Siege of Gibraltar (1727) - End of Hostilities

End of Hostilities

Frustrated with the Count de las Torres’s obstinacy and inability to take his advice, the Spanish senior engineer, Veerboom, had left for Madrid. His proposed overland attack from the north failing, de las Torres asked his remaining engineers (Francisco Monteagut and Diego Bordick) for their opinion. Their response was blunt:

Had we found ourselves in such a position as to be worthy of being asked our opinion of the enterprise before the siege began, as we are now to be worthy of being consulted by your Excellency over its prosecution, we would have voted on nothing more than a diversionary tactic overland ... all combine to make a counter-attack so manifestly unbeatable

On 23 June (N.S.) the Spanish offered a truce.

This night a Colonel of Ireland came to the Head of the Prince’s Line and called to let them know he had a letter for Lord Portmore, but the commanding officer let him know unless retired they wou’d fire at him . Sometime after the same person came out of the zigzag beating a chammade and was admitted into the town and deliver’d Lord Portmore’s letters from M. Van der Meer, Minister of the States at the Court of Spain with a copy of the preliminary articles signed by the plenipotentiaries of the several powers of the two alliances for a suspension of arms whereupon his Lordship agreed to it and all hostilities ceased on both sides.

The next day a Colonel from the garrison crossed to San Roque, where a truce was agreed. The Spaniards were to remain encamped outside Gibraltar, but hostilities were to cease. An uneasy truce remained until the end of the Anglo-Spanish War in 1729.