The Drumcree protest by Portadown Orangemen is to continue, but hopes were rising today that the
violence which accompanied it across Northern Ireland is at an end. There were some violent incidents
overnight. Police said a 75-year-old man was subjected to a "disgraceful" sledgehammer attack by men
who smashed their way into his Belfast home. The man's wrist and leg were smashed with the weapon.
Orangemen at more than a dozen centres across the province marched in parades on July 12 to mark the
anniversary of The Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
So read the headline story in The London Times of Wednesday, July 13, 2000. This goes on every year
come hell or high water. The loyalists (Orangemen/Protestants) demand the right to march through
nationalist (Catholic) neighborhoods to celebrate the victory of King Billy over King Jamie the II of
England (VII of Scotland) in an in-your-face manner, resulting in the sort of violence mentioned above.
(Ask founding SCS member Marcia Greene about her experience last year with this lot for an up-close
and personal viewpoint!)
Every year since the first march of 1807, members of the Orange Order come from all over the world
to remember this 311-year-old battle. So what was so special about this battle? And why is it
remembered every year, more so than any other battle in Ireland?
You may remember from my previous article on Jacobites that James II had been forced to abdicate
the British crown in 1688 during what has become known as the Glorious Revolution. The reasons for this
forced abdication are many, but basically it was a result of his conversion to the Catholic faith sometime
in the 1660s. England and Scotland were Protestant countries, and the thought of a Catholic revival was
abhorrent to them. Parliament actually tried to stop James' succession to the throne but failed, and
James was crowned in 1685. James was a typical Stuart king in that he believed in and ruled under the
auspices of the Divine Right of Kings - a peculiarly Catholic idea meaning that the king was answerable
only to God, not the people he ruled. This, of course, ran contrary to the new democratic parliamentary
system emerging in England as Parliament was becoming more and more the voice of the common man, not
just an advisory board or fundraising entity when the king needed money.
James got into trouble early on in his reign by passing a series of inept policies, attempting to pack both
the army and Parliament with Catholics, and attempting to repeal the penal laws against Catholics. Even
so, things didn't really come to a head until the birth of James' son. Fearing a Catholic heir to the crown,
England's Protestant leaders invited Holland's William of Orange to investigate the circumstances of
this birth. They had, in effect, committed treason by inviting a foreign prince (albeit one married to the
king's own daughter, Mary) to invade their own country.
When William arrived in England in November 1688, James and his family were allowed to escape to
France to the Court of Louis XIV. Parliament then declared the crown vacant and offered it to William
and Mary. William was the exact opposite of James. He was an advocate of tolerance and believed in a
constitutional monarchy but was obsessed with the Grand Alliance (united provinces of the Netherlands,
Austria, England, Brandenburg, Saxony, Bavaria and Spain against France) and the destruction of the
expansionist plans of Louis XIV. He needed England as an ally so as to stop Louis and save Holland, and
so he accepted the crown of England. However, holding on to the throne was to prove more difficult than
William had anticipated.
James, with the backing of Louis XIV, agreed to lead an army of about 21,000 French and Irish to take
back his crown, and chose to land in Ireland in 1689. The Irish (as well as the Scots, especially the
Highland clans) were used to the autocratic rule of the Chief - it was the Gaelic way of life. It was
perhaps this trait, more than anything else, that led them to support the Jacobite kings and their failed
claims to the throne. William responded to James' invasion by landing with around 35,000 Dutch,
English, Prussian and Swiss mercenary troops.
James and his "army," a ragtag bunch of Irish peasants and French mercenaries, armed with nothing
more in some cases than sharp sticks, had failed to provision for the campaign and set to plundering the
countryside to survive the winter. They laid siege to Derry and Enniskillen. This, of course, did not
endear them to the local populace who viewed these Jacobite rebels more as a scourge on the land rather
than as saviors. William's army was better equipped and he kept stricter control over his troops, hanging
looters and marauders.
Failing to take Derry and Enniskillen, James marched to meet William. And William, after initially
declining to lead the army in battle, changed his mind on the eve of the battle and the opposing forces
finally met on the banks of the River Boyne on July 1, 1690 (which is July 12 on our present-day
calendar) at Oldbridge.
The armies fought each other all day, but basically the battle ended in a draw, around 5 PM. The
Protestant army had managed to flank the Jacobite forces and James fled the field at the end of the
day, making his way to Dublin to await his retreating troops. William, who was wounded and fatigued,
failed to give chase to the French and Jacobites, but he'd effectively defeated James, once again
sending him packing off to France. James blamed his Irish troops for his defeat, but advised them to
surrender to William. Unfortunately, they didn't take this advice, and continued to fight with England
for another year. In the end, they lost this war, and this had grave consequences for the future. Against
William's advice, Parliament implemented a severe set of Penal Laws against the Catholics, which was to
last for years.
Today, the Orangemen march every year in Northern Ireland to observe the events written above.
Which is interesting, considering that the Orange Order wasn't founded until September 21, 1795 - a
century later! That's another story, but there obviously weren't any Orangemen at the actual battle!
One hopes the marching is to remember the deeper ideals for which the battle was fought, as well as the
fifteen hundred Jacobites and five hundred Williamites who died fighting it. There are those who say it
marked a milestone in the evolution of Democracy. The defeat of James II, an absolutist monarch,
rejected by his own country and defeated by a tolerant ruler subject to the rule of Parliament is one
such milestone. That's a pretty high ideal.
Then again, it might be just an excuse for a bunch of yobbos to get liquored up and go beat up people
with sledgehammers.
