page_title: Battle of Aughrim
section_title: The battle
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Aughrim / The battle
caption_attribution_description: Henri de Massue, Marquis de Ruvigny, 1st Earl of Galway (1648-1720)
context_page_description: The Battle of Aughrim was the decisive battle of the Williamite War in Ireland. It was fought between the largely Irish Jacobite army loyal to James II and the forces of William III on 12 July 1691, near the village of Aughrim, County Galway.
  The battle was possibly the bloodiest ever fought in the British Isles: 5,000–7,000 people were killed. The Jacobite defeat at Aughrim meant the effective end of James's cause in Ireland, although the city of Limerick held out until the autumn of 1691.
context_section_description: After heavy mist all morning, Ginkel's forces moved into position by about two o'clock in the afternoon, and both sides cannonaded each other for the next few hours. Ginkel planned to avoid fully joining battle until the next day; he ordered a probing attack on the Jacobites' weaker right flank led by a captain and sixteen Danish troopers, followed by 200 of Cunningham's Eniskillen dragoons. The Jacobite response demonstrated the strength of their defence, but also meant that the attackers were no longer able to break off the engagement as Ginkel had planned. A conference was held at about 4 pm: Ginkel still favoured withdrawing, but the Williamite infantry general Hugh Mackay argued for an immediate full-scale attack.
  Battle was joined in earnest between five and six o'clock. In the centre, the largely English and Scots regiments under Mackay attempted a frontal assault on Dorrington's infantry on Kilcommadan Hill. The attackers had to contend with waist-deep water and a tenacious Irish defence of the reinforced hedgelines. They withdrew with heavy losses: the Jacobites pursued them downhill, capturing colonels Erle and Herbert.
  On their left centre, the Williamites advanced across low ground exposed to Jacobite fire and took a great number of casualties. The Williamite assault in this area, led by St John's and Tiffin's regiments and the Huguenot foot, was driven back into the bog by the Irish foot fighting with clubbed (reversed) muskets; many of the attackers were killed or drowned. In the rout, the pursuing Jacobites managed to spike a battery of Williamite guns. The Jacobite regiments of the Guards and Gordon O'Neill were said to have fought particularly strongly. The musketry was so intense that "the ridges seemed to be ablaze" according to Andreas Claudianus, a Norwegian fighting with the Danish infantry.
  The Jacobite right and centre holding firm, Ginkel tried to force a way across the causeway on the Jacobite left, where any attack would have to pass along a narrow lane covered by Walter Burke's regiment from their positions in Aughrim castle. Four battalions led by Brigadier Kirke secured positions near the castle, following which Compton's Royal Horse Guards got across the causeway at the third attempt. Dorrington having earlier withdrawn two battalions of infantry from this area to reinforce the Jacobite centre, they were faced only with weak opposition, reaching Aughrim village. While a force of Jacobite cavalry and dragoons under Luttrell had been tasked with covering this flank, their commander had ordered them to fall back, following a route now known locally as "Luttrell's Pass". He was later alleged to have been in the pay of William, though it seems most probable that Luttrell withdrew as he had little or no infantry support. The cavalry regiments of Henri de Massue, Lanier, Langston and Byerley also crossed the causeway, attacking Dorrington's flank.
  Most commentators, even those sympathetic to William, judged that the Irish foot had fought exceptionally well, and some accounts including James II's Memoirs claim that Saint-Ruhe was "in a transport of joy to see the foot [...] behave themselves so well". Appearing to believe that the battle could be won, he was heard to shout, "they are running, we will chase them back to the gates of Dublin", before riding across the battlefield to direct the defence against the Williamite cavalry on his left wing. However, as he rode over to rally his cavalry, Saint-Ruhe paused briefly to direct the fire of a battery, and was decapitated by a cannonball; his death was said to have occurred around sunset, shortly after eight o'clock.
  After Saint-Ruhe's death the Jacobite left, devoid of a senior commander, collapsed very quickly: the regiment of Horse Guards left the field almost immediately, followed shortly by the cavalry and dragoon regiments of Luttrell, Sheldon and Galmoy. De Tessé attempted to head a cavalry counter-attack but was seriously wounded shortly afterwards. The Jacobite left flank was now exposed: Mackay and Tollemache also attacked again in the cent
caption: Henri de Massue led the right of the Williamite cavalry at Aughrim. A French Protestant, he had entered William's service in 1690, forfeiting his French estates and title (the Marquis de Rouvigny) as a result.
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