1708 in Great Britain

• 26 February – HMS Falmouth, a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line built at Woolwich Dockyard for the Royal Navy, is launched. • 13 February – Robert Harley is dismissed from his position as Secretary of State for the Northern Department and Robert Walpole becomes Secretary at War. • 11 March – Queen Anne withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation at home. This is on the advice of her ministers, who are having second thoughts about the potential loyalty of a militia with a Jacobite-French invasion fleet assembled. • 23 March – planned French invasion of Britain: James Francis Edward Stuart unsuccessfully tries to land at the Firth of Forth with a French fleet. • 1 May – the Privy Councils of England and Scotland are merged into the Privy Council of Great Britain. • 8 June – War of the Spanish Succession: Wager's Action, a naval confrontation, takes place between a British squadron under Charles Wager and the Spanish treasure fleet off Cartagena in the Caribbean Sea. Spanish galleon San José explodes and sinks with the loss of almost all her 600 crew and an estimated 8.8 million ounces troy weight in gold; her wreck is located in 2015. • 11 July – War of the Spanish Succession: allied victory under the commander John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough against the French at the Battle of Oudenarde in the Spanish Netherlands. • 18 August – War of the Spanish Succession: Capture of Menorca by British forces. and loose bolts in the supporting beams above her – in fact, the result of poor workmanship – are interpreted by the opposition as the "Screw Plot", a Whig assassination attempt. • 12 October – War of the Spanish Succession: British forces capture Lille after a two-month siege, although the citadel continues to hold out for another six weeks. Undated • Wilbury House in Wiltshire, designed by William Benson, is completed. • Edward Lhuyd becomes a Fellow of the Royal Society. • The Parliament of Great Britain passes an act prohibiting the British government from accepting plunder taken by privateers. • Merger (with consent of Parliament) of the Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies and the more recently established English Company Trading to the East Indies to form the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, known as the Honourable East India Company. ==Publications==