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The Boyne, 1690Yet such valour merely delayed the inevitable. The Irish continued their retirement southward from Donore to Duleek. They were preceded by King James who, escorted by Patrick Sarsfield's regiment of horse and by some of the dragoons, rode to Dublin, where James told the Mayor and Aldermen that although he had justice on his side fate was against him. He was in France within three weeks. He had thought his position at the Boyne 'an indifferent good one' and that 'indeed the country afforded no better', and he had decided to fight there because he was resolved 'not to be walked out of Ireland without having at least one blow for it'; but the blow that was struck by half his force was ineffectual. The remainder, including the French, who lost only six men in the battle, failed to strike any blow at all.'The failure at the Boyne', said a Jacobite writer, 'sprang from several defects of military management.' There were defects on both sides, but the Williamites, having much the stronger force, could afford to make some mistakes. For the Jacobites, whatever the necessity may have been of guarding themselves against encirclement, the immobilisation of so many men on their left and the making of a detachment that split their army in two were fatal dispositions. The Jacobites were reunited at Duleek, where both parts of their army-that from Oldbridge and the detachment from the left-came together in retreat. There was some confusion at the narrow passage of the Nanny water, and some of the horse who had done so well at Oldbridge and Donore collided with their own infantry. One Jacobite infantry regiment was overtaken 'in Duleek lane enclosed with high banks' by cavalry, who 'came on so unexpected and with such speed, some firing their pistols' that the infantry thought they were the enemy and broke to let them pass. There was no pursuit. William's men came no further than Duleek, which, for all the confusion, was successfully negotiated by the Irish and their French allies. The French troops were intact, and a stand made at Duleek by Zurlauben's regiment greatly aided the retreat. The Jacobites saved part of their baggage and-at least for the moment-five of their guns. They lost in killed alone about a thousand men, but the Williamite loss may have been even greater; one of the Williamite writers says that they had 400 killed, another raises it to 500, and the wounded can scarcely have been less than twice as many more. The Boyne was a significant rather than a great battle. As a result of it William won Dublin and Leinster and more than half Munster-priceless advantages. It was reckoned a great victory by that part of Europe that opposed Louis XIV of France and that regarded William as its leader; but its real significance was, after all, Irish. Although the defeated army continued to fight for more than a year from the date of its discomfiture, it did so with diminishing hope of success. Militarily the Boyne was the decisive battle of the war. Yet the fact that it became the rallying cry of the ascendancy that it served to set up was to suggest that it hadn't really been decisive after all. The history of the Battle of the Boyne, 1690 continues here Taken from Irish Battles by G.A. Hayes-McCoy, published by Appletree Press. Further reading: A Little History of Ireland by Martin Wallace with illustrations by Ian McCullough. Click here for more information on the book. Previous instalments of 'the Battle of the Boyne': Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 |
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