Cut off ear drove Brits to war
One of the most bizarre wars ever fought was the War for Jenkins’ Ear in 1739. This war effortlessly fits into a list of the most bizarre wars ever, such as the Cauldron War (1783), the 335-year-old Scilly War between England and the Netherlands or the War for the stray dog (1925). Why did this war arise? And what did an ear have to do with the clatter of arms that followed?
The incident with Jenkins’ ear (April 1731)
In April 1731 there was a nasty incident in the West Indies, or America, which eight years later led to the Anglo-Spanish War (1739–1748). In present-day Jamaica, a Spaniard cut off the ear of a British captain, the Welshman Robert Jenkins. Because of alleged smuggling, Jenkins’ merchant ship was grafted by the Spaniards. The boarding was not something that shocked the British. After the Spanish-English War (1727–1729), it was agreed in the Treaty of Seville, which ended this war, that the Spaniards could check British ships in America for contraband, in other words: smuggling.
What happened after that was not agreed in writing and went beyond the bounds of decency. The captain of the Spanish ship, Juan de León Fandiño, or a certain Lieutenant Dorce, as Benjamin Franklin’s periodic reports the Pennsylvania Gazette (the sources mention different names) had Jenkins tied to a mast and cut off his ear with his sword. The Spaniards then played a little with Jenkins ear, only to throw it back at him, with the message to show his severed ear to King George II of England. Jenkins, according to a source at the time, followed this advice.
“When Jenkins was subsequently released, he sailed with his ship Rebecca to Havana. When the Spaniards realised this, they ordered him to go back to England immediately. If not, the Rebecca (Jenkins’ ship) would be set on fire. After a difficult journey, Jenkins’ ship arrived on the river Thames on 11 June 1731. The captain reported to the court of George II and presented his complaint to King George II”.
The British take revenge… (1739)
The British did not forget the ear incident. British public opinion was strongly against the Spanish in these years anyway, because they committed more atrocities and war crimes. In the years that followed, the Jenkins story turned out to be a fine episode for the then British opposition in parliament to the Robert Walpole government (1676–1745), known as the first British Prime Minister in English history, in the period 1721–1742. The opposition felt that Warpole was too soft on the Spanish. Warpole supported the Spaniards during the War of the Polish Succession (1733–1738). In 1738, the Tory opposition used Jenkins’ dramatic story in the House of Commons to incite the peace-loving Walpole cabinet to wage war against Spain.
In the 1730s, various talks took place between Spanish and British diplomats to take the cold out of the air between the two countries, but in vain. Then, on 23 October 1739, the War for Jenkins’ Ear broke out, proclaimed by Walpole and also known as the Anglo-Spanish War. This war turned into the Austrian War of Succession (1740–1748). That war, concluded in 1748 with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, resulted in free trade for the British in the colonies of America.
