ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the contribution of Ruvigny, earl of Galway, to the consolidation of the Williamite regime and of the nascent English/British Empire as lieutenant general of the forces (1692–1701), and as lord justice of Ireland (1697–1701). The chapter examines Galway’s central role as de facto lord lieutenant, in the reorganisation of the army in the aftermath of the peace of Ryswick. At that time the army stationed in Ireland became a garrison for overseas imperial endeavours, an important cog in the emerging fiscal state and a protective force for the Protestant minority in power. Through the lens of Galway’s own papers, Chapter 6 considers the issues of troop reduction and disbanding, the English aversion to a standing army, barrack building and the parliament to finance it, xenophobia and the Huguenot regiments, and pensions on the civil and military lists of the Establishment. The chapter also looks into the military colony of Portarlington and argues it was an imperial design. For the first time since the 1688 revolution the English parliament could test its newly acquired constitutional strength, at the expense of the king, eventually costing Galway his position.
