{{Short description|1691 siege}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{Infobox military conflict | conflict = Siege of Athlone | partof = the [[Williamite War in Ireland]] | image = File:Siege of Athlone 1691.jpg | caption = | date = June 1691 | place = [[Athlone]], [[Kingdom of Ireland|Ireland]] | result = Williamite victory | combatant1 = {{flagicon image|Royal Standard of England (1689-1702) rev2.svg}} [[Williamite|Williamites]]<br>{{flagicon|Dutch Republic}} [[Dutch Republic]] | combatant2 = {{flagicon image|Royal Standard of England (1603–1689).svg}} [[Jacobitism|Jacobites]]<br>{{flagicon|Kingdom of France}} [[Kingdom of France|France]] | commander1 = {{flagicon|Dutch Republic}} [[Godert de Ginkell, 1st Earl of Athlone|Godert de Ginkell]]<br>{{flagicon|Dutch Republic}}`[[Ernst von Tettau]]<br>{{flagicon image|Royal Standard of England (1689-1702) rev2.svg}} [[Hugh Mackay (general)|Hugh Mackay]] | commander2 = {{flagicon image|Royal Standard of England (1603–1689).svg}} [[Richard Grace]]{{KIA}}<br>{{flagicon|Kingdom of France}} Jean de Bonnac<br>{{flagicon image|Royal Standard of England (1603–1689).svg}} [[Thomas Maxwell (Jacobite)|Thomas Maxwell]] | strength1 = 18,000 | strength2 = 1,500 (garrison only) | casualties1 = 60 killed <br>120 wounded<ref name=childs327>Childs, ''The Williamite Wars in Ireland'', Bloomsbury, p.327</ref> | casualties2 = 1,000 killed<ref name=childs327>Childs, ''The Williamite Wars in Ireland'', Bloomsbury, p.327</ref> | campaignbox = | coordinates = {{Coord|type:event|format=dms|display=inline,title}} }} {{Campaignbox War of the Grand Alliance}} {{Campaignbox Williamite war in Ireland}}
'''Athlone''' was besieged twice during the [[Williamite War in Ireland]] (1689–91). The town is situated in the centre of [[Ireland]] on the [[River Shannon]] and commanded the bridge crossing the river into the [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]]-held province of [[Connacht]]. For this reason, it was of key strategic importance.
==Background== {{main|Siege of Athlone (1690)}} The army of [[William III of England|William III]] first besieged Athlone in 1690, shortly after their defeat of the main Jacobite army at the [[Battle of the Boyne]]. [[James Douglas (English Army officer)|James Douglas]] and about 7,500 troops attempted to take the town, but the Jacobite garrison's commander, Colonel [[Richard Grace]], refused to surrender. Lacking siege artillery, Douglas was forced to withdraw after a week.
In the summer of the following year, the Williamite army, having regrouped at [[Mullingar]] under the command of Dutch general [[Godert de Ginkell, 1st Earl of Athlone|Godart de Ginkel]],<ref>A Jacobite narrative of the war in Ireland (A light to the blind; Pluncket memoirs)</ref> marched via [[Ballymore, County Westmeath|Ballymore]] to make a second attempt on Athlone.<ref name="google">{{cite book|title=Histoire de l'Irlande ancienne et moderne: tirée des monumens les plus authentiques|date=1763|issue=vol. 3|publisher=A. Boudet|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_M4MPAAAAIAAJ|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_M4MPAAAAIAAJ/page/n20 1]–746|accessdate=2014-12-14}}</ref>
The Jacobite commander, the [[Marquis de St Ruth]], marched his main field army from its winter quarters in Limerick to meet the threat. He drew up his force to the west of the town; other Jacobite troops manned fortifications in the ruins of the "English Town", the eastern half of Athlone, along with a garrison in the "Irish Town" on the western bank.<ref name=childs317>Childs, p.317</ref> This arrangement was intended to allow the Jacobites to fight a staggered, drawn-out defence, though the advantage was reduced by high ground on the Leinster bank of the Shannon and the fact that the river was running exceptionally low that year.<ref name=childs317/>
Jacobite defences were also hampered by disagreements between James's Viceroy, [[Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell|Tyrconnell]], St Ruth, and Jacobite general [[Patrick Sarsfield]]. When Tyrconnell asserted his seniority and offered advice on the defences to St Ruth, the latter refused to recognise Tyrconnell's command, while Sarsfield sent him a message that his pavilion ropes would be cut if he did not leave immediately.<ref name=childs318>Childs, p.318</ref> Though Tyrconnell surmised that a large number of the best Jacobite troops would side with him, he chose to depart for Limerick rather than split the army.<ref name=childs318/>
==Siege== Ginkel opened an assault on the eastern part of Athlone on 20 June, which caused the Jacobites to retreat to the west bank of the river, dismantling the bridge in the process.<ref>G.A. Hayes McCoy, Irish Battles, p245</ref> Colonel Grace, who had been superseded as garrison commander by the French officer d'Usson, was killed in a bombardment at the western end of the bridge on the same day.<ref name=grace>O Ciardha [https://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a3560# Richard Grace], Dictionary of Irish Biography</ref> [[File:Major-General Thomas Maxwell.jpg|thumb|left|Major-General [[Thomas Maxwell (Jacobite)|Thomas Maxwell]] commanded the Jacobite forces in Athlone]]
The Jacobite forces in the western half of Athlone, led by Major-General [[Thomas Maxwell (Jacobite)|Thomas Maxwell]], a Scottish Catholic, initially held off the Williamite assault; there was fierce fighting centred on the bridge over the Shannon. The Williamites tried to lay planks over the partially wrecked structure, which the Irish Jacobite troops managed to destroy despite coming under intense fire. One such Jacobite sortie, by a small group of volunteers from Maxwell's [[dragoon]] regiment led by a Sergeant Custume or Costy, all of whom were killed, later passed into Irish folklore as an example of bravery.<ref name=murtagh>Murtagh, D. "Sergeant Custume and the Bridge of Athlone" in ''Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review'' Vol. 37, No. 148 (Dec., 1948), pp. 463-474</ref> Several attempts by the Williamites to storm the bridge were repulsed with heavy losses.
