Patrick Sarsfield

Tomorrow, 3rd October marks the anniversary of the Treaty of Limerick, signed in 1691 signifying the end of the Jacobite resistance in Ireland and heralding what became known as the flight of the Wild Geese. Led by General Lord Lucan, better known as Patrick Sarsfield, the flight involved more than 12,000 Jacobite soldiers. Sarsfield has always captured the imagination of the Irish public, largely because he was seeing as valiantly trying to win the day against the odds as Williamite forces swept across the country. Here the redoubtable ‘SJL’ in the Irish Press newspaper provides the following account of Sarsfield and his family, some of which may not be widely known:

PATRICK SARSFIELD was closely linked to royalty. His elder brother, William, was married to a natural daughter of Charles II, sister of the Duke of Monmouth. It was through William's death he inherited the family title, Lord Lucan, and its estates which made him one of the wealthiest peers in the country. About the same time as he succeeded to this fortune, he married Honora De Burgh, daughter of the Earl of Clanricarde.

He had not been long married when the Jacobite wars began, and it is doubtful if Sarsfield can have seen very much of Ms family after that. His wife followed the exodus of Jacobite nobility to France, taking with her son and daughter, to join the aimless life of the Stuarts at St. Germain. There, when doom had fallen on the Jacobite cause and the seal had been set on the soon to be dishonoured Treaty of Limerick, Sarsfield joined her. Already, it would seem she had caught the eye of the Duke of Berwick, natural son of James II, and it is probable that part of the strain between Sarsfield and Berwick when both found themselves in the wars again was the result of the Duke's affection for the Irishman's wife. But Berwick's intentions were honourable and when Sarsfield fell on the-field of Landen, Berwick married his young widow. To his credit, he looked after Sarsfield's children as though they were his own. "Honora's second marriage lasted no longer than her first. Consumption, the plague of the Jacobite nobility, took her on January 16th, 1698.

For more information search the pages of the Irish Newspaper Archive (www.irishnewsarchive.com )