10. Britain chastised Spain for its support of the Jacobite cause
In 1719 the British Navy responded to Spanish adventurism in the Mediterranean and in northern Europe by landing 6,000 troops near the Spanish seaport of Vigo, seizing the town and port, and holding it for more than a week before boarding their ships and vanishing over the horizon. A neighboring Spanish city paid a considerable sum in tribute to the British commander in return for a guarantee that they would be unmolested by the expedition. The expedition served to demonstrate Britain’s ability to strike at the Spanish anywhere, at any time, with overwhelming force. In 1720 the Spanish signed the Treaty of The Hague, surrendering their interests in the Italian territories. Meanwhile Scottish clans continued to actively resist the attempts of the Hanoverian government to control the Highlands, with Clan leaders actively fighting the British government troops seeking to collect taxes owed to the King.
Scottish clan leaders in exile in France sent armed groups to collect taxes and rents on their estates, where they clashed with other clans loyal to the king, or simply ancient enemies from other clans. The fighting between the Scottish clans was sporadic, and marked with a ferocity which exceeded that of battles with the troops of the king. While many clan leaders were pardoned for their activities during the uprisings to that time, others were specifically excluded from the royal mercy. Following the rising of 1719 and the inter-clan fighting which followed, the British government began a pattern of persecution of those clans which had yet to take an oath of allegiance to the Hanoverian king, and the Stuarts yet again became an attractive alternative to the rule of a German prince over the Scottish people. In Scotland’s Highlands, and in smaller part in the Lowlands, opposition to the Hanoverians continued to grow.