King Billy Ireland
BBC Northern Ireland’s ‘You Thought You Knew King Billy’ sums up the situation from William’s perspective. William’s mighty invasion force landed in Devon in November 1688. The Battle of the Boyne was a battle in 1690 between the forces of the deposed King James II of England and Ireland, VII of Scotland, versus those of King William III who, with his wife Queen Mary II, had acceded to the Crowns of England and Scotland in 1689. The battle took place across the River Boyne close to the town of Drogheda in the Kingdom of Ireland, modern-day Republic of Ireland, and resulted in a victory.
William vs James
On 1 July 1690, two armies faced each other across the River Boyne, just to the north of Dublin in Ireland.
The commander on the north side was William of Orange, a Dutch Protestant, who had recently been crowned King of England, Scotland and Ireland.
The commander on the south side was James II, the deposed Catholic king, who had lost his throne to William only the year before.
The two men were linked by blood and family ties. James II was both the uncle of William of Orange and his father-in-law.
In 1688, William was invited to seize James II’s throne by Protestant nobles who feared James was founding a Catholic royal dynasty. James, who chose not to oppose him, was captured then allowed to escape to exile in France.
James arrives in Ireland
In March 1689, James landed in Ireland with troops supplied by the Catholic King Louis XIV of France. France was the greatest military power in Europe at the time and Louis was William’s sworn enemy.
James saw Ireland as the back door through which he could invade England and regain his crown. Predominantly Catholic Ireland readily rallied to the ‘Jacobite’ (from the Latin for James) cause.
Fergal Keane charts James’s progress from Kinsale northwards for the 2011 series ‘The Story of Ireland’.
William arrives in Ireland
Throughout his reign, William’s focus was always firmly on his fight to bring to an end Louis XIV’s domination of Europe. The crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland were vital to his ongoing struggle. James’s army represented a significant threat that William had to deal with decisively.
William’s invasion force was the largest Ireland had ever seen. Altogether he had more than one thousand horses to draw his artillery and gun equipment. An eye-witness recalled Belfast Lough (the body of water connecting Belfast to the sea) looking like a wood:
“There being no less than seven hundred sail of ships in it, mostly laden with provisions and ammunition. The great numbers of coaches, waggons, baggage horses and the like is almost incredible to be supplied from England, or any of the biggest nations in Europe. I cannot think that any army of Christendom hath the like.”
William himself stepped ashore at the northern port of Carrickfergus on 14 June 1690, where this pale asthmatic monarch, his face lined with the constant pain of fighting ill health, said in halting English that he had come to ensure the people of Ireland would be “settled in a lasting peace”.
The Pope backs King Billy
William is celebrated to this day as a champion of Protestantism, but he was nonetheless backed by the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Alexander VIII. The Pope was part of a ‘Grand Alliance’ against Louis XIV’s warring in Europe and supported William’s reconquest of Ireland.
William’s army
William’s army reflected his leadership of the Grand Alliance. The core consisted of Dutch, Danish, Germans and Huguenots (French Protestants persecuted by Louis XIV). His English troops were mainly raw recruits, reinforced by Ulster Protestant ‘skirmishers’. These were described by the army chaplain George Story as being “…half-naked with sabre and pistols hanging from their belts, like a horde of Tartars”.
James’s army
While most of William’s men were professional, well-paid, well-armed and recently fed, James’s Irish infantrymen were often armed only with scythes and farm tools. But their morale was high and - thanks to Louis XIV - they had some of the best cavalry in Europe.
The Boyne
The River Boyne lies 30 miles north of Dublin. It was the last natural barrier facing William as he marched south towards the city and James’s stronghold. James chose to make a stand at the Boyne, enshrining it as the location where, for the last time, two crowned kings of England, Scotland and Ireland would meet in battle.
William crosses the Boyne
William was known for his sometimes reckless courage and the Boyne was no different. He decided to investigate the river’s crossing points for himself and was shot at by Jacobite officers. It was rumoured that William was dead, but a bullet had only grazed his shoulder. He shrugged it off, reputedly saying: “Ce boulet est venu bien pres. Ce n'est rien” ('The ball came close enough, but it's nothing”).
At almost 40 years of age William was a battlehardened commander and a veteran of countless campaigns. By contrast James, once praised for gallantry in battle as a younger man, was in his late fifties with his best years as a military leader behind him.
After four hours of fierce fighting a significant body of William’s men had made it across to the Boyne’s southern riverbank. James’s cavalry had them pinned down, but they held and James gave the order to retreat. A rout was avoided by Louis XIV’s cavalry skilfully covering the withdrawal. ‘Battlefield Britain’ illustrates how William took the decision to lead his horsemen across the river.
Myths have grown up around the image of William crossing the Boyne. The military historian Richard Doherty dispels some of these for BBC Northern Ireland’s ‘You Thought You Knew King Billy’.
The battle ended on high ground above the southern side of the river.
Aftermath
Dr. Padraig Lenihan of the National University of Ireland sums up the aftermath of the battle for ‘The Story of Ireland’.
Despite his army retreating in good order, James quickly abandoned them and returned to exile in France. William marched into Dublin and finally secured his reconquest of Ireland with the Treaty of Limerick in 1691.
William’s victory ended James II’s hope of regaining his throne. William was now securely in control of England, Scotland and Ireland, which would ultimately help him to reverse Louis XIV’s military conquests in Europe.
William ruled jointly with his wife Mary (James II’s daughter). Their reign marked an important transition from the direct rule of monarchs like James towards a more parliamentary system.
In Ireland, William’s victory dashed Jacobite hopes of recovering property that had been confiscated from Irish landowners since the days of Oliver Cromwell.
