Limerick Treaty

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Treaty of Limerick ( English Treaty of Limerick , Irish Conradh Luimnigh ) was on October 3, 1691 in Limerick by Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan on behalf of King James II and Godert de Ginkell , on behalf of William III. (William of Orange) signed. The treaty ended the war between the Jacobites and William III. and with it the siege of Limerick by the troops of Wilhelm III. The war is also known as the “Wilhelmine War”, “Jacobin War” or “The War of the Two Kings” ( Irish Cogadh an Dá Rí ).

background

After the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland by Oliver Cromwell mid-17th century the balance of power in Ireland in favor of new English settlers and Protestant landowners who benefited from the confiscations of the defeated Catholic landowners moved. After Jacob II's conversion to the Catholic faith and the appointment of the Catholic Earl of Tyrconnell as Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1697, the tension between the Protestant landowners, who did not see their rights adequately secured, and the Catholics, who at least partially did so, worsened Hoped to return the lost landed property. Both sides viewed the successor of Jacob II with concern. The Protestants initially hoped that Maria Stuart , raised Protestant and with William III. married daughter of Jacob II, would succeed to the throne. With James, born in 1688 from Jacob II's second marriage to the Catholic Maria of Modena , there was a surprising threat of a Catholic succession to the throne. This was one of the main triggering factors of the Glorious Revolution , in which James II fled to France and William III. and Maria ascended the English throne together in 1689.

The ensuing War of the Two Kings in Ireland was primarily a dispute over land ownership, as political influence and power depended primarily on it. The religion of the king was secondary. Despite all efforts and the support of French troops by Louis XIV , who had declared war on the Netherlands in November 1688, the Jacobites were defeated in the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 , whereupon Jacob II left Ireland and the Jacobite troops first moved to Dublin and eventually retired to Limerick. Limerick was subsequently besieged in both 1690 and 1691 . The capture of Limerick was not impossible, but became increasingly difficult as winter approached, so that from September 23, 1691 there were surrender negotiations between Sarsfield and Ginkell, which led to the Treaty of Limerick.

The contract

Sarsfield's main goal in the negotiations was the freedom to go to France with his troops as far as they wanted. This goal was achieved with satisfaction with the military articles. With regard to the legal situation of the Catholics and the Jacobites, Ginkell was far less willing to make concessions. He rejected the proposals of the opposing side, which the Catholics had made even better than in the time of Charles II , and proposed twelve points which, in his view, represented the maximum possible that he believed the Protestant side could expect.

The text of the treaty is divided into 13 civil and 29 military articles.

Civil articles

The first and most important article assures Catholics of the religious freedoms to which they are entitled under Irish law or as enjoyed under Charles II. This extremely open and imprecise formulation was then supplemented with the hint that an Irish parliament meeting in the future could make further regulations to protect Catholics.

The second article concerns the rights of Jacobites who remain in Ireland and are willing to take an oath of allegiance to William III. afford to. They could keep their possessions, pursue their profession or trade, and in the case of Catholic nobles, the carrying of weapons was still permitted. This regulation not only affected the Jacobites in Limerick, but also the Jacobite troops who were still in Limerick , Clare , Kerry , Cork and Mayo counties . However, the list of these counties was omitted in the contract that was signed and went to London. Sarsfield campaigned for the resumption, which initially met resistance, but ultimately at Ginkel's request to William III. was ultimately accepted on the grounds that it was accidentally omitted. However, when the Irish Parliament was due to ratify the treaty, the list was removed again.

Military articles

These articles dealt with the treatment of the battered Jacobite army. According to the treaty, the Jacobite soldiers had the opportunity to leave the country for France in order to serve in the Irish Brigade under James II . About 12,000 soldiers took up this opportunity and left the country with Sarsfield, often accompanied by their wives and children. This trip became known as the Wild Geese Escape . Around a thousand soldiers accepted the offer to join Wilhelm's army.

