Latest / The History of Ireland: Rebellion, Empire, and Independence — Fexingo History / The Battle of the Boyne: William and James in Ireland
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the Siege of Derry, the Treaty of Limerick, even the Wild Geese heading off to fight for France. But there's one battle that stands between all of those events, and it's probably the most famous single day in Irish history — the Battle of the Boyne, fought on July 1st, 1690, or July 11th if you're using the Gregorian calendar. Luna: Wait, why are there two dates? Lucas: Because England and Ireland were still on the old Julian calendar, while much of Europe had switched to the Gregorian. So when we talk about the Twelfth of July celebrations in Northern Ireland, they're actually commemorating the battle on the old date, which fell on July 1st Julian, but after the calendar change in 1752, it shifted to July 12th. Anyway, the battle itself was a showdown between two rival kings — the deposed Catholic James II and his Protestant nephew and son-in-law, William III, who had taken the English throne in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Luna: Right, so James had fled to France, then landed in Ireland with French support to try to win back his crown. Lucas: Exactly. By 1690, James had been in Ireland for over a year, building up a Jacobite army with Irish Catholic recruits and French officers. William, meanwhile, had been raising a multinational force — English, Dutch, Danish, German, even some French Huguenots who'd fled Catholic persecution. Both sides knew Ireland was the key. If James could hold Ireland, he could threaten England from across the Irish Sea. So in June 1690, William himself landed at Carrickfergus with a massive army, and he marched south toward Dublin. James decided to make a stand on the River Boyne, about thirty miles north of Dublin, near the town of Drogheda. Luna: And the river itself was a natural barrier — wide, tidal, with only a few crossing points. Lucas: Right. The Boyne was about a hundred metres wide at high tide, and the main ford was at Oldbridge, just west of Drogheda. James positioned his army of about 23,000 men along the southern bank, stretching from Drogheda inland for several miles. William had about 36,000 men, and he set up his headquarters on a hill north of the river. On the morning of July 1st, William himself was out reconnoitring when a Jacobite cannonball whizzed past, grazing his shoulder. He was lucky — it only tore his coat and drew a little blood. But that near-miss actually boosted morale among his troops, because they saw William was willing to take risks. Luna: Did he have a plan, or was it just a straight-up frontal assault? Lucas: He had a fairly clever plan. He sent a large contingent — about a third of his army — upstream under the command of the Dutch general Godert de Ginkel and the Danish cavalry, to cross at a ford near the village of Slane. This feint was meant to draw James's attention away from the main crossing at Oldbridge. And it worked. James's Irish commander, Richard Talbot, the Earl of Tyrconnell, took the bait and shifted troops upstream, leaving the crossing at Oldbridge less defended. Then William sent his main force straight across the river at low tide, right at Oldbridge. Luna: That must have been chaos — trying to wade across a river under musket fire. Lucas: It was brutal. The Dutch Blue Guards led the way, wading through waist-deep water while Jacobite soldiers fired at them from the banks. The fighting at the ford was intense — hand-to-hand, bayonets, swords. The Duke of Schomberg, William's second-in-command, a seasoned seventy-five-year-old veteran, tried to rally some of the Huguenot troops who were struggling, and he was killed — shot in the neck by Jacobite cavalry. That was a real blow. But the Williamites kept pushing, and once they secured a foothold on the southern bank, more troops poured across. Meanwhile, upstream, the feint crossing at Slane had broken through, and the Jacobites found themselves being flanked. Luna: Did James himself take part in the fighting? Lucas: Not really. James stayed well behind the lines, which didn't help his reputation. He watched the battle from a hill near the village of Donore, but he never engaged. And when he saw his left flank collapsing under pressure from the upstream crossing, he panicked. He fled the field, riding south toward Dublin, and from there he sailed back to France. But his Irish and French troops, especially Patrick Sarsfield's cavalry, fought a disciplined rearguard action, covering the retreat and preventing a total rout. They withdrew in good order, and that's how Sarsfield emerged as the hero of the Jacobite cause — he was the one who kept the army intact. Luna: So William won the day, but it wasn't the crushing defeat we sometimes imagine. Lucas: Exactly. Casualties on both sides were fairly light by the standards of the time — maybe 1,500 dead total, with about half on each side. The real significance of the Boyne was political and psychological. It broke the back of Jacobite resistance in the east of Ireland. James abandoned his army, which demoralised his supporters. William entered Dublin unopposed two days later, and the Jacobites were forced to regroup in the west, leading eventually to the sieges of Athlone and Limerick. The Boyne also became a potent symbol for Protestant Ulster — the idea that William of Orange had saved them from Catholic tyranny. Luna: And that symbolism is still alive today, with the Orange Order parades on the Twelfth. Lucas: Right. Every year on July 12th, thousands of Orangemen march to commemorate William's victory. It's one of the most contentious dates in Northern Ireland's calendar, seen by many nationalists as a triumphalist display of Protestant dominance. But the battle itself wasn't really about religion in the way we think of it today. William was fighting for political power, and he had the support of the Pope, believe it or not. Pope Alexander VIII backed William because he opposed Louis XIV's expansionism, and the Pope saw James as a puppet of France. So the Battle of the Boyne was as much about European geopolitics as it was about Irish confessional conflict. Luna: That's a nuance that often gets lost in the modern narrative. Lucas: Absolutely. And one of the ironies is that William's victory didn't immediately secure Protestant ascendancy in Ireland. It took another year of hard fighting — the Siege of Limerick, the Battle of Aughrim — before the Jacobites were finally defeated. But the Boyne became the defining moment, the one that people remembered. It's been immortalised in song, in painting, in the name of the Orange Order itself. And it's a reminder that a single battle can take on a life of its own, long after the actual fighting is done. Luna: And speaking of things that take on a life of their own — the way we're able to do these deep dives, episode after episode, is because of listeners who support the show. Lucas: Yeah, that's a good point. We don't run ads, we don't have sponsors, it's just a handful of people who chip in through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's literally what keeps us going — paying for research time, editing, hosting. So if you've been enjoying these episodes, that's one way to keep them coming. Luna: And it's a small group that makes it possible. No pressure, but it's nice to know that the show matters enough to someone to support it. Lucas: So back to the Boyne — one last thing. The battlefield itself has changed a lot since 1690. The river is narrower now because of drainage and dredging, and there's a motorway bridge right where the main crossing happened. But you can still visit Oldbridge House, which is a museum now, and walk the fields where thousands of men fought and died. It's a peaceful place today, which is strange to think about given what happened there. Luna: It's always strange to stand on a battlefield and imagine the noise, the smoke, the fear. Lucas: Exactly. And that's what we try to do with these episodes — to bring some of that back, even if just for a few minutes. Thanks for listening.