The Flight of the Wild Geese refers to the departure of an Irish army under the command of Patrick Sarsfield from Ireland to France, as agreed in the Treaty of Limerick on October 3, 1691, following the Williamite war in Ireland with the Jacobites. More broadly, the term "Wild Geese" is used in Irish history to refer to Irish soldiers who left to serve in continental European armies in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan Patrick Sarsfield (b. ... The Treaty of Limerick ended the Williamite war in Ireland between the Jacobites and the supporters of William of Orange. ... October 3 is the 276th day of the year (277th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events March 5 - French troops under Marshal Louis-Francois de Boufflers besiege the Spanish-held town of Mons March 20 - Leislers Rebellion - New governor arrives in New York - Jacob Leisler surrenders after standoff of several hours March 29 - Siege of Mons ends to the city’s surrender May 6... For the context of this war see Jacobitism and Glorious Revolution. ... Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie, wearing the Jacobite blue bonnet Jacobitism was (and, to a very limited extent, is) the political movement dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England and Scotland (including after 1707, when the Hanoverian government deemed those thrones to have...

Spanish service

The first Irish troops to serve as a unit for a continental power formed an Irish regiment in the Spanish army of Flanders in the Eighty Years' War in the 1580s. The regiment had been raised by an English Catholic, William Stanley in Ireland, from native Irish soldiers and mercenaries, whom the English authorities wanted out of the country (See also Tudor re-conquest of Ireland). Stanley was given a commission by Elizabeth I and was intended to lead his regiment on the English side, in support of the Dutch United Provinces. However, in 1585, motivated by religious factors and bribes offered by the Spaniards, Stanley defected to the Spanish side with the regiment. The unit fought in the Netherlands until 1600 when it was disbanded due to heavy wastage through combat and sickness. The Eighty Years War, or Dutch Revolt, was the war of secession between the Netherlands and the Spanish king, that lasted from 1568 to 1648. ... Sir Willam Stanley, Baronet, (1548—1630) son of Sir Rowland Stanley bt of Hooton (?-1612), was a member of the famous Stanley family. ... The Tudor re-conquest of Ireland took place under the English Tudor dynasty during the 16th century. ... Elizabeth I (7 September 1533–24 March 1603) was Queen of England, Queen of France (in name only), and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. ... Map of Dutch Republic by Joannes Janssonius United Netherlands redirects here. ...

In 1607 the "Flight of the Earls" occurred, when the defeated rebels of the Nine Years War (Ireland), Earl of Tyrone Hugh O'Neill and Earl of Tyrconnell Rory O'Donnell, along with many chiefs and their followers from Ulster fled Ireland. They hoped to get Spanish help in order to restart their rebellion in Ireland, but King Philip III of Spain did not want a resumption of war with England and refused their request. In September 1607, Hugh ONeill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone and Rory ODonnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell set sail from Rathmullan, a village on the shore of Lough Swilly in County Donegal, with ninety of their followers. ... The Nine Years War in Ireland took place from 1594 to 1603 and is also known as Tyrones Rebellion. ... Hugh ONeill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... Rory ODonnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell (1575–1608) 1602 Rory ODonnell succeeded his brother Hugh Roe O’Donnell, Lord of Tyrconnell, as the Irish chieftain of the clan ODonnell, At the time his brother was rebelling against King James I. 1603 he went to London to submit... Statistics Area: 24,481 Population (estimate) 1,931,981 Ulster (Irish: Cúige Uladh, IPA: ) forms one of the four traditional provinces of Ireland. ... Philip III of Spain Philip III (Spanish: Felipe III) (April 14, 1578 – March 31, 1621) was the king of Spain and Portugal (as Philip II Portuguese: Filipe II), from 1598 until his death. ...

