Sir William Langhorne, 1st Baronet - Tenure As Agent of Madras - French Siege of St Thome

French Siege of St Thome

In 1670, England under Charles II withdrew from the Triple Alliance and concluded peace with the French. Hostilities broke out with the British taking the side of the French against the Dutch thereby triggering the Third Anglo-Dutch War.

Hostilities were triggered on the Coromandel Coast when a French fleet of twelve ships of the newly established French East India Company commanded by Admiral De La Haye landed with three hundred men along the coast of St Thome and besieged the town which was under the sovereignty of Golconda. In July 1672, St Thome was stormed compelling the Sultan of Golconda to approach the British at Madraspatnam. The factors at Madras, who were Protestants like the Dutch, secretly nourished pro-Dutch and anti-French sympathies. But the alliance that the British had with the French in Europe landed them in a dilemma. William Langhorne, the Agent of Madras, despite his hatred of the French, chose to remain inactive.

In the meantime, a Dutch fleet under Rickloff Van Goens, the Governor-General of Dutch India, laid siege to St Thome but were unsuccessful. An engagement took place between the Dutch fleet of fourteen ships and a British fleet of ten ships on the 22 August 1673 in which three ships belonging to the British East India Company were sunk.

The French at St Thome who expected the British to help them against the Dutch were disheartened. They strengthened their fortifications at St Thome and established a new camp at Triplicane thereby posing a direct threat to the British settlement at Madras. The British held a consultation on 2 February 1674, but before the authorities could come to a conclusion of the proposed course of action, information of the peace concluded between England and Holland reached Fort St George thereby bringing hostilities to an end. The French at St Thome surrendered to the Dutch on 16 August 1674 who in turn handed over the city to the authorities of the Sultan of Golconda thereby bringing the hostilities to an end. Triplicane was liberated in 1672 and made over to the British East India Company at an annual rent of 50 pagodas.