Battle of the Boyne (1690): William III Defeats James II

The Battle of the Boyne was fought on 1 July 1690 (Old Style) between the armies of two rival kings: the Protestant William III and his deposed Catholic father-in-law, James II. William’s victory on the River Boyne in eastern Ireland drove James back to France, opened the road to Dublin and became one of the most celebrated, and contested, events in Irish and British history.

Background

The Glorious Revolution of 1688–89 removed James II from the English throne, but Ireland stayed largely loyal to him. Its Catholic majority hoped that a Catholic king would restore land and rights lost in the 17th century, and the lord deputy, Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnell, controlled most of the country. James landed at Kinsale in March 1689 with French officers, money and arms.

For Louis XIV of France, Ireland was a useful second front in the wider Nine Years’ War against the coalition that William led. For William, it was a dangerous distraction from the war in Flanders. After the Jacobite failure at the Siege of Derry in 1689 and a disappointing campaign by the elderly Duke of Schomberg, William decided to go to Ireland himself. He landed at Carrickfergus on 14 June 1690.

The armies

William commanded roughly 36,000 men, a multinational force that included English, Scottish and Ulster Protestant regiments, Dutch troops such as the elite Blue Guards, Danish mercenaries and French Huguenot exiles. It was well paid, well supplied and strong in artillery.

James had about 23,000 to 25,000 men. Many of his Irish infantry were newly raised and poorly armed, but his Irish cavalry was good. A French brigade of some 6,000 to 7,000 men, under the Comte de Lauzun, was the most professional part of his army. James chose to defend the line of the Boyne, a river north of Dublin with several fords around the village of Oldbridge, a few miles west of Drogheda.

The position was not ideal. The Boyne was fordable in several places at low tide, and a loop in the river meant that a flanking force crossing upstream could threaten the road to Dublin behind James’s army. Some of James’s officers favoured retreating further and fighting a delaying war, but James was reluctant to abandon Dublin without a battle.

The battle was unusual because both rival kings were present in person, each claiming to be the lawful ruler of the three kingdoms. It was also a truly European battle: William’s army spoke English, Dutch, German, Danish and French, and white paper or green sprigs worn in hats helped soldiers tell friend from foe, since uniforms on both sides were often similar.

The battle

On 30 June William was grazed on the shoulder by a Jacobite cannonball while reconnoitring the river, and rumours of his death briefly reached Paris. The next morning he sent a large detachment, perhaps a quarter or more of his army under Count Meinhard Schomberg, the duke’s son, upstream to cross near Rosnaree and Slane. Fearing he would be outflanked and cut off from Dublin, James sent much of his own army, including the French, to meet them. The two forces then faced each other across a ravine and did little fighting.

Meanwhile the main Williamite attack crossed at Oldbridge. The Dutch Blue Guards waded the river under fire, followed by Huguenot and other regiments, while further downstream William himself led cavalry across. Jacobite cavalry under Richard Hamilton counter-attacked fiercely, and the old Duke of Schomberg was killed in the river. Hamilton was wounded and captured.

By the afternoon the Jacobite army was in retreat. Its cavalry and the French units covered the withdrawal, so the defeat did not become a massacre. William was criticised by some for not pursuing more vigorously, but his own army was tired and much of it had spent the day crossing a river under fire. Casualties were relatively low for so large a battle: commonly estimated at about 1,000 to 1,500 Jacobites and around 500 to 750 Williamites killed or wounded.

Key people

• William III (1650–1702): king of England, Scotland and Ireland and Dutch stadtholder, commanding in person.
• James II (1633–1701): the deposed king, who left the field early and returned to France.
• Frederick, Duke of Schomberg (1615–1690): veteran Huguenot general and William’s second in command, killed at the river.
• Richard Hamilton: Jacobite lieutenant-general who led the cavalry counter-attacks.
• Antonin Nompar de Caumont, Comte de Lauzun: commander of the French brigade.

Consequences

James rode to Dublin that night and soon sailed from Kinsale back to France. Irish Jacobites, who stayed to fight on, gave him the scornful nickname “Séamus an chaca”, roughly “James the dirt”. William entered Dublin on 6 July 1690.

The war did not end. The Jacobites, led by Tyrconnell and Patrick Sarsfield, held the line of the Shannon and repelled William’s siege of Limerick in August 1690. The decisive battle came at Aughrim on 12 July 1691, which was far bloodier than the Boyne. The Treaty of Limerick in October 1691 allowed thousands of Jacobite soldiers, the “Wild Geese”, to leave for France.

The victory nonetheless had major effects. It confirmed William on the throne, reassured his European allies in the Nine Years’ War and opened the way to the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland, in which a Protestant landed elite dominated the country and the Penal Laws restricted Catholics.

The battlefield today

The site of the battle lies near Oldbridge in County Meath, about 5 kilometres west of Drogheda. The Irish state restored Oldbridge House, an 18th-century mansion on the battlefield, as a visitor centre that opened in 2008. Visitors can walk along the river where the main crossing took place and see displays of weapons and models of the battle.

The site has also become a place of reconciliation. Political leaders from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, including unionists and nationalists, have visited it together since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, presenting the battle as shared history rather than only a source of division.

Myths and facts

The Twelfth of July. The battle was fought on 1 July Old Style, which is 11 July in the modern calendar, not 12 July. The Twelfth originally also honoured Aughrim, fought on 12 July 1691 Old Style. Over time the Boyne absorbed the date.

A war of religion only? The battle is remembered as Protestant against Catholic, but it was also part of a European war. Catholic Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor were William’s allies against France, and Pope Innocent XI, who died in 1689, had been openly hostile to Louis XIV.

Timeline

• 1689, 12 March: James II lands at Kinsale.
• 1689, 28 July: The Siege of Derry is relieved.
• 1690, 14 June: William III lands at Carrickfergus.
• 1690, 30 June: William is slightly wounded by a cannonball.
• 1690, 1 July: Battle of the Boyne; Williamite victory.
• 1690, 6 July: William enters Dublin.
• 1691, 12 July: Battle of Aughrim.
• 1691, 3 October: The Treaty of Limerick ends the war.

Why it matters

The Boyne decided that Ireland would be ruled by William’s Protestant settlement rather than by a restored Catholic Jacobite king. Its anniversary, marked by Orange Order parades every July, keeps it central to unionist identity in Northern Ireland, while for many Irish nationalists it symbolises conquest and dispossession.