St. Ruth's Fatal Gamble

St. Ruth's Fatal Gamble PDF Author: Michael McNally
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781913336066
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
In 1685, James, Duke of York, ascended to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland. As the first catholic monarch in 150 years many believed that his reign would be short and that he would be succeeded by his eldest daughter Mary, a protestant, who was married to her cousin William, Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of the United Dutch Provinces.James' close ties to King Louis XIV of France served to fuel the fires of discontent, and when a male heir was born in June 1688 a number of nobles and clergymen, fearing a backlash of Catholic absolutism, invited William of Orange to take the throne.##William duly invaded, and after a desultory campaign, James fled the country for refuge in France, it being claimed that his flight constituted a legal abdication but whilst William sought to consolidate his position in England and Scotland, the Earl of Tyrconnell - James' viceroy in Ireland - began to prepare for his master's restoration.Actively supported by King Louis XIV who viewed any military activity in Ireland as a useful diversion to keep his enemies occupied, James' supporters enjoyed early success, but defeats at Newtownbutler, Derry and - above all - at the Boyne destroyed James' confidence, and he fled his kingdoms for a second and final time.##William's army pursued the enemy to the gates of Limerick but failed to capture the city before winter set in, giving the Jacobites a much needed respite in which to reorganize and resupply themselves, during which time military supplies and a coterie of advisors led the by the Marquis de St Ruth, arrived from France.After failing to halt the Williamite crossing of the Shannon in the summer of 1691 St.Ruth, running out of room in which to manoeuvre elected to take up a defensive position and invite an enemy attack, occupying Kilcommadan Hill, near the Galway village of Aughrim.Although his own army was now at the end of a tenuous line of communication and supply, Godard van Reede, commanding the Williamite army, accepted the challenge and the two forces clashed on Sunday 12th July 1691.The strength of the Jacobite position was such that their opponents could initially make no headway, but an unordered redeployment of troops opened up a dangerous gap in their lines and when St. Ruth attempted to correct the error he was killed by enemy cannonfire.

St. Ruth's Fatal Gamble

St. Ruth's Fatal Gamble PDF Author: Michael McNally
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781913336066
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
In 1685, James, Duke of York, ascended to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland. As the first catholic monarch in 150 years many believed that his reign would be short and that he would be succeeded by his eldest daughter Mary, a protestant, who was married to her cousin William, Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of the United Dutch Provinces.James' close ties to King Louis XIV of France served to fuel the fires of discontent, and when a male heir was born in June 1688 a number of nobles and clergymen, fearing a backlash of Catholic absolutism, invited William of Orange to take the throne.##William duly invaded, and after a desultory campaign, James fled the country for refuge in France, it being claimed that his flight constituted a legal abdication but whilst William sought to consolidate his position in England and Scotland, the Earl of Tyrconnell - James' viceroy in Ireland - began to prepare for his master's restoration.Actively supported by King Louis XIV who viewed any military activity in Ireland as a useful diversion to keep his enemies occupied, James' supporters enjoyed early success, but defeats at Newtownbutler, Derry and - above all - at the Boyne destroyed James' confidence, and he fled his kingdoms for a second and final time.##William's army pursued the enemy to the gates of Limerick but failed to capture the city before winter set in, giving the Jacobites a much needed respite in which to reorganize and resupply themselves, during which time military supplies and a coterie of advisors led the by the Marquis de St Ruth, arrived from France.After failing to halt the Williamite crossing of the Shannon in the summer of 1691 St.Ruth, running out of room in which to manoeuvre elected to take up a defensive position and invite an enemy attack, occupying Kilcommadan Hill, near the Galway village of Aughrim.Although his own army was now at the end of a tenuous line of communication and supply, Godard van Reede, commanding the Williamite army, accepted the challenge and the two forces clashed on Sunday 12th July 1691.The strength of the Jacobite position was such that their opponents could initially make no headway, but an unordered redeployment of troops opened up a dangerous gap in their lines and when St. Ruth attempted to correct the error he was killed by enemy cannonfire.

