Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan
Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan (Irish Pádraig Sáirséal, Iarla Leamhcáin, * 1650 in Lucan, Ireland; † August 21, 1693 in Huy, Belgium) was an Irish Jacobite and soldier, who after the siege of Limerick numerous Irish soldiers into exile in France led ( "Flight of the Wild geese "). He is regarded in Ireland as a national hero.
Life
It was 1650 (or 1660 ) in Lucan, County Dublin born as the son of Catholic landowner Patrick Sarsfield and Anne, daughter of Rory O'Moore, who organized the Irish Rebellion of 1641.
As a " younger son, " he seized the military profession in 1678 after he was educated at a French military school. Early on he was in the army through participation in duels on ( 1681 against Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford, the " audacity " to call themselves the Irish liar in the same year he was wounded as Sekundant in another duel ). He served in British regiments in the service of Louis XIV of France, but returned after the death of Charles II and the accession of James II to England and was following the Battle of Sedgemoor in 1685, when the rebellion of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, was crushed against the king, in the following year was promoted to colonel. In the same year he went under the command of Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, Ireland, where he was to help according to the will of the king, to reorganize the Irish army, which has been run by Protestants under Catholic leadership.
1688 he took over after the death of his elder brother William the family property. In the same year he followed James II, who had to depart from Orange because of the " Glorious Revolution " Wilhelm into exile in France in 1689 and then to Ireland. He secured at the beginning of the evolving after the landing of the English " Williamite War" the Jacobites Connaught and was designed by James II even promoted to major general, although these doubts Sarsfields ( intellectual ) harbored leadership qualities. But only the part in the battle of the Boyne, and especially the conquest of a supply transport during the siege of Limerick in 1690, which was delaying the siege until the winter break, gave him the recognition of his Irish countrymen. After a year of siege, he negotiated a contract for safe passage from ( surrender on October 3, 1692, embarking in Cork on December 22, 1691) and resulted in over 2,600 Irish into exile in France ( "Flight of the Wild Geese " ), where they mostly French services occurred. On the mockery of an English officer in the exodus from Limerick, he replied: " As low as we now are, change kings and we will fight it over again with you. "
Sarsfield himself, created Earl of Lucan by James II in 1691, was Lieutenant General ( " maréchal - de-camp " ) and was so severely wounded in the battle of Neerwinden / landing on 19 August 1693 that he died three days later. During the battle he led as the last remaining supreme commander of the French the last attack before a ball hit him in the chest. Some of his last words were regretful " Oh thatthis have been shed before Ireland". It is located on the church of St. Martin cemetery buried in Huy, Belgium.
Family
His wife accompanied him, the beautiful Honora de Burgh (1675-1698) (or de Burgo, Burke), mourned for two years in absolute poverty at his grave. The transient, Duke of Berwick met the widow, took her to the court of the Jacobites in St. Germain in Paris, where she already attracted attention in 1692 during the winter break, and married her 1695th
Sarsfield had from its closed on January 9, 1689 married a son James ( born 1693), who in 1719 at St. Omer died as a captain of the bodyguard of Philip V of Spain without issue, and a daughter Mary, in Spain the German adventurer Theodor von Neuhoff married, but in 1721 apparently died in Paris in childbirth after the birth of a daughter.
The Union General Michael Corcoran, born in Ireland (1827-1863) claimed to be related through his mother with Sarsfield.
In County Limerick is a bridge and into Ontario / Canada is a city named after him.