The Destruction of the Soleil Royal at the Battle of La Hougue, 1692
Adriaen van Diest · Public domain
This painting by Adriaen van Diest depicts the burning of the Soleil Royal, flagship of the French fleet, during the naval disaster of La Hougue between 29 May and 3 June 1692. Admiral de Tourville, tasked with covering a planned landing in England, had to engage his 44 ships against an Anglo-Dutch fleet of 89, losing a total of fifteen ships of the line burned in the roadstead of Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue and at Cherbourg. This disaster forced Louis XIV to permanently abandon any plan to invade England on behalf of the Jacobite claimant James II.