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King James' Irish Army
When to England’s throne and Ireland’s governorship came James II in 1685, the Penal Laws which had been imposed against Catholics and Dissenters were suspended. These English laws had robbed the Irish of their property but none of their pride. With this suspension, James filled the majority of his English subjects and the Puritan settlers in Ireland with horror. The plight of Irish Catholics and Dissenters had been pitiful during the reigns of Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth I. Times under Cromwell during the mid- seventeenth Century were even worse. James II, a Catholic, sought to rescind the acts of his predecessors. Henry VIII, from the beginning of his reign in 1515 sought to destroy the basis of Irish resistance to English rule. Laws were enacted to suppress the Irish race and in 1536, Parliament declared the Catholic religion, with its ritual and teachings, “null and void and corrupt forever.” Five years later, Parliament declared Henry “King of Ireland.” Under Henry VIII and later Elizabeth I, Catholic priests were outlawed. When found, the lives of priests were to be forfeited. They were to be hanged, cut down when half dead, disemboweled and burnt, and their heads impaled in some public place. Anyone sheltering, a priest was to be hanged, and his lands confiscated. In September 1653, the English Parliament issued the order for the great Transplantation where lands and properties of the Irish Catholic families were seized and given to Protestants loyal to Cromwell. The plan involved the removal of occupiers by a scheme called Transplantation. By the Act of Settlement, the land in ten Irish countries were appropriated to soldiers and adventurers. Others were added later. Most members of the old Irish-Norman families such as the FitzGeralds, (the Earls of Desmond), the Eustaces and others steadfastly clung to the Catholic faith. (Before the Reformation the FitzGeralds were the strongest of the old Irish-Norman families in County Kildare with the Eustaces generally considered the next most prominent.) The English parliament, which disavowed any intention to “extirpate that whole nation,” divided the Irish population into ten classes, of which the first five were ineligible from pardon and deprived of estate for life and even “Innocents” found it hard to retain more than a portion of their estates. The Irish were removed from their lands together with their families and ordered to Connacht where land was provided for them, though generally of inferior quality. The chief effect of the Cromwellian plantation was to impose a new English and Puritan landlord system in Ireland. James II reigned until 1688. He succeeded his brother, Charles II. By enforcing policies that favored Catholics he angered Protestants. Memories of past injustices against the Catholic minority influenced James’ actions. He stacked the military with Irish Catholics. The Puritan element was removed from the ranks; Cromwell’s officers were replaced by Irishmen. “I have put a sword in your hands,” James is reported to have said to the Irish Privy Council. James appointed Catholics as judges and magistrates, and placed Catholics on his Council. Three thousand Irish soldiers were sent to England as reinforcement for James’s army. The Protestant majority looked on in absolute horror. In James II, Ireland found a king who could be trusted to restore the faith and might be induced to repeal the detested Act of Settlement which had taken some of Ireland’s most fertile land from the old Irish families and given them to Cromwell’s soldiers and other loyalists. James made a serious tactical error, from a military standpoint, by not securing Ulster. Later when James’s military campaign collapsed, although a great Irish army was in the field, Derry, Enniskillen and other Northern Ireland cities became cities of refuge for a Protestant population ready to fight for William of Orange. From The Hague, William of Orange, who was married to James’s daughter Mary, watched the march of events in silence. When James’s wife had a son in 1688, the prospect of another Catholic ruler united James’s opponents. During the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688, James’s army melted away and James’s Protestant daughter Mary and her husband, William of Orange of the Netherlands became joint rulers. James fled to France together with some of his followers. The Irish declared themselves for James; the English overwhelmingly supported William and Mary. The Irish army fled England and was strengthened in Ireland. Within two months fifty thousand Irishmen enlisted in James’s army. The Irish soldiers were ragged; some half naked. Their fathers had been robbed of all; the oppressors barely allowed them to exist. Yet to some Irish, complete independence from England, with James for king, seemed a possibility. In May 1689, James wrote in a letter to Lieutenant-colonel Hamilton, “I am sending down one great mortar and two pieces of battery by land, and the same number both by sea; it was actually impossible to dispatch them sooner. Ten companies of Eustace’s will soon be with you all well armed and clothed. The Irish parliament declared their support for James. For the first time since the 13th Century, a Parliament represented the Irish nation. Members of this Parliament included James Eustace and Maurice Eustace both of the Borough of Blessington in Country Kildare. Laws were quickly reversed to correct previous injustices; Protestants were to pay tithes to their own church, the Catholics to theirs. Estates plundered by Cromwell’s followers some thirty-six years before, were restored to previous owners, but compensation was to be given to all innocent persons. An act of attainder was passed which included some 2400 persons supposed to be supporters of William of Orange. After King Charles died, his brother assumed the throne as James II in 1685. A Catholic, James II offered a glimmer of hope to the