In the latter end of March, James made his public entry into Dublin, amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants. He was met at the castle-gate by a procession of popish bishops and priests in their pontificals, bearing the host, which he publicly adored. He dismissed from the council-board the lord Granard, judge Keating, and other protestants, who had exhorted the lord lieutenant to an accommodation with the new government. In their room he admitted the French ambassador, the bishop of Chester, colonel Darrington, and, by degrees, the principal noblemen who accompanied him in the expedition. On the second day after his arrival in Dublin, he issued five proclamations: the first recalled all the subjects of Ireland who had abandoned the kingdom, by a certain time, on pain of outlawry and confiscation, and requiring all persons to join him against the prince of Orange. The second contained expressions of acknowledgement to his catholic subjects for their vigilance and fidelity, and an injunction to such as were not actually in his service, to retain and lay up their arms until it should be found necessary to use them for his advantage. By the third he invited the subjects to supply his army with provisions; and prohibited the soldiers to take anything without payment. By the fourth he raised the value of the current coin; and in the fifth he summoned a parliament to meet on the seventh day of May, at Dublin. Finally, he created Tyrconnel a duke, in consideration of his eminent services.
WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.
The adherents of James in England pressed him to settle the affairs of Ireland immediately, and bring over his army either to the north of England, or the west of Scotland, where it might be joined by his party, and act without delay against the usurper; but his council dissuaded him from complying with their solicitations, until Ireland should be totally reduced to obedience. On the first alarm of an intended massacre, the protestants of Londonderry had shut their gates against the regiment commanded by the earl of Antrim, and resolved to defend themselves against the lord lieutenant. They transmitted this resolution to the government of England, together with an account of the danger they incurred by such a vigorous measure, and implored immediate assistance. They were accordingly supplied with some arms and ammunition, but did not receive any considerable reinforcement till the middle of April, when two regiments arrived in Loughfoyl, under the command of Cunningham and Richards. By this time king James had taken Coleraine, invested Killmore, and was almost in sight of Londonderry. George Walker, rector of Donaghmore, who had raised a regiment for the defence of the protestants, conveyed this intelligence to Lundy the governor. This officer directed him to join colonel Grafton, and take post at the Long-causey, which he maintained a whole night against the advanced guard of the enemy; until being overpowered by numbers, he retreated to Londonderry and exhorted the governor to take the field, as the army of king James was not yet completely formed. Lundy assembling a council of war, at which Cunningham and Richards assisted; they agreed, that as the place was not tenable, it would be imprudent to land the two regiments, and that the principal officers should withdraw themselves from Londonderry, the inhabitants of which would obtain the more favourable capitulation in consequence of their retreat. An officer was immediately dispatched to king James with proposals of a negotiation; and lieutenant-general Hamilton agreed that the army should halt at the distance of four miles from the town. Notwithstanding this preliminary, James advanced at the head of his troops; but met with such a warm reception from the besieged, that he was fain to retire to St. John’s Town in some disorder. The inhabitants and soldiers in garrison at Londonderry were so incensed at the members of the council of war, who had resolved to abandon the place, that they threatened immediate vengeance. Cunningham and Richards retired to their ships, and Lundy locked himself in his chamber. In vain did Walker and major Baker exhort him to maintain his government. Such was his cowardice or treachery, that he absolutely refused to be concerned in the defence of the place, and he was suffered to escape in disguise with a load of match upon his back; but he was afterwards apprehended in Scotland, from whence he was sent to London to answer for his perfidy or misconduct.
