the region, who were supplemented by civilian refugees which had fled the settlement. The Marquis of Villadarias also made plans to reinforce his army with 8,000 more men in anticipation of an upcoming Bourbon siege of Gibraltar. Aware that the Spanish would soon lay siege to Gibraltar, Prince George set about reinforcing the settlement's fortifications and garrison. In late September, the Marquis of Villadarias began an investment of Gibraltar, being reinforced by 3,000 French soldiers on 4 October. Over the next month, he launched several assaults on the settlement, inflicting numerous casualties on the defenders. After receiving supplies from Leake on 21 October, the garrison repulsed a major Franco-Spanish assault on 11 November. The siege soon settled into a stalemate, punctuated by naval engagements and another failed Bourbon assault on 7 February 1705. It was eventually abandoned on May 1705, and Gibraltar would remain under Grand Alliance control for the rest of the war. According to Canadian historian Nicholas Tracy in his 2007 work Nelson's Battles: The Triumph of British Seapower, the naval engagement off Málaga "established in both British and French tactical thinking the absolute importance of maintaining the defensive strength of a well-ordered line of battle." Naval officers in both navies proceeded to place a greater emphasis on training their crews in gunnery skills after the engagement, while the French Navy's belief in the "defensive power of a well-ordered line" was reinforced as a result of the battle. Though both sides had fire ships at their disposal, none were expended during the battle, a fact which Tracy claims was a consequence of 18th-century naval battles increasingly taking place in the open sea (as opposed to their 17th-century counterparts, many of which prominently featured the use of fire ships). By the late 18th century, fire ships had largely fallen out of use among the naval powers of Europe. References Notes Footnotes Bibliography 1704 in Europe Battle of Velez-Malaga History of the province of Málaga Naval battles involving England Naval battles involving France Naval battles involving the Dutch Republic Naval battles of the War of the Spanish Succession