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'The blood from the dead so covered the ground that one could hardly take a step without slipping. This grisly scene of slaughter remained untouched for several days, the horror of which cannot be imagined except by those who saw it ...
With over 60,000 combatants, the Battle of the Boyne, which took place on 1 July 1690, was the largest battle ever fought on Irish soil, and has long been regarded as the pivotal event of the Williamite War in Ireland.
But, despite is celebrated place in Irish Protestant folklore, the Boyne was indecisive. The critical engagement of the campaign was to take place the following year outside the village of Aughrim, in County Galway. Here the outnumbered and outgunned Jacobites, their backs to the wall, faced the Williamite army in a battle that was to decide the course of Irish, and indeed European, history. While the Boyne had been a victory of tactics and manoeuvre, Aughrim was a grinding, gory battle of attrition, of devastating artillery bombardments and of frontal assaults on prepared positions.
In the first major history of the battle for forty years, Michael McNally brings vividly to life the personalities and events of the bloodiest day in Irish history. Placing the battle firmly in the context of the wider campaign, and of early modern European power politics, he uses evocative eyewitness testimony to reconstruct the events of that fateful encounter, and reveal just how close to defeat the Williamites came.
Acknowledgements 7
Campaign Map 9
Introduction 10
1 A War of Kings: November 1688 - December 1690 15
2 Changes in Command: December 1690 - March 1691 35
3 An Army Reborn: March - June 1691 47
4 The Captains take the Field: 1 May - 17 June 1691 63
5 Forcing the Shannon: 18 - 30 June 1691 77
6 A Challenge Accepted: 1 - 11 July 1691 95
7 Like Waves Upon the Shore: Morning - Afternoon, 12 July 1691 107
8 To Grasp the Thorns of Victory:Afternoon - Evening, 12 July 1691 119
9 Aughrim of the Slaughter: Evening - Nightfall, 12 July 1691 153
10 The Butcher's Bill 167
11 The Treaty 177
Envoi: 'The Flight of the Geese' 191
Battlefield Maps 194
Appendix A Orders of Battle 198
Appendix B Williamite Losses at Aughrim 202
Appendix C The Jacobite Field Army after Aughrim 204
Appendix D Jacobite Garrisons of Limerick and Galway, July 1691 207
Appendix E Jacobite Rank and File electing to serve in France 210
Appendix F The Jacobite Army in Exile, Spring 1692 212
Bibliography 213
Notes 217
Index 221
Overview
'The blood from the dead so covered the ground that one could hardly take a step without slipping. This grisly scene of slaughter remained untouched for several days, the horror of which cannot be imagined except by those who saw it ...
With over 60,000 combatants, the Battle of the Boyne, which took place on 1 July 1690, was the largest battle ever fought on Irish soil, and has long been regarded as the pivotal event of the Williamite War in Ireland.
But, despite is celebrated ...