To Settle the Crown

To Settle the Crown PDF Author: Jonathan Worton
Publisher: Helion and Company
ISBN: 191437732X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
While the First, or 'Great', English Civil War of 1642-6 was largely contested at regional and county level, in often hard-fought and long-lasting local campaigns, historians often still continue to dwell on the well-known major battles, such as Edgehill and Naseby, and the prominent national leaders. To help redress this imbalance, To Settle The Crown: Waging Civil War in Shropshire, 1642-1648 provides the most detailed bipartisan study published to date of how the war was actually organized and conducted at county level. This book examines the practicalities, the 'nuts and bolts', of contemporary warfare by reconstructing the war effort of Royalists and Parliamentarians in Shropshire, an English county on the borderland of Wales - a region that witnessed widespread fighting. Shropshire was contested during the First Civil War - when it became one of the most heavily garrisoned counties in England and Wales - and experienced renewed conflict during the Second Civil War of 1648. Based on a Doctoral thesis, and therefore drawing primarily on contemporary sources revealing much new information, To Settle The Crown examines key aspects of the military history of the English Civil Wars: allegiance and motivation; leadership and administration; recruitment and the form of armed forces; military finance; logistics; and the nature and conduct of the fighting. Furthermore, while previous studies have tended to concentrate on the Parliamentarians, the comparatively plentiful evidence from Shropshire has allowed the Royalist war effort there to be reconstructed in rare detail. This book reveals for the first time the extent of military activity in Shropshire, describing the sieges, skirmishes and larger engagements, while reflecting on the nature of warfare elsewhere across Civil War England and Wales. In also providing a social context to the military history of the period, it explains how Royalist and Parliamentarian activists set local government on a wartime footing, and how the populace generally became involved in the administrative and material tasks of war effort. Extensively illustrated, fully referenced to an extensive bibliography, and including a useful review of Civil War historiography, To Settle The Crown: Waging Civil War in Shropshire, 1642-1648 is a significant fresh approach to the military history of the English Civil Wars.

Raw Generals and Green Soldiers

Raw Generals and Green Soldiers PDF Author: Pádraig Lenihan
Publisher: Helion and Company
ISBN: 1804516465
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
The eleven years of conflict that engulfed Ireland (1641-53) can be seen as a drama in three acts, each of which drew Ireland into progressively closer alignment with the Civil Wars (1642-52) in the other two Stuart kingdoms, Scotland and England. The first act in the Wars of Religion in Ireland (1641-53) began in October 1641 with a rising in Ulster and shuddered to a halt in September 1643 when the insurgents, now embodied as the Confederate Catholics, agreed a ceasefire with Charles I’s representative in Ireland. This study is confined to Act One to manage its sheer scope and scale. Not a single county in Ireland was unscathed by war and in summer 1642 there were more men under arms than there ever had been or would be again. Moreover, Act One was singularly nasty. Insurgent slaughter of Protestant settlers in the winter of 1641-42 quickly gained canonical status. English and Scots armies routinely massacred natives in the spring and summer that followed. After their uprising failed, the Irish in 1642 were attacked by English and Scottish armies that were bigger, in aggregate, than any before or since. And that includes the armies of Elizabeth I, Oliver Cromwell and William of Orange. Lacking munitions, forced to disperse their strength, and usually outfought in open battle, the Confederate Catholics pushed back in war-as-process and food-fights in which castles dominating a chequerboard of hinterlands jostled with hostile neighbors. The Catholics were winning this small war when the music stopped in 1643. This is a study of the Catholic armies in Act One through a succinct narrative which reveals underlying pattern and purpose in what would otherwise be one apparently random battle, siege, skirmish, massacre, and cattle raid after another, devoid of form or meaning. The narrative focuses in and out, from the strategic through the operational down to the tactical and what happened in a particular place on a given day. The narrative also shifts from the southern or Leinster/Munster theater to the northern or Connacht/Ulster theater. Meaning is disclosed through narrative in which the strengths and shortcomings of the Irish armies become clearer. The quotation in the title sets up two such shortcomings, of leaders and led. One reason why the Catholics lost so many battles may be that their generals fought battles when they needn’t have, showed a fatal preference for the all-out attack, and did not always deploy in a manner that let their army’s components, pike, shot and horse act in mutual support. Another reason may be that the rankers were less invested in the Catholic cause than their officers. But the establishing quotation is followed by a question mark. Perhaps the real question to be asked is how the Catholic armies achieved so much rather than why they failed.

The Khotyn Campaign of 1621

The Khotyn Campaign of 1621 PDF Author: Micha? Paradowski
Publisher: Helion and Company
ISBN: 1804514993
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
In autumn 1621, at a fortified camp near Khotyn (Chocim), in the Principality of Moldavia, allied Polish, Lithuanian and Cossack armies faced a large Ottoman army led by Sultan Osman II. It was the concluding act of a war that had started with the defeat of a Polish army at Cecora one year earlier. As such it was actually part of the longer conflict, waged over the Commonwealth’s and the Ottoman’s influence over Moldavia. Throughout the whole of September and the first half of October 1621, the allied army managed to defend their camps against Turks, with both sides taking heavy losses from the hardship of the siege operations and worsening weather conditions. The conflict ended with the Treaty of Khotyn (9 October 1621) which did not particularly favor either of the sides. All the same, stopping the Ottoman was seen as a huge success for the Commonwealth, while attitudes on the Ottoman sides were far from victorious. The aftershock of the war led to the rebellion of janissaries in 1622, resulting in the overthrow and murder of Sultan Osman II. The book focuses on the Khotyn campaign of 1621, describing the day-by-day actions of the combatant armies – assaults, sallies and raids – during the whole of the siege. Additional theaters of war, such as Cossack operations from the summer of 1621 and Tatars raids against the Polish interior, are described as well. The reader will also find here details of the organization and strength of the fighting armies, information about the battle dispositions of the troops at Khotyn and commanders leading the troops. Actions leading to the outbreak of the open conflict between the Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire are explained in a separate chapter, providing a good historical background of the war. Another chapter covers the outcome of the war and the ways that influenced the internal and external situation of both the Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. As with his previous works, the author has utilized a large number of primary sources: from the diaries of soldiers taking part in the campaign, through chronicles, official letters and documents from the period to army musters. Among the documents used are not only those written by Poles and Lithuanians, but also documents from Cossacks, Germans and Ottomans. Modern works, especially from Polish and Ukrainian historians, have also been used, in order to provide the most up-to-date and in-depth research. As this topic has previously not had much coverage in English, this book will be a valuable addition to the library of anyone interested in the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in Zaporozhian Cossacks and in the Ottoman Empire in the early seventeenth century.

Charles XII's Karoliners

Charles XII's Karoliners PDF Author: Sergey Shamenkov
Publisher: Helion and Company
ISBN: 1804515957
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
This book examines the evolution and changes in Swedish infantry and artillery uniforms during the Great Northern War. The author reconstructs in detail the appearance of infantry and artillery officers, NCOs, and privates of the time of Charles XII, drawing on a number of studies and articles, and based on extant artifacts, and written and iconographic documents that have survived to our time. The book illustrates both major and minor changes in the cut, style, and adornments of the uniforms of infantry and artillery officers, NCOs, and privates that occurred shortly before or during the war. It also provides detailed insights into the differences between the Carolean uniforms of the “older model” of 1687, which served as the basis for later modifications, and the “younger model” of 1706, as well as into different variations in transitional models existing between the two. The book also studies the different variations of headgear used by Swedish officers, NCOs, and privates, with a particular focus on grenadier caps, and examines soldiers’ accouterments and dress. The uniforms and insignia of Swedish infantry and artillery officers are described in a separate section. Along with published sources, this book also relies on little-known or previously unpublished documents. The text is accompanied with photos of surviving uniforms, archaeological finds and period artworks, and is richly illustrated with the author’s graphic reconstructions of period uniforms. A full-color section is dedicated to the author’s own plates, which show officers, NCOs, and privates of Charles XII’s army during the Great Northern War. These eye-catching graphic reconstructions with detailed descriptions will be helpful for historians, artists, reenactors, and filmmakers. They will also be invaluable to those who are fond of historical figurines and to those who create their own tabletop armies to play out historical battles.

'More Furies Than Men'

'More Furies Than Men' PDF Author: Pierre-Louis Coudray
Publisher: From Reason to Revolution
ISBN: 9781914059827
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Wild Geese, Irish soldiers exiled in France at the end of the seventeenth century, gained fame fighting for France on the battlefields of Europe, India and America in the eighteenth century.

Catholic Emancipation Centenary Record

Catholic Emancipation Centenary Record PDF Author: Myles Vincent Ronan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Catholic emancipation
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description


The Battle of Aughrim 1691

The Battle of Aughrim 1691 PDF Author: Michael McNally
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752496581
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
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.

Despite Destruction, Misery and Privations...

Despite Destruction, Misery and Privations... PDF Author: Michal Paradowski
Publisher: Century of the Soldier
ISBN: 9781913336455
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Before he entered Germany in 1630, Swedish King Gustav II Adolf had to face Polish army in Prussia. Between 1626 and 1629, under command of brilliant Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski, Poles were engaged in bitter struggle against Swedes. During this conflict both sides learnt a lot from each other, adjusting their armies' organization and tactics. While pitched battles, where winged hussars could win the day, were rare, so called 'small war' made huge impact on the events of this conflict. Poles were able to hone their skills acquired during years of fighting Tatars and Turks but were also forced to vastly increase presence of the infantry in their army, adapting to new style of warfare. This book provides readers with in-depth study of the Polish troops during the war, from unique structure of the army, through organization and equipment of the units, to soldiers' daily struggle due to lack of pay and food. Each formation is described in detail, from famous winged hussars to Western European mercenaries serving as infantry and dragoons. The author's research is based on many Polish primary sources, that for the first time are available to English-speaking readers, presenting many interesting facts about less known conflict.

The Swedish Army in the Great Northern War, 1700-1721

The Swedish Army in the Great Northern War, 1700-1721 PDF Author: Lars Ericson Wolke
Publisher: Century of the Soldier
ISBN: 9781912390182
Category : Northern War, 1700-1721
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This is the story of Sweden ́s Army during the wars 1700-1721 against a number of enemies, foremost Russia, until the collapse of the Swedish Empire.