not declare war on England until February 1656. Shortly afterwards, a fleet of 49 English warships manned by 10,000 sailors and soldiers sailed through the Straits and reconnoitred Gibraltar. Although they lacked a viable landing force and took no action, Oliver Cromwell expressed interest in its capture: "if possessed and made tenable by us, would it not be both an advantage to our trade, and an annoyance to the Spaniards, and enable us [to] ... ease our own charge?" In 1693, during the Nine Years' War, in which Spain and England were allies, the remnants of an English-Dutch escort squadron under the command of Admiral Sir George Rooke took refuge at Gibraltar, pursued by the French, after losing the Battle of Lagos Bay. Eleven years later, Rooke was to return to Gibraltar to capture it. was lost in a fierce storm in February 1694 off Gibraltar. There were two survivors from a crew of 560. War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14) In November 1700, Charles II of Spain died childless. The dispute over who should succeed him – the Bourbon Prince Philip of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV of France, or the Habsburg Archduke Charles of Austria – soon plunged Europe into a major war. Louis XIV supported Philip. England, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Savoy and some of the German states supported Charles, fearing that Philip's accession would result in French domination of Europe and the Americas. In accordance with Charles II's will, Philip was proclaimed king as Philip V of Spain and allied his new kingdom with France. The following February, the War of the Spanish Succession broke out when French forces arrived in the Spanish Netherlands and expelled the Dutch from the barrier towns. In May 1702, England's Queen Anne formally declared war on France. Spain thus became a target for the Anglo-Dutch-Austrian alliance. The confederates' campaign was pursued by land and by sea. The main land offensive was pursued in the Low Countries by the Duke of Marlborough, while naval forces under the command of Admiral Sir George Rooke harassed French and Spanish shipping in the Atlantic. In 1703, Marlborough devised a plan under which his forces would launch a surprise attack against the French and their Bavarian allies in the Danube basin while Rooke carried out a diversionary naval offensive in the Mediterranean. Rooke was instructed to attack French or Spanish coastal towns, though the choice