Richard Boyle, 2nd Viscount Shannon, English field marshal and politician, Governor of Portsmouth (b. 1675)
Field Marshal Richard Boyle, 2nd Viscount Shannon PC (1675 – 20 December 1740) was a British army officer and statesman. After serving as a junior officer at the Battle of the Boyne during the Williamite War in Ireland and at the Battle of Landen during the Nine Years' War, he commanded a brigade of grenadiers during the storming of Vigo during the War of the Spanish Succession. During this engagement the entire French fleet, under the command of the Marquis de Château-Renault, together with the Spanish galleons and transports under Manuel de Velasco, were either captured or destroyed. He also took part in a successful raid on Barcelona three years later. He went on to serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Irish Army throughout the 1720s and 1730s.
1740Dec, 20
Richard Boyle, 2nd Viscount Shannon
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Events on 1740
- 8Apr
Action of 8 April 1740
War of Jenkins' Ear: Three British ships capture the Spanish third-rate Princesa, taken into service as HMS Princess. - 13Jun
Siege of St. Augustine (1740)
Georgia provincial governor James Oglethorpe begins an unsuccessful attempt to take Spanish Florida during the Siege of St. Augustine. - 11Jul
Jews
Pogrom: Jews are expelled from Little Russia. - 9Oct
1740 Batavia massacre
Dutch colonists and various slave groups begin massacring ethnic Chinese in Batavia, eventually killing 10,000 and leading to a two-year-long war throughout Java. - 20Oct
War of the Austrian Succession
Maria Theresa takes the throne of Austria. France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony refuse to honour the Pragmatic Sanction and the War of the Austrian Succession begins.