thus entered the War of the League of Augsburg without a single
ally. "What her policy had most feared, what she had long averted, was
come to pass. England and Holland were not only allied, but united
under the same chief; and England entered the coalition with all the
eagerness of passions long restrained by the Stuart policy." As
regards the sea war, the different battles have much less tactical
value than those of De Ruyter. The chief points of strategic interest
are the failure of Louis, having a decided superiority at sea,
properly to support James II. in Ireland, which remained faithful to
him, and the gradual disappearance from the ocean of the great French
fleets, which Louis XIV. could no longer maintain, owing to the
expense of that continental policy which he had chosen for himself. A
third point of rather minor interest is the peculiar character and
large proportions taken on by the commerce-destroying and privateering
warfare of the French, as their large fleets were disappearing. This,
and the great effect produced by it, will appear at first to
contradict what has been said as to the general inadequacy of such a
warfare when not supported by fleets; but an examination of the
conditions, which will be made later on, will show that the
contradiction is rather apparent than real.

Taught by the experience of the last conflict, the chief effort of the
French king, in the general war he had brought upon himself, should
have been directed against the sea powers,--against William of Orange
and the Anglo-Dutch alliance. The weakest point in William's position
was Ireland; though in England itself not only were there many
partisans of the exiled king, but even those who had called in William
fenced his kingship about with jealous restrictions. His power was not
secure so long as Ireland was not subdued. James, having fled from
England in January, 1689, landed in Ireland in the following March,
accompanied by French troops and a French squadron, and was
enthusiastically welcomed everywhere but in the Protestant North. He
made Dublin his capital, and remained in the country until July of the
next year. During these fifteen months the French were much superior
at sea; they landed troops in Ireland on more than one occasion; and
the English, attempting to prevent this, were defeated in the naval
battle of Bantry Bay.[68] But although James was so well established,
and it was of the utmost importance to sustain him; a