And, then as
now, the strong right hand that holds the key of Ireland was and is the
Royal Navy.
In 1689 William III had at last succeeded in forming the Grand Alliance
against Louis XIV, who now had enemies all round him except in little
Switzerland. But France was easily the strongest of all the Great
Powers, and she was under a single command; while Spain and Austria
were lukewarm and weak against her, the many little German countries
could not act well together, and Great Britain had many Jacobites at
home besides still more in Ireland. Thus the Dutch and British friends
of King William were the only ones to be depended on through thick and
thin.
Moreover, the Navy had grown dangerously weak under the last two Stuart
kings; and some of its men were Jacobites who knew the French king
wished to put the Stuarts on the British throne again. So, when the
great French admiral, Tourville, defeated the Dutch and British fleets
off Beachy Head in 1690, the British fought far more feebly than the
Dutch, who did as well as the best of them had done when led by the
immortal van Tromp.
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