The French expedition to Ireland, known in French as the Expédition d'Irlande (French pronunciation: [ɛkspedisjɔ̃ diʁlɑ̃d], "Expedition to Ireland"), was an unsuccessful attempt by the French Republic to assist the outlawed Society of United Irishmen in their planned rebellion against British rule during the War of the First Coalition. France intended to land a large expeditionary force in Ireland during the winter of 1796–1797 which would join forces with the United Irishmen and overthrow British rule in Ireland. The French anticipated that a successful invasion would not only be a major blow to British morale, prestige and military effectiveness but allow for Ireland to serve as a staging point for an eventual invasion of Britain. In late 1796, the French Directory gathered a force of between 12,000 and 25,000 French Revolutionary Army troops at Brest under General Lazare Hoche in readiness for a landing at Bantry Bay in December.
The operation was launched during one of the stormiest winters of the 18th century, which the French navy was unprepared to deal with. Patrolling British frigates observed the departure of the fleet and notified the Royal Navy's Channel Fleet, most of which was sheltering at Spithead for the winter. The French invasion fleet was subject to confused orders as it left port and was scattered across the approaches to Brest: one ship was wrecked with heavy loss of life and the others widely dispersed. Separated, most of the invasion fleet managed to reach Bantry Bay late in December, but its commanders were driven miles off course and without them the fleet was unsure of what action to take, with amphibious landings impossible due to the weather conditions, which were the worst recorded since 1708. Within a week the fleet had broken up, with small squadrons and individual ships making their way back to Brest through storms, fog and British patrols.
British warships were largely unable to interfere with the French invasion fleet due in part to the bad weather. A few vessels operating from Cork captured isolated French warships and transports, but the only significant British response came from Captain Sir Edward Pellew, who was able to force the wrecking of the French ship of the line Droits de l'Homme in the action of 13 January 1797. The expedition proved to be a major disaster for the French, who lost 12 warships and troopships along with thousands of troops and sailors without a single man reaching Ireland except as prisoners of war. Both the French and British navies were criticised by their governments for their behaviour during the campaign, but the French were encouraged to launch a second attempt during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, successfully landing 2,000 men in August. However, the second expedition proved just as unsuccessful as the first and ultimately resulted in the destruction of the United Irishmen and the end of further French attempts to invade Ireland.
Background
The French Revolution which began in 1789 spread support for republicanism across Europe. One of the countries most affected was the Kingdom of Ireland, a client state of Great Britain. Opposition to British rule in Ireland had existed for centuries, but the French Revolution combined with hostility towards the penal laws which discriminated against the Catholic majority and a large Presbyterian minority prompted the creation of the Society of United Irishmen, a broad non-sectarian coalition of groups seeking to create an independent Irish republic.
Initially non-violent, the United Irishmen were forced to operate as a secret society after membership was made illegal by the Dublin Castle administration in 1793 due to the War of the First Coalition. Deciding that their only hope of creating an Irish republic lay in armed revolt, the United Irishmen began secretly organising and arming their members. In search of external aid, two of their leaders, Lord Edward FitzGerald and Arthur O'Connor, travelled to Basel to meet with French Divisional-general Lazare Hoche. Their efforts were supported by Wolfe Tone, another United Irishmen leader who travelled to Paris to appeal to the French Directory in person. During this period, the British government repealed several penal laws in an attempt to quell unrest in Ireland.
France had long planned to invade the British Isles, but such ambitions had been repeatedly thwarted by several factors, including being occupied by other wartime fronts, the War in the Vendée and the poor state of the French Navy. The final problem was a major cause for concern: several French naval officers had either been executed or went into exile due to the Revolution and the Navy itself had endured a series of military setbacks, culminating in a tactical defeat at the Glorious First of June in 1794 and the disastrous Croisière du Grand Hiver in 1795. After securing peace on several fronts in 1795, the new French Directory decided that Britain was one of their most dangerous remaining opponents and determined that only an invasion could knock the British out of the war.
The applications from Tone intrigued the Directory, which understood that by attacking Ireland they would be striking at the least defensible part of the British Isles. Support for the British Crown was weakest there and the United Irishmen optimistically claimed to be able to raise an irregular army of as many as 250,000 men to join the French once they had landed, with the additional attraction that a successful establishment of an Irish republic would prove an ideological coup for the French Republic. Finally and most significantly, a large expeditionary force in Ireland could provide an ideal springboard for an invasion of Britain, especially in combination with a plan then under development to land 2,000 troops in Cornwall, who would distract the British during the planned invasion of Ireland and could potentially provide a beachhead for future operations.
Preparation
With the end of the War in the Vendée and peace with Spain, substantial French troops were made available for the planned invasion, which was to be led by Hoche and scheduled for the end of October 1796. Hoche was an experienced officer who had defeated the Vendée Royalists and subsequently planned an invasion of Cornwall. Thousands of veteran troops and the French Navy's entire Atlantic Squadron, which was based in the major Atlantic seaport of Brest were placed at his disposal. The number of troops earmarked for the invasion is uncertain; the Directory suggested 25,000 men would be required, while the United Irishmen delegates insisting that 15,000 would be sufficient. Estimates of the number of troops eventually embarked range between 12,000 and 25,000.[Note A]
By August the plan was already behind schedule: severe shortages of stores and wages slowed work at the Brest shipyards, while the troops set aside for the invasion of Cornwall proved unreliable, deserting in large numbers. A practice voyage carried out by the Cornish invasion fleet ended in total failure, as the small ships intended for the operation proved unable to operate in open water. The plan to invade Cornwall was abandoned, with the reliable troops from the invasion army being reassigned to the Irish invasion force and the rest returned to prison. Reinforcements from the French Navy's Mediterranean Squadron were also delayed: a seven-ship squadron under Counter-admiral Joseph de Richery was forced to shelter in Rochefort to avoid British blockaders, only arriving in Brest on 8 December, while a second squadron under Counter-admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve did not arrive until after the Irish invasion force had departed.