The Williamite bombardment of the western, Connacht, side of the town was intense, with over 12,000 cannonballs and 600 bombs or mortars fired into the town. John Stevens, serving in the Grand Prior's Regiment, recorded that "with the balls and bombs flying so thick, that spot was hell on earth".<ref>Padraig Lenihan, Consolidating Conquest, p185</ref> During the ten-day bombardment, 32 heavy cannon and mortars fired one shot every minute: Athlone suffered the heaviest bombardment of any city in Britain and Ireland up until that point.<ref name=childs327>Childs, ''The Williamite Wars in Ireland'', Bloomsbury, p.327</ref> [[File:Athlone - Siege of Athlone sign - geograph.org.uk - 1606882.jpg|thumb|right|Local information board giving details of the siege.]]
While developing a plan to storm the bridge Ginkel identified another potential crossing point at a ford to the south. To test the crossing, on the morning of 29 June he ordered a Danish quartermaster and two privates, under sentence of death for cowardice, to ford the river while troops fired over their heads to give the impression they were deserting.<ref name=childs324>Childs, p.324</ref> All three forded to the western bank and returned safely, whereupon Ginkel sent a force of [[grenadier]]s, 2,000 strong, to cross there and attack the Jacobite positions from the rear.
Following an argument between St Ruth and the garrison commander d'Usson, the fortifications on the western side of the city had not been levelled, as Tyrconnell had suggested some days earlier.<ref name=child326>Childs, 326</ref> St Ruth did not issue an order to demolish them until 29 June, apparently believing it impossible that a city could be taken with a relieving army so close by.<ref name=child326/> They remained standing a day later, and a party of Ginkel's grenadiers hurried to occupy them and raise the drawbridge there, holding off counter-attacks from St Ruth's army until the main Williamite force could be brought up.<ref>Lenihan p 185</ref><ref name=child326/> St Ruth detached two brigades under Major-General [[John Hamilton (Jacobite)|Hamilton]] to dislodge the Williamites, but after around an hour and a half of intense fighting, the Jacobites retreated.<ref name=boyle264>Boyle (1867) ''The Battle-fields of Ireland'', Coddington, p.264</ref>
==Aftermath== The breakthrough of the Williamites had forced the remains of the Jacobite garrison, who had been awaiting reinforcement from the main Jacobite force under St Ruth, to hastily abandon their positions in Athlone. Maxwell was captured; accusations of treachery were later levelled at him, partly as he had been a supporter of Tyrconnell's faction. St Ruth withdrew into [[County Galway]], passing through [[Ballinasloe]]. The Jacobites had lost around 1,000 men at Athlone,<ref name=childs327/> though the highest estimates suggested losses of over 2,000, including colonels McGuinness, McMahon and O'Gara, in addition to Grace.<ref name=boyle265>Boyle, p.265</ref>
Ginkel continued to march towards [[Limerick]], unaware of the position of St Ruth. On the morning of 12 July the Williamites were confronted by the main Jacobite army drawn up in a strong defensive position at [[Aughrim, County Galway|Aughrim]]. In the ensuing [[Battle of Aughrim]], Ginkel inflicted a crushing defeat on them, effectively ending Jacobite resistance in Ireland.
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Athlone}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Athlone 1690-1691, Siege of}} [[Category:1690 in Ireland]] [[Category:1691 in Ireland]] [[Category:Battles of the Williamite War in Ireland]] [[Category:History of Athlone]] [[Category:Sieges involving Ireland]]