Conservative History Journal

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne, the decisive encounter between William III who had been invited by the English Parliament to reign together with his wife, Mary II and Mary's father, James II, the second Stuart to be deposed by an "unruly" parliament.

The battle, won by William and his rather mixed both from a religious and national point of view forces, marked the end of James's own attempts to reclaim the throne though as every school child ought to know the attempts by Jacobites to restore the Stuarts continued well into the following century.

This site has all the details.

Is it an important enough date to be remembered by all, not just the people of Ulster (on both sides)? Well, probably, as the end of James's campaign established the king who was there at parliament's behest. Then again, it is the third of those dates: 1688 is the Glorious Revolution, 1689 is the Bill of Rights and only then do we come to 1690.