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After his escape to France, James II made his way to Ireland where he rallied a considerable military force. William of Orange, who had been proclaimed as King William III by his supporters, naturally sailed for Ireland to confront the military threat to his new regime.

The culmination of the war in Ireland was the Battle of the Boyne, fought on 12 July 1690.

These verses by the French soldier and poet Charles de Saint-Évremond (1613–1703) note that William was wounded at the Boyne, compare him to both Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, and praise him as ‘LE HEROS DES HEROS’.

The publication of this item in Utrecht reminds us that William’s battles in Britain and Ireland were part of a wider, European war against the power of Louis XIV of France.

Citation:
A Sa Majesté Britannique Guillaume III (Utrecht, 1691).,
Marsh's Library Exhibits,
accessed May 1, 2025,
https://www.marshlibrary.ie/digi/items/show/474