The Irish Military Establishment, 1660-1688
The post restoration Military Establishment of Ireland dates from February 1661 and consisted of thirty troops of independent horse organized into six county based regiments (Lord Lieutenant’s, Munster, Connaught, Ormond’s until 1662, Ossery’s and the Marshals Regiments of Horse) and sixty six companies of independent foot, mostly under the command of former Parliamentarians with lifetime commissions. This was found to be inadequate, given the dispersed nature of the units and their lack of direct responsibility to the Viceroy.
"His majesty having thought fit to raise in England a Regiment of twelve hundred foot to be his Guards in Ireland"
– Charles II, 23 April 1662
With this royal warrant, the first foot regiment in the post restoration
Irish Military Establishment came into being.
The King’s Regiment of Guards in the Kingdom of Ireland finds it
origins in a Regiment raised out of Connaught by George Cusack in 1653.
George Cusack held the garrison of Inishbofin against Parliament, with the
support of the Duke of Lorraine, until 1653. Cusack based on his
relationship with the Duke of Lorraine was able to take a regiment out of
Ireland into French Service at the conclusion of the siege. After a
Commonwealth-French Alliance was established in 1656, Cusack took his
regiment into Charles Stuart’s army in Spanish Flanders where it was
merged into the Marquis of Ormond’s Regiment, consisting of 700 hundred
men and commanded by Colonel George Grace. The regiment fought at the
Battle of the Dunes in 1658, an abortive Spanish attempt to relieve the
French-English siege of Dunkirk.
Some of the men of the regiment and many of the officers were
transferred to England for service in Ireland in 1662. Those that remained
in the Spanish Netherlands were sent to Tangier. The Marquis, now First
Duke of Ormond, the Viceroy of Ireland while in exile, and now the Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland, recruited additional soldiers for the regiment in
England and granted additional commissions as he saw fit. The Regiment was
commanded by his son, the Earl of Arran, later the Second Duke of Ormond,
who led the Regiment until 1688. The rolls included a Colonel, Lieutenant
Colonel, a Major, nine Captains, twelve Lieutenants, twelve Ensigns, forty
sergeants, thirty six corporals, a drum major with twenty four drummers, a
piper in the Kings Company and twelve hundred men. The Regiment was
organized into twenty troops of horse and eight companies of foot.
Clothing and equipment was the same as Colonel Russell's Regiment of
Guards. One wonders if the cross on the "taffey" yellow background was the
Cross of St George or the Cross of St Patrick, used by the Viceroys of
Ireland.
The regimental colors remain a mystery, but some clues exist in the following warrant:
Yellow Taffey and Crimson for 12 Coulours for a Regiment of Foot and that you cause Our badges to be painted and guilded thereon, and that you deliver the same parcels of taffey at the same rate they were furnished for Our Regiment of Foot….and that you deliver the same to Our right and trusty, &c., James Duke of Ormond, Lieutenant of Our K ingdom of Ireland
24 March 1662
The Regiment embarked for Dublin in May of 1662, where it was
headquartered while companies assumed garrison duty throughout Ireland.
The Viceroy had a personal bodyguard at the Castle in Dublin in the form
of the Company of Battleaxes, comprised of a captain, two sergeants and
sixty men. The unit existed from 1662 to 1665. A Troop of the King’s Guard
of Horse was created in 1662 that existed until 1684. The Regiment of
Guards had both a ceremonial function but were called upon from time to
time to quell disturbances and perform law enforcement functions
throughout Ireland. In 1663 a Plot to capture Dublin Castle and the Lord
Lieutenant led by Captain Blood and involving seventy “Presbyterians” was
foiled. In 1663 the Regiment of Guards was augmented by an additional two
hundred soldiers, some of whom were found to be unsuitable as they were
cashiered soldiers from Ireland. The officers that came with this
augmentation were, at the insistence of Ormond, Irish, and not English. By
1663 financing the military establishment of Ireland was already an issue
and there were no disbandment of units because the Crown could not afford
to pay the soldiers arrears in pay. In 1666, the garrison of Carrickfergus
mutinied taking control of the castle and the town. The Earl of Arran and
four companies of Guards sailed to Carrickfergus and put down the uprising
in two days. The one hundred and ten mutineers were court-martialed and
the two companies were disbanded.
