Battle of the Boyne

battle_name=Battle of the Boyne

The Battle

William had landed in Carrickfergus in Ulster on June 14 1690 and marched south to take Dublin. It has been argued that the Jacobites should have tried to block this advance in rugged country around Newry, on the present day Irish border. However, James only fought a delaying action there and chose instead to place his line of defence on the Boyne river, around 50 km from Dublin. The Williamites reached the Boyne on the 29th of June. The day before the battle, William himself had a narrow escape, when he was wounded by Jacobite artillery while surveying the fords over which his troops would cross the river.

Related Topics:
Carrickfergus - Ulster - June 14 - Newry

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The battle itself was fought on July 1st over a ford of the Boyne at Oldbridge, near Drogheda. William sent about a quarter of his men to cross at a place called Roughgrange, near Slane, about 10 km from Oldbridge. The Duke of Schomberg's son Meinhardt led this crossing, which was unsuccessfully opposed by Irish dragoons. James panicked when he saw that he might be outflanked and sent nearly half his troops, along with most of his cannon to counter this move. What neither side had realised was that there was a deep ravine at Roughgrange, so that the forces there could not engage each other, but literally sat out the battle. The Williamites there went on a long detour march which, late in the day, almost saw them cut off the Jacobite retreat at the village of Naul.

Related Topics:
Drogheda - Slane - Duke of Schomberg - Meinhardt - Dragoons

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At the main ford at Oldbridge, William's infantry led by the elite Dutch Blue Guards forced their way across the river, using their superior firepower to scatter the enemy foot-soldiers, but were pinned down by the counter-attacks of the Jacobite cavalry. Having secured the village of Oldbridge, the Williamite infantry held off successive cavalry attacks with disciplined volley fire. William's second in command, the Duke of Schomberg and George Walker were killed in this phase of the battle. The Williamites were not able to resume their advance until their own horsemen managed to cross the river and drive the Jacobite cavalry off, breaking them at Donore. The Jacobites nevertheless retired in good order. William had a chance to trap the retreating Jacobites as they crossed the river Nanny at Duleek, but was held up by a successful Jacobite rear-guard.

Related Topics:
Dutch Blue Guards - Duke of Schomberg - George Walker

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The casualty figure of the battle was quite low for a battle of such a scale — of the 50,000 or so participants, about 2,000 died, three quarters of whom were Jacobites. The reason for the low death toll was that in contemporary warfare, most of the casualties tended to be inflicted in the pursuit of an already-beaten enemy. This did not happen at the Boyne because the counter-attacks of the Jacobite cavalry screened the retreat of the rest of their army. The Jacobites were badly demoralised by their defeat, however, and many of the Irish infantrymen deserted. The Williamites triumphantly marched into Dublin two days after the battle. The Jacobite army abandoned the city and marched to Limerick, behind the river Shannon, where they were besieged. James left so quickly that he outpaced the messenger that was sent to warn Limerick of the defeat.

Related Topics:
Dublin - Limerick - Besieged

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After his defeat, James quickly returned to exile in France, even though his army left the field relatively unscathed. James's loss of nerve and speedy exit from the battlefield enraged his Irish supporters, who fought on until their defeat at the battle of Aughrim in 1691. In Irish folk memory, James was derisively nick-named Seamus a' chaca — "James the excrement".

Related Topics:
Battle of Aughrim - 1691

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