Nevertheless, their arrival led to the formation of a new Irish regiment in Flanders, officered by Gaelic Irish nobles and recruited from their followers and dependents in Ireland. This regiment was more overtly political than its predecessor in Spanish service and was militantly hostile to the English Protestant government in Ireland. The regiment was led by Hugh O'Neill's son John. Prominent officers included Owen Roe O'Neill and Hugh Dubh O'Neill. In 1609, Arthur Chichester, then Lord Deputy of Ireland, deported 1300 former rebel Irish soldiers from Ulster to serve in the Swedish Army. However, under the influence of Catholic clergy, many of them deserted to the Spanish service. A fresh source of recruits came in the early seventeenth century, when Roman Catholics were banned from military and political office in Ireland. As a result, the Irish units in the Spanish service began attracting catholic Old English officers like Thomas Preston and Garret Barry. These men had more pro English views than their Gaelic counterparts and considerable animosity was created over plans to use the Irish regiment to invade Ireland in 1627. The regiment was garrisoned in Brussels during the truce in the Eighty Years' War from 1609-1621 and developed close link with Irish Catholic clergy based in the seminary there - notably Florence Conry. Eoghan Rua Ó Néill, anglicised as Owen Roe ONeill (c. ... Hugh Dubh ONeill (Black Hugh) was an Irish soldier of the seventeenth century. ... Official standard of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (also known as the Viceroy or in the Middle Ages as the Lord Deputy) was the head of Englands (pre-1707) or Britains (post 1707) administration in Ireland. ... Statistics Area: 24,481 Population (estimate) 1,931,981 Ulster (Irish: Cúige Uladh, IPA: ) forms one of the four traditional provinces of Ireland. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... The Old English were a wave of early medieval Norman, French, Welsh, English, Breton and Flemish settlers who went to Ireland to claim territory and lands in the wake of the Norman invasion. ... Thomas Preston, 1st Viscount Tara (1585 - 1655) was an Irish soldier of the seventeenth century. ... Garret Barry was an Irish soldier of the 17th century who served in the Eighty Years War and the Irish Confederate Wars. ... Map showing the location of Brussels in Belgium Brussels City Hall Emblem of the Brussels-Capital Region Flag of The City of Brussels Brussels (Dutch: Brussel, pronounced ; French: Bruxelles, pronounced in Belgian French and often by non-Belgian speakers of French; German: Brüssel) is the capital of Belgium, the... The Eighty Years War, or Dutch Revolt, was the war of secession between the Netherlands and the Spanish king, that lasted from 1568 to 1648. ... A seminary is a specialized university-like institution for the purpose of instructing students (seminarians) in theology, often in order to prepare them to become members of the clergy. ...

Many of the Irish troops in Spanish service returned to Ireland after the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and fought in the armies of Confederate Ireland - a movement of Irish Catholics. When the Confederates were defeated and Ireland occupied after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, around 34,000 Irish Confederate troops fled the country to seek service in Spain. Some of them later deserted or defected to French service, where the conditions were deemed better. There continued to be Irish units in the Spanish army until the late 18th century, but in later years only the officers were Irish, the men were predominantly Spanish. The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup détat by Irish Catholic gentry, but rapidly degenerated into bloody intercommunal violence between native Irish Catholics and English and Scottish Protestant settlers. ... Kilkenny Castle, where the Confederate General Assembly met. ... Oliver Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of the English Parliament in 1649. ...

French service

From the mid 17th century or so, France overtook Spain as the destination for Catholic Irishmen seeking a military career. the principal reason for this was that France was an ascendant power, rapidly expanding its armed forces, whereas Spain was a power in decline. However, the crucial turning point came during the Williamite war in Ireland (1688-91), when Louis XIV gave military and financial aid to the Irish Jacobites. In return for 6000 French troops, Louis demanded 6000 Irish recruits for use in the Nine Years War against the Dutch. These men, led by Justin McCarthy, Viscount Mountcashel formed the nucleus of the French Irish Brigade. Later, when the Irish Jacobites under Patrick Sarsfield surrendered at the Treaty of Limerick, they were allowed to leave Ireland for service in the French Army. Sarsfield's "exodus" included 14,000 soldiers and 10,000 women and children. This is popularly known in Ireland as the "Flight of the Wild Geese". Initially, these units were not integrated into the French armed, but were assigned to the court in exile of James II, deposed in the Glorious Revolution, whom Louis deemed the legitimate King of England, Ireland and Scotland. They were later incorporated into the Irish Brigade of the French Army. For the context of this war see Jacobitism and Glorious Revolution. ... Louis XIV (Louis - Dieu donné) or (Louis - God given) (September 5, 1638 – September 1, 1715), reigned as King of France and of Navarre from May 14, 1643 until his death at the age of 77. ... This article is not about the Jacobite Orthodox Church, nor is it about Jacobinism or the earlier Jacobean period. ... The Nine Years War (also known as the War of the League of Augsburg, the War of the Grand Alliance, the Orleans War, the War of the Palatinian Succession, and the War of the English Succession) was a major war fought in Europe and America from 1688 to 1697, between... The Irish Brigade was a brigade in the French army composed of Irish exiles. ... Patrick Sarsfield (d. ... The Treaty of Limerick ended the Williamite war in Ireland between the Jacobites and the supporters of William of Orange. ... James II of England and VII of Scotland (14 October 1633–16 September 1701) became King of England, King of Scots, and King of Ireland on 6 February 1685. ... The term Glorious Revolution refers to the generally popular overthrow of James II of England in 1688 by a conspiracy between some Parliamentarians and the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau (William of Orange). ...

