After a brief peace, the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1701 had renewed French support for the Jacobites.
In 1708 James Stuart, later to be known as the Old Pretender, sails from Dunkirk with 6000 French troops in almost 30 ships of the French navy.
The Royal Navy, under Admiral George Byng, thwarts their intended landing in the Firth of Forth, pursues the French fleet and forces their retreat round the north of Scotland.
The French lose ships and most of their men in shipwrecks on the way back to Dunkirk.
