On 5 November 1688, a Dutch fleet lay anchored off the coast of the small Devonshire town of Torbay in England. The inhabitants would be the first witnesses to a sizeable army, at least 14,000-strong, landing on the shores of Britain. This army was led by Prince Willem Hendrik of Orange, stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, and his intervention would herald a momentous change in the history of the three kingdoms ruled over by James VII & II (1633-1701). The ‘Glorious’ Revolution of 1688, as it would come to be called, saw James dispossessed of his throne in England as a result of William’s invasion. The causes of the Dutch intervention and subsequent political collapse of James’ regime in England have been well-trod by historians, especially Tim Harris and Jonathan I. Israel. These scholars, among others, have pointed out that England’s revolution, and James’ removal and subsequent exile, had ramifications beyond that kingdom’s borders. In Europe, William of Orange’s seizure of power in England was sparked by Dutch concerns regarding the Stuart dynasty’s increasingly intimate relations with Louis XIV’s France. The Dutch invasion of England, with the assistance of British exiles and professional soldiers, was a strategic move designed to obstruct an alliance between James and Louis in the upcoming War of the Grand Alliance, or Nine Years War (1688-97).
Whilst the removal of James had ensured England would join the Dutch Republic in the alliance against the French, it had not, in 1688, secured matters in Ireland or Scotland. Although the traditional view asserts that the revolution swept across England and Scotland relatively quickly, the reality was that this new political settlement was not fully secured until the end of 1691. In Scotland, a convention of estates – aparliament in all but name – would vote by majority to deprive King James of his throne, and this would provoke a significant numbers of James’ supporters (soon to be known as Jacobites) to raise his standard, as well as an army to go along with it. This would coincide with the deployment of battlehardened Scottish regiments in the Dutch army to support William’s supporters in Scotland and secure the country