The Establishment was reorganized in 1672 with the five existing
regiments of Horse and the troop of Life Guards and five regiments of foot
(Massie’s, Howth’s, Power’s, Gore’s and Lord Lieutenant’s), and the
Guards. Little or nothing changed in terms of the dispersed nature of the
companies and troops and the consequent lack of affiliation. Powers
Regiment served in France from 1672-74. Two companies of the Guards serves
as marines in the abortive amphibious landing turned sea battle at Textel
in 1673. There were additional twenty five companies of soldiers sent to
join the Guards in 1674. Pay was always months if not years in arrears and
most of the officers viewed military service as a part time position.
Soldiers were given to furtively taking up a trade to survive and by 1676
this was an accepted practice. Command of the Guards went to Lord Ossory
in 1674.
In 1684, renewed interest in the Irish military situation led to a
reestablishment and organization of the Irish Military Establishment under
Arthur, Lord Forbes, Earl of Granard and the Marshal of Ireland. There
were two regiments of horse (Ormond’s and Arran’s) and a Troop of Life
Guards and seven regiments of foot (Ormond’s, Granard’s, Montjoy’s,
Newcomen’s, King’s and Fairfax’s) were organized. The Guards continued as
one of the Regiments of Foot. That same year, Granard's Regiment was sent
to Ulster to disarm potential rebels. In 1685, Granard's Regiment was sent
to England in response to Monmouth's Rebellion and returned to Ireland
shortly thereafter.
As a result of the 1685 purging of Protestants from the Military
Establishment of Ireland by the Earl of Tyrone, Arran's Regiment of Horse
became Talbot's Regiment of Horse and Ormond's Regiment of Foot went to
Justin Mac Carthy. Hamilton’s Regiment of Dragoons was established in
1685. Lord Forbes was replaced by Tyrconnel as commander of the Military
Establishment and gave command of his Regiment to his son, Arthur Forbes,
the second Earl of Granard, who was able to keep a relatively high
proportion of Protestants in his regiment. By 1686 of the 7,485 soldiers,
5,043 were Catholics and of the 406 officers, 166 were Catholics, with
Protestant numbers declining steadily until 1688. MacElligot’s Regiment of
Foot was formed in 1688.
In 1688, King James II had MacElligot’s Regiment of Foot, A
Battalion of the Guards Regiment and Granard's Regiment of Foot
transferred to England in preparation for a possible Dutch invasion.
Tyrconnel stood up new regiments to replace those sent to England. Of
those regiments sent to England, all were disbanded with the exception of
Granard's which continued on the English establishment as the 18th
regiment of Foot, the Royal Irish Regiment. Granard’s Regiment wore red
coats with blue facings and had a red Cross of St Patrick on a white field
for their colors. The disbanded Catholic soldiers were to be sent to
Austria but many found their way into the service of France. Lord Ossory,
by 1688 the 2nd Duke of Ormond, went over to William III and command of
the Guards went to William Dorrington. Those Regiments that remained in
Ireland in 1688 were effectively purged of Protestants and fought for King
James II in the War of Three Kings. When given the chance after the siege
of Limerick to stay in Ireland or go into British service, all but seven
of the fourteen hundred soldiers of the Royal Regiment of Foot Guards
followed General Dorrington into French Service.
Sources:
- Childs, John, "The Army of Charles II," Routledge and Keegan Paul, London, 1976
- Childs, John, "The Willaimite Wars in Ireland, 1688-1691", Hambledon Continuum, London, 2007
- Cannon, Richard, "Historical Record of the Eighteenth or Royal Irish Regiment of Foot" Parker, Furnival and Parker, London, 1848
- Ellis, Peter, “Hell or Connaught, The Cromwellian Colonization of Ireland, 1652-1660,” Blackstaff Press, Belfast, 1975
- Falkiner, C. Litton, "The Irish Guards, 1661-1798," Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol 24, Dublin, 1904
- Gardiner, Samuel Dawson, “The History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649-1660.” Vol. III, 1654-1656, Longman Green and Co., London, 1901
- MacLysaght, Edward, “Irish Life in the Seventeenth Century,” Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1979
- MacRay, W. Dunn, ed. “Calendar of the Clarendon State Papers”, Vol. III. 1655-57 Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1876
- Mahaffey, Robert., “State Papers Relating to Ireland Preserved in the Public Record Office, 1660-62” MacKie and Company, London, 1905
- O’Callaghan, John Cornelius, “History of the Irish Brigades in the Service of France,” Cameron and Ferguson, Glasgow, 1870
- O’Dowd, Mary, “A History of Women in Ireland, 1500-1800,” Pearson Longman, Harlow, 2005
- Petrie, Sir Charles, “The Great Tyrconnel, A Chapter in Anglo-Irish Relations,” Mercier Press, Dublin, 1972
- Tessin List for Great Britain