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In Our Time: History

The Treaty of Limerick

In Our Time: History

BBC

History

4.43.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2019

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1691 peace treaty that ended the Williamite War in Ireland, between supporters of the deposed King James II and the forces of William III and his allies. It followed the battles at Aughrim and the Boyne and sieges at Limerick, and led to the disbanding of the Jacobite army in Ireland, with troops free to follow James to France for his Irish Brigade. The Catholic landed gentry were guaranteed rights on condition of swearing loyalty to William and Mary yet, while some Protestants thought the terms too lenient, it was said the victors broke those terms before the ink was dry. The image above is from British Battles on Land and Sea, Vol. I, by James Grant, 1880, and is meant to show Irish troops leaving Limerick as part of The Flight of the Wild Geese - a term used for soldiers joining continental European armies from C16th-C18th. With Jane Ohlmeyer Chair of the Irish Research Council and Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Modern History at Trinity College Dublin Dr Clare Jackson Senior Tutor, Trinity Hall, and Faculty of History, University of Cambridge and Thomas O'Connor Professor of History at Maynooth University Producer: Simon Tillotson

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:04.8

Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time.

0:07.3

There's a reading list to go with it on our website,

0:09.5

and you can get news about our programs if you follow us

0:12.0

on Twitter at BBC In Our Time.

0:14.7

I hope you enjoyed the programs.

0:16.6

Hello, in 1691, the Treaty of Limerick

0:19.3

ended the war in Ireland

0:20.7

between supporters of James II, the Catholic on one side,

0:24.0

and William and Mary Protestants on the other.

0:26.6

A Dutch general led the Williamites,

0:28.6

and two French generals led the Jacobites.

0:31.2

For the war that had seen the battle of the boyne,

0:33.4

or Orchrim and the siege of Derry,

0:35.6

was part of a wider conflict between Louis XIV to France

0:38.9

and William of Orange.

0:40.2

In Ireland, the Treaty shifted more power to the Protestants.

0:43.4

The Catholic landowners lost status and rights that they'd

0:46.4

won back since Cromwell's Day, and they lost land.

0:49.2

And about 14,000 Irish troops and their families

0:52.1

left Ireland forever,

0:53.5

and what became known as the Flight of the Wild Geese.

...

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