Throughout late 1796, progress on the expedition faltered. Hoche publicly blamed the French Navy and singled out Vice-admiral Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse for the delay, whom he accused of being more interested in the planning of a proposed invasion of British India. In October, Villaret was replaced by Vice-admiral Justin Bonaventure Morard de Galles and the planned invasion of British India were cancelled, while Hoche was placed in command of overseeing efforts to maintain discipline within the invasion fleet. By the second week of December the invasion fleet, consisting of 17 ships of the line, 13 frigates, six corvettes and seven troopships, was ready to depart. Several troopships had been created by removing the cannons from old frigates to maximise cargo space. Each ship of the line carried 600 troops, the frigates 250 and the transports approximately 400. The invasion army comprised a mixture of infantry, cavalry and field artillery units, and the invasion fleet carried substantial military stores which were intended to arm Irish volunteers and rebels. Hoche was still dissatisfied, informing the Directory on 8 December that he would rather lead his men in any other operation than the planned invasion of Ireland. He was supported by de Galles, who admitted that his men were so inexperienced at sea that encounters with the British should be avoided wherever possible.
Departure
Despite the misgivings of the expedition's commanders, the fleet left Brest as scheduled on 15 December 1796, one day ahead of a message from the Directory calling off the entire operation. De Galles knew that the British would be watching Brest harbour: their frigates were a constant presence as part of the Inshore Squadron of the blockade. In an effort to disguise his force's intentions, he first anchored in Camaret Bay and issued orders for his ships to pass through the Raz de Sein. The Raz was a dangerous narrow channel littered with rocks and sandbanks and subject to heavy surf during bad weather, but would also obscure the size, strength and direction of the French fleet from the British squadron offshore, which French scouts claimed consisted of 30 ships.
Despite the French reports, the principal British blockade squadron was absent from the approaches to Brest during the night of 15 December. Most of the fleet had retired to one of the British channel ports to avoid the winter storms, while the remaining squadron under Rear-Admiral John Colpoys had been forced to retreat 40 nautical miles (74 km) into the Atlantic to avoid the risk of being driven onto the rocky French Biscay shoreline during a storm. The only British ships within sight of Brest were a frigate squadron, consisting of HMS Indefatigable, HMS Amazon, HMS Phoebe, HMS Révolutionnaire and the lugger HMS Duke of York, under the command of Captain Sir Edward Pellew in Indefatigable. Pellew had noted French preparations on 11 December and immediately sent Phoebe to warn Colpoys and Amazon to Falmouth, to alert the Admiralty. He remained off Brest with the rest of the squadron, and sighted the main French fleet at 15:30 on 15 December, bringing his frigates inshore towards Camaret Bay to establish its size and purpose. At 15:30 on 16 December, the French sailed from the Bay, Pellew observing closely and despatching Revolutionnaire to assist in the search for Colpoys.
Morard de Galles had spent most of 16 December preparing for passage through the Raz de Sein, situating temporary lightships in the channel to warn of hazards and giving instructions on the use of signal rockets during the passage. The fleet was so delayed in this work that darkness began to fall before preparations were complete and he abandoned the plan at approximately 16:00 and signalled for the fleet to leave via the main channel from the port, leading the way in his flagship, the frigate Fraternité. It was so dark by the time the signal was made that most ships failed to see it, Fraternité and the corvette Atalante attempting to notify them by rocket signal. These signals were confusing and many ships failed to understand, sailing for the Raz de Sein rather than the main channel. Pellew added to the problem by weaving ahead of the fleet shining blue lights and firing rockets, further confusing the French captains as to their location.
When dawn broke on 17 December, most of the French fleet was scattered across the approaches to Brest. The largest intact group was that under Vice-admiral François Joseph Bouvet, which had come through the Raz de Sein with nine ships of the line, six frigates and one transport. The other ships, including Fraternité, which also carried General Hoche, were alone or in small groups; the captains forced open their secret orders to discover their destination, in the absence of instructions from any commanding officers. One ship had been lost; the 74-gun ship of the line Séduisant had driven onto the Grand Stevenent rock during the night and sank with the loss of 680 lives. She too had fired numerous rockets and signal guns in an effort to attract attention, succeeding only in compounding the confusion in the fleet. Pellew, unable now to affect the large French force, sailed for Falmouth to telegraph his report to the Admiralty and replenish his supplies.
Voyage to Ireland
By 19 December, Bouvet had gathered 33 ships together and set a course for Mizen Head in southern Ireland, the designated rendezvous point where he was instructed by his sealed orders to wait five days for further instructions from France. One of the ships still missing was the Fraternité. Despite the disappearance of its commanders the French fleet continued to Bantry Bay, sailing through both high winds and thick fog, which delayed its arrival until 21 December. While Bouvet sailed for Ireland, Fraternité crossed the Western Approaches in search of the fleet, accompanied by Nestor, Romaine and Cocarde. Unwittingly passing Bouvet's fleet in the fog, de Galles separated from his small squadron near the rendezvous on 21 December, only to discover a British frigate immediately ahead. Retreating from the threat, Fraternité was chased far into the Atlantic before she could escape the unidentified pursuer. On the return journey de Galle found the winds against him, and it took eight days to regain Mizen Head.