Siege of Derry

For context see the Williamite war in Ireland and Jacobitism.

The Siege of Derry, or as the defenders would have called it the Siege of Londonderry, took place in Ireland during 1688–1689. Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, acting as the viceroy of King James VII of Scotland and II of England in Ireland, was anxious to ensure that all strong points in the country were held by garrisons completely loyal to the Catholic cause.

By November 1688, only the walled city of Derry, then called Londonderry by its Protestant colonists, still had a Protestant garrison and so the Earl of Antrim was ordered to replace it with a more reliable force. Alexander MacDonnell, 3rd Earl of Antrim , despite his age of 76, keenly responded to this command but wasted valuable time searching for men who were six feet tall or more. An army of around 1,200 men, mostly "Redshanks" (Highlanders) set out on the week William of Orange landed in England. When the army arrived on December 7 1688 the city gates were closed against them and the siege began; tradition has the apprentice boys closing the gates and saving the city. A policy of 'no surrender' was confirmed and for 105 days the city suffered appalling conditions as cannonballs and mortar-bombs rained down, and famine and disease took their terrible toll. Conditions for the besiegers were no better and many thousands of people died, both inside and outside the walls.

James was deposed by William and fled to France where King Louis XIV of France gave him support to regain his crown. On March 12 1689 James landed in Kinsale, Ireland, with 6,000 French soldiers. He took Dublin and with a Jacobite army of Catholics, Protestant Royalists and French marched north, joining the Siege of Londonderry on April 18, 1689 and summoning the city to surrender. The King was rebuffed and actually fired at by some of the more determined defenders; British warships arrived off Derry / Londonderry on June 11 but refused to risk shore guns until, ordered by Marshal Frederic Schomberg, a relief ship broke the barricading 'boom' which had been stretched across the river and relieved the siege on July 28 1689.

See also

• Williamite war in Ireland
• Irish battles

External links

• BBC-History Williamite Wars