This plan of the town and harbour of Mahon, St. Philip’s Castle, and its fortifications was engraved by Isaac Basire and published in Nicholas Tindal's continuation of Rapin de Thoyras's History of England.

Port Mahon was of enormous strategic importance: it was the largest natural harbour in the Mediterranean, and one of the deepest in the world.

Menorca was captured by the British in 1708. It was taken by the French in 1756 (a sequence of events leading to the execution of Admiral Byng), returned to Britain, and captured again by combined Franco-Spanish forces in 1781.

Many of the maps illustrating the History depict military actions fought by the British during the campaigns of the War of the Spanish Succession, mostly in Spain and the Low Countries.

The Allies in the context of this conflict were Spanish supporters of the Habsburg Archduke Charles of Austria, with the backing of Austrian, British, Dutch, Prussian and Portuguese troops.

Together they faced a Franco-Spanish Bourbon army. At stake was the European balance of power, which would shift dramatically if the Bourbon Philip V was allowed to unify Spain and France. A compromise peace was achieved in 1714: Philip V remained King of Spain but was excluded from the French line of succession, precluding a union between the two kingdoms.

Condition & Materials
Copper engraving, printed area measures 37 x 62 cm. Black and white, blank verso.

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Rapin's Map of Port Mahon