After his retreat, the townsmen chose Mr. Walker and major Baker for their governors, with joint authority; but this office they would not undertake until it had been offered to colonel Cunningham, as the officer next in command to Lundy. He rejected the proposal, and with Richards returned to England, where they were immediately cashiered. The two new governors, thus abandoned to their fate, began to prepare for a vigorous defence; indeed their courage seems to have transcended the bounds of discretion, for the place was very ill fortified; their cannon, which did not exceed twenty pieces, were wretchedly mounted; they had not one engineer to direct their operations; they had a very small number of horse; the garrison consisted of people unacquainted with military discipline; they wore destitute of provisions; they were besieged by a king in person, at the head of a formidable army, directed by good officers, and supplied with all the necessary implements for a siege or battle. This town was invested on the twentieth day of April; the batteries were soon opened, and several attacks were made with great impetuosity; but the besiegers were always repulsed with considerable loss. The townsmen gained divers advantages in repeated sallies, and would have held their enemies in the utmost contempt, had they not been afflicted with a contagious distemper, as well as reduced to extremity by want of provisions. They were even tantalized in their distress; for they had the mortification to see some ships which had arrived with supplies from England, prevented from sailing up the river by the batteries the enemy had raised on both sides, and a boom with which they had blocked up the channel. At length a reinforcement arrived in the Lough, under the command of general Kirke, who had deserted his master and been employed in the service of king William. He found means to convey intelligence to Walker, that he had troops and provisions on board for their relief, but found it impracticable to sail up the river: he promised, however, that he would land a body of forces at the Inch, and endeavour to make a diversion in their favour-, when joined by the troops at Inniskilling, which amounted to five thousand men, including two thousand cavalry. He said he expected six thousand men from England, where they were embarked before he set sail. He exhorted them to persevere in their courage and loyalty, and assured them he would come to their relief at all hazards. These assurances enabled them to bear their miseries a little longer, though their numbers daily diminished. Major Baker dying, his place was filled with colonel Michel-burn, who now acted as colleague to Mr. Walker.
King James having returned to Dublin to be present at the parliament, the command of his army devolved to the French general Rosene, who was exasperated at such an obstinate opposition by a handful of half-starved militia. He threatened to raze the town to its foundations, and destroy the inhabitants without distinction of age or sex, unless they would immediately submit themselves to their lawful sovereign. The governors treated his menaces with contempt, and published an order that no person, on pain of death, should talk of surrendering. They had now consumed the last remains of their provisions, and supported life by eating the flesh of horses, dogs, cats, rats, mice, tallow, starch, and salted hides, and even this loathsome food began to fail. Rosene, finding him deaf to all his proposals, threatened to wreak his vengeance on all the protestants of that country, and drive them under the walls of Londonderry, where they should be suffered to perish by famine. The bishop of Meath being informed of this design, complained to king James of the barbarous intention, entreating his majesty to prevent its being put in execution. That prince assured him that he had already ordered Rosene to desist from such proceeding: nevertheless, the Frenchman executed his threats with the utmost rigour. Parties of dragoons were detached on this cruel service: after having stripped all the protestants for thirty miles round, they drove these unhappy people before them like cattle, without even sparing the enfeebled old men, nurses with infants at their breasts, tender children, women just delivered, and some even in the pangs of labour. Above four thousand of these miserable objects were driven under the walls of Londonderry. This expedient, far from answering the purpose of Rosene, produced quite a contrary effect. The besieged were so exasperated at this act of inhumanity, that they resolved to perish rather than submit to such a barbarian. They erected a gibbet in sight of the enemy, and sent a message to the French general, importing that they would hang all the prisoners they had taken during the siege, unless the protestants whom they had driven under the walls should be immediately dismissed. This threat produced a negotiation, in consequence of which the protestants were released after they had been detained three days without tasting food. Some hundreds died of famine or fatigue; and those who lived to return to their own habitations, found them plundered and sacked by the papists, so that the greater number perished for want, or were murdered by the straggling parties of the enemy; yet these very people had for the most part obtained protections from king James, to which no respect was paid by his general.
The garrison of Londonderry was now reduced from seven to five thousand seven hundred men, and these were driven to such extremity of distress, that they began to talk of killing the popish inhabitants and feeding on their bodies. In this emergency Kirke, who had hitherto lain inactive, ordered two ships laden with provisions to sail up the river under convoy of the Dartmouth frigate. One of them, called the Mountjoy, broke the enemy’s boom; and all the three, after having sustained a very hot fire from both sides of the river, arrived in safety at the town to the inexpressible joy of the inhabitants. The army of James were so dispirited by the success of this enterprise, that they abandoned the siege in the night and retired with precipitation, after having lost about nine thousand men before the place. Kirke no sooner took possession of the town, than Walker was prevailed upon to embark for England with an address of thanks from the inhabitants to their majesties for the seasonable relief they had received.