Like the earlier Irish units in Spanish service, the French Irish regiments were quite politicised, being composed of dispossessed Irish Catholics, who were committed to a Stuart restoration in Britain and Ireland. Famously, the Irish Brigade distinguished themselves in the Battle of Fontenoy against British troops in 1745. Up until 1745, Catholic Irish gentry were allowed to recruit soldiers for France in Ireland. The authorities in Ireland saw this as preferable to having large numbers of unemployed Catholic young men of military age in the country. However, after Irish units were used to support the Jacobite Rising of 1745 in Scotland, the British realised the dangers of this policy and banned recruitment for foreign armies in Ireland. After this point, the rank and file of the Irish units in French service were increasingly non-Irish although the officers continued to be recruited from Ireland. The Irish Brigade was disbanded after the French Revolution, although Napoleon Bonaparte raised a small Irish unit composed of veterans of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Stuart is a semi-common surname and male first name. ... The Battle of Fontenoy was fought at Fontenoy in the Austrian Netherlands on May 11, 1745, during the War of Austrian Succession. ... Each Jacobite Rising formed part of a series of military campaigns by Jacobites attempting to restore the Stuart kings to the thrones of England and Scotland (and after 1707, Great Britain) after James VII of Scotland and II of England was deposed in 1688 and the thrones claimed by his... // Events May 11 - War of Austrian Succession: Battle of Fontenoy - At Fontenoy, French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army including the Black Watch June 4 – Frederick the Great destroys Austrian army at Hohenfriedberg August 19 - Beginning of the 45 Jacobite Rising at Glenfinnan September 12 - Francis I is elected... Motto: Nemo me impune lacessit (English: No one provokes me with impunity) Scotlands location within Europe Scotlands location within the United Kingdom Languages English, Gaelic, Scots Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow First Minister Jack McConnell Area - Total - % water Ranked 2nd UK 78,782 km² 1. ... Liberty Leading the People, a painting by Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of 1830 but which has come to be generally accepted as symbolic of French popular uprisings against the monarchy in general and the French Revolution in particular. ... Bonaparte as general Napoleon Bonaparte ( 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a general of the French Revolution and was the ruler of France as First Consul (Premier Consul) of the French Republic from November 11, 1799 to May 18, 1804, then as Emperor of the French (Empereur des Français... The Irish Rebellion of 1798 (Éirí Amach 1798 in Irish Gaelic), or 1798 rebellion as it is known locally, was an uprising in 1798, lasting several months, against the British dominated Kingdom of Ireland. ...

