"Wild Geese": The Irish Brigade of France

 

On December 22, 1691, Colonel Patrick Sarsfield and several thousand of his followers boarded ships bound for France in Limerick, Ireland. These were the remnants of the defeated Jacobite army. Deposed by his Dutch son-in-law William III of Orange and his daughter Mary, King James II Stuart tried to regain the throne with the support of France and lost. About this in the article The Irish against the British. Boyne – the battle of two kings for the English throne on Irish soil Began the epic of the Irish brigade of "wild geese" of France.

Irish mercenaries in Europe

Colonel Sarsfield commanded the garrison of Limerick Fortress, the last Jacobite stronghold in Ireland. Realizing that the case was lost, he surrendered on honorable terms. William and Mary allowed civilians to keep their lands and property and granted Catholics limited religious freedom. They also allowed defeated Irish soldiers and their families to immigrate to France. By January 1692, more than 20,000 men, women, and children had sailed to Brest from Irish ports.

They were not the first Irish soldiers on the continent. Uprisings against the British broke out in Ireland all the time. The first Irish regiment in Spanish service was formed in the 1580s during the Eighty Years' War (Dutch Revolution). By the end of the war in 1648, the regiment had lost 12,000 men killed and wounded. Irish mercenaries fought throughout the vast Spanish Empire. The Irish served the Habsburg Empire, and more than a hundred "sons of Erin" became generals or admirals. The Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus considered the Irish too unreliable to recruit them in large numbers, but individuals held high positions in his service. Russia also had its share of Irish officers, initially recruited by Peter the Great to create a new model army. The most distinguished career was made by Field Marshal Peter Lassi (Pierce Edmond de Lacey). England recruited Irish Catholics to serve abroad with extreme caution. But the Irish Catholic Regiment served in the Anglo-Dutch Brigade from 1674 to 1688. And Colonel Sarsfield made a career in the British army during the reign of the Catholic James II.

"Wild Geese"

England, by the way, welcomed Irish mercenaries to the continent. After all, this reduced the number of potential rebels in Ireland itself. In Ireland, this was not welcome. In 1722, the Irish Parliament banned unlicensed recruitment, and later banned anyone in the French or Spanish service from owning property in Ireland. However, the secret recruitment continued. It was then that the now well-known romantic definition of "wild geese" appeared. Most of the recruits went aboard French merchant ships. They were recorded in the cargo register. Some unknown French wag listed the Irish as “wild geese" in his cargo registry. The name stuck and has been preserved. Until 1692, Irish soldiers abroad were mostly mercenaries seeking to make a fortune. Their regiments were short-lived. The Irish Jacobites under the command of Colonel Sarsfield retained their identity. It was a real 14,000 strong army. The color of the uniform was scarlet, at that time this color was not yet identified with enemy England.

They hoped to return home, but in May 1692, the Anglo-Dutch fleet defeated the French fleet at La Hogue, which was supposed to ensure a new invasion of James II of England. The Irish were left without means of livelihood and moved under the French flag. The fighting qualities of the wild geese were well known, but the problem was that they constantly relied on a quick approach to the enemy and a bayonet attack. Meanwhile, the firepower on the battlefield was becoming overwhelming. The Irish losses were heavy. At the Battle of Neerwinden on July 26, 1693 in Flanders, Irish regiments led the French army of Francois-Henri de Montmorency, Duke of Luxembourg, to victory. The British, Scots and Dutch under the command of William of Orange were defeated. But in this battle, Patrick Sarsfield died, struck by a musket bullet. According to legend, he managed to say before his death: “Oh, if only it were for Ireland!”

The Irish Brigade of France

The Treaty of Riswick in 1697 officially recognized William III as King of England, Scotland and Ireland. By this time, between a third and half of the exiled Irish army had died or deserted. Since the restoration of the Stuarts was no longer possible, the French government, concerned about cutting costs, disbanded the Wild Goose regiments. Some went to Spain, some to Austria. The rest joined the Irish Brigade of the French army. It was the forerunner of the Foreign Legion. At one time, James II provided 6,000 of his compatriots to serve Louis XIV in exchange for the French contingent sent to Ireland.

The Brigade has become a defining institution of Ireland in exile, symbolizing and supporting the Stuart cause at home and on the continent. The names of the regiments changed. Some of them were disbanded. One was transferred to the Spanish service, and another was sent to India. But regardless of the details of its organization, the brigade declared its Irish affiliation at every step. Her uniforms remained red. The flags of the brigades depicted the cross of St. George and the motto IN HOC SIGNO VINCES (“You will win under this banner”). The brigade was devoted to the Stewarts. Her spirit, her songs, and her toasts were Jacobite. The officers were Irish or the sons of Irish living in France.