The Inniskilliners were no less remarkable than the people of Londonderry for the valour and perseverance with which they opposed the papists. They raised twelve companies, which they regimented under the command of Gustavus Hamilton, whom they chose for their governor. They proclaimed William and Mary on the eleventh day of March, and resolved in a general council to maintain their title against all opposition. The lord Gilmoy invested the castle of Groin belonging to the protestants in the neighbourhood of Inniskilling, the inhabitants of which threw succours into the place, and compelled Gilmoy to retire to Belturbet. A detachment of the garrison, commanded by lieutenant-colonel Lloyd, took and demolished the castle of Aughor, and they gained the advantage in several skirmishes with the enemy. On the day that preceded the relief of Londonderry, they defeated six thousand Irish papists at a place called Newton-Butler, and took their commander Macarty, commonly called lord Moncashel.
The Irish parliament being assembled at Dublin, according to the proclamation of king James, he, in a speech from the throne, thanked them for the zeal, courage, and loyalty they had manifested; extolled the generosity of the French king, who had enabled him to visit them in person; insisted upon executing his design of establishing liberty of conscience as a step equally agreeable to the dictates of humanity and discretion, and promised to concur with them in enacting such laws as would contribute to the peace, affluence, and security of his subjects. Sir Richard Neagle, being chosen speaker of the commons, moved for an address of thanks to his majesty, and that the count D’Avaux should be desired to make their acknowledgments to the most christian king for the generous assistance he had given to their sovereign. These addresses being drawn up with the concurrence of both houses, a bill was brought in to recognize the king’s title, to express their abhorence of the usurpation by the prince of Orange, as well as of the defection of the English. Next day James published a declaration, complaining of the calumnies which his enemies had spread to his prejudice; expatiating upon his own impartiality in preferring his protestant subjects; his care in protecting them from their enemies, in redressing their grievances, and in granting liberty of conscience; promising that he would take no step but with the approbation of parliament; offering a free pardon to all persons who should desert his enemies and join with him in four-and-twenty days after his landing in Ireland, and charging all the blood that might be shed upon those who should continue in rebellion.
WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.
His conduct, however, very ill agreed with this declaration; nor can it be excused on any other supposition but that of his being governed, in some cases against his own inclination, by the count D’Avaux and the Irish catholics, on whom his whole dependence was placed. As both houses were chiefly filled with members of that persuasion, we ought not to wonder at their bringing in a bill for repealing the act of settlement, by which the protestants of the kingdom had been secured in the possession of their estates. These were by this law divested of their lands, which reverted to the heirs of those catholics to whom they belonged before the rebellion. This iniquitous bill was framed in such a manner, that no regard was paid to such protestant owners as had purchased estates for valuable considerations; no allowance was made for improvements, nor any provision for protestant widows; the possessor, and tenants were not even allowed to remove their stock and corn. When the bill was sent up to the lords, Dr. Dopping, bishop of Meath, opposed it with equal courage and ability, and an address in behalf of the purchasers under the act of settlement was presented to the king by the earl of Granard; but notwithstanding these remonstrances, it received the royal assent, and the protestants of Ireland were mostly ruined.
Yet in order to complete their destruction, an act of attainder was passed against all protestants, whether male or female, whether of high or low degree, who were absent from the kingdom, as well as against all those who retired into any part of the three kingdoms, which did not own the authority of king James, or corresponded with rebels, or were any ways aiding, abetting, or assisting them, from the first day of August in the preceding year. The number of protestants attainted by name in this act amounted to about three thousand, including two archbishops, one duke, seventeen earls, seven countesses, as many bishops, eighteen barons, three-and-thirty baronets, one-and-fifty knights, eighty-three clergymen, who were declared traitors, and adjudged to suffer the pains of death and forfeiture. The individuals subjected to this dreadful proscription, were even cut off from all hope of pardon and all benefit of appeal; for by a clause in the act, the king’s pardon was deemed null unless enrolled before the first day of December. A subsequent law was enacted, declaring Ireland independent of the English parliament. This assembly passed another act, granting twenty thousand pounds per annum out of the forfeited estates to Tyrconnel, in acknowledgment of his signal services: they imposed a tax of twenty thousand pounds per month for the service of the king: the royal assent was given to an act for liberty of conscience; they enacted that the tithes payable by papists should be delivered to priests of that communion: the maintenance of the protestant clergy in cities and corporations was taken away; and all dissenters were exempted from ecclesiastical jurisdictions. So that the established church was deprived of all power and prerogative, notwithstanding the express promise of James, who had declared, immediately after his landing, that he would maintain the clergy in their rights and privileges.
