The successes obtained by the Duke of Marlborough in Flanders and Germany led to an attempt to place the Archduke Charles of Austria on the throne of Spain by force of arms. In the former year Gibraltar had been captured by the combined English and Dutch fleets, and in connexion with these events the THIRTY-SIXTH regiment was embarked from Ireland in April 1705, in order to proceed with the force under the Earl of Peterborough. The design of this expedition was either to aid the Duke of Savoy in driving the French out of Italy, to make an attempt on Naples and Sicily, or to further the progress of the Archduke in Spain. The fleet arrived at Lisbon in June, and additional forces were embarked; at the same time the Archduke Charles went on board the fleet to share in the toils and dangers inseparable from the enterprise. From Lisbon the expedition proceeded to Gibraltar, where it was joined by the Prince of Hesse Darmstadt and a reinforcement from the garrison. The fleet next proceeded to the bay of Altea, in Valencia, and there the officers and soldiers had opportunities of observing the attachment of the inhabitants of that part of Spain to the Austrian Prince. A thousand Catalonians and Valentians who had thrown off their allegiance to the house of Bourbon, and had acknowledged the Archduke Charles as the Sovereign of Spain, seized on the town of Denia, while others made demonstrations of giving effectual aid to the expedition; such a spirit of enterprise was evinced by King Charles, the Earl of Peterborough, the Prince of Hesse Darmstadt, and others, that both officers and men became imbued with the ardent zeal of their superiors, and resolved to effect something great and remarkable.