The Irish Brigade (, ) was a brigade in the French Royal Army composed of Irish exiles, led by Lord Mountcashel. It was formed in May 1690 when five Jacobite regiments were sent from Ireland to France in exchange for a larger force of French infantry who were sent to fight in the Williamite War in Ireland. The regiments comprising the Irish Brigade retained their special status as foreign units in the French Army until nationalised in 1791.
Formation When King James II went to Ireland in March 1689, Ireland was ruled by his viceroy Tyrconnell and was held by the Irish Army, which was loyal to King James. There seemed to be no need for the deployment of French troops in Ireland and Louis XIV needed his troops elsewhere during the Nine Years' War. When the Irish Army showed its weakness by failing to win the Siege of Derry and losing the minor Battle of Newtownbutler on 31 July 1689, Lauzun was sent to Ireland with a French force of 5000 men but Ireland had to send Irish troops to France in exchange. This was the Irish Brigade, formed in May 1690. It consisted of five regiments, comprising together about 5000 men. The regiments were named after their colonels: Lord Mountcashel, Butler, Feilding, O'Brien, and Dillon's Regiment, commanded by Arthur Dillon.
The French reformed them and disbanded Butler's and Feilding's, incorporating their men into the remaining three regiments, which were: Mountcashel's O'Brien's, and Dillon's
These three regiments formed the first Irish Brigade in France and were known as Lord Mountcashel's Irish Brigade and served the French with distinction during the remainder of the Nine Years' War (1689–97).
Under the terms of the Treaty of Limerick in 1691, which ended the war between King James II and VII and King William III in Ireland, a separate force of 12,000 Jacobites of the Irish Army had arrived in France in an event known as Flight of the Wild Geese. These were kept separate from the Irish Brigade and were formed into King James's own army in exile, albeit in the pay of France. Dorrington's regiment, later Rooth or Roth, following the Treaty of Ryswick in 1698, was formed from the former 1st and 2nd battalions James II's Royal Irish Foot Guards (formerly on the Irish establishmentChilds, John. The army, James II, and the Glorious Revolution, Manchester, 1980, , pp. 1–2. The army of Great Britain had an 'establishment' army from each of the three nations comprising it. At the accession of James II, the English establishment army was 8,665; the Irish establishment was 7,500 and the Scottish was 2,199) of Britain.D'Alton, John. Illustrations, historical and genealogical, of King James's Irish Army list 1689, Volume 2, London, MDCCLXL, pp.9–11. Also, Childs, John. The army, James II, and the Glorious Revolution, Manchester, 1980, , p.xiii.
Service With the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, King James's army in exile was disbanded, though many of its officers and men were reformed into new regiments. Having been merged into the original Irish Brigade these units served the French well until the French Revolution. Other Irishmen – such as Peter Lacy – proceeded to enter the Austrian service on an individual basis.
The Irish Brigade became one of the elite units of the French Army.McGarry, Stephen, Irish Brigades Abroad, Dublin 2013 While increasingly diluted by French and foreign recruits from elsewhere in Europe, its Irish-born officers and men often aspired to return to aid Ireland and regain their ancestral lands, as some did during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745.Culligan, Matthew J.; Cherici, Peter, The Wandering Irish in Europe: Their Influence from the Dark Ages to Modern Times, Clearfield, 1999,
Irish regiments participated in most of the major land battles fought by the French between 1690 and 1789, particularly Steenkirk (1692), Neerwinden (1693), Marsaglia (1693), Blenheim (1704), Almansa (1707), Malplaquet (1709), Fontenoy (1745), Battle of Lauffeld (1747); and Rossbach (1757).
Units of the Irish Brigade took part in the rising of 1715 and the rising of 1745. For the latter, a composite battalion of infantry ("Irish Picquets") comprising detachments from each of the regiments of the Irish Brigade, plus one cavalry regiment, Fitzjames' horse, was sent to Scotland and landed with Richard Warren at Stonehaven in October 1745. This trained and disciplined force saw action at the second Battle of Falkirk (where they cemented the victory by driving off the Hanoverians causing the clans to waver) and Culloden, alongside the regiment of Royal Scots (Royal Ecossais) which had been raised the year before in French service. As serving soldiers of the French King the Irish Picquets were able to formally surrender as a unit after Culloden with a promise of honourable treatment and were not subjected to the reprisals suffered by the Highland clansmen. Many other exiled Jacobites in the French army were captured en route to Scotland in late 1745 and early 1746, including Charles Radcliffe, 5th Earl of Derwentwater, a captain in Dillon's regiment who was executed in London in 1746.