Nor was the king less arbitrary in the executive part of his government, if we suppose that he countenanced the grievous acts of oppression that were daily committed upon the protestant subjects of Ireland; but the tyranny of his proceedings may be justly imputed to the temper of his ministry, consisting of men abandoned to all sense of justice and humanity, who acted from the dictates of rapacity and revenge, inflamed with all the acrimony of religious rancour. Soldiers were permitted to live upon free quarter; the people were robbed and plundered; licenses and protections were abused in order to extort money from the trading part of the nation. The king’s old stores were ransacked; the shops of tradesmen and the kitchens of burghers were pillaged, to supply the mint with a quantity of brass, which was converted into current coin for his majesty’s occasions; an arbitrary value was set upon it, and all persons were required and commanded to take it in payment under the severest penalties, though the proportion between its intrinsic worth and currency was nearly as one to three hundred. A vast sum of this counterfeit coin was issued in the course of one year, and forced upon the protestants in payment of merchandize, provision, and necessaries for the king’s service. James, not content with the supply granted by parliament, imposed, by his own authority, a tax of twenty thousand pounds per month on chattels, as the former was laid upon lands. This seems to have been a temporary expedient during the adjournment of the two houses, as the term of the assessment was limited to three months; it was however levied by virtue of a commission under the seals, and seems to have been a stretch of prerogative the less excusable, as he might have obtained the money in a parliamentary way. Understanding that the protestants had laid out all their brass money in purchasing great quantities of hides, tallow, wool, and corn, he assumed the despotic power of fixing the prices of these commodities, and then bought them for his own use. One may see his ministers were bent upon the utter destruction of those unhappy people.
All vacancies in public schools were supplied with popish teachers. The pension allowed from the exchequer to the university of Dublin was cut off; the vice-provost, fellows, and scholars, were expelled: their furniture, plate, and public library were seized without the least shadow or pretence, and in direct violation of a promise the king had made to preserve their privileges and immunities. His officers converted the college into a garrison, the chapel into a magazine, and the apartments into prisons; a popish priest was appointed provost; one Maccarty, of the same persuasion, was made library-keeper, and the whole foundation was changed into a catholic seminary. When bishoprics and benefices in the gift of the crown became vacant, the king ordered the profits to be lodged in the exchequer, and suffered the cures to be totally neglected. The revenues were chiefly employed in the maintenance of Romish bishops and priests, who grew so insolent under this indulgence, that in several places they forcibly seized the protestant churches. When complaint was made of this outrage, the king promised to do justice to the injured, and in some places actually ordered the churches to be restored; but the popish clergy refused to comply with this order, alleging, that in spirituals they owed obedience to no earthly power but the holy see, and James found himself unable to protect his protestant subjects against a powerful body which he durst not disoblige. Some ships appearing in the bay of Dublin, a proclamation was issued forbidding the protestants to assemble in any place of worship, or elsewhere, on pain of death. By a second, they were commanded to bring in their arms on pain of being treated as rebels and traitors. Luttrel, governor of Dublin, published an ordinance by beat of drum, requiring the farmers to bring in their corn for his majesty’s horses within a certain day, otherwise he would order them to be hanged before their own doors. Brigadier Sarsfield commanded all protestants of a certain district to retire to the distance of ten miles from their habitations on pain of death; and in order to keep up the credit of the brass money, the same penalty was denounced, in a proclamation, against any person who should give more than one pound eighteen shillings for a guinea.