Austrian service

Throughout this period, there were also substantial numbers of Irish officers and men in the armies of the Austrian Habsburg Empire, many of whom were based in Prague. The most famous of these was Peter Lacy, Russian Field Marshal, whose son Franz Moritz von Lacy excelled in the Austrian service. In 1634, during the Thirty Years' War, Irish officers led by Walter Deveraux assassinated general Albrecht von Wallenstein on the orders of the Emperor. Recruitment for Austrian service was especially associated with the midlands of Ireland and with the Taafe, Nugent and O'Rourke gentry families. Habsburg (sometimes spelled Hapsburg, but never so in official use) was one of the major ruling houses of Europe. ... Count Peter von Lacy, or Pyotr Petrovich Lacy, as he was known in Russia (1678–1751), was one of the most successful Russian imperial commanders before Rumyantsev and Suvorov. ... Note: This article is about the military usage of the word marshal. For other usages, see the end of this article. ... Franz Moritz Graf von Lacy or Lascy (English: Count Francis Morris von Lacy, Russian: Boris Petrovich Lassi), (October 21, 1725 – November 24, 1801), Austrian field marshal, was born at St Petersburg. ... The Thirty Years War was fought between 1618 and 1648, principally on the territory of todays Germany, also involving most of the major European continental powers. ... Albrecht von Wallenstein Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Wallenstein (also Waldstein, Czech: Albrecht Václav Eusebius z Valdštejna), September 24, 1583 – February 25, 1634) was a Bohemian soldier and politician who gave his services (an army of 30,000 to 100,000 men) during the Danish Period of the Thirty...

The End of the Wild Geese

Irish recruitment for continental armies dried up after it was made illegal in 1745. However, it was some time before the British armed forces began to tap into Irish Catholic manpower. In the late eighteenth century, the Penal Laws were gradually relaxed and in the 1790s, the laws prohibiting Catholics bearing arms were abolished. Thereafter, the British began recruiting Irish regiments for the Crown Forces -notably the Connaught Rangers. It has been estimated that up to a third of Wellington's army in the Peninsular War was Irish. Several more Irish regiments were created in the 19th century, notably the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and the Royal Munster Fusiliers. Irish service in the British Army continued up to Irish independence in 1922. Britain still retains two Irish regiments, the Irish Guards and the Royal Irish Regiment. The Penal laws in Ireland refers to a series of laws imposed under British rule that sought to discriminate against the majority native Catholic population but also against Protestant dissenters in favour of the established Church of Ireland. ... The Connaught Rangers was a regiment of the British Army formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 88th (Connaught Rangers) Regiment of Foot (which formed the 1st Battalion) and the 94th Regiment of Foot (which formed the 2nd Battalion). ... Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS (c. ... The Second of May, 1808: The Charge of the Mamelukes, by Francisco de Goya (1814). ... Official name The Royal Dublin Fusiliers Colonel-in-Chief HRH Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (1908) Nicknames The Blue Caps The Dubs The Lambs The Old Toughs Motto Anniversaries Marches Slow: The British Grenadiers St Patricks Day Unnofficial: The Dublin Fusiliers Alliances Description Line Infantry regiment Creation... The Royal Munster Fusiliers consisted of two regular service and two reserve battalions prior to World War I. Subsequently it had a total of 11 raised battalions. ... The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. ... Official name Irish Guards Colonel-in-Chief HM Queen Elizabeth II Colonel-of-the-Regiment James Hamilton, 5th Duke of Abercorn Nicknames Bobs Own The Micks Motto Quis Separabit (Who Shall Separate Us) Anniversaries Saint Patricks Day (17 March) Marches quick: St Patricks Day slow: Let Erin Remember... In the British Army, there have been two regiments titled the Royal Irish Regiment // Royal Irish Regiment The Royal Irish Regiment was formed in 1684 by the Earl of Granard from independent companies in Ireland. ...

See also

• Irish Brigade (French)
• Count Joseph Cornelius O’Rourke
• Early Modern Ireland 1536-1691
• Ireland 1691-1801

The Irish Brigade was a brigade in the French army composed of Irish exiles. ... Count Joseph Cornelius ORourke (1772-1849) was a Russian nobleman and military leader who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. ... The Reformation, before which, in 1536, Henry VIII broke with Papal authority, fundamentally changed Ireland. ...

References

• Graine Henry, The Irish Military Community in Spanish Flanders, Dublin 1992
• R.A Straddling, The Spanish Monarchy and Irish Mercenaries,Dublin 1994
• J.G. Simms, Jacobite Ireland, London 1969
• Eamonn O Ciardha, Ireland and the Jacobite Cause, Dublin 2002

External links

• Wild Geese Heritage Museum and Library