Following the return of William III to England, his army in Ireland was commanded by Godart de Ginkel. Hearing of French successes on the European mainland, the Jacobites rejected overtures of peace and carried out some successful skirmishing over the winter of 1690-1691.
In May 1691 the Jacobites acquired a new commander, Charles Chalmont, the Marquis de Saint-Ruth. His considerable reputation was severely shaken, however, when in June he failed to stop Ginkel's men fording the Shannon near the midlands town of Athlone. Sixteen miles to the south-west of Athlone, close to the village of Aughrim, Saint-Ruth prepared a set-piece battle on the limestone Galway plain. His plan was to lure the Williamites into a treacherous bog in front of his line. At first these tactics seemed to work, thick mist enveloped Ginkel's army as it moved out of Ballinasloe on Sunday 12th July; the Huguenots were drawn into the bog, cut off and suffering great lose, the Danish Guards strove in vain to relieve them. Meanwhile Ulster Jacobites, led by Gordon O'Neill, spiked a battery of Williamite gun battery, they are beaten, mes enfants,' Saint-Ruth cried out, he was also heard to swear that he would hunt the Saxons onto Dublin, but almost at once a cannon ball, fired from extreme range, took off his head. As Ginkel made a devastating flanking assault over a narrow stretch of dry ground, the Jacobite horse - the flower of the Old English gentry - turned tail and abandoned their foot to their fate. Few or no prisoners were taken, and few were reported wounded. Those who tried to escaped, were overtaken were made an end of.
Aughrim was the bloodiest battle ever fought on Irish soil. One general, three major-generals, seven brigadiers, 22 colonels, 17 lieutenant-colonels, and over 7,000 other ranks were killed. Aughrim effectively ended the war in Ireland and on 3 October 1691 the then Jacobite commander, Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, signed the Treaty of Limerick: a century of peace ensued in Ireland.
