The Williamite Wars in Ireland, 1688-1691

Description

The comprehensive defeat of the Jacobite Irish in the Williamite conflict, a component within the pan-European Nine Years' War, prevented the exiled James II from regaining his English throne, ended realistic prospects of a Stuart restoration and partially secured the new regime of King William III and Queen Mary created by the Glorious Revolution. The principal events — the Siege of Londonderry, the Battles of the Boyne and Aughrim, and the two Sieges and Treaty of Limerick — have subsequently become totems around which opposing constructions of Irish history have been erected. John Childs, one of the foremost authorities on warfare in Early Modern Britain and Europe, cuts through myth and the accumulations of three centuries to present a balanced, detailed narrative and chronology of the campaigns. He argues that the struggle was typical of the late seventeenth-century, principally decided by economic resources and attrition in which the 'small war' comprising patrols, raids, occupation of captured regions by small garrisons, police actions against irregulars and attacks on supply lines was more significant in determining the outcome than the set piece battles and sieges. Contents Maps Abbreviations Notes Preface 1 Preliminaries, 1688 2 Practical matters 3 Towards war, 1689 4 The Break of Dromore and the retreat to Coleraine 5 Clady and the Ards Peninsula 6 The defence of Derry and Enniskillen 7 General Kirke 8 Endurance 9 The relief of Derry and Newtownbutler 10 A tired old man 11 Sligo and Dundalk 12 Winter operations, 1689-90 13 The Battle of the Boyne 14 From Dublin to Limerick 15 The first siege of Limerick 16 Cork and Kinsale 17 A war of posts and ambuscades 18 Spring, 1691 19 Ballymore and Athlone 20 Aughrim and Galway 21 The curious affair at Sligo, or the banalities of the small war 22 The second siege of Limerick 23 Dispersal Notes Select bibliography Index