The Treaty of Limerick signed in 1691 brought an end to the Williamite War in Ireland. One of the terms of agreement was the departure of the Jacobite Army to the Continent under the command of Patrick Sarsfield in what was to become known as The Flight of the Wild Geese. The term was derived from the practice of entering the soldiers in the ships' logs as wild geese with the intention of masking their presence. A fresh influx of recruits began in the early eighteenth century when Roman Catholics were banned from military and political office in Ireland, therefore this wave included Old English. Many of the Irish troops who were in Spanish service returned to Ireland after the 1641 Rebellion to fight in the Confederate Wars but following their defeat by Cromwellian forces, some 40,000 fled back to the Continent.
The French Irish regiments were highly politicised as they were constituted with dispossessed Irish Catholics who were committed to the restoration of the Stuart dynasty. Up until 1745, Catholic Irish gentry were allowed to recruit soldiers for France in Ireland, but this practice was banned after an Irish detachment from the French Army were used to support a Jacobite Rising in Scotland. This meant that the rank and file soldiers in French service were no longer Irish although officers were still recruited in Ireland. However by the end of the eighteenth century even the officers were no longer Irish but rather were recruited from Franco-Irish families who had settled in France for several generations. At the outbreak of the French Revolution all of the non-Swiss foreign regiments were integrated into the French infantry, thus losing their distinctive identity. Indeed, many left when Louis XVI was overthrown as their oath of loyalty was to him rather than to the people of France.
Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland.
Article source: Russell Shortt, http://www.exploringireland.net
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