long suffering Irish. He suspended the penal laws originally enacted during the reign of Henry VIII. Catholics and dissenters were appointed judges, magistrates and placed on the Kings Council. Three thousand Irish soldiers were sent to England as reinforcements. These actions filled many of the new King’s English subjects with horror and helped turn public opinion against his reign. In the face of such unpopular actions, the English set aside all factional rivalries and determined to remove James from the throne. He managed to reign but three years, before he was forced to flee to France. Parliament installed William of Orange, the Dutch son-in-law of James as the new king. This choice dictated by two factors; William was considered a champion of Protestantism in Europe, and he was the husband of Mary, the older daughter of James II, the Protestant next in line to the throne. Tension mounted as it became clear that Ireland would become the battleground of the contending kings. It was December 1688; once again the people of Ireland were to experience the bloodshed of war. Forsaken by his army, the disheartened, James fled to France, and William entered London to assume the throne. The Irish and Hiberno-Normans supported James II. To some, independence with James as king seemed a remote possibility. Ireland new settlers; the result of Elizabethan and Cromwellian settlements cast their lot in favor of William. Fifty thousand Irishmen enlisted in King James’ army. These troops were from the peasantclass ragged, undernourished, and mostly Catholic. James returned from France March 19, 1689 with 400 officers and gunners; and Scotch and English troops who continued to be loyal to him. Ammunition and finances had been supplied by Louis XIV of France. Irish parliament was called to order on May 7th. James Eustace and Maurice Eustace, representatives of the Borough of Blessington, were members of this parliament.. King James proclaimed that he had come to Ireland to risk his life in defense of Irish liberties. Thirty-five laws were passed, most of which repealed legislation passed by the English supported parliament that was particularly detrimental to Irish interests. Included among these thirty-five acts was one which repealed the Cromwellian Settlement and another which halted the payment of tithes to the Anglican Church. Legislation passed during this hastily called session of parliament was in vain. W of Orange arrived in Belfast with twenty regiments of English, Danes, Dutch and French Huguenot troops. On May 10, 1689, King James, in a letter to Lieutenant-General Hamilton, then encamped before Derry, writes “I am sending down one great mortar and two pieces of battery by land, and the same number of both by sea; it was actually impossible to dispatch them sooner. Ten companies of Eustace’s will soon be with you, all well armed and clothed. At the siege of Deny, during the attack of Windmill, Christopher Eustace was taken prisoner and Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Eustace, of Barretstown, was wounded. Nicholas Eustace was a Captain in Sir Neill ONeills Dragoons while another Eustace was Lieutenant in Lord Dongans dragoons. Sir Maurice Eustace (d. 1693) commanded 19th the infantry Regiment in James II’s army. There were six officers named Eustace in his regiment plus several Eustaces in other regiments. Among the officers were James Eustace of Yeomanstown, Richard and John Eustace (unidentified for certain) and Richard Warren, nephew of the Lord Chancellor, Richard Eustace of of Barretstown, north of Ballymore Eustace, was second-in-command Barretstown Lord Gormanstown’s Regiment. King James lodged at Castlemartin, the home of Sir Maurice Eustace. The following is Maurice Eustace Infantry List:
REGIMENTS OF INFANTRY
Later James Eustace of Yeomanstowne, Co. Kildare was implicated with others in the case of a seditious manuscript related to the memoirs of King James. Sir Maurice Eustace, above, was one of 22 Eustace attainders and forfeitures in 1691. Twelve of the attainders were in Co. Kildare, eight in Co. Carlow, and two in Co, Wicklow. Col. Maurice Eustace of Yeomanstowne, Co. Kildare, and others belonging to Irish regiments should have had the benefit of the Civil Articles of the Treaty of Limerick, 1691 provided he return within eight months and submit to King Williams government. An Inquisition taken on March 14, 1690, on the attainder of Francis Eustace, in regard to his possessions in the Baronies of Forth and Idrone in County Carlow, finds that he and his son and heir Oliver were in actual rebellion on the 1st of May, 1689, against ie King and Queen, and that after the battle of Boyne, they departed with Richard, :ail of Tyrconnel, William, Earl of Limerick, and other rebels and traitors, beyond the Shannon, and there continued actual war and rebellion, In 1697 an Act was passed for settling certain rectories according to the will of Sir Maurice Eustace, and, in 1720, another statute authorized the sale of his lands for payment of his debts. At Chichester House in 1700, various claims were preferred as affecting the confiscations of property belonging to Sir Maurice Eustace, as well as those of Francis and Oliver Eustace in Carlow, and of Alexander, Thomas, and Katherine Eustace of Kildare. From Sir Maurice Eustace’s forfeitures, the claims of his wife for jointure, and of their infant child Frances, for a portion of L 300, and an annuity of L 40 for maintenance, and of another daughter Margaret for L 2000 portion and L 20 annuity were allowed. (Colonel Sir Maurice Eustace, himself, who had been severely wounded at Aughrim, was, on his arrival, with the remainder of King James Exiled Army in France, made Colonel of one of the re-formed Regiments of Irish infantry, which he commanded up to the autumn of 1693, when it may be presumed he died; as in that year King James appointed, at St. Germains, a successor in command to his regiment.) These pages © Ronald Eustice, 2008 |
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