James II fled to France soon after William of Orange had landed in England. ln February 1689 William III and his wife Mary ll, daughter of James, accepted the crown of England as joint sovereigns with the approval of parliament. Soon afterwards James's Scottish supporters were defeated in battle, and Catholic Ireland remained his only hope. Tyrconnell hoped to hold Ireland for him, but in Ulster the towns of Londonderry and Enniskillen refused to admit royal troops. In March 1689 James arrived from France and marched with an army to Londonderry. The governor, Robert Lundy, was prepared to negotiate a surrender but the citizens insisted on resistance. A thirteen week siege lasted until the end of July, when a relief ship broke through a Jacobite boom across the river Foyle to reach the starving town. Two weeks later Marshal Schomberg landed on the shores of Belfast Lough and captured Carrickfergus for William. The Protestant king himself arrived at Carrickfergus in June 1690, and immediatety marched south.

James had summoned a largely Catholic parliament in Dublin in 1689, and this 'patriot parliament' passed a number of measures to restore Catholic power. By the time James had marched to meet William's army, he had forfeited any hope of Protestant support, and Ireland's future was bound to be decided on the battlefield. The armies met at the river Boyne on 1 July 1690 (12 July in modern calendars), and William's larger force triumphed over James's French and Irish troops. James fled to France, leaving his commanders to retreat to the river Shannon, where Athlone and Limerick became their main strongholds. Patrick Sarsfield, the leading Jacobite general, lleld Limerick against William's onslaught, and the king finally withdrew and returned to England. The Dutch General Ginkel took charge of the Williamite forces, and in 1691 he captured Athlone and won a decisive battle at nearby Aughrim. Limerick withstood a second siege for a month before Sarsfield negotiated a treaty, under which the Irish soldiers had the choices of raking an oath of allegiance to William and returning to their homes, joining the English army or sailing for France. Most of them chose exile, and during the following century many 'wild geese' left Ireland to joint the Irish brigades of Europe's armies. Ginkel became Earl of Athlone, and was one of the beneficiaries of the Williamite plantation, which left about one-seventh of Ireland in Catholic hands.

From the Appletree Press title: A Little History of Ireland, click here for more information or here to buy the book from Amazon. Also from Appletree: A Short History of Ireland, available from Amazon.com. Click here for more information.