Revolutionary Ireland and Its Settlement (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Revolutionary Ireland and Its Settlement

I have therefore tried to place events in their proper focus, to regard them not as isolated fragments capable only of description, and I have tried to emphasise the fact that the history of Ireland during this period is closely bound up with the tissue of European policy, and in particular with that of France. Unless the inner meaning of F rench statecraft be penetrated, the history of Ireland at the time of the Revolution must present a succession of insoluble riddles. Indeed, so far - reaching were the effects, direct and indirect, of the diplomacy of Louis XIV. Upon the course of events in Ireland that we feel their influence even in 1910. My examination of the character of the fact we know as the Irish Revolution led me to conclude that the usual account was altogether inadequate, for it did not attach importance to the designs of Louis XIV. Upon Spain. These designs induced the French monarch to send James II. To Dublin, for he hoped that the war in Ireland would last ten years. When William was thus employed Louis was left free to pursue his schemes of aggrandisement. Though the plan broke down by the signing of the Treaty of Limerick, yet the efforts of F rench diplomatists were not exhausted, for throughout the rest of the period Louis used Ireland as a means of attacking England in the rear. My explanation thus asks the reader to go beyond the limits of the revo.

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