From Cork the regiment marched, in July, 1698, to Waterford; in the spring of 1699 it proceeded to Dublin, and in 1700 it was removed to Kinsale.
Pursuing those schemes of aggrandizement which had repeatedly involved Europe in war, Louis XIV. procured the accession of his grandson, Philip Duke of Anjou, to the throne of Spain, in violation of existing treaties; seized on the Spanish Netherlands; and made prisoners the Dutch troops in garrison in the barrier towns. The sudden acquisition of the Spanish monarchy by a grandson of the most ambitious and potent monarch of Europe, with the prospect of France and Spain being eventually united under one sovereign, affected the interests and agitated the public mind of all countries.
War was resolved upon: the standing armies were augmented; and while the din of hostile preparation was heard on every side, the ROYAL IRISH regiment was placed upon a war establishment, and embarked for Holland, where it arrived, with several other corps, in July, 1701, and was placed in garrison at Huesden. On the 21st of September it was reviewed on Breda-heath by King William III.
Quitting Huesden in March, 1702, the regiment proceeded to Rosendael, where the British infantry was assembled under Brigadier-General Ingoldsby; and at this place the troops received information of the death of King William III., on the 8th of March, and of the accession of Queen Anne.
From Rosendael the regiment marched to the duchy of Cleves, and formed part of the army encamped at Cranenburg during the siege of _Kayserswerth_, on the Lower Rhine, by the Germans. A French force of very superior numbers attempting to cut off the communication of the army at Cranenburg with _Nimeguen_, the troops struck their tents on the 10th of June, and by a forced march during the night arrived within a few miles of Nimeguen as the French legions approached. Some sharp fighting occurred, in which the British corps in the rear-guard evinced great gallantry, and the army effected its retreat under the works of the fortress.
Additional forces having arrived from England, the EARL OF MARLBOROUGH[19] assumed the command of the allied army, and by a series of skilful movements he forced the French army to make a precipitate retreat from the frontiers of Holland to their own lines, and he twice attempted to bring on a general engagement under advantageous circumstances, but was restrained by the Dutch field deputies. The French forces having fled to their lines, the English General resolved to attack their fortified towns, and the ROYAL IRISH regiment was one of the corps detached from the main army to undertake the siege of the fortress of _Venloo_, situate on the east side of the river Maese, in the province of Limburg.[20] On the west side of the river was a detached fortification of five bastions, called _Fort St. Michael_, against which the British troops carried on their approaches;--the Dutch and Germans attacking other parts of the town: the whole were under Veldt-Marshal Prince Nassau-Saarbruck. The approaches being carried to the foot of the glacis, orders were given to storm the covered-way, and make a lodgment on the top of the glacis; and the ROYAL IRISH regiment, being on duty in the trenches at the time, was appointed to make the attack, together with the grenadiers of the brigade, and a party of chosen fusiliers. Captain Parker has given the following account of this attack:--