were made to the regiments of infantry, namely the regiments now ranking as the SIXTEENTH (Ill. XXIV) and SEVENTEENTH, both of which were levied chiefly in or around Middlesex.114 The earliest experiences of this last regiment were not happy, for its first colonel, Solomon Richards, was casheered, together with Colonel Cunningham of the Ninth, for the failure of the attempted relief of Londonderry in 1689.

James the Second, like his predecessor, paid attention to military affairs chiefly in the expectation that his army would support him,115 should his politics bring him into collision with the nation at large. His hopes however of pitting the Army against the people were happily ill-grounded, and the very first attempt at coercion of the constitution was nobly met by passive resistance on the part of an army composed of volunteers who had never surrendered their privileges as citizens, and who, as soldiers of a free country, were bound to obey all lawful commands only.

In Ireland reviews were held of all the recently embodied regiments, and the Protestant officers and soldiers with few exceptions were dismissed,116 however deserving or of however long service. A similar course was pursued in England, though less openly, at intervals from the time of James's accession and especially at the close of the years 1685 and 1687.117

The regiment first selected in England for a trial of the temper of the soldiery was the Twelfth Foot (Ill. XXV), then in camp at Hounslow, of whom it was demanded that the officers and soldiers should engage themselves to aid in procuring the repeal of the Test Act 118 and other laws having for

114 W.O. Commission Books.

Regimental Records.

Lond. Gaz., I Jany., 1694, advertisement for a deserter who had carried off Lieut. Desborde's buff-coloured cloth breeches; possibly therefore the facings were buff.

Ellis Correspondence; Ellis to Ellis, 9 Jany., 1685/6, and 13 Octr., 1688.
Autobiog. James II.

Proceedings of House of Commons, 9 & 17 Novr., 1685.

118 The Test Act, passed in 1673, required all officers of the public service to take the Sacrament and make certain declarations as proof of their adherence to the Protestant religion, and to the "established" Church.

It is related of Colonel Kirk, of the Queen's, that when sounded about quitting

their object the assurance of Protestant ascendancy in this country. Those who were not willing to do this were ordered to lay down their arms. Instantly, as if with one mind, the whole regiment, excepting only two officers and a few Roman Catholic soldiers, laid down their arms. The King, who was himself present at the parade, paused in astonishment at the uncompromising demeanour of the troops; and then, ordering the regiment to resume its arms, he declared that for the future he should not do his soldiers the honour of inquiring their sentiments. But he made no further trial of the other regiments in camp.

Later in the year a number of Irish Roman Catholics 119 were sent as recruits for the Eighth, or Duke of Berwick's, regiment of Foot (Ill. XXVI). Lieutenant-Colonel Beaumont and the four Captains whose companies were thus to be filled,119 offered to resign their Commissions rather than receive them, believing this to be part (as it undoubtedly was) of a systematic attempt to subvert the established laws and religion of the country, more especially as their companies were complete and men would have to be summarily discharged to make room for the new comers. The five officers were placed in arrest,119 and, having been brought under escort to Windsor for trial by Court-Martial, they were cashiered. Beaumont was subsequently re-instated by William the Third; and, being promoted, commanded his old regiment for some years.

119

These events, taken in conjunction with others then much talked about,120 exhibited James's tendencies too strongly to leave any doubt on the minds of the soldiers that the individual wearer of the Crown, and the Crown itself as established by law, were at variance: and, when William of Orange accepted the invitation of a powerful party to come to England and fill the seat of the self-evicted James, the troops were ripe for the transfer of power, and followed the rest of the nation in holding to the Crown while rejecting the individual King who had broken the contract by which he had reigned. Indeed it may be reasonably asserted that to the conduct of King James's Standing Army as citizens we are indebted for the political

the Protestant Church, he replied that he "regretted to say he was pre-engaged, for "when at Tangier he had promised the Sultan of Marocco that if ever he changed "his religion he would turn Mohammedan."

119 Autobiog. Jas. II.

Reresby.

Lonsdale's Memoirs.

120 See especially Clarendon's Correspondence.

and religious freedom enjoyed in so superlative a degree by our country at this present moment, and for the consummation of a necessary Revolution without bloodshed.

