For Ireland and King James by - A Personal Review

 

Last month my pre-order of Barry Hilton and Clarence Harrison's new book "For Ireland and King James" popped through my letterbox!!

As some of you may already be aware I already own all of Barry's collection of books on the League of Augsberg/Nine Years War period, so I certainly wasn't going to miss out on this one either.

Back in 2010 I started my collection of 15mm Essex figures based up for Beneath the Lily Banners, myself and Reject Richard started painting up English and French. I soon migrated over to Ireland, it was a toss up between the Battle of the Boyne and Aughrim. I choose the Boyne, but it could so easily have been Aughrim.

Barry and Clarence's For Ireland and King James is a veritable feast of information on the Jacobite army that campaigned in the summer of 1691 culminating in the Battle of  Aughrim on the 12th July 1691 and the 2nd Siege of Limerick Aug-Oct 1691. From uniform guides to a short history of each regiment and their flags.

If you're interested in the period or if you just like reading about history, then this book is for you.

Here's a small selection of  illustration's from the book. giving uniform and flag guides for all the Irish regiments.

I've many books on the period, but Barry has cleverly rolled them all into one book, giving you all the relevant information about each unit. e.g Col Thomas Butler's regt.

More great uniform and flag info. Here we have Butler's unusual blue cross.

More of Clarence's superb artwork

A map of Ireland, a great resource for a campaign, perhaps?

Map of the battle.

He doesn't just write books, you know?

Book Review - Tangiers 1662-80 The First Battle Honour

As some of you may be aware, I've been banging on about the League of Augsberg's set of skirmish rules, "Donnybrook" for a while now??
As I already own a very under used (ask the Rejects) Reconquista Moor army, I thought I could use them with a few additions for the later Moroccan Moors. I also planned (obviously?) on collecting the English and refighting the battles and skirmishes in and around Tangiers from 1662-1680.
Now, I'm one of those gamers who likes to do a little (ok?? a lot) of research before and during the painting and collected of new armies. The English were easy, as I've already done that when collecting my 15mm BLB2 armies. So onto the Moors........and that's were I came to a rather sudden halt!
I couldn't find anything above the basic information, that was until I found this book.
"Tangier 1662-80 The First Battle Honour" by Various Authors
The book starts with listing the English and Scots regiments that were in 1910 given the battle honour Tangier, then later gives their full regimental history's for each. Also is a History of the British Standing Army, written by Clifford Walton in 1894. These 38 pages, give a detailed account of the Rise of the Standing Army from 1660-65, then move onto the Defence of Tangiers.
But for me the most interesting part of the book is the Diary of Sir James Halkett a Major in Dumbarton's regt of Foot, also known as The Royal regt of Foot, which he wrote in 1680. The diary gives loads of info on skirmishes with unit info, names and numbers for both sides.
Here's a small sample
"the Moores upon all hands drew together about James Fort, advanced with about five or six hundred where they entered into skirmish with Hoges, (Robert Hodges Captain in Dumbarton's Foot) he finding it too hote for him, being no equality of number, was forced to retire somewhat precipitantly to our advanced post again, with the loss of three men of his company and several wounded"
(Spellings as are in the book)

What amazes me is how this little slice of British history seems to have been forgotten by the masses?
So if you're interested in this strangely unknown period of British history, either historically or for gaming, my advise is buy the book, it won't cost you a fortune I paid £15 for it on Amazon, link

Some examples of Moorish dress

 Mohammed bin Hadou, Mulay Ismail's Moroccan

 ambassador to England in 1682

Ambassador Ben Hadou, riding in Hyde Park, 1682.

 Ismail ibn Sharif

King of Morocco 1672-1727

Ambassador Admiral Abdelkader Perez was sent by

 Ismail ibn Sharif to England in 1723.

Ismail ibn Sharif receiving ambassador Francois Pidou de Saint Olon from Louis XIV of France. by Pierre-Denis Martin (1693)

The Days of King Monmouth - A short booklet review

If you're a regular reader of my blog you may have noticed that I'm a tad partial to the period in history between the ECW and the WSS. So naturally I tend to look for and buy books on the period, I do own several other books on Monmouth's Rebellion and the Battle of Sedgemoor. So when I noticed a new booklet being published, "The Days of King Monmouth" by Ralph Mitchard. it was a no brainer, especially as it was a mere £6 plus postage!
The book runs out at 45 pages and has both colour and black & white illustrations. But what I like the most is the booklet is written as a day by day account, starting on the 1st June when Monmouth sailed to Judge Jeffreys Bloody Assizes.
There are books and booklets with more info in them of course, but for a wargamer, this is gold, with details on the Skirmish at Bridport, the rout of the Somerset Militia, the Skirmish at Ashill and at Keynsham Bridge, the Battle of Philips Norton and of course the Battle of Sedgemoor. The 6 week War is a perfect Skirmish period for any gamer, so if you're interested in the period my advice is buy it!

You can purchase the booklet direct from Ralph's site here or on ebay here

You can also visit Ralph blog Wars of Louis XIV

The Battle of Aughrim, 1691 by Michael McNally - A short review

I’ve just finished reading  The Battle of Aughrim 1691 by Michael McNally and can’t recommend it enough. If your new to the 1689 Jacobite Rebellion which was part of the much largest War of the Grand Alliance or War of the League of Augsberg. Then this is a great start.

I guess any readers who aren’t new the period will have read this work already as it was first published in 2008.

The book starts with a brief introduction on the events that started the War of Kings in 1688, The Glorious Revolution, when William, Prince of Orange was helped to oust King James II off of the English throne.

The book then moves onto the 1690 campaign ending with the Battle of the Boyne, a Williamite victory and King James fleeing back to France, it also introduces some of the major characters that would go on to fight at Aughrim.

Then moving on to the 1691 campaign, which started with a new Irish commander for the Jacobites, who was then soon replaced by a Frenchman, St Ruth.  The Williamites also had a new leader Dutchman Ginkel. The two met near a small village named Aughrim on the River Shannon on 12^th July 1691.

The author goes into great narrative detail on the battle and includes maps, colour plates for us gamers and Orders of Battle for both sides. I just wish there was a little more information on the Jacobite layout during the battle, the author goes into great detail on the Williamite side but looking at the massive Bibliography used for the book, I guess information is just not known.

So if the War of the Grand Alliance ever takes your fancy, give this book a go as well.