The Williamite Wars
Patrick Sarsfield
The Williamite Wars is the name given to the War fought in Ireland after the Catholic English king James ll was deposed by his Dutch Protestant son-in-law Prince William of Orange in 1688, an event known in English history as the Glorious Revolution.James fled to France where he enlisted the support of King Louis XlV a fellow Catholic.
In late 1688 fighting began in Ulster, the province with the most Protestant Scottish and English settlers or planters.King James landed in Kinsale, County Cork in March 1689 and marched north with a joint army of French regulars and poorly trained Irish, to capture the Protestant fortress city of Derry which had closed its gates to Catholic troops in December 1688. This siege was lifted by British warships in July 1689.
In June 1690 King William landed at Carrickfergus, County Antrim with a large army of Dutch, German, English and Danish troops. On 1st July 1690 the Williamites won a major victory at the Battle of the Boyne and James escaped to France. As the peace terms offered to the Irish Jacobites were harsh,, the leaders such as Patrick Sarsfield felt they had little choice but to continue the fight, which had effectively become a struggle for Irish independence from Britain rather than a fight to restore James to the kingship of England, Scotland and Ireland.
The Irish successfully defended the city of Limerick (27th August 1690) after the Williamite siege guns had been intercepted by Sarsfields cavalry at Ballyneety The Irish also held most of the western province of Connacht.
Later in 1690 William left Ireland entrusting the remaining campaign to General Godbert Ginkel. In 1691 having captured the key town of Athlone, Ginkel marched into County Galway where he defeated the Irish-French army at Aughrim near Ballinasloe (12th July 1691). The French general St Ruth was killed during the battle and about 7,000 soldiers are estimated to have been killed in possibly the bloodiest battle fought on Irish soil. The city of Galway surrendered to the Williamites and the Jacobite army retreated to the city of Limerick at the mouth of the River Shannon.
After another siege during which it emerged that the French officers of the Irish-French army wanted to surrender, Sarsfield and Ginkel agreed the Treaty of Limerick (3rd October 1691) guaranteeing the safety of the civilian population of the city, a guarantee that Catholic owned land would not be confiscated and tolerance of the Catholic religion. The Treaty also guaranteed that Sarsfield and his Irish army of 10,000 men could leave Ireland along with almost 5,000 wives and children.
The Treaty was broken by the English government and within four years had begun enacting a series of laws collectively known as the Penal Laws which discriminated against Catholics and the Catholic religion.
The exile of Sarsfields army was the Flight of the Wild Geese.