But although so happy a result was secured in England, it was unfortunately not so in Ireland, where a lengthy and bloody war was shortly waged between the Williamites and the Jacobites. There is, however, this to be said; that it was a quarrel which in any case must sooner or later have burst forth because of the very nature of the protestant and English ascendancy in that country: and it was well, not only that the embers of strife should smoulder no longer, but also that the war should break out at a moment when all the horrors of a purely religious war of extermination were avoided by the political phase lent to the struggle and by the intervention of outsiders in it.

E

CHAPTER V.

THE WAR IN IRELAND.-CAMPAIGN OF 1689.

1689.

Introductory.-King James's landing in Ireland.-The state of parties.-The Irish Foot-Guards.-The siege of Londonderry.-The Inniskilling troops.—Origin of the “Inniskilling Dragoons.”—Origin of the Fifth “Royal Irish” Dragoons. -Origin of the Twenty-seventh "Inniskilling" Foot.-The skirmish near Lisnaskea. The Rout of Newtown-Butler.-The English expeditionary army.— Frederic, duc de Schonberg.—The army lands in Ireland.—State of the Irish army.-Siege of Carrickfergus.-Description of the Inniskilling troops.-The march to Dundalk, and the enemy's movements.-The Battle of Boyle.-The Camp at Dundalk.-The Commissariat Transport.-State of the army at Dundalk.-The arrest of Commissary-General Shales.-Close of the campaign.Losses of the English army.-List of the army.-Origin of the Eighteenth Foot. Of the Nineteenth, Twentieth, Twenty-second, Twenty-third, and Twenty-fourth Foot.-Origin of the Seventh Dragoon-Guards.

[For Illustrations, see Note on p. xiii.]

THE war waged in Ireland between King James and King William differed materially in character from the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth in 1685, or the Scottish troubles of 1679; all mention of these two has been omitted because they are to be regarded as purely civil wars, little better than local riots, and mostly void of instruction to the professional reader. But the contest in Ireland was no civil war, although it was in great measure a religious one. The Irishman against the Saxon, the subjugated race against the dominant race, the religion, the habits, and even the very language of the combatants differing, the one allied with Dutchmen and Danes, while a French contingent was arrayed on the side of the other ;--such was no civil

war.

The story of King James's ill-advised policy, the consequent invitation to William of Orange to cross the channel, James's flight to France in November, 1688, and William's installation in his stead under an amended constitution, are matters already mentioned, and too well known to need further repetition here. Had James now bided his time till he could meet the English Protestants half-way, he might perchance at once have regained his throne and obtained complete toleration for his co-religion

ists; but he chose rather, misguided by French advice, to attempt to subdue Great Britain by means of the Irish.

The policy of France after James's fall was to create a diversion in Ireland on a scale merely sufficient to detain King William from prosecuting in person a war on the Continent, and the interest displayed by Louis Quatorze in the cause of the Stuarts proceeded entirely from selfish motives, being prompted, not so much by love for James, as by hatred of William and the whole of the Orange faction. For this reason the French army in Ireland never exceeded a strength of about six thousand

men.

When James landed at Kinsale in March, 1689, with some eighteen hundred followers from France, the state of affairs stood briefly thus:

The Earl of Tyrconnel, James's lord-lieutenant, had been stirring to prevent the protestants from concentralizing so as to become formidable, and he had occupied in King James's name as many stations as he could. The Protestants on the other hand were endeavouring to hold their own until support should arrive from England. Both parties were very determined, because neither expected consideration or even quarter from the other; and both were very rancorous because their quarrel was religious as well as political and national.

The Irish had it quite their own way in the south, where Lieutenant-General McCarthy had possessed himself of CastleMartyn and Bandon, the only places where the protestants had been able to make any opposition at all. In Connaught and Leinster also the Irish were entirely predominant. But in the Northern province, where the protestants were more numerous, they were banding themselves together for resistance. As yet the Irish possessed only Carrickfergus and Charlemont in all Ulster, but Tyrconnel had dispatched Lieutenant-General Hamilton 121 with a force of two thousand five hundred men to prevent the protestants from attacking these two garrisons or making incursions southwards. The Irish gentry had not been idle; they had raised more than fifty regiments of foot and a goodly proportion of horse.121 James could also count on his side several regiments of the regular troops on the Irish estab

121 James II, Autobiog.

It may interest some readers to know that the uniform of "Lord Galmoy's regt. of Horse in Ireland," consisted of "light grey coats, brass buttons, and lined red," a black hat laced with galoon, and a buft shoulder-belt; the arms, carbine, pistols, and sword. Some of the horses were grey.-Lond. Gaz., 27 Apr., 1688.