All the revenues of Ireland, and all the schemes contrived to bolster up the credit of the base coin, would have proved insufficient to support the expenses of the war, had not James received occasional supplies from the French monarch. After the return of the fleet which had conveyed him to Ireland, Louis sent another strong squadron, commanded by Chateau Benault, as a convoy to some transports laden with arms, ammunition, and a large sum of money for the use of king James. Before they sailed from Brest, king William, being informed of their destination, detached admiral Herbert from Spithead with twelve ships of the line, one fire-ship, and four tenders, in order to intercept the enemy. He was driven by stress of weather into Mil-ford-haven, from whence he steered his course to Kin-sale, on the supposition that the French fleet had sailed from Brest, and that in all probability he should fall in with them on the coast of Ireland. On the first day of May he discovered them at anchor in Bantry-bay, and stood in to engage them, though they were greatly superior to him in number. They no sooner perceived him at day-break, than they weighed, stood out to windward, formed their line, bore down, and began the action, which was maintained for two hours with equal valour on both sides, though the English fleet sustained considerable damage from the superior fire of the enemy. Herbert tacked several times in hope of gaining the weather-gage; but the French admiral kept his wind with uncommon skill and perseverance. At length the English squadron stood off to sea, and maintained a running fight till five in the afternoon, when Chateau Renault tacked about and returned into the bay, content with the honour he had gained. The loss of men was inconsiderable on both sides; and where the odds were so great, the victor could not reap much glory. Herbert retired to the isles of Scilly, where he expected a reinforcement; but being disappointed in this expectation, he returned to Portsmouth in very ill humour, with which his officers and men were infected. The common sailors still retained some attachment to James, who had formerly been a favourite among them; and the officers complained that they had been sent upon this service with a force so much inferior to that of the enemy. King William, in order to appease their discontent, made an excursion to Portsmouth, where he dined with the admiral on board the ship Elizabeth, declared his intention of making him an earl in consideration of his good conduct and services, conferred the honour of knighthood on the captains Ashby and Shovel, and bestowed a donation of ten shillings on every private sailor.
The parliament of England thought it incumbent upon them not only to raise supplies for the maintenance of the war in which the nation was involved, but also to do justice with respect to those who had been injured by illegal or oppressive sentences in the late reigns. The attainders of lord Russel, Algernon Sidney, alderman Cornish, and lady Lisle, were now reversed. A committee of privileges was appointed by the lords to examine the case of the earl of Devonshire, who in the late reign had been fined thirty thousand pounds for assaulting colonel Culpepper in the presence-chamber. They reported that the court of king’s bench, in overruling the earl’s plea of privilege of parliament, had committed a manifest breach of privilege; that the fine was excessive and exhorbitant, against the great charter, the common right of the subject, and the law of the realm. The sentence pronounced upon Samuel Johnson, chaplain to lord Russel, in consequence of which he had been degraded, fined, scourged, and set in the pillory, was now annulled, and the commons recommended him to his majesty for some ecclesiastical preferment. He received one thousand pounds in money, with a pension of three hundred pounds for his own life and that of his son, who was moreover gratified with a place of one hundred pounds a year; but the father never obtained any ecclesiastical benefice. Titus Oates seized this opportunity of petitioning the house of lords for a reversal of the judgments given against him on his being convicted of perjury. The opinions of all the judges and counsel at the bar were heard on this subject, and a bill of reversal passed the commons; but the peers having inserted some amendments and a proviso, a conference was demanded, and violent heats ensued. Oates, however, was released from confinement, and the lords, with the consent of the commons, recommended him to his majesty for a pardon, which he obtained, together with a comfortable pension. The committee appointed to inquire into the cases of the state-prisoners, found sir Robert Wright, late lord chief justice, to have been concerned in the cruelties committed in the west after the insurrection of Monmouth; as also one of the ecclesiastical commissioners, and guilty of manifold enormities. Death had by this time delivered Jefferies from the resentment of the nation. Graham and Burton had acted as solicitors in the illegal prosecutions carried on against those who opposed the court in the reign of Charles II.; these were now reported guilty of having been instrumental in taking away the lives and estates of those who had suffered the loss of either under colour of law for eight years last past; of having, by malicious indictments, informations, and prosecutions of quo warranto, endeavoured the subversion of the protestant religion, and the government of the realm; and of having wasted many thousand pounds of the public revenue in the course of their infamous practices.
