Minorca in an attempt to strangle the French naval supply lines supporting the siege.

On the 19th of May, his squadron gave chase and engaged the following morning a French fleet under the command of the Marquis de Galissonniere. The engagement was a mess and it proved inconclusive for both sides, though Byng was particularly alarmed by how slow his ships had been to concentrate their line against the French vessels. Assembling a Council of War with his senior officers to justify the decision to break off any attempts to relieve the siege of Minorca and return to defend Gibraltar. The Council agreed on this course of action, and Byng informed the Admiralty back in London before arriving back in Gibraltar on the 20th of June. His dispatch was not particularly sombre in tone or desperate in remarks, but it did contain a general air of uncertainty about it:

"I desired the attendance of General Stuart, Lord Effingham, and Lord Robert Bertie, and Colonel Cornwallis, that I might collect their opinions upon the present situation of Minorca and Gibraltar, and make sure of protecting the latter, since it was found impracticable either to succour or relieve the former with the force we had. So, though we may justly claim the victory, yet we are much inferior to the weight of their ships, though the numbers are equal; and they have the advantage of sending to Minorca their wounded, and getting reinforcements of seamen from their transports, and soldiers from their camp; all which undoubtedly has been done in this time that we have been lying to to refit, and often in sight of Minorca; and their ships have more than once appeared in a line from our mast-heads*."*

By the time the squadron had returned to Gibraltar however, the Admiralty had found enough cause for alarum in Byng's own dispatch and previous correspondence to send a replacement admiral in the figure of Vice-Admiral Edward Hawke, who arrived on the Antelope in August to relieve Byng of command. During this lapse in action, Minorca fell to the French on the 29th of July, which alarmed Parliament and caused even greater uproar in the Admiralty. Andrew Lambert on the assessment of Byng's conduct in the Minorca affair:

"Had he but hung around and sought out the French transports, he could have paralysed the siege...Byng reached England in late July to find himself at the centre of a storm: fellow naval officers were convinced that the man who had brought such shame and discredit on their service must be a coward. In truth Byng was a brave man but lacked the moral courage to meet the challenges of high command in war. A competent captain, he was lost without the guidance of higher authority."

When Byng did return to Spithead on the 26th of July, he had in a sense been betrayed by the government office which he had served diligently on for the vast majority of his life up until then. The Admiralty had actually released Byng's letter to the press, but had edited it to make it seem as though the Admiral had been incompetent in his handling of the situation, and that his retreat to Gibraltar was poor judgement which had compromised the British position in the Mediterranean. In this way, the Admiralty utilised Byng as a scapegoat for some of their own shortcomings. First Lord of the Admiralty George Anson had given Byng fewer ships than he perhaps might have been able to spare, and had delayed dispatching the Mediterranean fleet to give greater priority to the Western Squadron guarding the English Channel from another invasion fleet (ironically, it was Hawke who commanded this Squadron whilst Byng, the only real choice for the Mediterranean fleet, had sailed late).

The Trial

The case of Admiral Byng was brought before a court which had no reason to be initially biased against his person, at least politically. The administration of William Pitt the Elder actually appointed a friendly president to preside over the prosecution, but the Admiralty was not going to be quite so merciful with one of their own. Byng's trial focused on finding him guilty of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Article of the 1749 Articles of War, which mentioned the following:

"12. Every person in the fleet, who through cowardice, negligence, or disaffection, shall in time of action withdraw or keep back, or not come into the fight or engagement, or shall not do his utmost to take or destroy every ship which it shall be his duty to engage, and to assist and relieve all and every of His Majesty's ships, or those of his allies, which it shall be his duty to assist and relieve, every such person so offending, and being convicted thereof by the sentence of a court martial, shall suffer death

13. Every person in the fleet, who though cowardice, negligence, or disaffection, shall forbear to pursue the chase of any enemy, pirate or rebel, beaten or flying; or shall not relieve or assist a known friend in view to the utmost of his power; being convicted of any such offense by the sentence of a court martial, shall suffer death."

The Court found, after Byng's own testimony, that he had not conducted the Minorca campaign with any signs of cowardice, and thus he was acquitted on that charge. However, the court were unanimously of the opinion that Byng had not done all in his power to pursue, engage, and destroy the enemy. Since Anson's Articles made no provision in the case that such negligence arose from an error in judgement, the only sentence that the court could bring upon the admiral was the most Draconian of all. Death:

"[The court finds] That the said Admiral John Byng should be shot to death on board of such ship, and at such a time as the lords of the admiralty should please to direct."

Yet this sentence was not commuted without further judicial and political intrigue. The court had also unanimously sent a letter to the board of the Admiralty asking for clemency for Byng, as the ambiguity of the Article under which they were charging him of made it a troublesome court case. The Admiralty denied this clemency, but sent the letter even higher up the chain of leadership, to King George II himself. Since the court proceedings included with the letter from the judges did not deal explicitly with the "error in judgement" that had been pointed out, king George denied clemency to John Byng, and the execution went ahead on the 14th of March, 1757.

Part 1 of 2

Edit: A lapse in my own historical knowledge caused me to name the wrong Pitt as Prime Minister.

This was awesome! Any book recommendations. I loved Aubrey maturin series.