The battle of the Boyne was the decisive encounter in a war that was primarily about James's attempt to regain the thrones of England and Scotland, but is widely remembered as a decisive moment in the struggle between Protestant and Catholic factions in Ireland. Both armies were religiously mixed, and William of Orange's own elite force — the Dutch Blue Guards — had the papal banner with them on the day, many of the Guardsmen being Dutch Catholics. They were part of the League of Augsburg, a cross-Christian alliance designed to stop a French conquest of Europe, supported by the Vatican.
The war in Ireland was also the beginning of a long-running but ultimately unsuccessful campaign by James's supporters, the Jacobites, to restore the Stuart dynasty rule to the British thrones. While most Jacobites in Ireland were indeed Catholics, many English and Scottish Jacobites were Protestants and were motivated by loyalty to the principle of monarchy (considering James to have been illegally deposed in a coup) or to the Stuart dynasty in particular, rather than by religion. A handful of British Jacobites fought with James at the Boyne. In addition, some of the French regiments fighting with the Jacobites at the Boyne were composed of German Protestants.|
Drogheda the town is located close to the site of Newgrange, a burial mound constructed around 3200 BC. A trading post and settlement existed on the site of the town from Roman times and was known as Inver Colpa. The placename Droiched Atha, ford by the bridge has been used in five different contexts between 1150 and 1210. It is evident from an annalistic entry in 1157 that Drochat Atha was the name applied to a large area rather than to a single feature such as a bridge or a ford. The town Drogheda itself was founded in 911 by the Danes. Chartered in 1194 AD by the Norman King John, the history of the townland extends further back into the folklore of arrival of the Celts in Ireland. The earliest surviving charter of 1194 is one where Walter de Lacy confirms to all his burgesses living on the south side of the bridge the law of Breuteil. The medieval town was a walled area enclosing 113 acres making it one of the largest walled towns in medieval Ireland. |  |
Drogheda also possesses one of the most extensive series of murage grants for any Irish town with at least 13 grants spanning the years between 1234 and 1424. The Irish Parliament moved to the town in 1494 and passed Poyning's Law a yeare later. The town was at one time a fortified city, and some of this wall still stands today, the most notable being St. Laurence's Gate. It is regarded as the best sample of barbican gate still in existence in Ireland. It was built in the thirteenth century and stands four stories tall, and has twin pillars, and puts fear into the eyes of all those passing through. Nearby Newgrange was built around 3200 BC by a pre-Celtic culture, older than the pyramids in Egypt, and older than Stonehenge. It is a Neolithic (New Stone Age) passage grave. The passage and chamber were accidentally found in 1699 by road builders. Others may know it as the town at the northern extent of ‘The Pale’.
The royalists had already been successful in 1643 managing to overrun not only much of north, west and central Hampshire but Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall and Somerset.
The first siege occurred during the Irish Rebellion of 1641, when Phelim Ó Neill and the insurgents failed to take the town. The second and more famous siege happened in 1649, during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, when the New Model Army under Oliver Cromwell took the town by storm and massacred its garrison. Sir Phelim Ó Neill continued and by the start of November of 1641, insurgents held numerous towns including, Newry, Dundalk and Carrickmacross. In realisation of the graveness of the situation Sir Henry Tichbourne, the Governor of Drogheda, started to fortify the Town for the impending trouble. The rebel movement had spread to parts of Connaught, Wicklow, Carlow, Killkenny and Wexford. On November 21st, the insurgents took Mellifont and laid siege to Drogheda. At this time Drogheda was considered to be a town of significant importance and relative to the rebel cause it's capture would have been a serious strategic acquisition. After their victory over government troops at battle of Julianstown, an Irish rebel force under Phelim Ó Neill laid siege to Drogheda in December 1641, the site of an infamous massacre of the Royalist defenders. The rebels, who were mostly from Ulster and about 6000 strong, did not have siege artillery (or indeed any artillery) to breach the walls of Drogheda and so blockaded the town, hoping to starve it into surrender.
Drogheda was garrisoned by about 2000 English soldiers under Colonel Tichborne. As the siege wore on much of Ireland had fallen into turmoil. Although Government forces had been defeated at Julianstown by Rory O'More, Sir Charles Coote (soon to be the Governor of Dublin City) had relieved Wicklow Castle, inflicting a great cruelty on the locals of the town. In light of the situation of unrest and several reports of Protestants being burned to death.
The English Parliament decided that Catholics should not be tolerated in any part of the Kingdom. By early January, Ó Neill had decided that he may have a better chance of success by starving the town into surrender. However, on January 12th, Government ships arrived into Drogheda Harbour laden with food. The siege of Drogheda had ended with the town firmly intact. At the time, few could have foretold that another siege would forsake the Boyneside strong- hold just seven years later - this time with a far more violent outcome.