Any Jacobites in the House?

On my tour of the Boyne River Valley, I stopped at another famous site: The Battle of the Boyne site along the Boyne River. This was where William the Orange defeated James the II in 1690. So what, you say? Yeah, that's what I said, too. So I did a little research.

This was one of the roots of the Protestant and Catholic conflict in Ireland. William the Orange (a.k.a William III) was the reigning protestant King of England, Scotland and Ireland. He deposed his father-in-law, James II - a Catholic under the guise of freeing the English Protestants from James II's Catholic tyranny.

James II fled to France where he had support from King Louis XIV of France. In 1689, James II, gathered an army of Jacobites and French and landed in Kinsale in Ireland (southwest of Cork) and marched all the way up to meet King William III's troupes along the Boyne River in July of 1690.

William III's 36,000 men went on to defeat the 23,500 men of James II's army in three days. This remains the largest battle to have occurred on the island of Ireland. This is sometimes recognized as a key point to the complete colonization of Ireland by the British. In fact, in the 1920's Irish Republican Army (Catholics) blew up a monument at the battle site as well as a statue of William III (Protestant) at Trinity College in Dublin.

So the question remains: What the hell is a Jacobite?

A Jacobite is a supporter of the Catholic King James II. It's taken from the latin for James - which is Jacob. The Jacobite movement is the movement to restore the House of Stuart to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland. The current rulers are of the House of Windsor.

One final question: If I'm in Ireland, should I visit the Battle of the Boyne site?

No. For four Euro, you can see a limited museum and walk the grounds. Actually, you can walk the grounds for free - you get what you pay for there. Drive past the site and move on to the burial mound a Newgrainge. If you want information on the battle, go to a library and find a book on it.

One last piece of trivia - William III and his wife Queen Mary II (daughter of James II) are the namesakes for William & Mary College in Virginia.