This turned the tide in James's failed attempt to regain the British crown and ultimately aided in ensuring the continued Protestant ascendancy in Ireland.

Although the Williamite War in Ireland continued until the signing of the Treaty of Limerick in October 1691, James fled to France after the Boyne, never to return.

[1][2][3][4][5] If the battle is seen as part of the War of the Grand Alliance, Pope Alexander VIII was an ally of William and a friend to James; the Papal States were part of the Grand Alliance with a shared hostility to the Catholic Louis XIV of France, who at the time was attempting to establish dominance in Europe and to whom James was an ally.

Under his command, affairs had remained static and very little had been accomplished, partly because the English troops suffered severely from fever[8] and the army's move south was blocked by Jacobite forces; both sides camped for the winter.

The Catholic upper classes had lost or had been forced to exchange almost all their lands after Cromwell's conquest, as well as the right to hold public office, practice their religion, and sit in the Irish Parliament.

[9] To these ends, under Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel, they had raised an army to restore James II after the Glorious Revolution.

They feared for their lives and their property if James and his Catholic supporters were to rule Ireland, nor did they trust the promise of tolerance, seeing the Declaration of Indulgence as a ploy to re-establish Catholicism as the sole state religion.

Many Williamite troops at the Boyne, including their very effective irregular cavalry, were Ulster Protestants, who called themselves "Enniskilliners" and were referred to by contemporaries as "Scots-Irish".

From William's point of view, his taking power in England and the ensuing campaign in Ireland was just another front in the war against France in general, and Louis XIV in particular.

[34] However, this battle would give William cause to evaluate them more favourably, due to the impressive behaviour of the English troops, such as the Duke of Beaufort's Regiment of Foot.

[26] James had several regiments of French troops, but most of his manpower was provided by Irish Catholics, with some English and Scottish Jacobites also present.

The day before the battle, William himself had a narrow escape when he was wounded in the shoulder by Jacobite artillery while surveying the fords over which his troops would cross the Boyne.

The Duke of Schomberg's son, Meinhardt, led this crossing, which a small force of Irish dragoons in picquet under Neil O'Neill unsuccessfully opposed.

[39] James thought that he might be outflanked and sent a large part of his army, including his best French troops along with most of his artillery, to counter this move.

At the main ford near Oldbridge, William's infantry, led by the elite Dutch Blue Guards under Solms, forced their way across the river, using their superior firepower to slowly drive back the Jacobite foot soldiers, but were pinned down when the Jacobite cavalry, commanded by James II's son James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick,[41] counter-attacked.

Having secured the village of Oldbridge, the Williamite infantry tried to hold off successive Jacobite Irish cavalry attacks with disciplined volley fire, but many were scattered and driven into the river, with the exception of the Blue Guards.

William had a chance to trap them as they retreated across the River Nanny at Duleek, but his troops were held up by a successful rear-guard action.

At the time, most casualties of battles tended to be inflicted in the pursuit of an already-beaten enemy; this did not happen at the Boyne, as the counter-attacks of the skilled Jacobite cavalry screened the retreat of the rest of their army, and in addition William was always disinclined to endanger the person of James, since he was the father of his wife, Mary.

It marked the beginning of the end of James's hope of regaining his throne by military means and probably assured the triumph of the Glorious Revolution.

In Scotland, news of this defeat temporarily silenced the Highlanders supporting the Jacobite rising, which had been led by Bonnie Dundee who was killed the previous July at the Battle of Killiecrankie.

Despairing of his hopes for victory, James II fled to Duncannon and returned to exile in France, even though his army left the field relatively unscathed.

It was not until the following year and battle of Aughrim that their forces were broken and after another siege of Limerick, they surrendered to William's general Godard de Ginkel.

[53][54][55][56] Originally, the Twelfth of July commemoration was that of the Battle of Aughrim,[57] symbolising British Protestants' victory in the Williamite war in Ireland.

The Boyne, which, in the old Julian calendar, took place on 1 July O.S., was treated as less important, third after Aughrim and the anniversary of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 on 23 October O.S.

[60] In recent decades, "The Twelfth" has often been marked by confrontations, as members of the Orange Order attempt to celebrate the date by marching past or through what they see as their traditional route.

Since the start of the Troubles, the celebrations of the battle have been seen as playing a critical role in the awareness of those involved in the unionist/nationalist tensions in Northern Ireland.

[65] The Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre at Oldbridge house is run by the Office of Public Works, an agency of the Irish government, and is about one mi (1.6 km) to the west of the main river crossing point.

The battle's other main combat areas, at Duleek, Donore and Plattin, along the Jacobite line of retreat, are marked with tourist information signs.

On 10 May, the visit took place, and Paisley presented the Taoiseach with a Jacobite musket in return for Ahern's gift at the St Andrews talks of a walnut bowl made from a tree from the site.