This persistent orientation towards the Stuarts was for the French government, which perceived Britain as the main rival for European influence and world power. Thus, the brigade became a political force whose senior officers helped plan uprisings in both Ireland and Scotland. The Irish Brigade passed its first test during the War of the Spanish Succession. When James II died in France in September 1701, Louis XIV quickly recognized Stuart's exiled son as James III, king of England and Ireland. In addition, Louis wanted to put his grandson on the vacant Spanish throne. Britain did not want this and joined the anti-French coalition. Cremona

About 600 Irishmen as part of the French garrison were in the Italian army in Cremona when, on February 1, 1702, the troops of Prince Eugene of Savoy suddenly attacked the city. Most of the 8,000 defenders of Cremona were hungover or drunk. And only the Irish were ready to meet the enemy. They were offered to go over to the side of the Imperials for a higher fee, they replied that they were not trading on honor. Time after time, the "wild geese" drove back Prince Eugene's elite units. Then they attacked, broke through the Austrians, joined up with the rest of the now sober garrison and recaptured the city. Eugene of Savoy suffered one of his few defeats. The Irish lost half of their dead.

In the Spanish army, Irish regiments under the command of James Fitzjames, the Jacobite Duke of Berwick, fought in this war. On November 13, 1704, at the Battle of Blenheim, three Irish regiments helped hold the crucial Bavarian village of Oberglau, and then covered the French retreat. Two years later, at the Battle of Ramillies, the Irish regiment captured two enemy flags. In 1709, at Malplaquet, five Irish regiments of France fought, among other things, against the Irish from the British Royal Regiment. The War of the Spanish Succession ended in 1714. By that time, the Irish regiments of France numbered less than 3,500 men, 10 times more fell in battle or died of disease. There are five infantry regiments and one dragoon regiment left. Then another pan-European war of the Austrian Succession broke out. One of her great battles was the apotheosis of the Irish Brigade. Fontenoy - the triumph of Irish valor

During the War of the Austrian Succession, the Irish Brigade served in the army of French Marshal Maurice de Saxe (Maurice of Saxony). In May 1745, de Sax, hoping to draw the Anglo-Dutch-Austrian forces of Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, into a decisive battle, took up a position on a hill around the village of Fontenoy (in modern Belgium). Cumberland attacked. The French's hopes of an easy victory had disappeared. A column of 15,000 British and Hanoverian infantry broke through the French line and repelled all counterattacks. And then came the time of the Irish.

De Sax deployed the hitherto inactive Irish Brigade against the British right flank. The enemy outnumbered the Irish four to one. But almost 4,000 soldiers rushed forward, bayonets fixed. Flutes, drums, and bagpipes played the Jacobite war song “The White Cockade.” The officers shouted in Gaelic, “Bayonets in their bellies!” When they came within firing range, the Irish shouted an ancient battle cry: “Faugh a balla!” (“Clear the way!"). One musket salvo from the British Coldstream Guards knocked down the entire first rank of two Irish regiments. This kind of blow is usually enough to make the most resilient troops stagger back, but the Irish did not slow down and hit the British with the force of a sledgehammer.

The pace of the attack was slightly slowed down when a regiment of French cavalry, attacking from the front, began to chop down everyone who wore a red coat, including the Irish. Shouts of "Vive le Roi!” and “Vive la France!” The misunderstanding was settled on the part of the Irish, and the bloody fun resumed. Cold steel and no mercy. Within 10 minutes, the Anglo-Hanoverians were literally torn apart. 5,000 killed, 15 guns lost, the Irish took two regimental banners.

– Is there a better reserve than six battalions of wild geese! de Sax exclaimed when the attack ended. But more than 500 Irish people died, almost a fifth of them officers. It was the greatest triumph of the Irish Brigade, and it marked the beginning of its end. Sunset

France could no longer dictate its will to Europe. Several hundred volunteers went to Scotland in 1745 for the Handsome Prince Charles, but the Jacobite uprising was defeated. About this in the article The Scots against the British. The Battle of Culloden – the last battle of the Highlanders During the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), the Irish Brigade fought in Germany, but with little success. By that time, less than half of the soldiers in the ranks were Irish. The failure of the 1745 rebellion undermined the credibility of the Stuart cause. In Ireland, the softening of Britain's harsh anti-Catholic policies has made exile much less attractive. The British army began to give the Irish equal opportunities with the British. More than a third of the “British” soldiers who served in the Iberian Peninsula in 1808-14 during the Napoleonic Wars were Irish by birth, and most of them were Catholic.

The Irish Brigade last proved itself when France sent troops to help 13 American colonies in their struggle for independence from Great Britain. The Irish were on the front line in the Battle of Savannah in 1779. The Irish who participated in the siege of Yorktown screamed with delight after witnessing the surrender of the British. The French Revolution marked the end of the Irish Brigade, mainly because the unit's continued loyalty to the monarchy made it suspicious of the republic. Most of the brigade's regiments were replenished with new volunteer units. In 1792, Louis Stanislas Xavier, Count of Provence and the future French King Louis XVIII, presented the brigade with a “farewell banner” with the inscription Semper et Ubique Fidelis (“Always and everywhere faithful"). The brigade has completed its combat journey.