MORE THAN a thousand Catholic troops failed to participate in one of Ireland’s most famous battles because they were too drunk to stand up, according to an eye witness account.
The hand-written account of the Battle of the Boyne is expected to fetch more than €10,000 when it goes on auction at Bonhams of London today.
Omitted from historical records for many years, the 3,000-word account, part of memoirs of Catholic Jacobite captain John Stevens, has an estimate of €11,500- €17,500.
It reveals Catholic troops “drank so extravagantly” they were left “dead drunk scattered about the fields” on the morning of the Battle of the Boyne.
Capt Stevens took part in the battle and later wrote of how a fatal mix-up over drink rations led to some troops passing out before a shot was fired.
His 3,000-word account of the engagement is also highly critical of the lack of leadership within the Jacobite army on July 1st, 1690.
The Battle of the Boyne in 1690 was fought between the Protestant King of England, William of Orange, and the king he had deposed in 1688, his uncle the Catholic James II. The two armies, commanded by the monarchs in person, faced each other across the River Boyne outside Drogheda on July 1st, 1690.