THE Royal Navy foiled French plans to invade Britain in two decisive sea-battles during 1759, at Lagos in Portugal and Quiberon Bay near St Nazaire, and Britain’s ally Prussia forced the French into further retreat in mainland Europe; still more relief came in 1762, when Empress Catherine withdrew Russia from the war. Meanwhile, Robert Clive defeated France’s ally the Nawab of Bengal in 1757,* Quebec was taken by James Wolfe in 1759, and French and Spanish Caribbean islands were in British hands by 1762.

Amidst this exhilarating success, however, George III, who had succeeded his grandfather in 1760, abruptly ousted Pitt, and empowered the unpopular Earl of Bute to broker the Treaty of Paris in 1763 – which was timid, and squandered many of Pitt’s hard-won psychological and territorial gains. When Bute’s successor Lord Grenville, in trying to recoup the costs of the war with fresh taxes, provoked the Boston ‘tea party’ of 1773,* the glory of the Seven Years’ War was already a fading memory.