The Boyne Water : The Battle of the Boyne 1690

St. Martin's Press, 1976. hardcover. Good/Good. 0x0x0. St. Martin's Press [Published Date: 1976]. Hardcover, 163 pp. First edition. Good in good+ dust jacket. Green cloth covered boards with silver lettering on spine. Light bumping and scuffing to edges of and light overall soiling and spotting to covers as well. Binding tight. Front free end-paper and half-title pages are clipped at the bottom corners and the remnants of the previous owner's circular blind stamp are at the bottom of the front free end paper. Otherwise pages are lightly aged but unmarked. Dust jacket has a few small nicks and light creasing along edges. Light overall scuffing, aging and soiling to jacket as well. Now in an archival-quality (removable) Brodart Cover. NOT Ex-Library. NO remainder marks. Black and white illustrations. [From jacket flaps] In the year 1690 Ireland was the pivot of the European crisis. Louis XIV had sent over the deposed king James II with French money, troops and generals in order to secure Ireland and eventually England as allies. William III, together with other members of the League of Augsburg, sought to prevent a Jacobite restoration in England and the consequent domination of Europe by France. On 1 July, 1690, the decisive day of the battle of the Boyne, the presence of troops from the continent on both sides of the river emphasized the international issues at stake. But the battle was fought for other reasons which are still remembered today. The Cromwellian landowners and the English and Scottish Protestants in Ulster wanted to defend their property and power; the Old English Catholics and the native Irish fought to regain their confiscated lands and to drive out the alien English conquerors. How far, in fact, did William and James represent these respective interests and what happened after such bitter fighting? Peter Berresford Ellis describes the movements of both armies prior to the battle and the scene on the battlefield itself. With his characteristic impartiality he assesses the personalities and strategy of the various leaders - the Earl of Tyrconnell, the young Duke of Berwick and Patrick Sarsfield on the Jacobite side and the old Duke of Shomberg, the Count of Solms- Braunfels and Gustavus Hamilton on the Williamite side. For it was the foresight, skill or mistakes of such men which were to determine the outcome of the battle. Vivid eye-witness accounts of soldiers captured in both camps add feeling to this story of hatred, hope and courage which captured the imagination of the generations to come. But the author does not merely ascertain the military significance of William's victory. He outlines the consequences of Williamite rule for both Catholics and Protestants alike, in both Ulster and the South, and in so doing destroys - in surprising ways - some of the myths surrounding the battle of the Boyne. The Boyne Water is a welcome companion volume to Hell or Connaughts ! The Cromwellian Colonization of Ireland 1652 - 1660, and both books make a valuable contribution to our understanding of the problems in Ireland today.