Killiecrankie and the Battle of the Boyne
In Scotland and Ireland, however, no such consensus could be reached, and 1689 saw a major rising in Scotland under Claverhouse ('Bonny Dundee') and a landing by James with a French army in Ireland.
Claverhouse achieved a major victory over Government forces at the Pass of Killiecrankie but, with the bad luck that seems to have plagued the house of Stuart, he was killed in the moment of victory and the rebellion dissolved. In Ireland James had more success but was eventually defeated at the Battle of the Boyne by an Anglo-Dutch army, the only time he and William would meet in open conflict. The victory was a major turning point in the Franco-Dutch conflict. Sieges at Londonderry and Limerick and the bloodbath that followed cut scars into the Irish nation that have never healed.
The failures of the first Jacobite campaign left William undisputed on the throne of England. He was free to pursue his life's work, the struggle to limit the power of France. Under John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, the British armies on the Continent won a series of stunning victories that prevented France from becoming the dominant world superpower. Louis XIV, though still supporting James, was too preoccupied to do anything to help him. Plots continued in London and Northumberland, with Jacobite leaders often finding themselves in gaol and one, Sir John Fenwick of Wallington, being executed for his plotting in 1697. James regularly issued commissions to his supporters in England, and there was regular correspondence with his court at Saint- Germain.
But in 1697 the Jacobite Cause received a severe blow. Under the terms of the Peace of Ryswick, Louis agreed to recognise William as righful king of Britain and to give up his support of James. James, growing ill and with little support in France or Britain, seems to have given up hope of regaining his throne but he still believed God would favour his son, James Francis Edward. Jacobite hopes were restored by the resumption of European war in 1701 and James Francis was proclaimed as James III and VIII on his father's death. Shortly after, William III died and Anne, James II's youngest daughter, came to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland.