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Edward the Confessor’s death and Harold’s accession to the throne in January 1066 led to three major battles. After the final battle at Hastings in October England had a new king, William of ...
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Battle of the Boyne, (July 1, 1690), in British history, a major conflict fought along the Boyne River in Ireland between King William III (William of Orange) and the exiled king James II. Having been deposed and exiled after William’s landing at Brixham and subsequent English desertions, James II sought to retake his throne through an alliance wit...
The last half of the 17th century was a turbulent time for England. Following the English Civil War’s bloody end, the country was ruled by the Puritan Oliver Cromwell and, after his death, his son Richard. The English Protectorate only ended after Richard’s resignation, after which Parliament alone ruled until the house of Stuart’s restoration in 1660. Under King Charles II, the crown began to align itself with France, then an ambitious continental power and the strongest of the Catholic kingdoms. Charles was a shrewd politician, and some years before his death in 1685, he signed the Treaty of Dover. In exchange for financial assistance from France, Charles would privately convert to Catholicism and devote a number of English warships to King Louis XIV’s war effort against the Protestant Dutch Republic.
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A History of War
Despite Charles’s foreign political savvy, his domestic policy of religious tolerance did not sit well with many Irish Catholics, who had supported the exiled Stuarts at great personal risk. Under Cromwell’s rule, much of their property had been stripped from them. English Protestants were also incentivized to settle in Ireland, further reducing the power of Irish Catholics. Having suffered so heavily for the Stuarts, Charles’s Catholic subjects hoped for more explicitly beneficial treatment. Charles’s support of his fellow believers was tacit, in contrast to that of his openly Catholic brother, James. When James II acceded to the throne in 1685, he enacted a number of military reforms in Ireland aimed at eliminating local Protestant influence. The earl of Tyrconnell was tasked with disarming Protestant militias and levying an Irish army loyal not to Anglican-controlled Parliament but only to the crown.
On the other side of the North Sea, tensions escalated between France and the Dutch Republic. William III of Orange, an elected stadtholder (chief magistrate) of five major Dutch provinces, had successfully defended the Netherlands against a French invasion from 1672 to 1678. A second invasion in 1680 cemented William’s opposition to an expansionist France. Setting aside religious differences, he joined the League of Augsburg alongside a number of Catholic powers aimed at putting a decisive end to French land grabs.
Shortly before the end of the first French invasion, William had wed his cousin Mary, who was also King Charles II’s niece. In the absence of any eligible male heirs, Mary was second to an aging James in the line of succession, meaning that upon James’s death, she and William could turn English firepower on France. William understood the importance of the Royal Navy in any military designs against France, and such designs would end in disaster as long as Charles remained a French ally with Catholic sympathies. Unfortunately for William, the line of succession changed in June 1688, when King James II’s wife bore a son.
South of the Boyne, James II commanded an army of roughly 23,000 men. The overwhelming majority were Irish Catholics trained under Tyrconnell’s supervision, in addition to the 6,000 French soldiers from Louis XIV. While the French had seen combat, the Irish troops were far less experienced and bore outdated muskets. Furthermore, James had a speckled military past that painted him as a poor commander. At the Boyne, James decided to position the bulk of his forces along the river, deployed such that they could make immediate contact with William’s army upon their crossing. This would hold their centre in place and prevent William’s artillery from firing, without killing their fellow soldiers. The remainder of his men were tasked with destroying bridges and guarding potential fords. To this end, James set a small force east to the crossing at Drogheda and dispatched dragoons to the southwestern ford near the village of Rosnaree.
North of the Boyne, William III’s army numbered some 37,000 men. Roughly half were British. The remainder were mostly Dutch, with a few thousand Danes and a smattering of French Huguenots. His Dutch soldiers were seasoned fighters from the war against France, and all were armed with modern flintlock muskets. William also possessed an estimated eight times the number of James’s artillery pieces. Unlike his opponent, William had proven his military acumen, in his defense of the Netherlands. He was determined to bring his skills to the Boyne as well. After much internal debate, William settled on a three-pronged strategy. On his right flank, a troop of cavalry and several thousand infantrymen would move to cross the river at Slane. In the centre, the duke of Schomberg would concentrate roughly 20,000 men on James’s core army and simultaneously bombard them with artillery. On the left, William himself would lead some 8,000 men to a third river crossing and force James’s right flank to meet him. All three parts were to be executed simultaneously to deny James the opportunity to respond.
In the early hours of July 1, William’s right wing began to mobilize. They marched south to cross north of Rosnaree but were met by a number of Jacobite dragoons, who held up the crossing until mid-morning. Although the Williamite forces successfully crossed, James’s commanders were now aware of their enemy’s movements, and they sent a sizable detachment to stop any further advance.
In the centre, William split his forces into three groups, which forded at Drybridge, Yellow Island, and Oldbridge. William himself stayed with the reserves, awaiting further developments. James had ordered his men to fall back a bit to give battle on slightly more favourable ground, but, upon seeing the Williamite centre’s movements, he ordered his commanders to mount a counterattack. Over the course of a few hours, they were able to slow enemy advances, even killing Schomberg, William’s lieutenant. However, the Jacobites could not stop the vastly more powerful army. Perceiving the overall success of his centre’s maneuver, William prepared to cross the Boyne himself, reaching the southern banks at Mill’s Ford. With the tide of the battle now firmly in William’s favour, James ordered a measured withdrawal south to Duleek. He and his army escaped mostly intact.
The Battle of the Boyne may have been a victory for William III, but it was far from decisive. William’s failure to destroy the Jacobites or adequately pursue the retreating army only made it more difficult to quell the rebellion in Ireland. The scattered remains of James’s army fell back to Dublin and then southwest to Limerick, on the other end of the island. James himself fled to France. On July 6 William entered Dublin with little resistance. He then issued the Declaration of Finglas, which demanded total Irish repentance or the forfeit of their lands. Rather than surrender, the remaining Jacobites fortified Limerick and held out under siege until the following year. The 1691 Treaty of Limerick brought a formal end to this rising. But with James II still alive in France, William III’s reign would suffer periodic challenges through the end of the century.
The Battle of the Boyne also had an impact on the continental balance of power. The League of Augsburg was rightfully fearful of France’s rising power, and Louis XIV’s repeated attacks on the Dutch Republic were of particular concern. The Franco-Irish defeat at the Boyne reassured William’s allies that Louis would not go unchecked. Britain could be counted on to resist French expansionism. With the crown now in Protestant hands, Britain was both politically and religiously opposed to French Catholic domination. William’s ascent helped bring an end to the War of the Grand Alliance by 1697.
William and his army headed to Hastings via London, collecting extra troops on the way. In contrast to Harold Godwinson’s army, William and his men were well-rested and prepared for battle.
William’s army is said to have included not only Normans, but also men from Brittany, Aquitaine, France and Maine. The latest thinking is that both armies had between 5,000 and 7,000 men – large forces by the standards of the day.
Casualty figures are hard to come by, but some historians estimate that 2,000 invaders died along with about twice that number of Englishmen. William founded a monastery at the site of the battle, the high altar of the abbey church supposedly placed at the spot where Harold died.
Oct 7, 2024 · By October 13 Harold was approaching Hastings with about 7,000 men, many of whom were half-armed, untrained peasants. He had mobilized barely half of England’s trained soldiers, yet he advanced against William instead of making William come to meet him in a chosen defensive position.
The battle took place on 1 July 1690 O.S. William's forces defeated James's army, which consisted mostly of raw recruits. Although the Williamite War in Ireland continued until the signing of the Treaty of Limerick in October 1691, James fled to France after the Boyne, never to return.
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