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King Billy's on the wall!
No Surrender
King William III.
These terms, not being unreasonable, prove beyond doubt that William was prepared to allow James to remain on the throne albeit with greatly reduced powers. James refused these terms and tried to flee to France but was captured and sent back to London. On December 22nd James was escorted to Rochester where every means was taken to facilitate his escape which he did.
William ordered free elections in early January 1689 and the elected met on January 22nd. After lengthy legal debate, wrangling and intrigue, it was eventually decided to offer William and Mary the throne jointly. Although both Parliament Houses believed James had repeatedly violated the system, trying to impose Popery and Absolution, the Constitution did not provide for a king who broke the law and this was the reason for the delay in proclaiming for William and Mary, with Mary's sister Anne to succeed them.
On February 13th William and Mary heard the Declaration of Rights read to them and were asked to accept the Crown. William replied "We thankfully accept what you have offered us and promise to rule according to law and be guided by Parliament".
Having given freedom and rights to all, the country was not kind to William, withholding any form of payment to him by way of income or money to further his campaign. William also granted a free and unfettered Press. April 11th 1689 saw the coronation of William and Mary. The Toleration Act of 1689 was the first statutory grant of religious toleration in England and extended religious liberties to Catholic and Protestant alike, ending the Church of England's monopoly of the nation's religious life. High Anglicans resented this and subsequently grew to dislike William, which perhaps explains a lot of today's intransigence to the Orange Order.
In the spring of 1689, James landed in Ireland, at Kinsale where he took command of some 50,000 men who had rallied to Tyrconnel's (known as Lying Dick Talbot) standard. Tyrconnel had made every preparation ready for this day including disbanding the Army of its Protestant soldiers decreeing that only Papists could be in the Army. Protestant Mayors, Judges and Sheriffs were all replaced by Papists. Many Protestants in the south fled the country, but those in the north drew together at Londonderry and Enniskillen. James sent some 25,000 soldiers north to subdue the Protestants at Londonderry. The Siege of Londonderry then followed.
Following their defeat at Londonderry the army of James II fell back to Dublin, Where James had instituted a popish Parliament, and was creating havoc among the Protestants. Clergy were evicted from their parishes and Protestants were thrown out of Trinity College. Three thousand Protestants of name and fortune were deprived of Civil Rights, and of the right to inherit or transmit their property due to the Bill of Attainment passed by this Parliament. The ruin of all Protestants in Ireland was the object of James and his cronies in this Parliament. He was financing his affairs by robbing the Protestants. King William's presence was required in Ireland to subdue this insurrection in Ireland and so in June 1690 he set sail for Ireland.
On that sunny day in July 1690 two great armies were converging James, with 26,000 men arrived at the River Boyne first and set up his great tents and canons and he waited. King William Prince of Orange with 30,000 men arrived and prepared to do battle. On seeing the opposing army William exclaimed with delight "Ah, I am glad to see you, gentlemen; if you escape me now, the fault will be mine!" On July 1st at 8.00 am the battle started and continued throughout the day until 4.00 pm in the afternoon, 1500 men were killed that day. James was defeated and fled to Kinsale and then on to France, followed by the scorn of even his own followers. Other battles took place, but the struggle in Ireland was short and William was victorious. The Battle of the Boyne established the throne of William Prince of Orange.
William and Louis XIV signed a treaty - The Peace Treaty of Ryswick in 1697 in which Louis XIV pledged to never again make any attempt to subvert the existing government of England. But four years later Louis broke his word and violated his pledge. In the meantime the Queen of England died of smallpox, and was buried with due pomp and ceremony in Westminster Abbey. The Heir apparent to the throne (the son of Princess Anne) died some five or six years later.This necessitated the settlement of the succession. In 1701 the famous Act of Settlement was passed, which determined that if either William or Anne had no children, the Princess Sophia, Duchess Dowager of Hanover, should succeed to the English Throne on the death of the latter (Princess Anne), who was a daughter of James II, and wife of Prince George of Denmark, thus excluding the Popish Prince of Wales. should wear the English Crown.
Sophia was the daughter of James I of England and was mother to George I. This Act perpetuated the Protestant succession to the throne, and enjoined that only a member of the Church of England Thus were all Papists excluded from the English Throne, forever.
