James II soon fled to France to his cousin, the catholic king Louis XIV, in December 1688 without striking a blow in defence of his kingdom. No blood had been shed and this is why this event is known in England as the glorious revolution.
Mean while in Ireland there were more catholic subjects so they welcomed a catholic king but the protestants were worried, they feared that they would lose the land that they were given after it was taking from the Catholics. James wanted to help his catholic subjects but he didn’t want to alarm the more powerful protestant. To reassure them he appointed his protestant brother-in-law, the Earl Of Claredon as lord lieutenant of Ireland. Although Irish Protestants were pleased with his appointment they became worried when he placed a catholic, Richard Talbot in charge of the army. The king seemed to show favour towards Talbot by raising him to the peerage is the Earl of Tycronnell and then in 1687 by choosing him as the lord lieutenant, Protestants became more fearful. Talbot had begun to replace protestant officers with Catholics in the army. When Tycronnell became lord lieutenant he removed the laws which barred Catholics from being members of town corporations, he also placed Catholics in many government offices, protestants begun to fear so many fled to England where they stirred up hatred against James, others went to Holland o become soldiers in the army of prince William of orange. The majority of Protestants remained in Ireland although they felt fearful they continued to give their loyalty to James.
News had reached Ireland that Mary and William had agreed to take the throne of England and William had landed in Devonshire in November 1688 with an army ready to fight for the throne if necessary. Tycronnell immediately ordered three regiments of the Irish in Dublin to sail to England to help James fight William. He needed to replace the three regiments so he sent orders for them to go from Derry to Dublin. The new regiments were known as Redshanks it was made up of catholic Scots and Irish Catholics, they were supposed to land in Derry on November 23rd 1688 but this regiment was not complete by that date since the earl was anxious not to recruit anyone under 6 foot. Derry’s Protestants begun to fear that a catholic rebellion similar to the 1641 rising was being planned. Priest were preaching to the Catholics in the market place, that they should prepare themselves for a ‘ great design’ and the Catholics had suspicions that a massacre was about to take place. Protestants had suspicions that a massacre was about to take place, this was confirmed when an anonymous letter was found on the streets of Camber, co Down. In early Dec1688 it was addressed to Lord Mount Alexander and appeared to be written by a friendly Irish men. It warned him about a massacre on the 9th of Dec 1688. There were 1,200 Redshanks were as Derry had been told to expect 400 and following them were stragglers, women and boys, which the Ultoghs always bring with them expect spoils’. The Derry people begun to panic they discovered closing the gates and on the 7th December the apprentice boys described by the same as ‘hotheads’ seized the keys and rushed to Ferryquay gate to slam it closed in the astonished faces of the redshanks. Only mount joy was permitted to enter the city with three regiments to restore the city’s order. They discussed it with the leaders of Derry and they came to an agreement that he would return to Dublin and tell Tycronnell it was a panicked act that they closed the gates and then they would keep there of his regiments in there as long as they were protestant.
Back in England January 28th the English parliament declared that since James fled to England that his throne was vacant, and then it was offered to William and Mary who agreed to accept it on February 13th 1689. James landed in Ireland with his French army, there he would meet with the Jacobite army organised by Tycronnell, and he hoped to lure William to Ireland to meet in battle. James landed in Ireland in kingsale in March 1689. From there he marched to cork where he was met by Tycronnell, he was convinced that James had only to appear at the gates of Derry and the people would surrender. However the situation in Derry had changed the people had sent David Carins to met with William to get supplies and they had agreed to stay faithful to William so William gave them 480 barrels of gun powder, arms for 2.000 men and money. So the city stayed loyal to him.
But then James appeared at the gate and the people had told Moutnjoy that any one had to stay away from the city so this worried the city and they begun to send for the guns and shot James.
So this is how the siege of the Derry walls begun.
