Charles Chalmont, Marquis de St. Ruth

Charles Chalmont, Marquis de Sainte Ruth (* circa 1650; † July 22, 1691 at Aughrim ) was a French general. At the beginning of his military career he fought against the Protestants in France . Later he fought on the side of the Jacobites against troops of Wilhelm III. in Ireland , where he died at the Battle of Aughrim .

Life

Chalmont was born in France around 1650. He was married to Marie de Cossé, the widow of Charles de La Porte, Duc de La Meilleraye. Marie, who was born in 1622 and was therefore a lot older than Charles, died in 1710. Their marriage remained childless.

In his memoirs Saint-Simon paints an unflattering picture of St. Ruth. He describes St. Ruth as a "gentleman for the poor", tall and well built, but exceptionally ugly; a gallant soldier but notorious for domestic cruelty. According to Saint-Simon, the violence against his wife became so excessive that she even asked the king to intervene. Louis XIV showed great compassion and ordered her husband to stop the violence; As the abuse continued, the King began sending St. Ruth on unnecessary missions to free his wife from his presence. Saint-Simon's statements should be relativized, however, since he was only 16 years old when St. Ruth died, although they obviously met.

Edict of Nantes

Edict of Nantes

After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, thousands of Protestants fled from France to Geneva . France put tremendous pressure on the Duchy of Savoy to capture and extradite the fleeing Protestants. The Duke was unable to risk another war with or occupation by France. The Marquis de St. Ruth, the general of the King of France, ordered that the houses be burned down if "the clans of the Ternier and the Gaillard did not pay eight and a half quarters of the normal tax and an additional eight quarters as a contribution to the war." The population, faced with this dilemma, had to pay the tax to le marquis de Saint-Ruth .

In Savoy

In 1690 the Marquis de St. Ruth besieged Annecy and played his part in the victory in the Battle of Staffarda and other battles. He led the operation against the Château d'Aléry , which today belongs to the Aussedat family and has been restored.

Arrival in Ireland

On March 20, General St. Ruth of Brest arrived from Limerick , accompanied by the Lieutenant General and the Governor. When he landed on the quay, he was greeted by a gun salute from the artillery from the castle. On his way into the city the soldiers stood in his honor on both sides of the road. The viceroy came to greet him, gave him the bien-venu in Ireland , and accompanied him to dinner. In the evening he stayed in a house that had been specially prepared for his stay. A fleet had arrived with St. Ruth and, in addition to weapons, clothing for various regiments, powder and bullets, carried a considerable amount of oats, flour, biscuits, wine and brandy , which was greatly welcomed across the country. A few days later, the general began to take care of his command and gave orders that the army should prepare for battle. The exceptions were the battalions that were to remain in defense of some important cities still under the control of the loyalists, such as Limerick, Galway , Athlone and Sligo .

In April the Dutch Baron de Ginkel , a general to the Prince of Orange, ordered his troops to leave their quarters and march to the town of Mullingar , County Westmeath , about 20 miles east of Athlone, to unite and begin the campaign to start there. In carrying out these orders, some regiments reached the meeting point on April 27; the rest of the Wilhelmine soldiers were still on their way there.

On the Jacobite side, the Marquis de St. Ruth sent out similar orders, namely that the army of King Jacob should leave their quarters for Athlone to bivouac on the west bank of the Shannon . This happened because the Marquis had realized that Ginkel wanted to start the campaign with the siege of Athlone in order to have unhindered access to the province of Connaught . Based on this, the plan was to take control of the entire island of Ireland. In carrying out the orders, some regiments of foot soldiers reached the region in early May. At the same time cavalry was arriving from all directions.

At the beginning of June, King Wilhelm's army, consisting of English, Danish, German, Dutch and French Huguenot soldiers, gathered at Mullingar. On June 6th, they marched towards Athlone to take this "gateway to Connaught". On June 7th, the army reached the town of Ballymore, halfway between Mullingar and Athlone. There was a fort on the banks of a lake that had been fortified by the Irish the previous winter.

The Siege of Athlone

When they arrived at Athlone, the Wilhelmites immediately began the siege. The city was well defended for many days, but the besiegers finally managed to take the city. A combination of underestimating the situation and misjudgments on the part of the Jacobites contributed significantly to this.

When St. Ruth heard that Athlone had fallen, he was very distressed. Still, he ordered some troops to march towards the city and retake it if that could be done. However, the officers noted that the entrenchments were extremely well guarded and possibly supported by an enemy army, so that they returned to the camp without having achieved anything.

The loss of Athlone on June 13th reinforced the verdict of opponents of the Duchy of Tyrconnell. Had Tyrconnell not been taken, Athlone and the Province of Connaught would have been saved too. When news of the Athlones case reached the Duke of Tyrconnell in Limerick, his worries increased that he would be so unfortunate that he would not be followed in suggesting ways to save his country from total ruin. He had to convey his views on the remainder of the campaign at all costs. For he had heard of plans to decide the fate of the kingdom in a single battle, of which he was not convinced. In his view, a defensive and delaying tactic would be more promising, as he expected to be superior with reinforcements from France next year. In the meantime he would send the Irish cavalry over the Banagher Bridge to the province of Leinster to secure booty and also to recruit Catholic residents from there.

Arrival in Aughrim

→ Main article : Battle of Aughrim

General St. Ruth, aware that he could not justify the loss of Athlone to King Jacob as long as he commanded a sizable army, found it inappropriate to share Tyrconnell's sentiments and chose to risk the kingdom in a just battle . He was determined to go under in Ireland and be buried or quickly regain control of the country. Late at noon on June 30, 1691, he ordered his army to demolish camp in front of Athlone, since he was convinced that his army was strong enough. He marched towards Limerick in smaller stages until he came just beyond the village of Aughrim in County Galway , about 20 miles from Athlone and about 30 miles from Limerick. He considered the terrain found there suitable for his purposes and so he set up camp there in anticipation of the enemy. His army looked to the east in the direction of Athlone. In front of his positions there was marshland that could be passed by foot soldiers, but not by cavalry. At each end of the moor there were passages through which the enemy riders could reach his right and left flanks.

The passage on the right was a small ford over a stream through the moor. The crossing to the left was an old, damaged dam, which only allowed two horses to pass at a time, and was 60 yards long. Aughrim Castle was above the dam and about 35 meters to the left. St. Ruth arranged his army in two ranks.

Battle of Aughrim by John Mulvany

Death at the Battle of Aughrim

On Sunday, July 22nd, 1691 Gregorian calendar, during the morning mass at 6:00 a.m., it was noticed how the Wilhelmine army was approaching the Jacobite positions from the direction of Ballinasloe .

General Ginkel, the Wilhemitian commander, noticed as the battle progressed that his army was about to lose the battle. Its center had completely collapsed and its left wing had suffered massive losses with no way of meeting the targets. Ginkel's right wing was supposed to attack the Irish left flank, but this was not possible without danger. Ginkel was obviously overwhelmed with the situation and didn't know what to do other than flee. Indeed, there was some evidence to suggest that preparations for escape had already been made. On the part of the Jacobites, General St. Ruth noticed the opponent's confusion and felt confident of victory, so that he exclaimed with joy: "The day is ours, my children!" ("The day is ours, my children!")

St. Ruth, who had given the riders instructions to attack the enemy at the dam, felt obliged to watch them as they carried out his orders, so that no mistakes would be made in this supposedly last operation and that there would be no tangible victory in this bloody slaughter slipped away at the last second. While he was riding down a smaller hill to get to the scene, he was hit by a cannonball. The gunners actually wanted to hit the troops defending the dam with the bullet, but hit the marquis in the middle of his bodyguards directly in the head and beheaded him. His death was also immediately known to the enemy through a deserter who hastily rushed to the dam. Without guidance and coordination, under these circumstances the victory they believed to be certain slipped away. Over 7,000 soldiers from different European nations were killed in this battle.

St. Ruth's body was carried from the battlefield and taken to Loughrea . There he was buried in secret at night in the cemetery of the Carmelite monastery.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Norton, Lucy (ed.) Historical Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon , Hamish Hamilton 1968 2nd edition, pp. 33,513
2. ^ Norton p. 33
3. ^ Norton p. 34
4. ↑ En Tarentaise Vanoise - Conseil Général de Savoie
5. ↑ Abbé Mac-Geoghegan (James): Histoire de l'Irlande ancienne et modern. A. Boudet, 1763, p. 746 ( limited preview in Google book search).
6. ↑ 03
7. ^ Battle of Aughrim - Cath Eachroma