Nor did the misconduct of the present ministry escape the animadversion of the parliament. The lords having addressed the king to put the Isle of Wight, Jersey, Guernsey, Scilly, Dover-castle, and the other fortresses of the kingdom, in a posture of defence, and to disarm the papists, empowered a committee to inquire into the miscarriages in Ireland, which were generally imputed to the neglect of the marquisses of Cærmarthan and Halifax. They presented an address to the king, desiring the minute-book of the committee for Irish affairs might be put into their hands; but his majesty declined gratifying them in this particular: then the commons voted that those persons who had advised the king to delay this satisfaction were enemies to the kingdom. William, alarmed at this resolution, allowed them to inspect the book, in which they found very little for their purpose. The house resolved, that an address should be presented to his majesty, declaring that the succour of Ireland had been retarded by unnecessary delays; that the transports prepared were not sufficient to convey the forces to that kingdom; and that several ships had been taken by the enemy, for want of proper convoy. At the same time the question was put, whether or not they should address the king against the marquis of Halifax. But it was carried in the negative by a small majority. Before this period, Howe, vice-chamberlain to the queen, had moved for an address against such counsellors as had been impeached in parliament, and betrayed the liberties of the nation. This motion was levelled at Cæmarthen and Halifax, the first of whom had been formerly impeached of high treason, under the title of earl of Danby; and the other was charged with all the misconduct of the present administration. Warm debates ensued, and in all probability the motion would have been carried in the affirmative, had not those who spoke warmly in behalf it suddenly cooled in the course of the dispute. Some letters from king James to his partisans being intercepted, and containing some hints of an intended invasion, Mr. Hambden, chairman of the committee of the whole house, enlarged upon the imminent danger to which the kingdom was exposed, and moved for a further supply to his majesty. In this unexpected motion he was not seconded by one member. The house, however, having taken the letters into consideration, resolved to draw up an address to the king, desiring him to secure and disarm all papists of note; and they brought in a bill for attainting several persons in rebellion against their majesties; but it was not finished during this session.
WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.
Another bill being prepared in the house of lords, enjoining the subjects to wear the woollen manufacture at certain seasons of the year, a petition was presented against it by the silk-weavers of London and Canterbury, assembled in a tumultuous manner at Westminster. The lords refused their petition, because this was an unusual manner of application. They were persuaded to return to their respective places of abode; precautions were taken against a second riot; and the bill was unanimously rejected in the upper house. This parliament passed an act, vesting in the two universities the presentations belonging to papists: those of the southern counties being given to Oxford; and those of the northern to Cambridge, on certain specified conditions, Courts of conscience were erected at Bristol, Gloucester, and Newcastle; and that of the marches of Wales was abolished as an intolerable oppression. The protestant clergymen, who had been forced to leave their benefices in Ireland, were rendered capable of holding any living in England, without forfeiting their title to their former preferment, with the proviso that they should resign their English benefices when restored to ‘those they had been obliged to relinquish. The statute of Henry IV. against multiplying gold and silver was now repealed; the subjects were allowed to melt and refine metals and ores, and extract gold and silver from them, on condition that it should be brought to the Mint, and converted into money, the owners receiving its full value in current coin. These, and several other bills of smaller importance being passed, the two houses adjourned to the twentieth clay of September, and afterwards to the nineteenth day of October.
Duke of Schomberg lands with an Army in Ireland..... The Inniskilliners obtain a Victory over the Irish..... Schomberg censured for his Inactivity..... The French worsted at Walcourt..... Success of the Confederates in Germany..... The Turks defeated at Pacochin, Nissa, and Widen..... Death of Pope Innocent XI..... .King William becomes unpopular..... A good Number of the Clergy refuse to take the Oaths..... The King grants a Commission for reforming Church Discipline..... Meeting of the Convocation..... Their Session discontinued by repeated Prorogations..... Proceedings in Parliament..... The Whigs obstruct the Bill of Indemnity..... The Commons resume the Inquiry into the Cause of the Miscarriages in Ireland..... King William irritated against the Whigs..... Plot against the Government by Sir James Montgomery discovered by Bishop Burnet..... Warm Debates in Parliament about the Corporation Bills..... The King resolves to finish the Irish War in Person ..... General Ludlow arrives in England, but is obliged to withdraw..... Efforts of the Jacobites in Scotland..... The Court Interest triumphs over all Opposition in that Country..... The Tory Interest prevails in the New Parliament of England..... Bill for recognising their Majesties..... Another violent Contest about the Bill of Abjuration..... King William lands in Ireland..... King James marches to the Boyne..... William resolves to give him battle..... Battle of the Boyne..... Death and Character of Schomberg..... James embarks for France..... William enters Dublin and publishes his Declaration..... The French obtain a Victory over the English and Dutch Fleets off Beachy- head..... Torrington committed Prisoner to the Tower..... Progress of William in Ireland..... He Invests Limerick; but is obliged to raise the Siege, and returns to England..... Cork and Kinsale reduced by the Earl of Marlborough ..... Lausun and the French Forces quit Ireland..... The Duke of Savoy joins the Confederacy..... Prince Waldeck defeated at Fleurus..... The Archduke Joseph elected King of the Romans..... Death of the Duke of Lorrain..... Progress of the War against the Turks..... Meeting of the Parliament..... The Commons comply with all the King’s Demands..... Petition of the Tories in the City of London..... Attempt against the Marquis of Cærmarthen..... The King’s Voyage to Holland..... He assists at a Congress..... Returns to England.
WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.
Though the affairs of Ireland were extremely pressing, and the protestants of that country had made repeated application for relief, the succours were retarded either by disputes among the ministers, or the neglect of those who had the management of the expedition, in such a manner that king James had been six months in Ireland before the army was embarked for that kingdom. At length eighteen regiments of infantry, and five of dragoons, being raised for that service, a train of artillery provided, and transports prepared, the duke of Sehomberg, on whom king William had conferred the chief command of this armament, set out for Chester, after he had in person thanked the commons for the uncommon regard they had paid to his services, and received assurances from the house, that they would pay particular attention to him and his army. On the thirteenth day of August he landed in the neighbourhood of Carrickfergus with about ten thousand foot and dragoons, and took possession of Belfast, from whence the enemy retired at his approach to Carrickfergus, where they resolved to make a stand. The duke having refreshed his men, marched thither, and invested the place; the siege was carried on till the twenty-sixth clay of the month, when the breaches being practicable, the besieged capitulated, on condition of marching out with their arms, and as much baggage as they could carry on their backs; and of their being conducted to the next Irish garrison, which was at Newry. During this siege the duke was joined by the rest of his army from England; but he had left orders for conveying the greater part of the artillery and stores from Chester directly to Carlingford. He now began his march through Lisburne and Hillsborough, and encamped at Drummore, where the protestants of the north had been lately routed by Hamilton; thence he proceeded to Loughbrillane, where he was joined by the horse and dragoons of Inniskilling. Then the enemy abandoned Newry and Dundalk, in the neighbourhood of which Sehomberg encamped on a low damp ground, having the town and river on the south, and surrounded on every other part by hills, bogs, and mountains.
His army, consisting chiefly of new-raised men little inured to hardship, began to flag under the fatigue of marching, the inclemency of the weather, and scarcity of provisions. Here he was reinforced by the regiments of Kirke, Hanmer, and Stuart; and would have continued his march to Drogheda, where he understood Rosene lay with about twenty thousand men, had he not been obliged to wait for the artillery, which was not yet arrived at Carlingford. King James, having assembled all his forces, advanced towards Schomberg, and appeared before his intrenchments in order of battle; but the duke, knowing they were greatly superior in number of horse, and that his own army was undisciplined, and weakened by death and sickness, restrained his men within the lines, and in a little time the enemy retreated. Immediately after their departure, a conspiracy was discovered in the English camp, hatched by some French papists, who had insinuated themselves into the protestant regiments. One of these, whose name was Du Plessis, had written a letter to the ambassador D’Avaux, promising to desert with all the papists of the three French regiments in Schomberg’s army. This letter being found, Du Plessis and five accomplices were tried by a court-martial, and executed. About two hundred and fifty papists being discovered in the French regiments, they were sent over to England, from thence to Holland. While Schomberg remained in this situation, the Inniskilliners made excursions in the neighbourhood, under the command of colonel Lloyd; and on the twenty-seventh day of September they obtained a complete victory over five times their number of the Irish. They killed seven hundred on the spot, and took O’Kelly their commander, with about fifty officers, and a considerable booty of cattle. The duke was so pleased with their behaviour on this occasion, that they received a very honourable testimony of his approbation.
Meanwhile, the enemy took possession of James-Town, and reduced Sligo, one of the forts of which was gallantly defended by St. Sauver, a French captain, and his company of grenadiers, until he was obliged to capitulate for want of water and provisions. A contagious distemper still continued to rage in Schomberg’s camp, and swept off a great number of officers and soldiers; so that in the beginning of next spring, not above half the number of those who went over with the general remained alive. He was censured for his inactivity, and the king, in repeated letters, desired him to hazard an engagement, provided any opportunity should occur; but he did not think proper to run the risk of a battle, against an enemy that was above thrice his number, well disciplined, healthy, and conducted by able officers. Nevertheless, he was certainly blameable for having chosen such an unwholesome situation. At the approach of winter he retired into quarters, in hopes of being reinforced with seven thousand Danes, who had already arrived in Britain. These auxiliaries were stipulated in a treaty which William had just concluded with the king of Denmark. The English were not more successful at sea than they had proved in their operations by land. Admiral Herbert, now created earl of Torrington, having sailed to Ireland with the combined squadrons of England and Holland, made a fruitless attempt upon Cork, and lost a great number of seamen by sickness, which was imputed to bad provisions. The Dartmouth ship of war fell into the hands of the enemy, who infested the channel with such a number of armed ships and privateers, that the trade of England sustained incredible damage.