When William met his Parliament, he spoke these memorable words : "Let there be no other distinctions heard amongst us for the future, but of those who are for the Protestant religion and the present establishment, and of those who mean a Popish prince and a French government. I will only add this, if you do in good earnest desire to see England hold the balance of Europe, and to be indeed at the head of the Protestant interest, it will appear by your right improving the present opportunity" (Stoughton)
In 1702 William, while recovering from ill health, broke his collarbone when his horse stumbled over a molehill in Richmond park. Jacobites later toasted the little gentleman in a black velvet suit - the mole. On March 4th William was very weak and had great difficulty eating. By the 7th he had a fever and was in great pain, but he accepted death in the same fearless manner in which he had lived.
Early on the 8th March 1702 he received the sacrament and he died shortly after 8.00am. Around his neck was a necklace attached to which were a lock of Mary's hair and her wedding ring.
Thus ended the life of King William III Prince of Orange, the first monarch who loved and upheld a constitutional system of religious liberty. Under his tolerant and wise policy Protestantism was firmly established on a sure, and let us hope, an immovable basis
The Battle of the Boyne
No date in Irish history is better known than 1690. No Irish battle is more famous than William III's victory over James II at the River Boyne, a few miles west of Drogheda. James, a Roman Catholic, had lost the throne of England in the bloodless "Glorious Revolution" of 1688. William was Prince of Orange, a Dutch-speaking Protestant married to James's daughter Mary, and became king at the request of parliament. James sought refuge with his old ally, Louis XIV of France, who saw an opportunity to strike at William through Ireland. He provided French officers and arms for James, who landed at Kinsale in March 1689. The lord deputy, the Earl of Tyrconnell, was a Catholic loyal to James, and his Irish army controlled most of the island. James quickly summoned a parliament, largely Catholic, which proceeded to repeal the legislation under which Protestant settlers had acquired land.
During the rule of Tyrconnell, the first Catholic viceroy since the Reformation, Protestants had seen their influence eroded in the army, in the courts and in civil government. Only in Ulster did they offer effective resistance. In September 1688, while James was still king, apprentice boys in Londonderry closed the city's gates to deny admission to a Catholic regiment under Lord Antrim. In April 1689, the city refused to surrender to James's army, and survived the hardships of a three-month siege before relief came by sea. The Protestants of Enniskillen defended their walled city with equal vigour, and won a number of victories over Catholic troops. Eventually, James withdrew from the northern province.
William could not ignore the threat from Ireland. In August 1689 Marshal Schomberg landed at Bangor with 20,000 troops and, with Ulster secure, pushed south as far as Dundalk. James's army blocked further progress towards Dublin, but there was no battle and the two armies withdrew to winter quarters. In March 1690 the Jacobite army was strengthened by 7,000 French regulars, but Louis demanded over 5,000 Irish troops in return. The Williamites were reinforced by Danish mercenaries and by English and Dutch regiments. When William himself landed at Carrickfergus on 14 June, he was able to muster an army of 36,000 men. He began the march towards Dublin. There was some resistance near Newry, but the Jacobites soon withdrew to the south bank of the River Boyne. The battle was fought on 1 July 1690 at a fordable river bend four miles west of Drogheda. The main body of Williamite infantry was concentrated on fording the river at the village of Oldbridge, which was approached by a deep and sheltenng glen. First, however, a detachment of cavalry and infantry made a flanking attack upstream, which forced James to divert troops to prevent his retreat being cut off. William's army was stronger by at least 10,000 men, but after these troops were drawn off he had three-to-one superiority in the main arena. By mid-afternoon the Jacobite army was in retreat, outpaced by James himself, who rode to Dublin to warn the city of William's approach. He was in France before the month was out. On 6 July William entered Dublin, where he gave thanks for victory in Christ Church Cathedral.
The Battle of the Boyne is recalled each July in the celebrations of the Orange Order, not on the first day but on "the Twelfth", for eleven days were lost with the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1752. It was not the end of the Williamite campaign, and the King had returned to England before the Dutch general Ginkel's victory at Aughrim and the formal Irish surrender after the siege of Limerick in 1691. The Treaty of Limerick was not ungenerous to the defeated Catholics.
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