The death of Patrick Sarsfield and the search for the remains of the Earl of Lucan

Abstract

In 1668, James, the younger brother of King Charles II of England, secretly converted to Catholicism. When Charles II died without legitimate children in 1685, James became King of England and Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII.1 His Catholic faith as well as his taste for absolutism (perhaps inspired by his cousin Louis XIV) led James II increasingly to oppose the Parliament in London, so much so that in 1688 he was removed from power and forced to flee to France, leaving his Protestant son-in-law, William of Orange, to take the throne as William III. With the help of Louis XIV, James II tried to regain his throne, starting with Ireland. In 1689, he landed at Kinsale and assembled an army, one of whose officers was a certain Patrick Sarsfield.2 The following year, in 1690, James II suffered a heavy defeat against William III at the Battle of the Boyne, north of Dublin. He returned to France, leaving behind his army, which eventually retreated to the city of Limerick in the west of Ireland. It was at this point that Patrick Sarsfield truly became a legendary figure. Knowing William III’s plan to lay siege to Limerick, the Franco-Irish officers thought the city undefendable and had chosen to withdraw to Galway, further north. Sarsfield instead, aided by the Marquis de Boisseleau, a French officer, marshalled the defence of the city and, in the course of an intrepid night attack on horseback, succeeded in destroying William of Orange’s munitions train in the townland of Ballyneety, some ten kilometres to the south-east. As a result of this exploit (which became known as Sarsfield’s Ride) and of the heroic defence of Limerick mounted by de Boisseleau and the Jacobite army, with the support of the galvanised citizens, William III and his army were forced to lift the siege and withdraw. A year later, however, in 1691, William III’s army returned under general Ginkel’s command and this time succeeded in forcing the Jacobite army to surrender following a second siege of Limerick. Sarsfield played a central role in this new episode, however, as he negotiated with Ginkel the terms of the famous Treaty of Limerick, which among other things allowed the Jacobite troops to keep their arms on condition that they quit Ireland. As a result of the Treaty of Limerick, approximately 12,000 Jacobite soldiers and their families went into exile on the continent. Most of these soldiers, later to be dubbed the ‘Wild Geese’, eventually joined the French army, many with the secret hope of one day defeating William III’s forces and returning home. This historical episode is referred to in Ireland as The Flight of the Wild Geese. After overseeing the departure of his soldiers, Patrick Sarsfield himself left Ireland for France on 22 December 1691. Once there, he continued to fight in the service of King James II (who, as a reward for his feats of arms, had made him Earl of Lucan), then Louis XIV, and took part in the many battles of the War of the Grand Alliance. He was made Maréchal de camp in March 1693, and fought bravely at the battle of Neerwinden (also known as the battle of Landen) in July of the same year, a battle that proved to be his last.