Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy (13 September 1666 – 16 August 1732) was a Royal Navy officer of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

While conveying the ships he met with the squadron of René Duguay-Trouin in late August, chasing him until dusk before returning to shepherd the convoy.

Hardy became first captain to Sir John Leake in the Mediterranean in 1708, assisting in the transport of Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel to Spain for her marriage to the important British ally Archduke Charles, and participating in the capture of Cagliari and assault on Minorca.

[3][9] Serving in Captain John Benbow's squadron, he sailed from Norway protecting a convoy of ships carrying masts in October.

[3] With the War of the Spanish Succession ongoing, in Pembroke Hardy formed part of Admiral Sir George Rooke's Grand Alliance fleet off the coast of Spain.

Pembroke and the 70-gun ship of the line HMS Lenox bombarded the fort guarding the landing location, and the Anglo-Dutch army successfully got ashore.

The French consul boasted to him that the Spanish treasure fleet, commanded by Vice-Admiral François Louis Rousselet de Châteaurenault, had recently arrived from the West Indies and was sheltering off Vigo.

[3][20] The biographer Stephen Leake wrote of Hardy in this period that he was "so ignorant of sea affairs that he did not know one rope from another", a claim that the historian John Charnock rebuffs.

In October Hardy took a squadron of three ships[Note 4] to Tangier, Morocco, to present some diplomatic papers, while the rest of Shovell's fleet returned to England.

Dilkes subsequently received word of a Spanish force nearby, and on 12 March the squadron attacked and captured two enemy warships and an armed merchant ship,[Note 5] although the surrender occurred before Hardy could reach the fight.

[3][23][25] Vice-Admiral Sir John Leake took command in the Mediterranean in 1705, and Hardy joined him in February, again serving in Dilkes's squadron.

[3][26] In October 1706 Hardy was appointed a commodore and given command of a small squadron[Note 6] with which to protect merchant ships travelling through the Bay of Biscay and to the west of the English Channel.

[26] Hardy continued in command of his squadron into 1707, contending with the poor weather in the area and occasionally escorting convoys from Ireland to England.

Hardy was to stay with the convoy until it was safely away from the Channel, and then protect shipping returning from Portugal, with his orders being updated every ten days from Plymouth.

They occasionally caught sight of French privateers, but these vessels stayed at a safe distance from Hardy's squadron which was slowed by heavy biological growth on their hulls.

[37] Hardy formed line of battle and began a chase of Forbin, but the French force was far ahead of him and by the morning of 11 September he had lost contact with them.

[37] The Lord High Admiral, Prince George of Denmark, subsequently charged Hardy with "neglect of duty" for not continuing to chase Duguay-Trouin's squadron.

[39] The court, headed by Leake,[Note 9] fully acquitted him from blame, saying that Hardy had complied with his orders to chase any French force he fell in with, and had reacted sensibly to return to the convoy.

[3][2] While the court martial was ongoing Duguay-Trouin continued to harry British merchant ships in the Channel, incensing the Cabinet who considered Hardy at fault for not stopping him.

His examination before the House of Lords in February was more in-depth and included the extra charge of refusing to convoy a merchant ship from Plymouth to Portsmouth, but Hardy was again acquitted of blame.

[2][3][42] Leake, influenced by Churchill, subsequently demonstrated his support of Hardy by appointing him as first captain of his flagship for the Mediterranean, the 90-gun ship of the line HMS Albemarle.

[Note 11][2][3][42] Despite this sign of naval approval, Hardy's appointment was not embraced by many of Leake's inner circle, who thought him "unpopular, a coward, and an incompetent seaman".

Elizabeth Christine was the intended wife of Britain's ally Archduke Charles of the Holy Roman Empire, who was fighting for the kingship of Spain.

Soon after an allied army arrived to assault the island; Leake split off part of his fleet to assist with this, and sailed for England with the remainder, including Hardy, on 19 September.

[Note 13][3] In April he fought a by-election to become Member of Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis as a Tory, and upon petition was granted the seat on 22 May.

At Dunkirk a French privateer squadron was fitting out to sail, and Hardy was tasked with ensuring that it did not escape, and to intercept a convoy that was expected to arrive there from Brittany.

However, before he reached Dunkirk the French escaped and captured sixteen out of twenty-two ships sailing in a convoy from Virginia, although Hardy was not blamed for this.

[Note 16] At the time of the action there was an armistice in place to allow peace negotiations to begin, and the ships were later released to avoid legal entanglements relating to their status as prizes.

[2][62][64] In the first half of 1715 Hardy was appointed second-in-command to Admiral Sir John Norris in the Baltic Fleet sent to serve in the Great Northern War.

[3][61] Paula Watson in The History of Parliament suggests that Hardy's dismissal came about because of a suspicion that he was a Jacobite; after the Hanoverian succession much of the Tory party was believed to be supportive of the deposed House of Stuart, and the new administration removed many from positions of power.