Battle of Rio de Janeiro (1710)

The 1710 Battle of Rio de Janeiro was a failed raid by a French privateering fleet on the Portuguese colonial city of Rio de Janeiro in August 1710, during the War of the Spanish Succession. The raid was a complete failure; its commander, Jean-François Duclerc, and more than 600 men were captured. French anger over the Portuguese failure to properly hold, release, or exchange the prisoners contributed to a second, successful raid, the following year.

Duclerc was killed while in Portuguese captivity on 18 March 1711; his killers (and their reason for killing him) are unknown.Boxer, p. 91

See also Portugal in the War of Spanish Succession

References

Boxer, Charles Ralph. The golden age of Brazil, 1695-1750: growing pains of a colonial society