West's depiction of William of Orange on his white horse became the iconic image of liberation from Catholic Ireland; the painting was widely copied and distributed throughout the nineteenth century.

West was influenced by neoclassicism and attempted to portray scenes that drew an emotional response, rather than being historically accurate.

By the time West made the painting, the Boyne had come to occupy an important position in Irish Protestant culture.

Schomberg had crossed the Boyne earlier than William and had been killed by Jacobite cavalry in the melee around Oldbridge ford.

By the 1740s such organizations as the Boyne Club and the Protestant Society, both seen as forerunners to the Orange Order, held parades in Dublin.