Flight of the Wild Geese: Encyclopedia II - Flight of the Wild Geese - French service

Flight of the Wild Geese - French service

From the mid 17th century or so, France overtook Spain as the destination for Catholic Irishmen seeking a military career. the principal reason for this was that France was an ascendant power, rapidly expanding its armed forces, whereas Spain was a power in decline. However, the crucial turning point came during the Williamite war in Ireland (1698-91), when Louis XIV gave military and financial aid to the Irish Jacobites. In return for 6000 French troops, Louis demanded 6000 Irish recruits for use in the Nine Years War against the Dutch. These men, led by Justin McCarthy, Viscount Mountcashel formed the nucleus of the French Irish Brigade. Later, when the Irish Jacobites under Patrick Sarsfield surrendered at the Treaty of Limerick, they were allowed to leave Ireland for service in the French Army. Sarsfield's "exodus" included 14,000 soldiers and 10,000 women and children. This is popularly known in Ireland as the "Flight of the Wild Geese". Initially, these units were not integrated into the French armed, but were assigned to the court in exile of James II, deposed in the Glorious Revolution, whom Louis deemed the legitimate King of England, Ireland and Scotland. They were later incorporated into the Irish Brigade of the French Army.

Like the earlier Irish units in Spanish service, the French Irish regiments were quite politicised, being composed of dispossessed Irish catholics, who were committed to a Stuart restoration in Britain and Ireland. Famously, the Irish Brigade distinguished themselves in the Battle of Fontenoy against British troops in 1745. Up until 1745, Catholic Irish gentry were allowed to recruit soldiers for France in Ireland. The authorities in Ireland saw this as preferable to having large numbers of unemployed Catholic young men of military age in the country. However, after Irish units were used to support the Jacobite Rising of 1745 in Scotland, the British realised the dangers of this policy and banned recruitment for foreign armies in Ireland. After this point, the rank and file of the Irish units in French service were increasingly non-Irish although the officers continued to be recruited from Ireland. The Irish Brigade was disbanded after the French Revolution, although Napoleon Bonaparte raised a small Irish unit composed of veterans of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "French service", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki