Sir George Rooke

Sir George Rooke , 1650-1709, English admiral. In the War of the Grand Alliance he defeated a French fleet under the comte de Tourville in the battle of La Hogue (1692) and by good judgment saved part of his convoy from Tourville's attack off Cape St. Vincent (1693). In the War of the Spanish Succession his expedition to Cádiz in 1702 was unsuccessful, but he destroyed the Spanish silver fleet off Vigo, captured Gibraltar (1704), and won over superior French forces at Málaga (1704).

Bibliography: See his journal for 1700-1702 (ed. by O. Browning, 1897).

Lagos, battle of, 1693. On 17 June 1693 off Lagos in southern Portugal, Sir George Rooke, escorting a convoy of 400 vessels to the Mediterranean, was attacked by the French admiral de Tourville with a vastly superior force. One hundred English and Dutch merchantmen were lost.

Rooke, George (1650–1709). Admiral. One of the most successful naval commanders of his day, promoted admiral in 1690, Rooke was unusual among his naval contemporaries in being a Tory and was linked, through two of his three marriages, with the prominent Tory earl of Nottingham, William III's secretary of state (north) and de facto navy minister 1689–94. Rooke was at Bantry Bay (1689), Beachy Head (1690), and La Hogue (May/June 1692), where he distinguished himself and gained his knighthood. A year later he commanded the ill-fated 300-ship Smyrna convoy, but escaped blame for this débâcle. An MP for Portsmouth 1698–1708, Rooke held a command with the Dutch at the Copenhagen Sound in 1700 which called for prudent diplomacy between Denmark and Sweden. In 1702 he burnt a Franco-Spanish fleet at Vigo, and in August 1704 commanded at the capture of Gibraltar, subsequently fighting a bitter though drawn battle with the French Toulon fleet off Malaga. His success invited the jealousy of the Marlborough faction and this command proved his last.

David Denis Aldridge