in on to the Seven Seas except round the north of Scotland.
But an enemy fleet strong enough to shut off Great Britain from the
short cuts north and south of Ireland would certainly be strong enough
to command the roundabout way as well; for it would be close to its
base on the west coast of Ireland, while ships coming round by the
north of Scotland would be far from their own. Thus Ireland, then as
now, was the key to the sea-door of Great Britain. Luckily for Great
Britain then, and for our Empire and Allies throughout the Great War,
keys are no good unless you have the hand to turn them. And, then as
now, the strong right hand that holds the key of Ireland was and is the
Royal Navy.

In 1689 William III had at last succeeded in forming the Grand Alliance
against Louis XIV, who now had enemies all round him except in little
Switzerland. But France was easily the strongest of all the Great
Powers, and she was under a single command; while Spain and Austria
were lukewarm and weak against her, the many little German countries
could not act well together, and Great Britain had many Jacobites at
home besides still more in Ireland. Thus the Dutch and British friends
of King William were the only ones to be depended on through thick and
thin.

Moreover, the Navy had grown dangerously weak under the last two Stuart
kings; and some of its men were Jacobites who knew the French king
wished to put the Stuarts on the British throne again. So, when the
great French admiral, Tourville, defeated the Dutch and British fleets
off Beachy Head in 1690, the British fought far more feebly than the
Dutch, who did as well as the best of them had done when led by the
immortal van Tromp. Luckily for the British, Louis XIV did not want to
make them hate him more than he could help, because he hoped to use
them for his own ends when he had brought them under James again.
Better still, William beat James in Ireland about the same time. Best
of all, the Royal Navy began to renew its strength; while it made up
its mind to stop foreign invasions of every kind. Even Jacobite
officers swore they would stop the French fleet, even if James himself
was on board of it. Then the tide of fortune turned for good and all.

In the spring of 1692 Louis and James, with a French and a
Jacobite-Irish army, were at La Hogue, in the north-west corner of the
Normandy peninsula, ready for the invasion of England. They had to
wait for Tourville to clear