The regiment remained but a short time in England before it was ordered to proceed to Chester, where it embarked for Ireland, and in August, 1698, it arrived at Dublin. [Sidenote: 1704] On the 5th of February, 1704, Queen Anne appointed Colonel Thomas Pearce from a newly-raised regiment of foot (afterwards disbanded) to the Colonelcy of the FIFTH in succession to Thomas Fairfax. [Sidenote: 1706] [Sidenote: 1707] During the early part of the war of the Spanish succession, this regiment was stationed in Ireland; but the united English, Dutch, and Portuguese armies having, in 1706, advanced to Madrid, the enemy cut off their communication with Portugal; the troops retired from Madrid to Valencia and Catalonia, and from that period their only communication with Portugal was by sea. At the same time it was found necessary to have a small army on the frontiers of Portugal, and the FIFTH, Twentieth, Thirty-ninth, and a newly-raised regiment commanded by Colonel Stanwix, having been selected for this service, sailed from Cork on the 22nd of May, 1707, and landed at the capital of Portugal on the 8th of June[16]. This seasonable reinforcement arriving soon after the defeat of the allied army at Almanza, in the south-east of Spain, and at the moment when the enemy, having captured Serpa and Moura in the Alentejo, had seized on the bridge of Olivenza in Portuguese Estremadura, and menaced that important place with a siege, its presence revived the drooping spirits of the Portuguese. The four regiments, being the only British troops in that part of the country, were disembarked with every possible expedition, and marched to the frontiers under the command of the Marquis de Montandre, when the enemy immediately ceased to act on the offensive and retired[17]. The four regiments, having halted at Estremos, a strong town of the Alentejo, situate on an agreeable tract on the Tarra, remained in this pleasant quarter during the summer heats, and afterwards encamped in the fruitful valley of the Caya near Elvas, having detached parties on the flanks to prevent the enemy making incursions into Portugal, in which service the regiments were engaged until November, when they went into quarters in the towns on the frontiers of Portugal. [Sidenote: 1708] The regiment again took the field in the spring of 1708, and was encamped at Fuente de Sapatores between Elvas and Campo Mayor. The British division was soon afterwards increased to six regiments, by the arrival of the Thirteenth[18] and a newly-raised regiment (Paston's) from England; and the little army in the Alentejo was commanded by the Marquis de Fronteira; but the characteristic inactivity of the Portuguese occasioned the services of the FIFTH to be limited to defensive operations. It was encamped in the autumn at Campo Mayor, and afterwards proceeded into cantonments. [Sidenote: 1709]