But for Protestants, it secured their ascendancy in Ireland. In Ulster it ensured the survival of the Protestant, English-speaking colonies known as the Plantation. The victory is still celebrated every 12 July in Northern Ireland by the Orange Order, named for William of Orange.
Why 12 July?
The Battle of the Boyne was fought on 1 July 1690, according to the old Julian calendar. This was reformed and replaced with the Gregorian calendar, which was adopted in Britain in 1752 and added eleven days to ‘old style’ dates. The victory is therefore celebrated on 12 July.
Early years
William was born on 4 November 1650 in The Hague. It was not an auspicious entry into the world. His father, William II of Orange, had just died of smallpox and his English mother, Mary, had her bedchamber swathed in black to mourn him. Mary’s father and William’s grandfather, Charles I, had been brutally beheaded in London only the previous year. Mary in turn died of smallpox when William was 10 years old. BBC Northern Ireland’s ‘You Thought You Knew King Billy’ explores William’s childhood home.
The young William was groomed to lead the powerful House of Orange and to become a ‘Stadtholder’, or head of state of the Dutch Republic. He learned to be astute and distrustful from an early age.
A Protestant champion
William became a hero to his people in 1673 when he drove the invading Catholic forces of Louis XIV of France out of most of the Dutch Republic. ‘Timewatch, Vision of a Conqueror’ describes the aftermath of William’s victory and the start of his lifelong rivalry with Louis.
William the autocrat
Brought up to believe he was an instrument of God, William could be impatient with others. This trait is evidenced by his behaviour in the chambers of the Dutch government.
William and Mary
In 1677, William married his cousin Mary. It was his 27th birthday. Mary was the eldest daughter of James, Duke of York, who was the brother of Charles II and heir to the English throne. James was a convert to Catholicism and had married a Catholic princess from Italy. Protestants worried that any son born to the couple would eventually become a Catholic king.
The marriage of William and Mary had been encouraged by Charles II, Mary’s uncle and James’s brother. By encouraging James’s Protestant daughter Mary to marry William of Orange, it raised the prospect of a Protestant heir to the throne. Through this, Charles II hoped to allay concerns that James would establish a Catholic dynasty. BBC Northern Ireland’s ‘You Thought You Knew King Billy’ attempts to encapsulate a complex situation.
William had his own reasons for marrying Mary. He hoped their union would cement an Anglo-Dutch alliance against Louis XIV and bring another important ally into his struggle with the French king.
King Billy Of Ireland
James II
Charles II died in 1685 and James became King James II. Many in Protestant England were deeply suspicious of the new Catholic monarch. When his wife gave birth to a son in the summer of 1688 it confirmed their worst fears of a Catholic succession.Dr. Eamon Duffy (Magdalene College, Cambridge) explains the 17th century Protestant terror of Catholics.
This meant that James II’s Protestant daughter, Mary, wife of William of Orange, was no longer next in line to the throne. Alarmed by the situation, a group of James's Protestant opponents secretly invited William to invade England and oust his father-in-law. BBC Northern Ireland’s ‘You Thought You Knew King Billy’ sums up the situation from William’s perspective.
Many Englishmen supported William and, after some prominent English nobles defected to the invader, James II chose not to fight. He was subsequently captured and then allowed to escape to exile in France.
The Glorious Revolution
Early in 1689, the English Parliament formally offered William and Mary the throne as joint monarchs, an event known as the ‘Glorious Revolution’.
William III of Orange was now William III of England and Ireland, and William II of Scotland.
The new monarchs could not rule with the same direct power as their predecessors. They accepted Parliament’s ‘Declaration of Rights’, later called ‘Bill of Rights’. This restricted the king’s power and marked an important transition towards the system of parliamentary rule that exists to this day.
BBC Northern Ireland’s ‘You Thought You Knew King Billy’ describes the extraordinary events that brought William to the throne.
After their coronation, William and Mary moved into Hampton Court Palace. Historian Maureen Waller describes the couple’s comfortable living arrangements.
Their initial mismatch seems to have made for a happy marriage.
Battle of the Boyne
King Billy Casino
In March 1689, James landed in Ireland with French troops supplied by William of Orange’s sworn enemy, Louis XIV. James planned to use Ireland as a base from which to invade England and recover his throne.
In response William raised a huge invasion force, the largest Ireland had ever seen. In July 1690 he decisively defeated James at the Battle of the Boyne. James fled once again to France.
The victory is still commemorated every year in Northern Ireland on 12 July by the Orange Order, named for William of Orange.
The Grand Alliance
Defeating Louis XIV of France remained William's focus throughout his life. In 1689 he had brought Britain into the League of Augsburg against France, transforming it into the ‘Grand Alliance’. For the next eight years he was often away fighting, leaving his wife to rule in his absence.
In 1694 William set up the Bank of England in order to fund his war against Louis XIV.
King Billy Ireland Genealogy
Under William’s leadership, the diverse Grand Alliance held together and in 1697 Louis XIV relinquished much of the territory he had won by conquest.
Felled by a mole
In 1694 William’s wife Mary died of smallpox. Inconsolable with grief, he fainted at her bedside.
He continued to rule alone. Then in February 1702, William’s horse stumbled on a molehill at Hampton Court and he was thrown, breaking his collarbone. His health, which had never been strong, deteriorated rapidly. He died on 8 March.
When courtiers undressed the king they found he was wearing Mary’s wedding ring and a lock of her hair close to his heart.
William had no heir and his death brought an end to the House of Orange.
The supporters of James II, who had died in exile the year before, did not mourn him and toasted the mole who made his horse trip as ‘the little gentleman in the black velvet waistcoat’.