The Irish Fright was a mass panic that took place in England in December 1688, during the Glorious Revolution. It accompanied the final days of King James II's regime after his initially thwarted attempt to flee into exile in France. Troops of the Jacobite Irish Army were stationed in England to prop up James II's authority but were widely detested by the predominantly Protestant population of England.
Rumours began to circulate in mid-December that the Irish soldiers were preparing to carry out a campaign of massacre and pillage against the English population in revenge for James's overthrow. False reports of the Irish burning English towns and massacring inhabitants spread the panic rapidly from London to at least nineteen English counties, whose inhabitants formed armed militias to guard against supposed Irish marauders. The panic subsided after a few days. It was never determined who was responsible for sparking it, though contemporaries suspected that it may have been the work of Orangist sympathisers seeking to further discredit James II.
Background
James II inherited an army in Ireland on his accession in 1685. At the time it amounted to 8,238 men, all of whom were supposed to be Protestants and required to provide certificates confirming that they received the Church of England's sacrament twice a year. (Some Catholics did nonetheless manage to join the force during the Catholic James II's reign.) By 1688 its strength had grown to 8,938, of which 2,820 were sent to England in September 1688 to reinforce the English Army against the expected invasion by William, Prince of Orange, James II's son-in-law who had been invited to enter the country by English politicians opposed to James II's rule. Many of them were stationed in Portsmouth, where they became objects of suspicion and fear. A newsletter of early October 1688 reported that Portsmouth's inhabitants were making "great complaints of the rude Irish who have caused many families to leave that place, having committed many robberies".
Their presence in England further stoked long-standing fears that Irish or Catholic forces were poised to launch an anti-Protestant uprising. In Staffordshire in 1641, Protestants were reportedly so afraid that their Catholic neighbours would attack them that they "durst not go to Church unarmed". Later that same year, a panic in the towns of Ludlow and Bewdley led the inhabitants of both towns to mobilise on the night of 19–20 November, watching for what they believed was the arrival of insurgent Catholics. In 1681 the House of Lords announced the existence of "a horrid and treasonable Plot and Conspiracy, contrived and carried on by those of the Popish Religion in Ireland, for massacring the English, and subverting the Protestant Religion, and the ancient established Government of that Kingdom."
After spending three tense months garrisoned in Portsmouth, the Irish troops were sent north to fight in the Battle of Reading on 9 December 1688, the only substantial military action of the Glorious Revolution. They were defeated and a portion of the Irish troops were ordered to return to Portsmouth. Others were sent to Uxbridge west of London. Rather than fight William's invasion, however, the Earl of Feversham disbanded James's forces and released the Irish troops from their obligations.
Outbreak of the Irish Fright
On Thursday 13 December, according to Bishop Gilbert Burnet, "Country Fellows, arriving about Midnight at Westminster caused a sudden Uproar, by Reporting that the Irish, in desperate Rage, were advancing to London, and putting all before them to Fire and Sword." Another newswriter reported that in the early hours of 13 December "an alarm was spread through City and suburbs of 'Rise, arm, arm! the Irish are cutting throats'."
The alert immediately sparked a mass panic and 100,000 men were reported to have mobilised to defend their homes within half an hour. Buildings were illuminated to ensure that marauding Irishmen could not sneak up in the early morning darkness. The Grand Duke of Tuscany's ambassador in London wrote that he had seen young and old alike,
False reports that Uxbridge had been sacked by the Irish added to the panic. Philip Musgrave wrote that Lord Feversham's disbandment of the Irish Army "hath increased our miseries, for he did not disarm any of them, and the Irish and Roman Catholics ... are in a great body about Uxbridge who burn, kill, and destroy all they meet with." The House of Lords convened at 3 a.m. at Whitehall to discuss the situation and send for word of the supposed burning of Uxbridge.