The Treaty of Ryswick (1697)

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

1. The peace of Ryswick was a set of bilateral instruments negotiated in parallel at one congress under the mediation of Nils Lillieroot of Sweden, France concluding separately with Great Britain and with Spain on 20 September 1697, the date named as the last day for acceptance in a French memorial of 1 September, and with the Emperor and the Empire on 30 October, two days inside the term of 1 November allowed by the Franco-Spanish separate article. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Contemporary printed compilation of treaty texts: Jacques Bernard, compiler, The Acts and Negotiations, together with the Particular Articles at Large, of the General Peace, Concluded at Ryswick (London, printed for Robert Clavel and Tim. Childe, 1698), digitised copy from the Rare Books Department, Boston Public Library, Internet Archive identifier actsnegotiations00bern
2. Article IX of the Anglo-French treaty annulled the instruments of private war outright, providing that "All Letters, as well of Reprifal as of Marque and Counter-Marque; which hitherto have for any caufe been Granted on either fide, fhall be, and remain Null and Void", and made fresh letters conditional on a documented denial of right with a four-month waiting period before reprisals could issue. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Contemporary printed compilation of treaty texts: Jacques Bernard, compiler, The Acts and Negotiations of the General Peace, Concluded at Ryswick (London, 1698), Anglo-French treaty, Article IX; original spelling and printer's errors preserved from the 1698 English translation
3. Article X of the Anglo-French treaty fixed the grace periods within which captures would still be good prize at twelve days in the British and North Seas as far as Cape St Vincent, ten weeks beyond that cape and on this side of the equator, and six months beyond the Line throughout the whole world, while Article XXV of the Franco-Spanish treaty set four weeks, six weeks, ten weeks and eight months by zone reckoned from the publication of the treaty, prizes taken after the prefixed time to be restored "with a recompence for all Damages fuftained thereby". Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Contemporary printed compilation of treaty texts: Jacques Bernard, compiler, The Acts and Negotiations of the General Peace, Concluded at Ryswick (London, 1698), Anglo-French treaty, Article X, and Franco-Spanish treaty, Article XXV
4. Article VII of the Anglo-French treaty required mutual restitution of "all Countries, Iflands, Forts and Colonies wherefoever fituated" possessed before the declaration of war, the whole to be completed within six months, and Article VIII referred the competing claims in Hudson's Bay to commissioners who were to meet in London within three months of ratification and determine all differences within six months of their first meeting. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Contemporary printed compilation of treaty texts: Jacques Bernard, compiler, The Acts and Negotiations of the General Peace, Concluded at Ryswick (London, 1698), Anglo-French treaty, Articles VII and VIII
5. Later writers state that Louis XIV recognised William III as King of England and undertook to give no further assistance to James II, but the printed Article IV contains no such words: it styles William King of Great Britain throughout, binds Louis to "on no Account whatfoever difturb" him in the free possession of his kingdoms and to give no assistance "directly or indirectly, to any Enemy or Enemies", and never names James, so that the recognition is carried by styling and by negative undertaking rather than by an express clause. Disputed The sources disagree, and we say how. Contemporary printed treaty text: Jacques Bernard, compiler, The Acts and Negotiations of the General Peace, Concluded at Ryswick (London, 1698), Anglo-French treaty, Article IV
6. Whether Ryswick formally ceded the western third of Hispaniola and Tortuga from Spain to France or merely acquiesced in the French presence by deliberate omission is contested between later writers, one of whom carries both readings at once, and the 1698 English printing of the treaties contains no occurrence of Hispaniola, Tortuga, Santo Domingo, the Antilles or the West Indies in the Franco-Spanish instrument or its separate article. Disputed The sources disagree, and we say how. Contemporary printed treaty text: Jacques Bernard, compiler, The Acts and Negotiations of the General Peace, Concluded at Ryswick (London, 1698)
7. The Cartagena expedition of 1697: Bernard Desjean, Baron de Pointis, made the sailing signal and was under sail from Brest at daybreak on 7 January 1697; the whole assistance he had from the government of Saint-Domingue was about 650 buccaneers, 110 inhabitants of Saint Domingo, 170 garrison soldiers of the coast and 180 Africans; the city was stormed at the end of April and he lay there until the last of May. By his own account the plunder that could not escape him came to near upon eight or nine millions. The division ended in an extremely bitter quarrel with Governor Jean-Baptiste du Casse, who reckoned two of the eight millions belonged to the buccaneers but was shown an account in which his and their shares amounted only to about 40,000 crowns; and at the end of May the buccaneers, enraged at the small part given them, resolved to return and plunder Cartagena a second time. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Commander's printed account: An Account of the Taking of Carthagena by the French in the Year 1697... By Monsieur De Pointis, Commander in Chief (London, printed for Sam. Buckley, 1698), read in the Internet Archive copy of the Early English Books scan: "I made the sailing Signal, and was under Sail by that time it was Day, it being upon the Seventh of January, 1697"; "Seven Frigats from Eight to Twenty four Guns, on board them about Six hundred and fifty Buccaniers, One hundred and ten Inhabitants of S. Domingo, One hundred and seventy Garrison Soldiers of the Coast, and One hundred and eighty Negroes... This was all the assistance which I received from the Government of St. Domingo"; "besides near upon Eight or Nine Millions that could not escape us"; "by his Calculation, of the eight Millions, he reckon'd two of them belong'd to the Buccaniers"; "his, and the Buccaniers Shares, amounted only to about 40000 Crowns... he fell into such a Rage"; "the Buccaniers being enrag'd at the small part I gave them of the Booty... they were come to the Resolution, to return and plunder Carthagena"
8. The causation is carried as two parallel readings rather than one: Cecil Headlam's 1908 calendar preface attributes post-1697 recruitment of displaced men to the peace, stating that the Darien expedition "had been to a large extent manned by officers and soldiers of the rank and file thrown out of employment by the Peace of Ryswick" and that "the era of buccaneering, in which there had been some spice of patriotism, was therefore succeeded by an era of unmitigated piracy", while J. W. Fortescue's 1905 preface attributes the new depredations chiefly to colonial outfitting and Red Sea prize opportunity, recording that "these predatory vessels were equipped by British Colonists at various American ports, but chiefly from Rhode Island and New York". Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Calendared state papers, editors' prefaces: Cecil Headlam, editor, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 17, 1699 and Addenda 1621 to 1698 (London, 1908), preface, pages vii to lix; J. W. Fortescue, editor, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 16, 1697 to 1698 (London, 1905), preface, pages v to xxxiv