Sunday, September 8, 2019

Battles for the Three Kingdoms - Ireland

Battles for the Three Kingdoms: The Campaigns for England, Scotland and Ireland - 1689-92 by John Barratt

The Battle of the Boyne in 1690 was the culmination of the ferocious struggle between two kings, James II and William III. This book makes use of research and sources, including eyewitness accounts, to analyse the opposing forces, their strategy, tactics and conduct of the war and the reasons for its eventual outcome.




The Siege of Derry 1689 by Richard Doherty
James II's army laid siege to the city of Derry for 105 days, during which half the city's population died. This is a military study of one of the most iconic episodes in Irish history, based on contemporary accounts, official records of the day, and published works on the siege. With an understanding of seventeenth-century warfare, especially siegecraft, the author probes many of the myths that have grown up around the siege and sets it in its proper context. Its ramifications for the consequent history of Ireland cannot be over emphasised.


The Battle of Aughrim 1691 by Michael McNally
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. But despite the Boyne's celebrated place in Irish protestant folklore, 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. In the first major history of the battle in 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.

No comments:

Post a Comment