Leading up to the start of the 1693 campaigning season with the climax of 1692..
The Jacobite Army on the left delivered a stunning victory at Badon Hill |
The ire of the
populace at large has turned like a rabid dog upon prominent men who once had
the world at their feet. General Tollemache, erstwhile darling of the army and hero of the battlefield is now
become a figure of derision and the corporeal manifestation of gullibility. His
signal lack of perspicacity in determining the true intentions of the wily
Kirke will forever blight his reputation and judgment. He has further smudged
his profile by first agreeing to assume a position of prominence in the army of
King James and then, once at liberty, scooting like a Tory amongst the shadows
thence on to York and the relative safety of King William’s lands.
That the Dutch
thought it expedient to whisk him swiftly to the continent and place him in
command of foreign troops in a backwater fortress garrison speaks volumes.
These habitually political men will doubtless see a use for the disgraced
Hector in their future schemes but for now he is an embarrassment to be hid
from view.
Irish dragoons fought all day to control the river valley with considerable success |
Sarsfield, Richard Hamilton and the pious prig Dominic Sheldon have become
omnipresent since delivering to His Gracious Majesty the colossal triumph at
the ancient and legendary site of Badon Hill. Have we not read in some of the more lurid publications that
Sarsfield is King Arthur reborn,
come to save Britain from the foreign heathen? Hyperbole is of course the stock
in trade of pro Jacobite scrivener’s surpassing even the diatribes issued by
Cromwell’s counsellors during the unhappy period of the Commonwealth. Would the
Irish Army have prevailed had not Kirke turned upon his co-commander Tollemache?
Dear reader, I hear
you say, ‘And what of the most maligned man midst the muddle? What of Marlbrook? The Fox? The Judas? The
Betrayer?’ Aha! The conqueror has never let truth stand in the way of a legend
to be spun.
The victory of Badon Hill was, according to all
Jacobite sources resounding. Five thousands of King William’s soldiers killed,
wounded or lost in battle with a further three thousands captured in the
aftermath and almost every English regiment deserting or coming over to King
James. All this achieved through the endeavours of brave, loyal, religiously
true Irishmen who have saved England and Ireland both from the darkness of
Protestantism and foreign rule.
Was it not Sarsfield’s dragoons who tirelessly
defended the cut of Running Brook against any incursion with cries of ‘None
shall cross!’.
Did not Berwick’s Irish infantry smash the Danes and break their Guard? All know of the mighty deeds performed by the regiment of Colonel Richard Butler in staying the hand of the English Guards. The war trophies amassed include the golden standards of Sir John Lanier’s five hundred cuirassiers and the argent tassled banners of Donop’s Danes.
The Grand Prior's Regiment break the Danish Guards |
Did not Berwick’s Irish infantry smash the Danes and break their Guard? All know of the mighty deeds performed by the regiment of Colonel Richard Butler in staying the hand of the English Guards. The war trophies amassed include the golden standards of Sir John Lanier’s five hundred cuirassiers and the argent tassled banners of Donop’s Danes.
Sheldon and Berwick press von Tettau hard |