In the interim, however, the Brigade found itself briefly opposed to its Spanish counterpart in the War of the Quadruple Alliance in 1718–20, as France was allied to the Jacobites' Hanoverian rivals. As a result, it was Spain who assisted the Highland Jacobites in their rising that ended in the Battle of Glen Shiel in 1719.Glenshiel notes accessed Sept 2009 The 1716 Anglo-French alliance had effectively secured the Hanoverian succession in Ireland and Britain.O Ciardha, Eamonn "Ireland and the Jacobite Cause, 1685–1766" (Four Courts, Dublin 2004) pp. 182, 235; Despite the alliance France continued to recognize James III as legitimate, and therefore individual Jacobites amongst the Irish regiments in France continued to hope for decades that their cause would eventually succeed. After its early years however the Brigade increasingly became a professional force made up of Irish soldiers who enlisted for reasons of family tradition or in search of opportunities denied them at home, rather than for directly political motives.
Irish regiments served in the War of the Austrian Succession, Seven Years' War, both in Europe and India, and during the American War of Independence, though by the 1740s the number of Irishmen serving in the regiments had begun to markedly decline. The five regiments were increased to six during the War of the Austrian Succession, the sixth being Lally's, initially created by the Comte de Lally -Tollendal through drafts from the original five.Skrine, Francis Henry. Fontenoy and Great Britain's Share in the War of the Austrian Succession 1741–48. London, Edinburgh, 1906, p.373 Each regiment had a strength of one battalion of 685 men and Fitzjames's cavalry regiment counted 240 men. The Brigade played a crucial role at Fontenoy, attacking the right flank of a British column and suffering 656 casualties. O'Callaghan claims the Irish Brigade captured the colours of the Coldstream Guards during this engagement, as well as fifteen cannon.O'Callaghan, John Cornelius. History of the Irish Brigades in the Service of France, London, 1870, p.359 McGarry, in a recently published book entitled Irish Brigades Abroad, disputes this claim. Instead stating the standard in question was the flag of Sempill's Regiment of Foot, the forerunner of the King's Own Scottish Borderers.McGarry, Stephen. Irish Brigades Abroad, Dublin, 2013, p. 94. The Irish suffered even higher casualties of around 1400 men, at the Battle of Lauffeld when they led the assault which drove the Pragmatic Army from the village of Lauffeld and secured victory.McGarry, Stephen. Irish Brigades Abroad, Dublin, 2013, p.135 During the Seven Years' War the Irish Regiments in French service were: Bulkeley, Clare, Dillon, Rooth, Berwick and Lally as well as one regiment of cavalry (Fitzjames's).
From January 1766 the Papacy formally recognised George III of the Hanoverian dynasty as the lawful monarch of Britain and Ireland, and refused to recognise Bonnie Prince Charlie, who was now styled as King Charles III by the Jacobites.O Ciardha, Eamonn, op cit., page 365. The rise of George III also saw the Tories come back to power with John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute forming a ministry – the Tories had previously included high-placed, financially powerful Jacobites. There were always a number of English and Scots serving in the Brigade, though their numbers fluctuated markedly over the years. A database being compiled by the Centre for Irish-Scottish Studies at Trinity College suggests that for every ten Irishmen, there were on average two Englishmen and one Scot.
During the American War of Independence, the brigade participated in the Capture of Grenada, the Siege of Savannah, the Invasion of Tobago, the Capture of Sint Eustatius, and the Siege of Brimstone Hill. Walsh's regiment is noted for aiding the American cause in the American Revolution, when a detachment was assigned as marines to John Paul Jones' ship, the Bonhomme Richard.Irish Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War, see Irish Soldiers In the American Revolutionary War Lt. Edward Stack commanded the division in the main top of the Bonhomme Richard during her battle with HMS Serapis. The USS Stack is named for him. Their involvement and use of the motto "Semper et Ubique Fidelis" may have influenced the subsequent adoption of the motto "Semper Fidelis" by the U.S. Marines.
Recruitment Until the Seven Years' War the British authorities had turned a blind eye to semi-organised recruitment within Ireland itself for the regiments of the Brigade. As long as the Irish troops were not employed against Britain or its allies, this was seen as a useful way of removing potentially discontented men of military age. In 1729 a confidential treaty between the French and British governments made provision for the engagement of 750 Irish recruits provided that this activity remained unpublicized. After the employment of the Irish Picquets (an ad hoc force made up of detachments from each regiment of the Irish Brigade) in support of the Jacobite rising in Scotland showed the danger of such a policy, measures were taken to reduce the flow of Irish recruits to French service. Individual recruiters for the Irish Brigade were hanged if caught and during the Seven Years' War all British subjects in French service were declared traitors by Parliament and liable to execution if taken prisoner. This draconian measure does not, however, appear to have been implemented, except where individual prisoners of war were identified as having first deserted from the British Army.
By the eve of the French Revolution in 1789 direct Irish recruitment into the Irish Brigade had diminished to a limited number having the motive and opportunity to make their own way to France. Irishmen serving in the British Army and taken prisoner during the French wars might find themselves being encouraged to literally change their coats and enlist in the Brigade. The shortfall in numbers was made up by the increasing substitution of German, Swiss and other foreigners, plus some Frenchmen. The officers, however, were mainly drawn from Franco-Irish families which might have existed for several generations since their founders had migrated to France. Distinguished military service led to such families being accepted into the French aristocracy while retaining their Irish names and consciousness of origin.
Uniforms and flags