The affairs of France wore but a gloomy aspect on the continent, where all the powers of Europe seemed to have conspired her destruction. King William had engaged in a new league with the states-general, in which former treaties of peace and commerce were confirmed. It was stipulated, that in case the king of Great Britain should be attacked, the Dutch should assist him with six thousand infantry, and twenty ships of the line; and that, provided hostilities should be committed against the states-general, England should supply them with ten thousand infantry, and twenty ships of war. This treaty was no sooner ratified, than king William dispatched the lord Churchill, whom he had by this time created earl of Marlborough, to Holland, in order to command the British auxiliaries in that service to the number of eleven thousand, the greater part of which had been in the army of king James when the prince of Orange landed in England. The earl forthwith joined the Dutch army, under the command of prince Waldeck, who had fixed his rendezvous in the county of Liege, with a view to act against the French army commanded by the mareschal D’Humieres; while the prince of Vaudemont headed a little army of observation, consisting of Spaniards, Dutch, and Germans, to watch the motions of Calvo in another part of the Low-Countries. The city of Liege was compelled to renounce the neutrality, and declare for the allies. Mareschal D’Humieres attacked the foragers belonging to the army of the states at Walcourt, in the month of August; an obstinate engagement ensued, and the French were obliged to retreat in confusion, with the loss of two thousand men, and some pieces of artillery. The army of observation levelled part of the French lines on the side of Courtray, and raised contributions on the territories of the enemy.
The French were almost entire masters of the three ecclesiastical electorates of Germany. They possessed Mentz, Triers, Bonne, Keiserswaert, Philipsburgh, and Landau. They had blown up the castle of Heildelberg, in the Palatinate, and destroyed Manheim. They had reduced Worms and Spiers to ashes; and demolished Frankendahl, together with several other fortresses. These conquests, the fruits of sudden invasion, were covered with a numerous army, commanded by the mareschal de Duras; and all his inferior generals were officers of distinguished courage and ability. Nevertheless, he found it difficult to maintain his ground against the different princes of the empire. The duke of Lorraine, who commanded the imperial troops, invested Mentz, and took it by capitulation; the elector of Brandenburgh, having reduced Keiserswaert, undertook the siege of Bonne, which the garrison surrendered after having made a long and vigorous defence. Nothing contributed more to the union of the German princes than their resentment of the shocking barbarity with which the French had plundered, wasted, and depopulated their country. Louis having, by his intrigues in Poland and at Constantinople, prevented a pacification between the emperor and the Ottoman Porte, the campaign was opened in Croatia, where five thousand Turks were defeated by a body of Croates between Vihitz and Novi. The prince of Baden, who commanded the imperialists on that side, having thrown a bridge over the Morava at Passarowitz, crossed that river, and marched in quest of a Turkish army amounting to fifty thousand men, headed by a seraskier. On the thirteenth day of August he attacked the enemy in their intrenchments near Patochin, and forced their lines, routed them with great slaughter, and took possession of their camp, baggage, and artillery. They returned to Nissa, where the general finding them still more numerous than the imperialists, resolved to make a stand, and encamped in a situation that was inaccessible in every part except the rear, which he left open for the convenience of a retreat. Through this avenue he was, on the twenty-fourth day of September, attacked by the prince of Baden, who, after a desperate resistance, obtained another complete victory, enriched his troops with the spoil of the enemy, and entered Nissa without opposition. There he found above three thousand horses and a vast quantity of provisions. Having reposed his army for a few days in this place, he resumed his march against the Turks, who had chosen an advantageous post at Widen, and seemed ambitious of retrieving the honour they had lost in the two former engagements. The Germans attacked their lines without hesitation; and though the Musselmen fought with incredible fury, they were a third time defeated with great slaughter. This defeat was attended with the loss of Widen, which being surrendered to the victor, he distributed his troops in winter quarters, and returned to Vienna covered with laurels.