Criticism and further development

Very strong criticism came from both sides, who felt that they were being cheated. On the Jacobite side, the ambiguity and gaps in the articles were criticized. The inadequate assurance of freedom to practice the Catholic faith and the failure to look after the rights of prisoners of war and orphans were emphasized. The Protestant opposing side, however, often viewed the contract as too generous, so that it already bordered on giving away the victory, as was expressed in The British muse published in London around 1691 :

Hard fate that still attends our Irish war,
The conquerors lose, the conquered gainers are,
Their pen's the symbol of our sword's defeat,
We fight like heroes but like fools we treat.

The Anglican Bishop of Meath, Anthony Dopping († 1697), even preached openly against the treaty on the grounds that the promises of the Irish could not be trusted.

It was not until 1697 that the treaty was confirmed by the Irish Parliament, but important articles were missing. But the land claims for the Jacobites resulting from the treaty were largely granted. In 1694 there were a total of 491 applications before the Irish Privy Council , of which 483 were accepted. After 1697, 781 further applications were made, of which 773 were granted.

In the years that followed, a series of laws were passed, collectively referred to as Penal Laws , which increasingly discriminated against Catholics and contradicted the spirit and sometimes the wording of the civil articles. Limerick was therefore named by the Catholics as the city ​​of the broken treaty .

Contract stone

The treaty stone with Shannon and King John's Castle in the background

The Treaty Stone ( english treaty stone ) is traditionally considered the cornerstone on which the contract was signed. This tradition can be traced back to a diary entry by John Harden in 1797. Spellissy views this tradition with skepticism, since it seems unlikely that there was no suitable table available for the signing of such an important contract. Rather, Spellissy assumes that the stone was only near the place where the contract was signed and / or that the military articles may have been signed on it. The French were involved in this signing, but not in the signing of the civil articles. The stone was then the nearby pubs Black Bull at Thomond Gate, where he horsemen to served , horseback climb . From there it was moved to the south side of the bridge in 1865 and raised to a pedestal designed by William Edward Corbett . Since it became an obstacle at this position due to the increasing traffic, the contract stone had to be moved a little further south in 1990, where it is now on the banks of the Shannon at Clancy's Strand, about the level of Mass Lane. The stone of today has lost much of its original size compared to the representation on a drawing by Edward Jones made in 1836.

literature

  • JG Simms: The war of the two kings, 1685–91 . In: TW Moody, FX Martin, FJ Byrne (Eds.): Early Modern Ireland 1534-1691 . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1976, ISBN 978-0-19-956252-7 , pp. 478-508 .
  • Charles Chenevix Trench: Grace's Card . Irish Catholic Landlords 1690-1800. Mercier Press, Cork 1997, ISBN 1-85635-163-7 .
  • Seán Spellissy: The History of Limerick City . The Celtic Bookshop, Limerick 1998, ISBN 0-9534683-1-3 .
  • Raymond Gillespie: Seventeenth Century Ireland . Making Ireland Modern. Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 2006, ISBN 978-0-7171-3946-0 .

See also

Other contracts between Great Britain and Ireland:

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Simms, pp. 505-508.
  2. ^ Trench, pp. 15-16.
  3. ↑ Simms, pp. 481-483.
  4. ^ Trench, p. 15.
  5. ↑ Simms, p. 485.
  6. ^ Trench, p. 23.
  7. ↑ a b Simms, p. 505.
  8. ↑ See digitized version at CELT .
  9. ↑ The list of counties was taken from the digitized text of the contract, p. 298.
  10. ↑ Simms, p. 506.
  11. ↑ Simms, pp. 506-507.
  12. ↑ Quoted by Gillespie, p. 296, who refers to: The British muse: including a smart poem on the generous articles of Limerick and Galway (London, 1691).
  13. ↑ EB Fryde, DE Greenway, S. Porter, I. Roy (Ed.): Handbook of British Chronology . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1996, ISBN 0-521-56350-X , pp. 402 .
  14. ↑ a b Simms, p. 507.
  15. ↑ Gillespie, pp. 296-297.
  16. ↑ a b NIAH entry 21507007
  17. ↑ a b Spellissy, p. 292.