In
August 1689 Marshal Schomberg landed at Bangor with 20,000 troops
and, with Ulster secure, pushed south as far as Dundalk. Seventy-three
year old Schomberg had earned his marshal's baton leading French
forces during the Dutch Wars, but his Calvinist convictions compelled
him to leave France after Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes. He
commanded twenty-two infantry battalions, two regiments of dragoons,
and eight cavalry regiments, most of which were newly raised in
England. The backbone of the army consisted of two battalions
of Dutch Guards and four regiments of Huguenots.
Schomberg
preferred the Frenchmen to the Irish and Ulster-Scot troops from
Enniskillen and Derry, holding a low opinion of the latter for
their thirst for plunder and massacring of the defeated. Within
three months he had lost half his men and was forced to appeal
to William for reinforcements.
James's
army blocked further progress towards Dublin, but there was no
battle and the two armies withdrew to winter quarters. Schomberg's
army was in tatters when the plague broke out costing him another
6,000 men. William was not with Schomberg's results, and probably
didn't appreciate fully the sad state of his army. William decided
that when the campaign resumed in the spring of 1690, its success
would require his personal presence.
In
March 1690 7,000 French regulars strengthened the Jacobite army,
but Louis demanded over 5,000 Irish troops in return. James was
disappointed to discover that only three of the battalions were
French. One battalion consisted of Walloons, and two more were
largely made up of Protestant Germans, who until recently had
been French prisoners of war.
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