Irish Soldiers and the Inquisition, 1700–1750

Abstract

The eighteenth century brought fresh opportunities to the Irish in Spain and new challenges for the Inquisition. The most significant factor drawing early eighteenth-century Irish migrants to Spain was war, specifically the War of the Spanish Succession. Beginning in 1701 and continuing for more than a decade, this conflict pitted the French-supported Bourbon claimant, Philip V, against the Habsburg candidate, Charles III, supported by the British, Dutch, Prussian and Austrian ‘Grand Alliance’.1 Initially, the theatres of war were in Northern Europe. However, because William III of England wanted to control the Mediterranean and shut down Spanish traffic with the Americas, an Anglo-Dutch expeditionary force arrived in Portugal in 1702. Its early successes helped coax the Portuguese into abandoning the Bourbons and, under the Methuen Treaty (1703), they joined the Grand Alliance. The treaty provided the British with the opportunity to bring the war to the Spanish heartland. Their longer-term strategic aim was to secure the entire Spanish inheritance for the Habsburg claimant, who was more likely, on the restoration of peace, to open the coveted Spanish American markets to British trade. By early March 1704 the Habsburg claimant was in Lisbon and military operations began in earnest.