Note 1185 — Chapter III

This may be taken as certain; but it is not clear how far he wished to go. Ranke (History of England, Eng. tr. iv, 437) and Hassencamp (History of Ireland, Eng. tr. p. 117) are satisfied with the evidence as to his having promised the German emperor to do his utmost to repeal the penal laws against the Catholics, and his having offered the Irish Catholics, before the Battle of Aghrim, religious freedom, half the churches in Ireland, and half their old possessions. For this we have only a private letter. However this point may be decided, the Treaty of Limerick is plain evidence. On the point of William's responsibility for the breach of that Treaty, see the excellent sketch of The Past History of Ireland by Mr. Bouverie-Pusey (1894).